Sunday, February 28, 2016

In Being Unemployement


The picture above is taken from The Simpsons episode 12 Season 27, Much Apu About Something. In the episode, Apu lost his Kwik e Mart to an accident caused by Chief Wiggum who drove his tank (yeah, the war tank) towards the one and only Kwik e Mart in Springfield town. Then it got fixed and renewed as Quick and Fresh which originally was an improvement offered by his cousin, Jamshed or Jay, he prefer to be called (because Jamsheed is too typical Indian). It sold organic non-preservative foods, which millenial love ftw. But Apu hated it. He loved his old Kwik e Mart which mostly conservative and sold typical industrious foods. At the end of the show, Quick and Fresh got broke from electricity break down which caused foods without preservative decayed because of its inability to survive the unadjusted room temperature. 

This show remind me of young-idealistic-millenials who's so called pretentious of their idea of living healthy, hating capitalistic system, devoting themselves to world-change. And based on Apu, they will find their failure, soon, because failed millenial is as cliche as indian do yoga.

Well, anyway, just like Jamsheed, tomorrow I'll be unemployment in order to be back to my education track. I'm (recently turn) 23 and I've been working for my whole life, I think. From freelancing as social media officer, liaison officer, content writer, illustrator, I once also made my own business in clothing. But this job, that I'll be leaving tomorrow, is a little different, it's my first job in a well organized company. When I signed a contract for more than a year and a half ago, I was thinking, damn I'll be that typical slave who has to act on behalf for my company and giving my soul to it i.e. I'm selling my self, at least for the sake of new experiences. I handled big clients, I get my payment bill each month, I even pay for my salary tax. I was a a factory girl who worked as a machine, in my case, an idea machine who plan strategic communication for big company. I didn't get much credit on that. They even undervalued me by giving negative sentiment towards my creative work. That happened a lot. I didn't know if it is just a subjective sentiment because of the age gap between me and the client, or it was because I simply didn't do good work, but it personally killed me many times. I slowed my self down, I even sometimes think I don't deserve good things in life because I'm such a failure. 

Based on my almost 2 years experience, a job in big company is self destructing, especially to a young mind:

1. Every meeting with client is mostly just a waste of time. In my case, my company has 2 headquarters in 2 different cities which 248km away from each other. That requires me to do back and forth meeting condition. But after all the sacrifices, I almost get nothing done or nothing new. It's somehow can be talked over the email but for the sake of personal interaction, why not. Doing job is not 100% working, sometimes you'll be slacking off even in a meeting, especially when you are a first jobber, they won't hear you talking in meeting.

2. Don't put your hope too high in your boss. Some bosses are smart, some aren't. Some bosses are kind, and some are manipulative and seeing you as subordinate. Well, bosses are ordinary people, they are just either working in longer hours than you or having money possesion in larger amount than you. But don't be a jerk about it. 

3. You should not overvalued yourself. I think this is what many of young people do nowadays. Yes we may be special but there are lot special people too you know. Competition is too difficult if you choose to be working in a company. There will be that overworking employee who works 24/7, there will be those too loyal people who put their entire life for the company sake, there will be rich kids who don't care about money, they work for the sake of passion. Yes you may be smart, fluent in 3 languages, you never get sick for almost your whole life, but there will still be tough competition. Or if you overvalued yourself by asking too high salary for starters, don't expect a thing. Many, many people would like to accept the same job at lower wage. 

4. Digital era sucks. You are demanded to be available like 24/7. Working hours regulation is not in client agreement. Even if it is literrally is, they don't care. People need to fix this more seriously, please. In my case, I'd just simply ignore my phone in weekend. Because I know I have the right to do that.

5. You don't significantly make change. Your dreams about being a worth human being will slowly eradicate. As young person who's working in a company, your role is as meaningful as painting in a philistine millionaire summer house. You (think you) are worth more than what you deserve but nobody cares. 

Those are very basic things about being first jobber, and I guess I had enough. Well, sorry for the negativity, but good things about working in company are money security, carreer path, knowing that world is full of dominative people, and makes you a tougher human being who will stop thinking that you are that valuable. Yea, the good things even sound irritating.

If all millenials could be like Apu that hate changes, that stick to one system even if it is destroying society, that ignorance to what happen to the world, working in company is a good deal. But for Jamsheed, working like that is some kind of a cliche failure. Millenials tend to leave their job and seek for self fulfillment. Then they start their own venture but somehow the old system don't get how refreshing their ideas are, they will somehow get another failure. Sad, sad world. 

Being unemployement for a while might be a refreshment for me. I know I'll be having no money for I don't know how long, and I'll be off from balanced duty, but I wish it's worth something else. World, I am ready to slack off! (but not that much, I'll be working on my thesis anyway)




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