My observations - first day at work

The first day of work can be full of excitement… before you get to the office. It’s like the first day of school; you can’t contain your excitement but when you enter the premises you are already dying to leave! 

I've started working at a new place and in fact I'm writing this blog from my office. Oh yes! I'm that jobless now. (However, I know that few days from now, I'd be squeezed with a lot of work.)

I've listed a few things that I'm noticing on the first day of my work. I guess most of them will be able to relate themselves to this.

1. As soon as you enter the office for the first day, the blank look on the HR's face when you arrive at the office - the same guy who interviewed you and begged you to accept the package . No one knows where you are supposed to sit, how you’ll enter the building or if you’ll need a laptop to work on.

2. The horror on the admin staff’s faces when they're asked to fix the electrical boards beneath the desk (read : desk of the most non-private cubicle) you just have been bestowed with. Their facial expressions evidence the inconvenience you had dared to put them through.

3. You haven’t been introduced to the peon, so he walks in and chooses to ignore your existence, skipping your cubicle and avoiding your eye while serving a tray of tea to the rest of the floor.

4. The awkwardness. Sitting at an empty desk, staring at your mobile phone, you start re-reading millions of year old messages, refreshing Whatsapp, to check who is online, every few seconds on your data connection, silently cursing your network services, trying hard not to listen to everyone else hammering away at their keyboards while looking super busy and important.

5. You then decide to personalize your cubicle all over AGAIN. As time (barely) crawls by, you wonder which photograph of you  should be displayed at your desk, discreetly crane your neck to check if others have frames on their desks and think about the a bonsai you may keep eventually.

6. You are so bored that when it’s time for introductions and orientations, the relief and excitement that you keep in check is impressive, but wait – that are a lot of people! Smiling and nodding at everyone, you struggle to remember who is who.

7. Trudging back to your desk after the orientation, you realize that the only department you know most about is HR – but you are nowhere close to working near that department, let alone working in it.

8. You finally message your super busy boyfriendwho is consumed with his super busy college a couple of kilometers away from your office, saying:

“So how about lunch today? You and me like old times?” (Hearts and everything, bribing him so he picks you up and steals you away from the awkwardness for a while)

Post-lunch and back at the office, you try to find the water cooler, the cafe and the washrooms. Success! Now that the chai wala peon has seen you, he has to serve you tea! So you throw in a “Shukria” in accented Urdu just so he knows you are a sweet person unlike the guys who do the “Oye… chai lana zara”.

9. The washroom survey reveals an array of soap dispensers.  You spend the next 15 minutes fixing your hair, cleaning cuticles, filing the rough edge of the thumb nail, drying hands while your desk beckons your presence.

10. By the time its 5:30, your face is so radiant at the thought of going back home that the lady beside you notices this expression of bliss and casually mentions that the work day at your new office ends at 6:30and not 5:30PM. She goes on to say:

But that’s just the official timing; your boss doesn’t leave before 8:00 PM.

After a long sigh of resignation, you sit quietly waiting, contemplating how to hurt this bearer of bad news. The last 30 minutes of the day are spent calculating how many years you will have to give in to this slaving till you can actually pursue your masters. 

And this was just the first day of work – I have approximately 364 more days to go! 

Sigh!

The smarter the phone, the dumber the user

It seems in a world where technology is all around us and always advancing that perhaps it could indeed “take over” one’s life, but is that true?

I do agree the use of smart phones can get excessive in someone’s life with people texting or looking at apps while they are driving and I’m sure we all have that friend who is constantly on their phone when you guys were supposed to be hanging out.

So what is it that drives us to constantly be on our phones or tablets? Do we really care that much about what “XYZ” is doing on theirFriday night? The use of technology while someone is talking to you or hanging out with you can come off a bit rude. That’s why there is a restriction on phones in schools these days.

Social media and apps are a form of entertainment, so it only makes sense to want to be doing something more entertaining in class instead of algebra. However, instead of ignoring someone or something I feel as if our technology acts more as a crutch for us. When we are waiting in line, waiting for a doctor’s appointment or even waiting for the commercials to pass we get on our smart gadgets. It has become a way for us to kill time. Sure it does help, but instead of reading a magazine in a waiting room or simply waiting and reflecting to ourselves we have made it to where we constantly have to be looking at something digital- which could be not so good.

I have also heard a lot of older generation folks get angry about how the kids these days just play video games, never go outside and play, or are too young to have a smart phone or tablet. I’m in college and even I can agree with them, but we can’t blame the kids. This world full of technology is the only one they have grown up in. They know nothing else. They have no idea what it means to not be able to use the computer because you’re waiting for a phone call, or to have a cell phone the size of a briefcase. It’s not their fault this is the era they grew up in.  I think we just all have to keep an open mind as to how much we are progressing and realize that in some cases we all probably use technology too much, but just go with the flow of it because we are only going to gain more of it. So hop on the train while you can, or you are going to be left behind.