My work colleague has come back after being away for more than three months when he went back to his homecountry where he lost his bag containing his passport (and other valuables). When he entered the office, everyone welcomed him back like we weren’t pissed with him when he told us he couldn’t come soon, like no one has to put up doing extra work hours and work load on his behalf, like there wasn’t someone who sometimes have to skip lunch just to get everything done in time (*raising hand*). I like this office, people are so forgiving. Pfffft.

He went back to his home country to spend honeymoon (he was married last October but quickly came back – another arranged marriage where he only saw his bride on the day of their wedding). Then he lost his passport, so he says and had to spend so much time waiting for the police report, for the new passport and new visa to come back here.

The least he could do is smile and say sorry or something but he is arrogant and unapologetic, acting like nothing happened. No one was expecting anything other than him apologizing perhaps for the trouble he had caused but there was nothing to that tune. Not even “obligatory food” mostly small amounts of sweets from home that everyone distributes when they come back from vacation. Don’t get me wrong, I’m on a diet and off from taking sugar but I feel the people around were expecting something and they deserve it, especially our very patient boss who did not proceed to firing him after this mess.

I start to wonder if he really, really lost his passport or if this is some kind of way for him to spend a longer honeymoon with his new wife. Or that I am really bitter because I am just really tired these past few weeks.

*sigh*

Either way, it’s back to business around here. At least, I hope I won’t be skipping lunch and gym time (and not to mention some little blogging!) because of some extra work load. Hope all of you have a great weekend!

I know I’ve written before that the work load storm has passed and I’m free to blog again. My colleague who was stuck in India promised to come back before I wrote that post. I was happy he’d come and take away some of the work load I’ve been doing – the work load that was his!

Then the phone call came.

“I forgot that I need to take an Indian immigration clearance before flying out. I need to stay for another 2-3 weeks.”

So he stayed there and enjoyed his mom’s home cooked meals while I continue hammering on the keyboard and saw nothing but my PC screen and mountain of papers for days. There were times when I really wanted to write something and hoped I’d have time (and energy) at the end of the day – so far, I had none. Then I’d forget what I wanted to say.

A couple of days ago, that colleague called my boss and also talked to me saying he’d come on Wednesday. TODAY. I’ve put his work load on his table, anticipating his return. I bet he’s excited to tackle his backlogs after THREE MONTHS away from the office. Or not.

It’s 9:30 am and he’s still not here.

All is well in Dubai again after a very strange thunderstorm – the skies have cleared and the sun appeared again. I do not wish for that kind of rain again. The roads are scary and every time it rains I do not have an umbrella with me and there’s not one sold at the convenience store on the ground floor. I miss those very handy transparent umbrellas in Japan.

However, my work desk resembles a place battered by storm. Papers here and there waiting to be tackled on. I came home last night so tired that I slept at 8:30 pm without washing my face (but I do not put any makeup during the day so it’s ok?). I do not like to be tired because of work, especially if I am just sitting for 8.5 hours burning zero calories but  producing enough cortisol to increase my ass size.

Whew.

The thing is, we have a situation at the office. There are 6 people in the team, each assigned specific tasks. One of my colleagues went back to India last January to have his honeymoon for 50 days (wow, I like his life). As soon as he comes back, another colleague will go for vacation, for 50 days again. Not for honeymoon but usual vacation – they do take vacation like a maternity leave! The first guy was supposed to come back a few weeks ago but then someone stole his bag containing his passport (along with money and gold for his new wife) the day he arrived at Hyderabad airport. He said it took the thief only 3 seconds to grab the bag from him when he put it down to call a taxi cab.

Lesson learned: Hold on to dear bag when calling a cab in India. Never put the bag down no matter how heavy it is!

So, he has to apply for a new passport again and in India, everyone swears it takes ages to get it done.

The second guy already booked tickets and he went. The kind of “went without looking, backlogs be damned!”. I’ve taken the work load of the second guy added to my normal work load. And maybe half of the other guy’s work, too. I could go on and on but it only meant one thing: no time for (more) blogging, editing photos to post, not much time on Twitter or for the washroom either.

So yeah, that’s pretty much what’s happening in my life now (work, overtime, home) – I hope yours is more interesting!

If the company I work for has some kind of management style akin to politics, it has to be tyranny or dictatorship. I’ve realized that these past two weeks after I came back from vacation.

