Skip to main content

So you’ve got (no) Work?!

I recently got to know that France has 35 hour working week!! But it seems that they are now reforming its 35-hour working week in a move that could sound the death knell of two-hour lunches and early departures for weekend breaks.

And what do We (I) have it here?? 45 hours a week.
*slow claps* that’s insane!
 And when I say it’s a 9 hour thing each day, do not jump to conclusions that people don’t leave their seats, that their lunch is served at the table, that they don’t use their mobiles, that they don’t have time to check mails let alone chat but it is quite the opposite rather, by my ballpark at least.

The below mentioned routine holds true these days.

You reach your workplace, half panting and sweating, and finding that corner of yours where you are supposed to spend your entire day, you pull out the chair, unzip your bag and gulp the water while trying to adjust the chair by dragging it directly under the vent to feel the AC working right over your head. After the morning hello’s, as is the social tedium and inquiring about the fellow humans you go back to your seat, switch on the PC and stare blankly at your computer screen, while it makes few funny noises as it takes time to start! The atmosphere lingers with the feeling of one of the more intense philosophical episodes of Dexters Laboratory (Why was she called a certain Dee Dee? Like Dee Dee as in elder sister or was Dee Dee her name?! And what does it mean to be a free person?) xD

“What’s different today?!” you scream at Microsoft Office’s office assistant.
It’s definitely a boring day; you’ve had plenty of those.
Hmm.. How come you haven’t received any emails yet?
You login to check your mails after every half an hour.
You have filled your time-sheet for the day.
There aren’t any competencies/courses that you need to undertake.
There aren’t any new announcements in your portal.
And no meeting invitations either.
And why is everybody *away from computer* in Sametime?!
And you’ve already read the e-newspaper, updated yourself of the things which you do not even care about!
And you have already been to the bathroom.
And you’ve filled your bottle again.
You’ve even been to the cafeteria. Been to the library.
The lift did stop at each floor (so technically, you’ve been to every floor too)
“Tell me you bastard!” you leap to your feet and scream, shaking the computer screen.

If all of the above is true, congratulations, this could only mean that you have free time at work. Or you have no work at all. Or the company people forgot to include your name in the work when it was being assigned. Or you are so pre- punctual that you’ve finished it before time! :P

Stop complaining. You’re only human, and this, definitely is the problem. Look at me! I’ve had the courage to accept my routine.
Hope I’m not burdened with work from the next week :D
Have a Happy weekend!

                       


Comments

You might want to read these~

Empathy is the soul of Humanity

I am a student from India who has been oscillating betwixt Germany and France for over two years now, as part of my higher education. I am proud of my roots, the culture which I have inherited, the many customs and traditions that I’ve been exposed to as part of my growing years and the better sense of judgement that has come along with it, unknowingly.  Until one day, when I consciously made a decision to throw myself into a civilization that is far different from ours, both in terms of customs and social interaction. The first few months had been taxing; I noticed I was very observant and somehow critical of almost everything around me. I found people rude when I constantly heard them abhorring me for not speaking their ‘national’ language, the announcements on trains made no sense to me, grocery shopping felt like a dreadful task and so on. But one fine day, when my classes resumed I realized that almost all of us, including the students from the aforementioned countries wer...

For the love of Libraries

 I have been fascinated with libraries for the longest time that I can remember. As school going kids, we had to buy at least one of the four books recommended apart from course material. And at the end of term, we had a reading quiz competition where the teacher basically prepared a short quiz of 40 questions from those 4 books, that you were able to answer only if you had read the books thoroughly. So, that ensured that you not only read your book but exchanged the books you’re your classmates. And one of the books was always in Hindi. I dreaded to read because that did not come naturally to me as our mode of education was almost entirely in English. What started as reading just 4 books annually in class 3 or 4 soon turned to lending books from school library that were issued for a period of 2 weeks to eventually making my own library card for the Central library in my city. My mom is a huge reader and would always encourage (and still does) me to go to the library and let me pic...

A little snippet~

It takes one 'teacher' to make you fall in love with a subject, to make you appreciate the techniques involved, to make you believe that it can be done, to make you see beyond the textbook, to make you follow that perhaps for the rest of your life OR make it extremely dreadful, difficult and boring for you till eternity. Ever since I had come here for my higher education, we have had to move a lot between semesters because my course demanded that from me. In the past 4 semesters I have been under 3 different Universities in 2 countries and had professors from a lot of different departments. While this has been a great learning opportunity, which has helped me discover more about the specific fields of study, there has been an absence of a ‘Mentor’ like figure. However, during my internship last year in Lyon, I happened to meet Professor LD who has since then been by my side, replying to my emails, even now when I am not working with him anymore. Although he doesn’t interf...