A week of being Sick

Thank goodness that after a week of being sick, I started to feel better last Thursday. Hay, ang hirap kapag maysakit no! It started two Fridays ago when while chatting with my niece I suddenly felt that my throat huts so much and its hard to swallow. Then last weekend all I did was lay in bed which totally ruins all my shopping plans! I am trying to keep a schedule since I'm planning to have all my pasalubongs shipped ahead of my trip. I don't have any plans on bringing a huge balikbayan box with me in May! I am so sick that I can't even eat and I really felt so weak. So cough and colds really kept me up the whole night.

The thing is, I even showed up to work Monday since the first week of the month is such a busy time for us, and one of my co-workers is on vacation for two weeks and I have to do his job! Hay, imagine me those days... It was really hard getting up to go to work every single morning when all your body wanted was to really be in bed. To make matters worst, some of my co-workers also started to get sick. Sneezing and coughing can be heard just everywhere! Hahaha! Pasencya na dahil sa hindi ako mkapag call-in so magdusa tayong lahat!!

So my boss, Robin, came up with the best idea ever. Last Wednesday, she made us some chicken and rice soup and even brought her own crockpot to keep it warm the whole time. It was like "feed the sick day" for us at work. I have some of my co-workers brought some tea, honey and lemon and I have to say that it really worked. I just realized on how they are really such a bunch of workaholics around here. I mean I do know some friends of mine in Manila who would call in sick from work just because they don't want to work that day! And in here, kulang na lang eh may mini clinic kami at lahat pumapasok pa din! I liked it in a way, where it really shows devotion to work and how my co-workers have really treated me so much like my extended family here. But at the same time, I cant' help but think that if I am in Manila I don't think I have to bust my @ss of to go to work every single day and drag myself to go when I am sick..

So right there, take a peek how life is working here.

Who knew Work is this Hard

Four years ago, I was a happy-go-lucky college girl, living the life in Manila.. Weekend parties and long hours on the phone! Wow I definitely missed that! Then I moved here to California, and the next thing I knew.. THE PARTY IS TOTALLY OVER!! Ugh I hate it! I remember the first thing I had to do was to find a job.. And FYI: I have never worked in my entire life! I did get a part time job though, a week after I got here. Never even got the chance to be a tourist a for a while, I wasn't able to see places since people were very eager for me to work. Although I did learn things on my first job I wouldn't consider it a hard one. Not until a little over two years ago, when I was hired to work as a teller in a bank. I did have my share of mistakes but there were opportunities for improvement and I was blessed that in three months I got the chance to do something different, like wire transfers and foreign exchange and the good part is I'm only a back-up teller! Thank goodness, because sometimes the teller job is not that easy especially if you're dealing with large amounts of cash. Last July I was once again blessed to be offered a new position and this time around I am totally not a teller anymore! And just when I thought the stress was over I am totally wrong..

I still work at the Operations Department, which I think is really stressful, I helped out the tellers and I have my own reports to do. But lately, one of my office mate tends to be so hard on himself, and I have to admit that it is kinda taking a toll on everyone. For whatever reason, I tend to overworked myself (or I guess that's how they see it), I just wanted to get things done, sort of a Filipino thing huh? LoL! But today Oh My! I just wanted to scream, get out and leave! It is hard when you don't know where to put yourself in a situation wherein people are just in a bad mood! It's like walking on eggshells and I just literally don't know what to do and where to go. I wanted to yell at my co-worker to stop the pity party and start working on finding his mistakes because its dragging everyone down. When I'm stressing, rashes will start appearing on my neck, and it will be so red and hot that I have to calm down and relax myself.

So while frustrated on how this guy at work was acting, I was telling myself: Why do I even need to stress myself this much and try to finish everything at the end of the day, when here you have somebody that will just give up if a mistake was made?! When I was in college, I didn't even wanted to work. But here I adapted their culture of being workaholic. I tend to work a lot so that at the end of the day, I will be so tired that when I get home all I wanted to do is sleep..It kinda eases the boredom though!

I just never thought working is this hard, especially for me who works in a totally different environment with a totally crazy work dynamics. I am glad I was able to cope up with it considering I was never exposed to this kind of set-up. And for two years I am still here, working with the same group of people which I consider my second family. I guess I just never imagined that when you're thrown out to the real world, its not all parties and funs.. It's not all fantasy and ideals.. There's differences: cultural, personal, environmental..And other factors that I may not want to like but I am left with no choice but to deal with it! Yeah it does suck! But what eases the stress is knowing that you work with people that will always have your back, and that will help you every step of the way. I just hope that my office mate will get to realize this before we ruin the pleasant work environment we have right now. Believe me, I do love working with this people, we may have one of the most stressful departments since we deal directly with the customers, but what makes the work light is working with the people you like. But on times when I feel like I'm stressing out or working too hard, I probably should stop and re-think: Do I really need to work this hard?