Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Became that guy

When I was a wee little laddie back in high school I was constantly amazed by those guys who seemed to put too much effort. I am talking of those guys who would go to great lengths to get time to study. They would wake up before 6am, sacrifice part of their lunch time, 4 to 6pm break and sleep late at night. I prided myself in being efficient and believed that if I got enough rest, spent time playing sports before 4 to 6 pm and got a good nights sleep I would be a better student. I never got the best grades, but I was convinced that spending more time on school work would not yield better results. So all was well in my world.

In campus while I adopted the same approach, I found other guys who would go to the lib most days of the week and spend weekends studying. When I did go to the lib to study for accounting exams I was surprised by the lengths to which that kind of guy would go to ensure they could get as much study time in. Some of those kind of guy went as far as tithering sits with a chain to guarantee themselves a sitting place. I still remember Sam telling me in first year that class notes will be read twice in a semester once before a CAT and again before the final exam. Again, i did not get the best of grades but I got by and all was well in my world.

I have been working for the same organisation for eight years. I was pretty good at managing my time in the first four years. Circumstances forced me to be in the office no earlier than 7.30 and no later than 6.30. Running after matatus in the dark was not desirable. I even had enough time to take up a part time teaching job.

Unfortunately, somewhere a long the way things changed and I became that guy. Its now common for me to be in the office at 6.30am and leave at 9pm (this has been my routine all the days of this week). I started carrying packed lunch because I could not stand going out for lunch anymore. Initially I would flip through the newspaper as I had lunch at my desk. Now at lunch time I have one hand on a sandwitch and the other on the key board. My key board has sticky keys from stuff I have poured on it. A few months ago, I stood at the office window looking out at the empty parking at around 6.30 am and it struck me that by the time I left in the night the parking would again be empty.

All is not well in my world. I am working too long and getting very little done. I am scheduled to have an end year review with my boss in a week or so. I will have to explain what I have done with myself this year. I have not achieved any of the objectives we agreed at the beginning of the year. Even worse my performance this year is worse than last year. Unfortunately, I can tell her, 'but you always find me here and leave me here, surely I must have been doing something'. I have become that guy who puts in a lot of effort and get very little done and I don't like it.


1 Comments:

Blogger Samborera said...

Like the good old professor noted, it's the system!

Monday, May 30, 2011 5:52:00 PM  

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