Work Update

A work update – busy, busy, busy.  Going to be like this for the next few months sadly – I had a desire to take a week off in September once kids go back to school, but my boss has already told me that I should postpone this until October.  Which sucks.  Hopefully I can still visit Crater Lake in Oregon, which was my plan – unfortunately Crater Lake is (quoting from their website) “one of the snowiest inhabited places in the USA”, and checking dates I see that most of the seasonal road closures start around October/November.  So I might have to make some different plans.  What else at work…. had my mid-year review recently – and it was good.  I didn’t give it much attention – having just got a promotion, it’s going to be a while until I get another one.  But it is satisfying to finally have a manager who recognizes my abilities and my value – and I do feel more important and more appreciated than I have for a while.  And, if I’m going to be honest, I’m quite enjoying the work at the moment.  Yes at times it is pressurized and stressful, but I am staying on top of it and it does feel surprisingly rewarding when I know I’m doing a good job.  And although I’m busy, it’s not constant and I haven’t crossed over that line into feeling overwhelmed.  I think that’s something I’m very careful about nowadays.  What is also interesting is something my manager mentioned offhandedly during my review, and that is my reluctance to work extra hours beyond the standard 40 hour week.  Is that a reputation I have now – someone who doesn’t put in the same effort as others do?  That doesn’t paint me in a particularly good light – perhaps there is some truth to it (understatement?!), but I will work long hours on those few occasions when it is required.  But frankly I don’t feel I have to because I can do my job more quickly and more effectively than most of my colleagues, negating my need to put in all these extra hours – so I think this is an extremely unfair characterization.  I have an inkling that I mentioned my reluctance to work evenings and weekends to one of my Chinese colleagues, and apparently that got shared around the “Chinese community” in my function at work.  Great, you can’t trust anyone here – I don’t think this is intentionally malicious office politics, but I think my “non-Chinese”-ness is always going to mean I’m going to be scrutinized more carefully.