Jeremy

There is a reason why I have been writing so much about my working life contrasting with my studying life and contrast it with various stages of our cycle. The reason is that we are now the ones in control and are really charting the course of many people around us when previously it was the other way around. Another thing that I have noticed is the differing routes different people take as a result of their personality and how they handle pressures and influences from various aspects of our life- which is in effect has lots of impact on the above mentioned point.

A majority of my friends and even myself have been so used to being told what to do that when under influences and pressures from various sources, we tend simply to focus on one thing at hand, our grades or our work/salary.

Previously at work, I almost feel like working is something we all have to do just because we are independent, young and able to support ourselves. This means that regardless of the salary, our job is not to questioned whether it is suitable for me or up to my "standard" but since you accepted the job, your job is simply to do it and get along with it. The salary becomes something like a reward at the end of it and not as a "compensation".

But as I became to move up the ranks, I began to realize that it no longer work, as people expect you to influence the people, peers and colleagues to do a good job and also play your role as a employee well. Hence it not good enough, to do a good job but be a positive role model for other's to follow. Then the salary at the end of month becomes all consuming. I began to question the merits of such a mentality.

You pay me a salary to perform a job task and you expect me to be a saint while performing something that I am paid to do. This means that if a saint is for sale, I am better off being a saint then being a worker.

Think about the previous post about Facebook and photographs. Imagine, being photographed every single moment of your working hours and being posted online for everyone to admire- that is really the equivalent of such a behavior isn't it. This means that the better I do, the more people will "dislike" me since I am really working, since "workers" do not like work- maximum benefit, minimum effort.

Then I decided to reflect back and look back on the behavior of such of my friends and peers- they are really like this their entire life!!

This means that they get good grades to post on Facebook, wear a tie and pants to post on Facebook, have babies to post on Facebook and even get married to post on Facebook. It was really close to ridiculous.

I have never post my work photos on Facebook, I drove for ten years and I have even posted a picture of my car online- and not even take a picture in my car in the ten years- and I don't even post photos of my extra-curricular dalliances except once where I am not sure what got over me.

I began to realize these friends of mine is working and controlling critical resources on our behalf and all they are interested is posting pictures on Facebook. This began to worry me because the material and superficiality of my peers and colleagues will have a negative impact on not just themselves but me too- because I am competing with them and also using the goods and services provided by them.

It then dawn on me that hard work was never in their textbook, only image is. And they are staring right at your face.

No matter how you try to convinced them that hard work is really the only resource one have in critical times, they have only one thing in mind: I must look good.

I mean in the last post, I could tolerate because I found them sad and sort of think that they are screwing up their life in their two dimensional stereotypes viewpoints of the world. But now it is personal.

So you see, the way they handle influences and pressures from all sides is one simple thing: I must win. Which means I must look good. Have you seen anyone winning under pressure while looking good: heroes do. Think about it: how do they be heroes every single day at the office?

Exactly, a saint for sale. What is a saint for sale good for: Absolutely nothing.

I rest my case.

I cannot imagine they want to produce more saints at their own backyard. I would call them one thing: Jeremy- which means jia liao bi in colloquial Hokkien- or waste of rice or resources in this case.