Unfaithful.
Contemplated on the wise words of friends who started out REAL work a few years earlier than I did..."Loyalty to the workplace is dead!"
Well, it's especially true when you're not getting the mentorship you need on your first job yet you're expected to kick ass on every front, the pay's pittance plus no overseas medical insurance.
I got those words from my mates when I first told them about my passing over a fantastic offer before, 3 weeks after I got here to Shanghai. I didn't think that it was appropriate giving up someone's trust in setting up operations in order to become the corporate whore fate had me created for. I thought about it - hard, and I suppose opportunities will come knocking by again so I stayed "loyal" to my current boss.
4 months later, and still no progress...this marriage had become a deadlocked affair as I struggled to hold fort in this office. Uninspired and frustrated by the impediment at work that assaulted my threshold for tolerance, I was immediately seduced by another employer. Oh, really big employer.
The new offering promised better career development and most importantly overseas medical insurance! It certainly wouldn’t hurt to have name cards printed FOR you, rather than going to do it yourself in sweaty Singapore. It’s the support that I craved, the joy of working in a team of people that are as motivated as I am that I’m missing. The current job effectively made me a Lone Ranger on a horse with no name. Ok, so I'm lame.
So naturally, this might very well be the same as being swept off of my feet by Olivier Martinez on a windy afternoon in NYC, although I don’t exactly have the legs of Diane Lane. Why then did she not stay loyal to her family? Precisely, that feeling of dissatisfaction. Same ole people you invite to dinner in your beautiful suburban mansion, same ole people you meet at fundraisers. Ennui. Which leads me to wonder, how then, does one remain faithful to the choices and promises one has made?
When I think about commitment in a relationship, I think about overcoming obstacles together as a couple or as a family, sticking to your guns and to each other in good times and bad. That sounds cool to me. And that’s even cooler because UF, in spite of his tiredness at midnight, rushed down to my apartment yesterday after his dinner meeting with the Swiss consul whom he’s getting to be “ak kah liao” with, just to tuck me in bed while the flu medicine continued to do 360-degree turns in my head. Nopes, no “action figures”…just pure soothing strokes on the head, “rest dear, rest”. To me, that was an act of commitment - no one would really leave their toasty apartment at night just to tend to a silly goose. If that’s not commitment, then how about learning Singlish for the benefit (and also amusement - “Me ang moh ah beng, you ah lian!”) of your Singaporean girlfriend, even though your first language sounds nothing like it - hell, nothing sounds like Singlish actually. But that’s just some of the things we do to make a relationship better, and to demonstrate our loyalty to each other. In a way. And I’m seriously thinking of putting D-Day earlier, and also, no more smoking…in the bedroom at least.
So why am I not sticking my guns out for the current job? Why am I not inclined to make things better? Why do I not what to stay on longer like I promised when I was first hired? Only because I don’t see the reciprocity that I deserved, having to be thrown into the deep end without backup - and what, no medical insurance?! - I didn’t say I was a saint, and I don’t spout unconditional love to a boss whose other staff members are one by one, tendering their own resignations. Also, the intended move to a bigger fish isn’t exactly a fling, like what Diane Lane did in the afternoons with “tu veux enlevez ton manteau?” Olivier Martinez while her cutesy son is in school. My love for this job (if there had been in the first place), had died.
Maybe it’s also because the boss isn’t quite an Olivier Martinez…
Well, it's especially true when you're not getting the mentorship you need on your first job yet you're expected to kick ass on every front, the pay's pittance plus no overseas medical insurance.
I got those words from my mates when I first told them about my passing over a fantastic offer before, 3 weeks after I got here to Shanghai. I didn't think that it was appropriate giving up someone's trust in setting up operations in order to become the corporate whore fate had me created for. I thought about it - hard, and I suppose opportunities will come knocking by again so I stayed "loyal" to my current boss.
4 months later, and still no progress...this marriage had become a deadlocked affair as I struggled to hold fort in this office. Uninspired and frustrated by the impediment at work that assaulted my threshold for tolerance, I was immediately seduced by another employer. Oh, really big employer.
The new offering promised better career development and most importantly overseas medical insurance! It certainly wouldn’t hurt to have name cards printed FOR you, rather than going to do it yourself in sweaty Singapore. It’s the support that I craved, the joy of working in a team of people that are as motivated as I am that I’m missing. The current job effectively made me a Lone Ranger on a horse with no name. Ok, so I'm lame.
So naturally, this might very well be the same as being swept off of my feet by Olivier Martinez on a windy afternoon in NYC, although I don’t exactly have the legs of Diane Lane. Why then did she not stay loyal to her family? Precisely, that feeling of dissatisfaction. Same ole people you invite to dinner in your beautiful suburban mansion, same ole people you meet at fundraisers. Ennui. Which leads me to wonder, how then, does one remain faithful to the choices and promises one has made?
When I think about commitment in a relationship, I think about overcoming obstacles together as a couple or as a family, sticking to your guns and to each other in good times and bad. That sounds cool to me. And that’s even cooler because UF, in spite of his tiredness at midnight, rushed down to my apartment yesterday after his dinner meeting with the Swiss consul whom he’s getting to be “ak kah liao” with, just to tuck me in bed while the flu medicine continued to do 360-degree turns in my head. Nopes, no “action figures”…just pure soothing strokes on the head, “rest dear, rest”. To me, that was an act of commitment - no one would really leave their toasty apartment at night just to tend to a silly goose. If that’s not commitment, then how about learning Singlish for the benefit (and also amusement - “Me ang moh ah beng, you ah lian!”) of your Singaporean girlfriend, even though your first language sounds nothing like it - hell, nothing sounds like Singlish actually. But that’s just some of the things we do to make a relationship better, and to demonstrate our loyalty to each other. In a way. And I’m seriously thinking of putting D-Day earlier, and also, no more smoking…in the bedroom at least.
So why am I not sticking my guns out for the current job? Why am I not inclined to make things better? Why do I not what to stay on longer like I promised when I was first hired? Only because I don’t see the reciprocity that I deserved, having to be thrown into the deep end without backup - and what, no medical insurance?! - I didn’t say I was a saint, and I don’t spout unconditional love to a boss whose other staff members are one by one, tendering their own resignations. Also, the intended move to a bigger fish isn’t exactly a fling, like what Diane Lane did in the afternoons with “tu veux enlevez ton manteau?” Olivier Martinez while her cutesy son is in school. My love for this job (if there had been in the first place), had died.
Maybe it’s also because the boss isn’t quite an Olivier Martinez…