Look Around, Look Around

Time to vomit a bunch of work rants.

So I'm like past six months into my job, the graphic designer in this company and it's so boring, stagnant and dull to the point I'm sick of it. Let's break it down. There are periods at work that I call, busy periods and down time. Busy periods are straight forward, they are at the end and/or the start of a month where I have to work my ass off to finish a bunch of promotional signage for the stores of this company and it started off as super frustrating because the materials I had were raw and nothing was definite. So what I did was standardised the local look of the international generic signage to suit our country's marketing direction and created a template. Now, the busy periods are not so hectic and complicated as I have these templates and I am now already accustomed to this work behaviour. Second is the down time. Down time is when workflow becomes very slow because I have almost nothing to do. It's in the middle of the month when I have completed all the the signage that I have to do and no one from the Singapore branch or the fashion departments bug me for any sort of work. There are the occasional approval of visuals and signage from suppliers but that is so seldom and easily done that I can finish them in the blink of an eye (exaggeration). Down times make the worst at work because I have nothing to do, and because of company policy, I must report in at my workplace and with nothing to do at my workplace, I sit at my desk and do nothing, surf the internet, watch YouTube videos, play my mobile games, all the while make myself look busy. And I am making myself look busy as of right now while I type out this rant for my blog that I have pretty much almost abandoned because I have become so jaded with life at such a young age. It might sound like the best thing in the world because I am getting paid for sitting around at work but no. For someone like me who's in the constant need to either sleep, or work when I am at my workplace, pretending that I look busy when I am not makes me so restless. It's so bad to the point that I am showered in a wave of relief that the annoying people from the Singapore branch or the fashion department disturb me with their stupid questions, and irrational and idiotic requests (basically because they have no design fundamental knowledge and their ideas for a visual makes me want to puke profanities), because I finally have something to do.

Other things I do also include the posting of advertisements, updates and news on the Facebook page. At first I was reluctant when I was told I had to do this because to me, this is another job all together, a Facebook Page Moderator. But what the heck, it's better than nothing to do anyway. I also created and set a guideline for our suppliers so that no one steps out of line and adhere to our company's guidelines, which in turn is set by the main branch over in the UK. There are other things too like arranging a section for signage such as shelf edge strips, wall bay headers, and generic store visuals but those are kinda like house keeping for my department in my opinion.

I had started asking around for a job that was still related in the toy industry but I wasn't focusing on getting myself out there yet but now that this boredom at work has become so unbearable, I am going to push myself to get out there and look for designing jobs else where. So do I have a list? No, not really. But I have an idea of where I want to go and find a job at. If possible I want somewhere where I also have this freedom of working alone in my own department, be my own boss but with a direction from the help of co-workers in different departments. That has been the case for me in my current company. It's great because I am in my own command, I don't have to make sure someone else is getting their job done or if they are following the guidelines set by the main branch. Making sure that the Singapore branch is doing everything right is already a massive pain in the noggin.

I had thought about staying in this company for two years just to make it look good on my resume but with the way things are going down now, I think I'd rather not. My boss is another major factor to my decision. After my confirmation, there was no increment. Okay, sure, maybe I have to wait out a bit, give it half a year and maybe he'll just increase it, but no. You know what he said to me a couple of weeks after my confirmation? He said, you want to get a higher salary, you have to work more than what you are paid for. And I never ever brought up the question about my increment to him before. He just came to the store one fine day, called me out to discuss some projects and then went on to tell me that load of bullshit as if he terasa pedas. What's more is that he doesn't acknowledge any hard work done by members of his company. There are way too many details to complain about my terrible and stingy, poor excuse of an entrepreneur boss, and I don't want to go into it. So up my diarrhoea laced rectum will I work more than what I'm paid for! I won't work outside of my work hours either because OT is not acknowledged unless it's officially recorded and to be officially recorded, it needs to be acknowledged by the boss, and hence, not happening. Also, do note that above all these, I'm terribly underpaid because I work not only for the toy department, but for the Singapore branch (which I should expect to be paid in Singapore Dollars for this) and the fashion department, and also, I post stuff on the stupid Facebook page (which is a different job all together). So that's three places and two positions but I'm only paid for one. Mega bullshit.

I have my eyes set on some companies that I would want to work for but I'm not sure how I would fit into their equation. Also because of my low self-confidence and self-esteem, I am afraid of move and make changes. However, I'm breaking through those restraints as I'm nearing wit's end. I need to move and learn new things, meet new people. That time will soon come.