Some thoughts on our working life
The topic of our work came naturally after education. Sometimes I wonder if we are too attached to our work that we let it define who we are. The line between what we do and we as a person is blurred. But is this necessary?
Moving to a different environment helped me to look at this from a different angle, the life outside of work becomes more obvious, and we do not need to be sucked into our work. Work has become something that helps keep the boredom out and I’m pretty happy spending 8 hours a day at it, no more no less. The good thing is nobody is expecting more than that from me. I may not have a very colourful life outside of my work, but not having to work 12 to 14 hours a day already make me feel a lot more alive.
I’m lucky in the sense that, I may not be totally passionate about my work, but my work happens to be something I’m very interested in. So it’s not difficult for me to feel a certain degree of job satisfaction on an average day, more so when I managed to get a tricky issue resolved.
Having said that, work related concerns still bug me from time to time, things like how do I keep up with the market, the changing technologies, will I still be “employable” after 40. Not to mention the occasional restlessness, the feeling that I may be wasting my life doing something I’m not totally passionate about.
On the other hand, I notice there is a group of people who are totally detached from their work. They come in to the work place, do what they need to do for 8 hours, when the time is up, they pack up and go do their own things, work is never on their minds except for that 8 hours on a work day. I wonder is it because their focus is on something more important to them in their lives. Things like their families, children, that DIY project, a side business, and so on. I don’t think I’m one of them though.
A friend is working in a supposedly great multi national corporation, good enough to be the dream job of many people, with an above average salary, yet the restlessness seems to set in more often now. I can’t help wondering why, is it because she is feeling guilty about not spending enough time with the family, especially her very young children? Is she torned between climbing the corporate ladder and being a parent, a wife, etc? is she feeling that she is not doing something meaningful, although the money may be good? is it…..?
Subjects in school
A conversation with cityhermit spark this thought: Who decided that we should be taking subjects like Maths, English, History, Geography, Art and Craft, Physics, Chemistry etc in school?
Talking about the value of the information that we had to learn in school, be tested on. How did all these apply to real life, and would we ever get value from all those that we had to memorize just to get through the exams?
Why don’t we learn applicable and useful information that would help us cope in real life? Some topics that we thought about:
- Personal Finances and Budget planning
- Human relationship: how to work with people effectively
- How to find your purpose in life
- Staying motivated
- How to change light bulbs and simple repairs at home
- Stress management
Like Literature, how many of us really know how to use Shakespeare’s English? How many of us use differentiation and integration at work? Even so, how many of us apply the information we get from History or geography and apply it in real life?
How did we cope with studying 8 subjects in the same year and pass the exams?
Should someone be looking at revamping the education system??
Questions questions…something worth pondering
