i am concerned... Thursday, November 11, 2010

this is something i wrote back then about work-life balance. i post it in a forum and it managed to catch some attention. here it goes.

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i've been in this forum for a while and i can see that threads about 'long working hours' is increasing. be it accenture, the big 4, advertising, engineers, lawyers.

i notice that every time someone raise this issue in this forum, people will start bombarding them with this:

1. young generation now days is always complaining
2. that's life. live with it
3. if want to be successful, that's the only way

i am concerned...

i believe in the beginning of civilization. we 'work' to live. people hunt to eat. people fish to eat. however now days, its vice versa. people live to work. people work 12 hours a day. people work on weekends. people sacrifice public holidays. all of their hours in life is spend at work.

and yet... people say: "that's life. live with it"

i am concerned...

the present companies are smart. they officially announced that "we don't force you to work in late/weekend", but yet they giving out workload at 6 pm on friday evening with a "please complete this by monday. this is important!" note attached to it.

and yet... people say: "if want to be successful, that's the only way"

i am concerned...

executives have no over time but we are force to work like hell. in the contract it is stated "the working hours is from 8:30 am - 5:30 pm, however SOMETIMES your may be required to work extra hours" which is eventually EVERYTIME. if our boss invite a meeting at 9 pm, we can't complain. although "hey, it's way past normal working hours!"

because we if we do... people say "young generation now days is always complaining"

i am concerned...

when we were young 'they' say "we want well rounded graduates". which are excellent at academics, actively playing sports, have a heart for musics, excellent leadership skill, never ending extra-curricular activities. but when we work, we dont have time to do other stuff besides work. we were raised to be balance. but when we grow up. balance is a crime. "generation Y" is known for their work-life balance preference.why? because we were raised that way.

ambitious yet balance.
hard-working yet balance.
work hard, play hard culture remember? you taught us that.

hey and yet... we can't complain.

i am concerned...

heavy workload, lack of resources, un-skilled work force, tight dateline are the common cause for this long hours. all of them are clearly a bad management mistakes/issues. but yet, amazingly we were brainwash.

work 12 hours a day? that's life...
and people DO believe in that!

why do you think in contract it's says 9 am-5 pm? why didn't say 9 am - 12 am? to be fair they should right? because...that's life!

companies now days are totally profit driven. especially in this globalize world. competition are tight. our cost of living is rising. inflation is high. so they thought about "let's use the desperate for jobs people out there!"

today, there are no longer hard-work slave labor. but there is the modern 'intellectual' slave labor. yes... same thing, different name.

i can't stop by laugh by myself. what a life :D

i am concerned...