Codex

Fourth day of January, 2018 marked the ‘best’ day of my life career-wise having received a phone call from my current workplace. Let’s just say some sort-a-dreams do come true but after a very long time. Damn I had waited for this day for my entire life, like literally. If there’s anything I learnt from this, is the fact that if you’re impatient you can never make it in this life. You see, my parents never taught me this. Not even my brightest teachers in primary through University. Such a shame. I repeat, perseverance is key. I mean we’ve been taught that with a job, one is able to afford anything depending on your compensation of course thus financial independence. This is 98% true. However, no one ever tells you what to expect in the workplace especially for those of us who’ve had an opportunity of working for an Indian boss. These guys can really test your patience, and not in a good way. Trust me. I mean i would be a lot happier with the job I have if I was happier with myself outside of the job. I have literally witnessed a steady decline in my job satisfaction, despite having a considerable control over my time and workload. Currently, I tend to attract a wrong group of people which probably comes with the fact that people now want to associate you with the ‘dollar’. I miss my previous friends and lifestyle. There I was invisible to almost everyone except my really close cohorts. I feel my life changing, and it creeps me out how it’s all gonna turn out. And above all, I am growing old every second, and it scares the sh*t out of me. I am closer home now, yet I feel further away. If there is something I would want to share with my fellow brethren; both employed and job seekers, it would be that people do not like work because they don’t like their personal life. And the key to being happy at work is not so much finding the perfect career as it is finding yourself. The more self-knowledge you have the happier you will be. So stop looking at your job to solve your problems and instead look inside yourself. Make friends with yourself and with other people, and your job, whatever it is, might start looking better because you’re not asking so much from it. If you are looking to your job for the meaning of life, forget it. Even people who feed starving children with the Peace Corps have crisis of meaning. (This is me trying to think; What is the point of feeding one child when six will die?) The meaning of life is elusive and you must put in a lot of time and energy to find meaning in your life. Here is the trick dearies, There is no short cut! Nonetheless, bear in mind that the job hunt is separate. The job is something you have to do to support yourself. And since you’re going to be doing it for a good portion of your life, you should look for some basics; people who respect you and your personal life. A company that is honest in its values. A job that utilizes your skills and experience. And last but not least, a job that challenges your abilities without overwhelming you. Please make an exception to your boss. All bosses are B****S and don’t give a SH*T about your feelings. If you’re lucky, you’d just get an idiot for one. If anything, don’t take everything personally on this side of life. (The things we stomach for money and experience, GOD help us). Further on, work does not need to give your life a grand purpose in order to be a good experience. The most pleasurable work provides a perfect balance between too much and too little in terms of both amount and difficulty. As for me, a career is like a mate, not that I’m an expert when it comes to relationships. The relationship is limited by what you bring to the table. If you are not happy with yourself, you won’t be happy with the match-up. Here’s an analogy a good friend of mine once told me: You have to have the cake, and then the relationship is the icing. It doesn’t matter how good the icing is if there’s no cake to put it on. Who eats icing by itself? Eeeeww…Gross!! Let’s all try to remember that “Employers and employees have something the other needs. One of the keys to a mutually beneficial relationship is a realistic understanding of what that something is.” A job is not a life. Story of my life. “Work is not everything” this is what I keep reminding myself as I sit through yet another pointless meeting every morning ‘taking notes’. “It’s beautiful outside,” says my mind. I want to go outside and bask in the sweet sunshine given that Eldoret has really been super cold of late. But I have priorities; clearance to do, report to run, and phone calls to make to potential depositors and of course keep up with my boss’s shouting, orders and frequent glares. What the f**k is wrong with him anyway? I know I am not alone. There are countless others engaged in the same pursuit every single day of their lives. The question is whether we are getting more productive as a result. Unfortunately, the answer is a resounding NO. Yet we always try to convince ourselves that the compensation is enough to suck it up and get it together day-in day-out. I’ve even gotten into a routine of starting countdown on Monday morning to get to Saturday afternoon. If this is not a form of hell, I don’t know what is. What saddens me is the fact that my colleagues are actually comfortable with the state of affairs and are actually looking forward to working till their retirement in this company. And some of us