Career Tips — How to be a Happy Salaryman
Sorry for the spoiler, I assume at this rate all should be well-informed that our beloved jaded guy, Nanami died a heroic death. Such a pity for a daddy character like him to go wasted, what's important, our finest guy, Gojo is still there. Nevertheless, I am going to share some career tips to make you (hopefully) stay happy.
DISCLAIMER
Psychologically speaking writing, my tips are only legible and relatable for those that are working on the career that you've majored in during your university/college days. For example, you've studied IT and worked with an IT company once you graduated. Then, yes — This post is for you. If you're studying IT and then ended up being a fashion designer, maybe you can only relate to this 20-30%.
Congratulation! You are among the few Malaysians that are lucky enough to score a job that you (maybe) are passionate about. Be grateful that during these pandemic days you're not being thrown away to other industries like F&B, hospitality sectors, or ended up into a supermarket staff just to financially survive and have something on your plate to eat. Alhamdulillah. Without further a due, here are some tips for you.
1. Set Your Intention Right.
Set your niat, the nawaitu; the 'why I am here, working my ass off 9 - 6 every fucking weekday'. I know some of you just work because that's the pre-destined rule of the adult — Adult needs to work. But you should have the right intention to keep your motivations on. They should be like; 'I need to work to earn money so that — I can live independently without my parent's aid, so I can be the one that will be providing my parents so that I am no longer a burden to my parents, so I can afford to buy what I want while supporting my needs.
These are what motivations sound like. Know your why's.
2. Build Your Character, Reputation Follows.
But character is not purely defined by how you visually look like. Obviously yes, that is Aan. But can you expect what my attitude would be like? A human can casually judge and presume, but they'll never know how you can impact them until they experienced you.
Character = the distinctive quality, the essence of an individual.
Eg. Aan – over the years, I built myself as a chaotic evil person, an anti-hero, I am bold and basically don't give a fuck about how you feel about me, I love myself, respect myself and I will put myself first in any situation possible. I'll be gladly argue for the causes I like such as UX and UI stuff. Care for your character first, don't let other people shape your character. Don't let them kill your vibe.
Reputation = is the general opinion of others of a person.
Eg. Aan again – after years of my career, several companies jumped, here are the reputations I've collected. Aan is funny, efficient, awesome, fast, anti-kaki-bodek, anti-kaki-jilat-bontot-boss, stupid, brave, disrespectful, losing attention really fast, bad English, direct, insensitive, vocal, brutal and explicit language user, listener, double-edged sword (?), insightful, impactful, forward-thinking, idola (lol). Yeah, people can say whatever—fuck them, but you should stick to your character, your image.
So, just be yourself, if you're good, eventually people will notice the goodness in you naturally. Am I good? What I mean, is Aan good? I'll answer it myself, YES I AM.
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| If Aan is not good, how can she illustrates and animate this? |
3. Know Your Rights. Know Your Place.
You're not a slave to anyone. You're a slave to only God. Please refrain from working overtime whenever you are not paid with the OT reimbursement. You are being valued for your skills, manpower, and experiences. If you're being paid 7K to do your job, work equivalently. A higher salary means higher responsibility, commitments.
Know your place, mongrels. Don't be rude to your bosses. But then, this works mutually – you can, if he/she is being rude to you, but consequences apply hahaha. Nobody has permission to be rude to anyone. You should treat others like how you want to be treated is a well-known common rule too.
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| Work expands to fill your time. Putting in long hours ≠ more work done. |
4. Don't Normalize Working Overtime.
Unless you have a deadline by tomorrow and you haven't finished your job because of your incompetency, maybe you should. But, please, refrain from doing so. Whatever reason you're doing this; e.g. 'This is my passion - pfft, 'I'm a workaholic person because it reduces my loneliness', 'I want to show my boss – I am the most dependable employee', 'I want to win The Best Employee award'...shits. You're actually being engulfed in the toxicity part of your career.
Works never settle. When some too many people normalized working OT for free in your circle — first, most of the time, it will trigger your unnecessary guilt for clocking out according to your working hours agreed and signed in your hiring contract papers. Second, it will affect the organizational level as well, people will think that working OT is the 'norm' and an indicator for 'performing employee', the bosses (if they are immoral enough) will think it is okay to make their employees work until night to push the KPI.
