This is my first attempt to write things a bit
“professionally”, but hey, someone needs to do this for themselves. I know that
there are plenty of articles based on how you should work and doing the
improvement in work life and so on. And here I am, doing the summary of what
I’ve learned during my working period and hoping it will inspire you too. Or
giving you ideas at least.
I’ve been working for more or less 10 years. Why more
or less? If you see in my CV, it stated that I started my official corporate life
since 2007, and this writing of mine is dated in 2020. Logically saying, it
should be more than 10-yeas experience but hey, I down-counted it into 10
years.
Within the whole “official” working life, and the
in-between job time that making my time looked wasted, I’ve learned a lot of
things. And that is also exactly why I decided to do a milestone writing. Just
so I also can reflect and look back at this moment in my next decade, or my
possibly next endeavor.
This section will be a bit tl;dr so you might want to
jump into the next one about the learning I did for the whole journey (go find
the second section: The Learning)
I. The experience
When I was a junior high student, I’ve been dreaming
of working life and being a financially independent person. I’ve made a lot of
plans about my life like, start working at 20, having a good relationship and
perhaps by 27 I will get married and start my own family. By 30 I might have 1
kid, counting on 2, while holding a managerial position in some good company.
Well, for me to be able to do that, it was ideally to
be a good student so, at the first selection of employment, I would be able to
land myself a good company that gives decent paycheck. But reality gave me
challenges after challenges (and it still actively is).
I would not say I am a diligent and studious person.
I’d rather do practice questions, stumble over the answers and trying my best
to do shortcuts (if possible). What I think was that everything must have its
own answer sheet and what matters is how you arrived at the conclusion of it,
regardless of your way. Don’t get me wrong as my statement above can be
interpreted incorrectly. I like a shortcut, but I always do it ethically. Thus,
why I still struggling with my life until now.
When I was in my 2nd year of university, my family
literally fell apart because my dad passed away. As the sole breadwinner, he
was our family anchor. I was devastated, but I also need to be strong, so I
decided to look for part-time work so I don’t need to add the family burden for
my own food and transportation at least. And I sacrificed my study score to
exchange it with a life skill.
By the time I graduated, the family saving was barely
enough for our daily expenses, yet my average score is barely there to get me
into a popular company. Luckily, one of my lecturers gave her recommendation to
me to one of the small companies that she knew of and I officially got my first
eligible salary. It’s not much and I still remember how it feels to actually
have your paycheck transferred to your bank account. I’ve been working small
jobs during my university, and they paid me in cash so you can imagine how
insignificant was it that your employer doesn’t even bother to transfer your
salary.
I tried to support the family fully since then. I
saved for emergency funding in case something happened (no, I wasn’t dared to
get insurance at that moment because what can you have when you only got paid
for USD 350/month), I bike to work for more than 20kms/day to be able to save a
mere USD 25/month just so I can go hang out with my friends once a month. While
I was working, my friends were having a holiday before start looking for jobs.
And yet, my company got restructured and I was let go.
Got unemployed for months lead me into a depression,
but I can’t even succumb to it, and I started to struggle again to find another
job. In between jobs, I took a challenging role in marketing and did
door-to-door sales. Hey, a girl gotta do what they gotta do right? I even got the
chance to go and expand the branch, but when a woman in the marketing section
and they perform quite decently ( I don’t say well, but decent), rumors often
happen. And my boss was believing it and again, let me go.
I wasn’t as down as the previous one because that was
not the life I’ve been dreaming of as well. But I haven’t even got a proper
one. Then I did try to find some small cash from online things (back in 2010,
there are plenty of those still). Again, I struggled with interviews, the whole
psychotest, and rejections. And land me another role in a small company. With a
slightly better pay (considering the inflation, it was still a bit better)
And once again, let go because the boss doesn’t like
how I put some restrictions on how they spend the company money (without caring
about the future cash flow of the company). Maybe if you read it up to this
one, you may think I was talking bad about my previous company but hey the
company itself was gone bankrupt around 3-4 years ago so I can freely say it in
the end. It was predictable since the boss did not care about the
sustainability of the company.
At that time, I was leaning things already. That
every experience I have in the company, all good and bad, was added up into my
own level of understanding and shaping me into a better person, and hopefully a
better leader.
I won’t dwell much about my other companies since
it’s also too much information shared so let me continue to my supposed topic.
What I learned in my whole decade of working for various companies and roles
II. The learning
Working for various companies and roles giving me
some insight that not all companies are doing what in the textbook gave to you
during your study. You need to be flexible, but also firm in your own beliefs, without
giving way to things that are morally and ethically wrong.
Without further ado, I will list down several things
that I learned during my first decade of work:
1. Be
passionate
Working may be tiring, but if you are passionate
about your work, it won’t be as tiring as it looked like.