still want to claim that money isn’t the key to everything. Maybe, just maybe, we just want to make ourselves feel happy about ourselves for noticing these situations. Agghhh!!! (This is for my boss) I just crave for your compliment and acknowledgment for the job I have done so far. Tell me I’m doing a good job. Show me that you do value me as a fellow human being and not just a means to realize your bottom line (i.e. net profit). I mean, I know I can be moody too and lazy. Hell, I wouldn’t be in the runners up for the ‘employee of the year’ medal, but then again Sir, hear me out. Verbal reinforcement can go a long way in showing someone that you care about them more than just the work that they are doing for you. And as behavioural science tells me from the loads of books I used to hawk at the Strathmore library, reinforcement is always a better motivator than punishment. Know my name. Fancy is very different from Rancy. I mean, come one F is 11 letters before R. If you can’t respect me, at least acknowledge this fact. Dear Sir, recognize and promote talent, irrespective of their race. I mean who said Africans are lesser than Indians. Just cause of their darker skin? Sir, Just because as an employee I think of a different solution to a problem than you, does not mean that I am wrong. My growth as a person and career wise is dependent on your support Sir. Yes, I am aware of the conventional wisdom: One, You are probably spending more time at work than you do at home, so it better be providing more than a pay check, the experts say. Two, if you are unhappy with your job, go find another one, they say. Finally, everything in your life, especially your job, needs to provide meaning, they say. Theoretically, I don’t disagree with any of that. However, we don’t live in a theoretical world. That is loads of bullshit, sorry to say this. Fulfilling jobs don’t grow on trees, especially today when the unemployment rate is stubbornly high especially in Kenya. Jobs that start out as fulfilling become less so, as bosses change, competition intensifies, the money you thought could support your needs turn to be insufficient with the ever increasing cost of living or just as a matter of course. What’s a person to do? Well, they say you go out and find another. And if you can’t, follow your bliss and start your own company. Again, if there weren’t bills to pay; tuition checks to write for those of us who still insist on studying and retired parents to take care of, I would be the first one to stand up and agree. But we live in the real world, just like you too. So, if fulfilment at work is not possible, for whatever reason, accept the fact if it really won’t change, and ramp up finding fulfilment elsewhere. Work on that Internet start-up idea nights and weeks. Get home as early as you can to throw pots. Get up at 4 a.m. and devote the hours before work developing that import-export idea that you have been fascinated with since you were a kid. Now this is a tricky course of action, we concede. Yes, history is filled with examples of people who did that and thrived. To choose one industry at random, insurance has lot of people who did less-than-thrilling work during the day and who thrived outside of it. It’s still a gamble at the end of the day guys. Nonetheless, pick that unfulfilling work carefully. Those of us who graduated in the 2015 might have found working on the sales-insurance-line the “perfect” unfulfilling job. Eight-hours a day of work insisting on poor Kenyans to purchase an insurance they see no use in, leave alone afford it, when your mind could be concentrating on more creative things in exchange for a pay check that is substantially more than I myself could hope of making at white collar jobs (at least for the far foreseeable future). The problem, of course is the lack of guarantee at this stage of life. It’s I-scratch-your-back-you-scratch-mine-kind-of-situation all round. No tales of good Samaritans exist here, only very rare cases, if an entity is not motivated by tax avoidance that is. I have good news though guys, I’ve come to learn that the moment you stop thinking you need to find fulfilment from your day job, you are going to be at least somewhat happier. Not shabby, right? It could be worse. No, nothing about the job will have changed, but your attitude about it will. You will no longer expect that your day job to provide you with fulfilment. That’s a small step in the ‘right’ direction. It’s totally within your reach and it costs you nothing. No, it is not a long-term solution. But it could work for a while until shit gets real and you notice that you’re aging exponentially and not growing any younger having not accomplished any of your dreams yet. Life Sucks!! Yet here I am, still an optimist. If any of you finds themselves stranded at Eldoret, just halla at me. I will drop my job immediately for you. No pun intended. Because you mean a lot to me, and I still believe Samaritans can still be nurtured. If there is something I’ve learnt this year, it is to respect each and every person. After all, each one of us is fighting a battle. Though it’ll be more sad when you come to the realization that you might have won the war, but lost the battle altogether. This goes out to all active job-seekers, All the Best. Been there, Might be back there, fingers crossed. To all with jobs, try to put yourself first before your bosses, just for your sake.