Work

I was chided by a friend on being too calculative and immature with work hours today.

Not only did she do that; she also wrecked my pride on my dress sense.

Yes, she was in a cranky mood because she had to face a lot of bad stuff at work, but that certainly didn't give her any right to speak like that to me.

Still, whatever she said brought me back to earth with regards to the kind of person I am.

I can't deny that I am indeed calculative about work hours, am perhaps not mature enough to understand the dedication that people have for their work - to the extent that they are willing to stay late every day just to do it - as well as the fact that my dress sense cannot be classified as fashionable.

"Work in a ministry till you grow up and mature," she said quietly as she slurped up her last mouthful of soup.

Reason being that most government ministries don't make their employees bring work home and don't make them stay late.

Sure, I'd like that kind of life, but there's no future.

I thought over why I would like this kind of life, and the reason is not that I'm a lazy spoilt brat, but more of how I would prefer to spend my time with my loved ones than with work.

I would certainly stay back to finish my work if I had to. My work can be fun, so why not? But I would not stick around after office hours for more work.

One of my colleagues seems to sleep in the office. The only times he leaves the office are to cover stories or to buy lunch back. And, I suppose, to answer nature's calls.

Anyway, while telling my friend about how my stint at the forum has killed a little of whatever zest I had for my internship, she chuckled sceptically as I said that I wanted to get in the fashion beat.

In a bid to prove to her that I wasn't going to slack around and expect to get there, I told her of my intention to read up on fashion trends for a year.

"And, you need to dress up too," she said condescendingly.

I know my work dressing is decent but not stylish, but that comment still hurt.

"Yeah I know," I tried to laugh it off.

She apologised to me later for her foul mood, but I still wasn't able to shake it off. It was my first time seeing this side of my friend, and I still felt that she didn't have the right to treat me in that manner.

After all, I was not in a very good mood too - blame it on Monday blues - and had specially given up my time alone in the library just to accompany her for lunch at her request. Yet I didn't vent anything on her.

It will probably take me a few days to get over what she did to me today. But the bottomline of this post is that my stand on work does not allow for it to get in the way of spending time with my loved ones. Much as I live to work, as mentioned in one of my YouthInk articles, I also live for the people I care about. I don't want to spend the majority of my life at work and neglect my family and friends.

And, I believe this takes more maturity to realise.