"Working There"

  Are you working there? Where an Iphone is on you right hand, a blackberry on your left hand, a laptop on your laps while concentrating on the desktop?  You are struggling with post work calls, answering couple upon couples of mails on your living room floor, you have been postponing settling an argument with your husband/wife and still cannot make an effective call to the divorce lawyer, oooohh you still haven’t tweeted your latest product launch which is a big secret that your five-day 08:00am to 05:00 contract must never know. The harm that your 21^st century potfolio has brought you is not something you want to share.

  All the people there have familiarized with the cliché of multi-tasking, staying on top of everything, stressing out, being under intense pressure and not falling apart…. You must remember to smile and not fall apart even when your favorite team is playing and you have an impromptu meeting with some shareholders who don’t know that Friday is weekend, you have no choice than to exercise maximum flexibility.

  While you think you deserve some downtime to engage in nativity plays and family time, that is when your work-availability is extended unbelievably. Try to show concern that your employers are not respecting your work and life balance then I will show you twenty people, twice as qualified who are keen to do your job for half your salary, without supervision and twice as much dedication, this comes just after you gave directive not to be contacted when you are out of office, okay, I bet you will accept responsibility following that directive.

  You are a victim of the 24/7 work culture which is an offspring of digitization and their grandmother is globalization. Being switched-on 24/7 on mobile phones and emails is nerve-racking and has made it possible for companies to be even more demanding. In the last two decades managers would wait for their staff from Friday evening to Monday morning to tell them something very important and urgent, but now it’s simple and efficient, forward the email with instructions attached, better still give a quick call that will be attended to by everybody on the train home.

  Reactions against the 24/7 work culture has been fractional according to the global consensus with majority of the affected groups afraid of resisting as they may lose their sources of livelihoods. Investors view the nonacceptance of globalization as a reverse growth idea yet they hardly spend two hours in the office per day. Traveling between San Francisco to Shangai to Nairobi to Helsinki is to highlight that what you consider late is often middle of the afternoon for somebody else. In their effort to smear all their subordinates with their time-zone syndrome, they have made it tolerable to give staff work related calls even when officially on vacation. They use you badly and in every way including inviting you to their houses over the weekend or their golf tournaments to work as their spectators, which if you refuse may sabotage your work or influence premature termination of your contract.

  Global trade has allowed enterprises to grow quite fast, though it hardly respects currency variance, it inflates your pocket and in the same manner it’s deflated through taxes and custom surcharges. In reality the only gain you have from it is multiplicity and exposure and tolerance. Oooh its has also brought your low paying job closer to you, its has brought your substandard education at your door step, its has brought even more poverty to the marginalized societies forcing its people to go working there!

  Low-wages and work with no benefits is your portion as you are working there! You must acknowledge that your own home country governments are doing their best to expand its industrial base. You must have witnessed shifts from manufacturing to services, to technology and communication, agriculture has always been predominant and more recently even cheap labor exporting to wealthier governments, yes! That slavery you call employment is meant to last whole term, I mean your job contract is the same period as that of your president who fictitiously got into power. Ever wondered why in some countries you apply for a visa and get it the following day?  Don’t answer me.

  Remember your work-availability is now standing at infinite and people imagine it’s a leisurely work system. Obsessive workaholism is steadily becoming a corporational technique which if you fail to adopt, the groups of highly schooled maroonees will grab your stressful job right under your nose. Half the occupation time is spent brainstorming how to exit the work before you get destroyed. . Your side projects need funding, which if goes well you hope become your own boss. You build imaginary castles out of every cheque you cash on behalf of your company, it’s because of you there is an explosion of firms bringing personal loans right inside our bedrooms, loans that some are payable up to five decades. That’s it! The firms too are under the same pressure to budget with your finances and to ensure their sustainability.

 There may be nothing wrong with working there and the 24/7 work culture barrenness, it can be stressful, but it enables flexible working, it coalesces emerging freelancers which is great. It pushes forward globalization, which hardly respects time barriers; executive staffs are now escaping the 08:00am to 05:00pm template, you know the 48-hour per week type of workers, We’re better off for it.

 As you are caught up working there am sure you have garnered lots of benefits and strengths having navigated that difficult process of acculturation. You tolerate  that office tea girl who never serves you tea but expects their salary on time. You have sharpened your language skills and mastered the art of beating social disadvantages.