Tambahan sepuluh peratus

Sometimes, I do not understand how people can miss the point. And people miss the point entirely, that’s what’s going on. I do not want to talk cryptic language anymore but around here, everyone tries to be discreet about his or her words as much as possible. Because eventually, your words will be used against you. And they will be used against you entirely too.

I remember those times back in school. We were often lured into joining extra curricular activities in exchange of certificates. Plus, we were also told that our activities will be accounted for when applying for universities, et cetera. I had 2 folders full of certs but I missed class an awful lot. Plus, I wasn’t that clever back in school, and it finally took a toll on me, my studies and partly, my future too. I don't regret it entirely, but there is some regret, somewhere.

I am just glad that I did really well here, with the course of my choice. At least, it's something I can be proud of.

Activities build the person we are, I know. Of all people, I am aware how important play is. But whatever anyone says, the fact remains that people will always take our academic qualifications into consideration first, then only look at our other extra credentials, if ever, that is.

The same thing applies at work. I think I can vouch for us all here that we would love more substantive work. I wouldn’t mind getting more contracts to vet, more opinions to write, more research to do. I love working. I have always loved working. It’s freaky, I know, but as far as work is concerned, I am a self-declared freak.

But things like conferences, meetings, ushering jobs, secretatriat jobs, et cetera bog us down with unnecessary pressure. Suddenly, there are more minutes to write rather than opinions. Suddenly, there is more of hotel bookings and attendance lists to concentrate on rather than cases to search for. All of a sudden, your life revolves around making invitation cards and finding the right theme for dinners rather than finding flaws in the law which you would like to rectify.

And at the end of the year, those who did substantive work are those awarded with Anugerah Perkhidmatan Cemerlang.

So much for all the hard work (not to mention heartache) from the extras we did, they are far from recognised at the Department’s level. The bosses in the office might know you more, but that isn’t necessarily the best thing. They seem to think that once you are involved in all the organisational work, that is all you should be involved in, thus, you get less substantive work, and you become less legally savvy and become a better PTD, to put it loosely. At the rate that I am going, I think I should have just gone to the PTD exam. At least I get to go to countries and organise events because THAT IS MY JOB. And I would have made an excellent one at that, InsyaAllah.

Now, I am organising events, and dancing and performing, when by qualification, I shouldn’t even bother about not doing a good job about it. I thought that I have learnt a lesson in school, but apparently not. Or is it that I don’t have much of a choice/option to say NO because people around here don’t see that as part of their vocabulary.

And the best thing is, just because someone has a bad attitude, but gets all his work done, he gets to go to all the courses, gets to do all the substantive work and also gets to go back early. In fact, the big boss even said that the reason that she didn’t want to give that person some admin work is because he is always going back early. I guess the rest of us don’t have lives of our own to go back to, then?

How accommodating.

They have totally missed the point. Shocking, considering how high up "they" are.