Work to Live or Live to Work?

Do you work to live or live to work? i choose the first. I work to live, not the other way around. I'm not saying that people who are workaholic, are bad or wrong..i'm just sharing a different opinion.

My philosophy is between social life and work life, there has to be a balance. When it is time to work..you work. You work as hard as you can and you give your 100%, but when it is time to relax or rest...then use it fully, don't force yourself.

I have seen people who work 60 hours a week or even more, on a daily basis. I sometimes wonder, how their body would even survive the gruesome load that they took everyday. Surely someday their body would collapse, if they keep it up.

Okay, people will say that if you want to be succesfull and rich, then you have to make sacrifices. You have to be willing to give up your social life for the exchange of success, money and prestige.
Most of millionaires fall into this category. They bust their tail off from the beginning. Working tirelessly, and now, they are on the top of the world. Fame, money, big houses, they have everything.

But not for me..my thought is if you cannot enjoy your hard work, then what is the point of you working? For me, spending time with my family, my loved one,and my friend is equally as important as working itself.

Please notice, equally important, that means..if i have a job that needs to be done,then i will finish the job done, but don't expect me to come in on saturdays and sundays 4 consecutive weeks in a row. If it does, then expect me to not come to work again...period, because i will be looking for another job, no matter how big the current salary is.

Ants Marching

I sometimes wonder how funny it is the work routine that we do everyday, especially for the white collars workers. Most of us have pretty much the same routine , wake up..take a bath..put on a nice shirt, pants or trousers, dark socks (for men), and polished shoes. Some put on ties, depending on their attire rules at the office.

We leave the house..we go to our office which is usually in a skyscrapper or at least in a medium rise building. We punch the clock and then we proceed to sit in our cubicle or our room (if you are a manager) with air conditioners.

We turn on our computers. Check our emails, replying them or sending new emails and then we start doing our main job, whether it is translating documents, making reports, making analysis, updating databases, answering customer's queries, communicating with suppliers etc. Basically we do most of our work on the computer and on the desk.

Most of us just stay in front of the computers all day. Well the fortunate ones can alternate their work activities by attending meetings, visiting customers/plants or basically get the chance to get out of the office for a change, but i'm pretty sure that the majority of us do not have the same luxury.

By the time you notice, it's already 5 o'clock, its time to go home and tomorrow, most of us will repeat the same activities again. Oh, at the end of the month we also got paid for doing our work routines at the office for a month.

I sometimes wonder and i found a little bit funny how our daily lives go. We are like a colony of ants. Well at least ants are doing real works, they are truly the true definition of blue collar workers. As for us white collars, sometimes i don't feel like we are doing too many impacts. The blue collars are doing the real physical work, but the white collars are the ones rewarded with big salaries.

But well i guess that's just the way it goes in our society. The white collars are valued more, because we are the ones who do "planning, coordinating, leading, and communicating" in a comfortable environment. Where as the blue collars who do the executions are perceived as second class behind the white collars.

Just my 2 cents...and im not complaining either...just one of my random thoughts of life.

Deal or No Deal?

Last night i accidentally stumbled into one of the local quiz tv show. Maybe you've heard of it..it's called "Deal or No Deal?". Then again maybe i'm asking the wrong question. The question should be : who never heard of "Deal or No Deal?"

You know that a tv show is a hit, when you see people use the phrases or slogan from the tv show into their daily talk. For example, my colleague in my old office was having a negotiation for his promotion with the HR Manager and then the HR Manager offered him a package that was substantially lower than he expected. You know what was his response? He yelled "No Deal!!"...along with the famous hand gestures mimicking the tv show.

Well the episode last night was the celebrity edition. There were Ariel from Peter Pan, Ferdy from Element and a bunch of other guys that i don't know. Obviously they all are in bands.

Ferdy was the one who got picked to play the quiz for some reason. He was playing quite well. I think in the end there were 5 cases left, with one case was valued of 1 Billion Rupiah. The 2 Billion Rupiah case was already gone. But he was still in a good position.

Fast forward to the end, Ferdy finally decided to accept the "bankers"offer for 240 something million rupiah, instead of going for the 1 Billion Rupiah case. Just like that, the rich is getting richer. He's getting 240 Million rupiah (well minus tax) just by gambling to choose some random cases.

Can you imagine what it feels like to win 2 Billion Rupiah? I can imagine it already. I will buy 1 house and 1 apt. For the ride i will purchase the new Honda Accord, fully loaded. I will allocate some for wedding, some for honeymoon to USA, and the rest of the money,which is still a lot, i will put it into savings and investments. Damn...that would be sweet.

Sweet but not real. The reality is i have nowhere near 2 Billion Rupiah and all of those fancy things that i mentioned above? I dont have them...yet...hehehe..notice the word yet. I will have to bust my butt to get them one at a time.

So i better get to sleep...have to get up early for work...this is part of the reality that i was talking about. Well at least i get to dream before waking up to the reality...:)