My work timings since I came to this office three years ago until end of October 2009 was: Saturday-Wednesday 8:30-13:00 & 14:00-18:00 and Thursday 8:30-13:30.

That means I can only sleep longer once a week, otherwise, I wake up at 5:30 am everyday.

Most of the companies in the UAE have full Fridays-Saturdays off. The unlucky ones (like me) have to deal with the semi-pointless half day of Thursday (it’s not even half considering I reach home at 3 pm already so it’s like an entire day is spent) and Friday off and gets heartbroken every time they leave their home watching their child/children sleep on Saturday mornings. Schools have Friday-Saturday off. Except for inner self debates, no one ever voiced out their opinion – too afraid to lose their jobs.

Then came end of October this year when we got the circular:

New timings effective November 1st 2009. Friday & Saturday Morning OFF (Saturday PM, Sun-Thu full day).

I was like woo hoo! Finally my longer sleeping time has been upgraded from once to twice a week! Last Saturday was the start of that new schedule. It was sooo nice to be with Pristine when she’s off from school and I get to sleep past 6 am.

I thought to myself: I would love lots of mornings like this!

But the dictators (sadists) must have heard me and burst my bubble. A new circular came early this week saying, the half day off which was originally Thursday afternoon, that changed to Saturday morning will now be changed to Saturday afternoon. Dizzy? Me too.

They changed the timings without notice, meetings or even asking the employees. Tyranny! Everyone is mad but won’t say a thing. No one ever says a thing. It’s like god damn slave behavior.

Now, I was so upset that I emailed my boss and told him my disappointment and that I want that Saturday AM off in exchange for no salary increase for three years. Anyway it’s pointless for me to come for 4 hours on Saturdays since I deal with Japan and Japan is off on Saturdays!

Boss says all he felt while reading the circular, I’ve put into words but what can we do? Follow.

*****

The rain poll is still active, which means, no there’s no rain here yet. I’ll be posting an update on Twitter everyday, before I sleep at night so if you are following me there you’ll know. If not, well, why not?

Sorry for the erratic blog layout/background or anything uneasy and unpleasing to your eyes! I am currently working on trying out different themes – something that would make it easier and faster for everyone to load all the photos and read the posts. I know you don’t have all day and I truly appreciate your visit to my little blog so I want your visit to be worth it by not taking so much of your time waiting for the entire page to load.

Thanks for understanding and do pray that I won’t accidentally do anything stoopid (like erasing my entire blog — knock on wood!).

A long random Thursday thought for today.

I went for a job interview yesterday.

In the midst of this global crisis, recession, depression or whattchamacallit dark economic trouble, thankfully, I still have a job and didn’t really need to look for another one (at least not yet?). A friend of mine showed me an ad posted in the paper looking for someone, with the qualifications that fit mine. Out of curiosity if my CV still has some worth and out of pure ‘come-what-may’ attitude, I submitted my paper. In less than 10 minutes, I got a reply from the recruitment agency telling me my CV looks good and they want to know me more.

I filled up forms and emailed them back my information. Then they sent it to the company. At this point, they wouldn’t tell me which company they sent my CV yet – only until that company invites candidates for interview.

Oh, well then fine.

After two days, I got the invitation to come for an interview. It was a Japanese company so I had mixed feelings. I did not come all the way to Dubai from Japan to work for another Japanese company. I spent my whole post-graduate life working for them and wanted something new. My current company in Dubai gave me the refreshing, something new environment that I’ve been looking for and I am pretty much contented.

Still for the heck of it, I went. M drove me all the way to Jebel Ali, an hour drive from where our respective workplace. He was amazed how relaxed I was inside the car. “You’re not nervous?”

No, not at all. It’s not like this is a do or die thing. I still have my job even if I don’t get this. I’ll just answer questions, right? He rolled his eyes.

The interview started with the usual greetings, they talked about my previous experiences, etc. One of the guys who interviewed me, the managing director saw that I have a ring on my finger and asked me personal questions: married? husband’s work? number of children? who’s taking care of the child while you work?

Then the inevitable came: “Can you work on weekends and/or beyond work hours? It’s not like every weekend and everyday overtime but sometimes…when it calls for it, you know.”

Non-shocker question of the century, really.

I was waiting for the whole time when this question will pop up. Hmm, very Japanese company – same ‘ole, same ‘ole attitude towards work, despite the office located in Dubai.