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| You are not in charge for things that beyond your control, Zayn! (context) |
5. Don't Take Responsibility/Blame For The Part That's Not Yours, to Begin With.
When you realized that you are actually doing this, be careful, you're now standing on the cliff, and in front of you is the valley of the deepshit. Let's say you are a UI/UX, product designer and the codes the developer team wrote were bad. Should you feel down when someone pointing finger at you saying the codes are terrible and shitty? HELL NO, you shouldn't. I believe there is nothing written in your working contract that obligated you to take care of the quality of the code. I know it takes collective efforts and responsibility to create a great product, but never ever take the blame for something that is not yours, to begin with.
This will kill you inside, slowly. Actually, I've been there, done that. And no more!
6. Voice Out If You're Being Overloaded with Tasks.
Like, please don't hard carry - it'll be a burden to your emotion because you'll feel like you are the one carrying the entire team. Your boss, your director, your manager, or even your project manager wouldn't know whenever you're being overloaded with tasks—unless they're empathic enough (this is very rare). But too much empathy wouldn't be good on the company's KPI.
Nevertheless, communication is the key. Be brave to tell them. They're also human. Tell them if you can't cope with too many tasks, and your productivity is falling apart and you are on the verge of a burnout breakdown. If you're valuable enough to them, and they can't afford to lose you, they will compromise a bit by lessening your tasks or finding someone to assist you with the task.
7. Find Yourself a Support System. Find Your Circle.
A support system is not a group of toxic colleagues that spread gossips among each other, this is more like a group of peers that can guide you through your career journey or even lift you up whenever you're stressed up with tasks.
Try to connect with a skilled, experienced senior so you'll learn something along the way. Retain your relationship with your ex-colleague thru social media, Twitter, Instagram, or whatsoever; they still can be useful to you for future career progression opportunities. Make friends with a newly graduated, an intern, just to keep you updated with the new trends, equivalently, you'll gain support and they'll gain some guidance. Be friendly with everyone that will benefit you throughout your career. But don't overdo it by being a kaki-jilat; this hella sucks.
REMEMBER: YOU ARE THE REFLECTION OF WHOM YOU BEFRIEND WITH.
8. Don't Work Like a Robot. We All Need Some Human Touch.
You are the one that'll do the breakthru! Boring office environment? Be the one that changes the environment. Are your colleagues too quiet? Be the loud one. I know it will be kinda hard for the introvert, but halsuisseoyo; you can do it. I know I'm being too optimistic on this because I'm an extroverted person, to begin with, so it's not fair, heh. You can begin with being friendly, find a connecting dot that you and your targeted 'colleague friend' can 'clique' with. Like me and my current working friend, we connected thru Kpop songs lol.
Try to randomly talk about beneficial live lessons with your colleague, at times, talk about your disappointment to know the scandal involving Kim Seon Ho (lol), share out-of-work knowledge with them, like a brother or sister. Praise them when they do something good or smart, we don't know how much it meant to them. It might make their day, who knows; if they've been thru shit and hell that day. Actually, based on my original personality— most of the time, I don't really care, lol. But when you are mutually beneficial to me, I do care.
9. No Hard Feelings, But Be Kind If Possible.
This is a lesson for me as an insensitive little shit, hahaha. If you guys know me, Aan is the vile-mouthed type that most of the time never takes anything seriously (including her own health, for god's sake). But today, I made someone upset by being inconsiderate and thoughtless. I should be using kinder words next time. Someone might be battling something that they can't tame yet. Perceptions are subjective, you can't control how the other party might be thinking/perceiving your action or words. While some might find it okay, someone whose been dealing with a stressful workload, working their weekends out won't feel the same and will be triggered badly from it.
I am blessed for having my career situation under control (tch, finally after 7 years of working). So, for everyone affected mentally, emotionally from a draining job, read more books, guidelines whatsoever that can help you get in control with your career. And for everyone with an unfiltered mouth or finger, be kind and think before saying/writing anything.
10. Don't Keep It In. Be Transparent, Apologize Whenever Necessary.
I don't hold a grudge, whenever I feel something off, I just casually voice it, however not many can tolerate my raw un-sugar-coated comments. The consequences of having a villainous mouth and dark-humored mind, I got backlashes pretty often too. But I can still lower my ego and apologize. Everyone makes mistakes and the only time they won't do it is while they're sleeping. Good transparency and clear communication between team members are so important for your career growth. Imagine a workplace where people can be so sincere about pointing out your mistakes so you can improve on them, this is so rare!
For you to apologize, it is a must. But for you to be forgiven, it is up to them, none of your jurisdiction!
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| Me, writing at the cafe after working hours, for you guys |