How to keep yourself sane in a workplace that you deign By Ted

For many of us new comers who have just graduated under-grad or masters and is now diving head long into the world of work full of fire, enthusiasm, and the will to make things better. Then you land your first job which requires you to use zero brain power so much so that you can actually do it in your sleep. At the beginning while everything is new all seems well, for you are still learning the work but after 3 or 4 months have passed by you start to get an inkling that this job might not be for you. That you would like to be delegated real work that requires some actual thinking and logic but instead you are essentially reduced into a walking and talking mobile phone that occasionally also does manual labour. It also doesn’t help that everything about your company is so retro unintentionally ofcourse which translate into the fact that they basically have everything figured out and all they need you to do is follow the procedure. Your boss micromanages you so much you begin wonder if you were to smoke weed and come to work it would be totally fine because you never need to think anyways, its like your boss turned you into a really depressing R2D2 but not nearly as cute as the one in the movie. Then as discontent slowly turn to bitterness and negativity as you get more and more fed up with being the robot on call and try to find a way out by looking for another job. However as someone having been through this before this is what I learnt:

• There is no use being negative and blaming everyone around you especially in a job interview. Verbally bashing your current company in an interview will only get you dismissed believe me. They want a problem solver not a complainer.
• Situations like this usually occur in old mega companies in asia as far as I know anyways. Where 70% of your actual work is paper work and memos which takes like month to approve because the chain of command is as high as the empire state building, not to mention the crap salary. The thought of doing adhog project seems like a distant fantasy. The point is sometimes its not the people’s fault that things are like this but its actually the company’s to which I am sure that the CEO has his reasons for doing things like this.
• Try your hardest not to think too much or be too negative while you are in such a situation. Try your best to do the job and after work look for new jobs. Keep thinking about the future so it will keep you sane.
• Also if like me you are in a company which to you seem horrible but to the public view is a good respectable company I would suggest you ride it out at least for one year before you quit so you can put it in your CV especially those of us who is in their first real job.

Lastly hang in there my friends there shall be an exit at the end of the tunnel that we can all hope leads to a workplace that is better suited to your liking and skills.