My daily grind

It's a friday morning, on Aug 14 2009.

I'm at work. Yes, I work the graveyard shift, permanently. It's not difficult to figure out the kind of business I work for. My employer is a BPO. Our clients are a major pharmaceutical company and we run the HR call center to take care of their staff in the States.

I started out as a voice on the phone, now I monitor the performance of those voices on the phone. It's a fun job, sometimes. But it's no fun being the bad guy (that's what the call center people think of you anyway), analysing the performance of these employees and telling them to suck it up and do their job cos that's what they're paid to do! Alas, that is what I'm paid to do.

Sometimes, though, I wonder if there is more to life than just this job I'm in. I'm certainly grateful to be gainfully employed, what with today's recession being felt the world over, but really... have you ever stopped and asked yourself what all this will lead to in the end?

Think about it! You go to work to get paid at the end of each month, only to use 1/10 of your hard earned money to pay for the food you eat daily (mostly takeaway from a mamak restaurant near work). Let's not forget the hire purchase payment you have to make on that car you don't-really-own, plus gas and toll money to help you get to work so you can get paid and start the cycle each month without fail!

Some of us may not even like what we do for a living!

When fresh graduates join the workforce, their first job is a stepping stone to something bigger. So they stick with a company for one, maybe two years, and once the experience is gained, they add it to their one page resume and put as much detail about their first two years on their first job to make it two pages. Then ship off this newly updated resume to other companies offering not necessarily better jobs, but ones that pay more. They continue to do this until they find: a) a job with a dream-employer (read: one that has a better benefits package); OR b) a job that will take them up the corporate ladder.

I started my first job after leaving secondary school. The initial idea was to save up enough money to go to college, as back in the day, banks didn't offer study loans. But the money earned from working was just too good to put away for something better like tertiary education! So I worked, and with each job, with promised myself to go back to school each year or stay long enough to earn a promotion. But I was always bored with every job I found! I could only do something for two years at the longest. And then I'd get restless, which is when I start making plans.

Before I knew it, I turned 30! I was ashamed. I had accomplished very little in my 12 years of being corporate slave. It wasn't too late to do something about that though. So I enrolled in college part time, to study law. Three years later, I've put my pre-law exams off (for the last time, I swear!) as I've had trouble juggling the graveyard shift, evening classes, and completing assignments.

Today, as I sit in front of my company-owned laptop, waiting for my ride to finish her work for the day, I am trying to figure out what life has planned for me. What the heck am I here for? There has to be a reason for living, and it's not just about slogging at the office 8-12 hours a day, five days a week, to bring back a paycheck where you only get to enjoy 10% of your earnings.

If I die tomorrow, I'd like to have a good life flash before my eyes, one where I've accomplished what I was set here to do, and not just that of an average human being who worked like everyone else, didn't contribute much to society and is now dead and buried with nothing to show for her 30-something years of living!!

While I wait for God to whisper my life's purpose to me, I will simply fill my time and eliminate boredom by banging on the keyboard a bunch of gibberish I call my blog entries, while trying my hand at crafts, a new hobby I'm so into at the moment.

Somebody get me a cup of instant coffee!!