Friday, May 20, 2011

work, homework and responsibility

The semester is about to finish, the diploma results have been endorsed and the results for my master’s classes have just been uploaded. That’s it--- done. I am happy about the results but not sure my students will like it though. All the thesis reports have been read, marked and returned. There are a couple of MQA reports to be finalized and ready for visit plus one set of KPT’s final exam questions needs to be tidied up. So I am almost there to enjoy a long break before the students come back in September. It’s more like looking at the long and wide par 5 fairway but still stuck at the tee box waiting for the guy to hit the ball. What a long wait, isn’t it?

But work seems to be endless, never finish. This one ends; another one will come in from nowhere. For some people they feel obliged to finish the job come rain or sun shine ; and the term “workaholic” has its owner. Yes the job is the trust mandated upon us but there is also a limit and boundary comes with the package that we sometime tend to overlook. Sometime the only next best thing to do is to drop the whole thing for once. Just drop it and go. Your office or your company will not go haywire without you. I pity some of the ladies as they are always the ones left in the office because the boss said she has been doing so well so keep up the good work and keep working. I remember my first few months of my career that I was doing doggy job for others and loved it. You felt so “useful” that nothing else seemed waste of time. For the first time when people put a trust on you to complete a certain task, no matter how trivial the job was, you would feel so good and so fulfilling that you did not want to go home. I could do this all day and all night. You would never feel exploited or anything of that kind; even when people tend to take advantage of you. So those were the days……

Everything comes down to responsibility. And being responsible or taking responsibility of things does not come to you easily, it has to be learned and practiced. This is what “the homework” that our little children take home from school is all about. They teach them how to be responsible; no matter how difficult or easy the homework might be. I have experienced this (and I believe we all have) from the beginning and now at the higher level of learning, the similar exercise exists but has never seem to get into their heads. You must finish your homework; and to do that you must understand the problem, you should find the way to do it and manage the time in doing it. So the simple task has made us learn a few things in life. The more you strive to finish your homework the more lesson will be learnt. And after every finished homework the teacher will give you more homework and you will get better and better at it. In the end you will be a responsible person and be successful in your career no matter what kind of job you are doing. If you look at someone who has not finish schooling or failed and given up school, they have no sense of time; late for everything and never feel to be punctual. Works would never be completed and they just left whenever they feel like. They have no sense of being responsible or anything.

Anyway, you guys are all successful now so you must have done something right, right? Of course, so be proud of yourself and teach your kids accordingly. Now go back to work and help the world be a better place to live.

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