When you’re new to the workplace, you will be excited
to implement your knowledge in the workplace. But let me tell you the hard
truth. Most of what you’ve learned will not really show in what you’re doing.
2. Establish
your own flow and rules
Instead of only doing things by the book, or
following what your supervisor had told you, be more creative. People have the
ability to adapt, and therefore they evolve. This rule is not only shown in
daily life but also in work life. So when you grasp the basic rule of what you
need to do, you may be able to develop things by your own that may increase
your own effectiveness and efficiency (and this also include your team members)
3. Keep
challenging your limit
I’m not encouraging you to do overtime. In fact, it’s
been a while since I do one. Well, maybe once or twice a month due to a
necessity, but other than that? Never.
What I encourage you to do was, try to challenge
yourself to NOT do overtime, but keeping the current job (or maybe more) within
the working hour only.
By doing so, not only you can have your own time for
work-life balance, but the company will look at you differently and perhaps the
next time you know, your promotion is at the corner.
4. Exercise
your right to say “No”
Nowadays, many people were seen working late at night
in the office instead of going home to their family, or hang out with friends,
or even just chilling at home, watching TV. Was it because the work was piling
up? Perhaps.
But why? Because people are afraid to lose their job.
Therefore, they are afraid to say a rejection for things that they may not be
responsible to. That’s also why I said in point 2 to establish your own “rule”.
Professionally of course.
5. Keep
your stress level in check
Please, please make sure you do this. Maybe you are
not able to do things during the weekend due to family obligations or other
reasons, but you can also take your leave just to make sure you don’t suffer
from burnout from work.
Go on a vacation, do your hobbies, even go to the
mall on working day without thinking of work can be a change of pace.
Many companies nowadays are trying to establish one
day work at home where they encourage the employee not to go to the office to
ensure that the employee was refreshed. You can go to a café, or stay at home
and still working on your responsibility
6. Be
eager to learn
No matter how long you’ve joined the workforce for,
never stop learning. I am not encouraging you to take a class or do an online
course to add your skillset, but yes you can do that as well if you got the
time (and money). As for me, I am more to the practical side since I know my
will to study inside the classroom or even self-studying a book is practically
none.
What I encourage more about learning was, no matter
on which position you are, be it an intern, a senior, manager, or even CEO, you
need to learn new things. And for me, the best additional learning I can get is
from the people around you, from the secretary, the Planning Department on the
next door, the intern, or even your own team member. Which means endless
sources for learning and improving yourself.
7. Be
active to ask, “WHY”
Continuing the point above, learning and questioning
came side-by-side. I’ve encountered several situations where I need to ask
myself, why is this done this way and not that. Perhaps, you may see things
differently than other people. And perhaps, things are actually blurry for
others and you can give then the idea or some improvement from your simple
“why”.
I encourage my team member to give me a question
about things they don’t understand. Even a simple question of “What is the
difference between GL, PL & BS?”. It makes me realize that my team member
is eager to learn, and therefore I could also shape them into the people I can
use better so we can grow together.
8. Be
confident of yourself
Not the blind confidence but real confidence that you
are able to do things. Confidence and bragging may look the same, but bragging
does not have a substance to the content, yet confidence was based on your own
experience and can be seen from the way you do your work. Bragging people
sometimes have their own substance to their bragging but you also need to be
able to back it up with your skill to make your brag worth to listen.
9. Be
kind.
We never know what other people are facing. Some
people can separate matter between work and other life aspects, but at times,
the outer influence can also bring influence to the workplace.
Being kind does not mean that you are being used.
Being kind is doing what you want others to do to you. If you wanted to be
understood, then you also need to reciprocate the same way. Some said changes
came from you, but others also said changes need a lot of people to move. How
could you do the wave of being kind, if you are only waiting for the ripples to
reach you before you do?
10. Smile. First
Impression lasts a long time.
Ever thought of why sometimes people look at you and
smile, and you automatically smile back to them? No one ever hit a smiling
person, unless they perhaps do it creepily. By smiling, you release the
happiness hormone called endorphin to your brain little by little, and it will
bring small changes to your body and the way you think. Believe it or not, you
can actually deliver much more efficient work than if you’re only frowning.
So smile. Not only at work but implement it in your
daily life.
There are many more points that I learned within my
first decade of working, but I will stop at these 10 points for now. I might,
or not, write more about things in the workforce. Or I might share things about
life experiences, we never know. But I would like to thank you for sparing your
time reading one part of my life and hope you can learn something out of it. If
not, you can also treat it as one of the many articles that you’ve read before.
The choice is all yours.
And by then, yours truly will leave the stage and
fight for more experiences to share.
January 26, 2020
Moi
- This article is also posted in my LinkedIn -