I needed to be honest and had to put down any of their expectations. No I wouldn’t/couldn’t work on those times! Ten years living in Japan, I still despise the need to do overtime work. Why not increase the number of employees if the work load was too much? or Why would they EVEN ask a MOM employee to do that? In my opinion, the job do not require any extra hours of work. It’s just in their true Japanese nature – they always want more.

My husband could have said yes, heck, he’s one of them and he doesn’t have to worry who’ll cook dinner or wake up to prepare breakfast, bathe the babe or read stories during bedtime.

Most likely, I will not get that prestigious job I applied for but it’s ok. I remember an article I read the other day. Somewhere in the corporate ladder, I need to slow down my climbing pace to give way to more family time, to my daughter, most especially. But then, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I work closely with a Japanese company. Aside from the 5 hour time difference and unsynchronized work days, some of my colleagues are complaining that the Japanese workers get too many vacations than we do.

In Dubai:

• we work Saturday – Thursday
• we only get 1.5 days off: afternoon of Thursday (but considering the heavy traffic on my way home,  it seems like the whole day is spent outside) and whole day Friday off.
• we have 3-4 days of holidays after Ramadan once a year
• a day off for national day in December
• some other 3 days of Islamic holiday every year

Special schedule: we only get to work for 5 hours for 30 days during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

In Japan:

• Work sked is Monday-Friday
• Off on Saturdays and Sundays every week.
• They have these national holidays every single month with the exception of June, ranging from one day to 5 straight days! If it’s one day, the government set it to Monday so they can have a long weekend.

Sounds like they have all the fun but most Jap workaholics stay in the office until 10 pm while we don’t do overtime in Dubai and we get to spend dinner with out families every night.

Which would you prefer?

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Surprisingly, I didn’t have the “first day back to work” blues today. I spent half the day downloading hundreds of emails, writing forms, submitting my passport back (employers keep our passports here) and giving all the gifts I bought to people who had been good while I was away.

It’s the holy month of Ramadan until the end of the month here in the UAE and in the whole Muslim world. Ramadan for them means fasting (no eating from sunrise until sunset), but to non-Muslim expats like me, it means shortened work time. Yay! Work starts at 9 am and finishes at 3 pm.

It also means hide-and-seek-eating-game. We can take a break for lunch – it only takes a little bit more time to find a place to hide. We don’t want to intimidate the fasting (hungry) people, you know. Tomorrow, I’ll bring a sandwich. That way, it will be easier to eat from where I am sitting. No spoons, forks or chopsticks to take out. I’ll just tear off the sandwich bits from inside my drawer and shove then in my mouth when no one’s looking.

I am glad they don’t execute people who succumb to worldly pleasures during Ramadan.

I’m nearing the end of my 45 days vacation though I had fun and really satisfied with it, it’s not without a bit of sadness that I find myself saying goodbye to no alarm clock days, sleep all you can days, spend all day in pj’s days and climb trees all you want days.

The babe was back to school yesterday and I will be back to work tomorrow. M is still in Japan for some unfinished work and a conference, won’t be home until another week so that means I have to drive alone to work and battle the traffic. Dubai hasn’t changed much since we left but when I came back last week, the roads were clear of traffic. Now that school has started, gridlocks started appearing here and there.

I’m officially back to the big city life.

~ climbing trees ~

So today will be my last day of freedom. I will miss the days I was able to devote my full attention to my daughter the most. I have briefed her every single day since we came back that mom will go back to work in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 days.

Her reaction? “Noooo!! What for, mom?”

Yeah, brilliant question, babe. Work and what for? Oh crap, the million dollar question.

Today’s my last day in the office before I my leave starts. We’ll be leaving in a few days and I am so happy to have one extra day tomorrow because of a national holiday. You think I’m going to spend that extra day packing? No! Packing has been done ages ago. The female population in my house (me, my mom and the little girl) will go out to see Mamma Mia the movie!

I have attempted to watch the musical in Broadway when we went to London 2 years ago but was refused entrance since Pristine was barely three years old that time. Now, it’s finally ok to let this Abba fanatic toddler see this wonderful movie. I am sure she’ll love it.

It’s been an exhausting 21 months – the unbelievably total number of time I haven’t had a proper break! I’m really looking forward to this vacation. I need this. But you know those last hours when you’re crunchin’ on a double work pile, trying to get everything done but your brain is already splashing in the surf?