Student vs Employee
Okay, its been some time since I have posted anything on the blog. More due to lack of time than to a lack of effort. Nonetheless, for those whom I have not met some time, just some updates here. I have started on a second degree at SIM in Banking and Finance.Classes have been three times a week hence time has sometimes been a premium. I know in spite of incessant complaints earlier in the year, I am still in the same job at OCBC taking a less than idealistic pay. But nonetheless, I should be getting unemployed soon as I near the end of my 1 year contract. With no talk of conversion to permanent status and I am not interested in a renewal of contract, I think I should be out of job in a month's time. Hence, anyone with a suitable opening, give me a buzz alrite. Bachelor of Arts with Merit and a Sociology major graduate up for grabs.
Anyway enough of updates. It has occurred to me in many people's blogs that many of us- students- have been facing trouble making the transition from student to working life. I mean some of us have made this transition painlessly but some like myself, it has indeed been one long bumpy road. I think the main difference between a student and being a employee is that the expectations has been different. As a student, your grades are your own and you responsible for it and whether you do well depends largely on yourself. In fact as a student, one is in a nurturing enviroment because personal growth of a student is imperative. By extension, the organization's "product" is the student himself, hence the organization's orientation effectively speaking is the student. The focus is you-the student.
But as an employee of a company, the expectations are altogether different. As an employee, the ends or goals are different. The ends are given in the sense whereby the organization's goals are the employee's or at least should be his goals. Anyone that does not perform up to expectations as a function in organization is deemed extraneous to the needs of the organization. Hence the employee is not the "end-product". The organization's service, customers and products are the ends. Even if the employee is in a support function, he/she should perform in a way that ensure the oganization will run smoothly. Simply and bluntly put, the emplyee is a means to an ends and not vice versa like in a school. A further evidence would be that even when an employee is sent for "training", he/she is only sent for "job-specific" workshops and not " Culture and organization of the Masala people" which is what we learnt at Arts.
Perhaps ultimately why some of us have been facing problems at work could be the above reason in that the orientation is no longer towards us but rather we are actually a means to an end and not the other way around. Maybe we have been too comfortable in the last three/four years where we have been the focus. It will be good to recognize this change and understand the shifts in orientations.