I like my job goddamit..

First things first : It feels good to be blogging again. And this time around, hopefully, I'll be blogging on a more regular basis. My earlier blog lies neglected; but considering the amount of criticism I attracted for some of the more 'radical' views I expressed there, I hope to give it a decent, quiet burial. And so here I am : in a new avatar..no words of wisdom to be expected from me, as usual, just some random musing..and go easy on the criticism, y'all...

I must admit that the idea of creating a new blog id and starting anew came to me as a result of the events of this morning. At eight this morning, I sat down to create a colleague's CV. Now this guy is a good friend and is part of my team at work. He's fed up of the call-center world and was keen on this newspaper-reporting job. I was highly skeptical; he had never shown any journalistic talent in all the time I had known him, so this sudden interest in journalism surprised me, to say the least. He has an interview scheduled this morning, and doesn't have a pc at home, which is why I was taking time off precious sleep to create his CV. But that's not the point.

I suspect there are very few offices that have such levels of employee dis-satisfaction as bpo units. Almost everyone you meet from bpo-land probably thinks of the bpo as a fork in the road; somewhere you can momentarily pause while you decide where it is that you finally want to go. I will not get into an analysis of why it is so; but I cannot help but notice that it is this attitude that the others have come to associate us with : the dis-satisfaction, I mean. Quite a few of my acquaintances have evinced surprise at the fact that I have stuck around for as long as I have; a bpo, they figure, is not the place for someone as creative or intelligent as me; I am wasting my talent; I should try and do something more productive; bpo-work is for the brain-dead, blah blah..you get the picture? Most of my colleagues are people who wish they were elsewhere, doing other stuff, leading another life. But they are stuck here, doing a job they really doesn't fit into their scheme of things..and ofcourse, they hate it.

I don't. There I've said it. Infact, I'll go ahead and say that I actually enjoy my job and am proud of my workplace. And that doesn't mean I've grown brain-dead. I was one of those teeming thousands who're at a career crossroads; it's a different matter that my career crisis is all sorted now (I've gone back to the original plan - become an investment banker and earn millions). And try as I might, I can't bring myself to hate my job or find anything even remotely repulsive about it. My job served my purpose : it wasn't too taxing, and it allowed me to think some things through. It gave me the space and perspective I needed to make my decisions. And the pay always helped.

I don'tlike to sermonise (I know a few of you will dis-agree with this self-evaluation), but I hate to see people dissing the very thing that takes them where they eventually want to be. There are budding movie-makers, musicians, writers, fashion-designers and artists, all crowded into my office space. And their job lets them save enough, or earn enough, while they wait for their dreams to materialise. And believe me, if it wasn't for such a well-paying, cushy job, a lot of those people would have had a harder time in pursuing their respective dreams. So let's start being grateful, huh? It's just a shift in perspective, after all..you view it as an obstacle, I view it as an opportunity..and that makes a world of difference..you stay unhappy, I grow contented.

And on this note of wisdom, I shall sign off..