5:52 pm Friday, August 25, 2006
Freaking Friday
I love Friday! Aside from the obvious link to end of the work week and start of the relaxing weekend (hopefully), I look forward to it because of Casual Friday. It's the day when everyone at the office revert back to themselves, sans the officiality of their working attire. It's freaky in a way, cos you see a different person for that 1 day, in contrast to the persona you work with the other 4 days. That's when their real personalities struggle to come out.I hate office wear. It's like the armour that ancient troops put on before going to battle. Just like how some people treat makeup as war paint. It brings with it a whole different mindset and attitude, as though the whole world is against you and you need to constantly be on the defensive. Okay, I admit that is the case in some workplaces. But still, it doesn't mean I have to like it or defer to it. It just creates this vicious self-fulfilling cycle of bad vibes and ill-will. 
I don't agree with the idea that you have to lose your personality in order to be part of the PMEB workforce. Yes we may be blue-collared and earn more, and some would sniff, 'higher-class', but so what? What's with the layer of official-ness that we put on?We are still human, so it's more natural to show some silliness and foibles. Personally, knowing that my colleagues are just as 'human' as I am makes me more accepting of any mistakes they may make in the course of work, and I'm more open with working together with them to resolve problems. It makes the whole office environment much easier to bear. Contrast this to the torture of having to put on your fake office persona every morning and lugging it around the whole day. When you suppress your real self, your colleagues don't understand you as well as they can, and vice versa. So everyone spends their life feeling their way around in the dark (and tripping one another up along the way). Why can't we just be open and frank to one another, and things will work out better. Of course, people have to be sincere about it.I hypothesize that this system must have been set up by bosses who have no sincerity or niceness to share, so they can't be open and frank to their colleagues in the first place. So they build up this wall to hide their real selves and project a strong no-nonsense image to frighten and keep people from questioning them. When in fact, they seriously cannot make it lor. I'm sure we see many of these around.So let's subvert the whole system. Tear it down so that they are exposed for the quacks that they are.Oh yes, note that my title is freaking, not freaky Friday. Yes, it's freaking because my inefficient boss likes to push everything til the last minute, panics and throws them to me on Friday. So instead of a relaxing start to the weekend, I get high blood pressure and heart attack and need the weekend to recuperate. Freaking #@!&.Labels: Concrete Jungle
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I don't agree with the idea that you have to lose your personality in order to be part of the PMEB workforce. Yes we may be blue-collared and earn more, and some would sniff, 'higher-class', but so what? What's with the layer of official-ness that we put on?