Category Archives: Employment

Looking Back 2012

Posted on January 1, 2013 by | 8 Comments

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(Photo Credit: www.teachers.saschina.org)

I always believe that each year is always a good year. Though it is not always a smooth sailing journey, still I have many reasons to be grateful. And looking back this year, it has been a great and fantastic journey.

Mid this year I made a major detour in my career. It took me years to heap enough courage to ditch the job I loathed. First time in my life that I resigned from a job without any employment offers at hand.

It was a calculated risk though. We had a 3-months notice period and this provision was really a major obstruction to finding a new job. Companies are not just keen to wait such long. Thankfully before my 3 months notice period ended, I found a new job.

I wrote here and here about my new work. I cannot explain how good it felt to leave the job that sucked your energy and passion to work. Finally I freed myself from that misery.

Work consumes like 70 – 80% of our time and energy. It defines the quality of life that we live. So when I left my previous job, it seemed that my life was totally overhauled.

Late this year my family travelled here in UAE. There were two reasons behind that – to celebrate my son’s first birthday and to have a family reunion. My brother who is working in Maldives came too.

It was the best gift and I cherished every moment we were together. We were glad to be together, just being around – talking, walking, teasing and eating together.

And of course, my son’s first birthday. I think as parents the most important thing is to know that your child is safe and in good health always. It makes me more grateful and richer everyday.

I am grateful that we are all in good health all year through.

I am thankful too –

For our jobs that help us support our needs and our family.

For the additional new member in our household

For my loving friends and kind colleagues

The list of things that I am grateful for 2012 is still long but I would rather keep it in private. One thing for sure – it has been a great 2012!

Happy New Year everyone!

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Posted in Employment, Events, Life in Abu Dhabi

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Finally!

Posted on July 26, 2012 by | Leave a comment

I was quite anxious for almost 2 months because I still didn’t have my visa stamped on my passport. Finally I received it last week!

Changing to a new job or employer can be a daunting task. Personally I will not have peace of mind until I have the passport in my hand with the visa stamp on it. Somehow it becomes a sort of guarantee that I am a legal expat working here in UAE.

Really, many things can happen along the process of shifting to a new employer and changing employment visa. Somehow I am always haunted with my ex-colleague’s unfortunate experience. She was excited to leave her job because her application had been accepted in the other company and the employment package in all aspect was better.

So after signing her new employment contract, she handed her resignation and gave the usual one-month notice period. Close to her scheduled joining date to the new company, she received a notification that they were cancelling her supposed to be new employment.

It is really a nightmare and things can go bad if you can’t find an alternative job soon. No one really wants to experience such nightmare but sometimes there are inevitable surprises that hurdle your application for new employment visa.

This is the reason that I will not be sure of my new employer until the new employment visa is stamped on my passport.

Anyway, I am thankful that I got my passport back with the visa stamp.

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Posted in Employment

Loving my new Company!

Posted on June 26, 2012 by | 4 Comments

For almost a decade of working in multinational companies, I shifted to a significantly small company last month. It is small in terms of operation here in Abu Dhabi and Gulf Region but the headquarters which is based in Europe is operating with almost 10,000 employees.

There are many pros and cons in working in large and small scale organizations but I will tackle that in a separate blog post.

Anyway, I was reviewing my official employment contract today and I am overwhelmed with some of its terms and conditions. I just realized that perhaps working for almost a decade in such big corporations, I am used to receiving fair benefits only.

In my current contract, it is mentioned that there will be 2 days additional leave on top of the 30 days annual leave. The 2 days are allotted for the purpose of travelling only.

Maybe I am exaggerating my reaction but really, WOW! That’s a generous contract clause. Our company takes into consideration the travel time in which for my case a great advantage. The travel time between Abu Dhabi to Manila is 9 hours for a direct flight and 12-15 hours for connecting flights. It means travelling to and from will cost me already 2 days of my annual leave, right?

Lucky if you are based in Manila but for me, I need to take domestic flight.

Another company benefit I appreciate is the flexi office timing. I mean, I can adjust my work +/- 1 hour. It is a favorable arrangement especially if a need to visit the embassy arises.

Anyway, I will keep the rest of the benefits confidential. I do not want to be accused of bragging but I just want to share the two points because I believe these benefits are rare to find.

I hope that you can also arrange such benefits in your future job opportunities in Abu Dhabi! **wink**

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Posted in Employment, Life in Abu Dhabi

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Productive Long Weekend..

Posted on June 18, 2012 by | Leave a comment

It was a long weekend last week. My off day started as early as Thursday as our company declared holiday in lieu of an internal event held in the headquarter office in Finland and Sunday was also declared public holiday (Al Isra Wal Miraj or The Prophet’s Ascension) here in UAE.

Although it was the ideal time to go out of Abu Dhabi for a short break, we decided to stay at home as hubby needed to work on Saturday afternoon and I had online projects to finish too.

It is my plan to pursue some online jobs this year and this time I am serious about it. I used to be active in writing online gigs before but I took a hiatus for almost a year because of long working hours in my previous job.

I intend to learn the in and out of working online hoping that I can use it as my fall back soon when the time comes that I need to return back home for good.

With this plan, time management is a challenge really. I have to juggle my full time job, online work and household chores but I want to give it a shot. I need to find a system to ease the situation but I will not be able to figure it out until I am in the situation.

So aside from completing my online project last weekend, I was occupied too updating my profile and applying for online jobs.

I hope that my future weekends will be as productive as this always.

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Posted in Employment, Extra Income, freelance writing, Life in Abu Dhabi

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Appreciating Life’s Simple Pleasures…

Posted on June 10, 2012 by | 1 Comment

I have no reason for my long silence. Maybe it is laziness. Or I just slack off for an extended period. Or perhaps I am still shocked with my new work life – no stress, slow pace, regular working hours.

My new office is only walking distance from my home approximately 5-10 minutes depending on how fast I can catch the elevator and how long I wait for the go signal in the pedestrian lane.

Since my office is near my home, I ditched my car. It means no more driving around for half an hour or more to find parking space. No more fights with hubby because I always forget to keep coins for one day parking or for not buying a new parking prepaid card. No more fines.. LOL! Out of curiosity, I just calculated my parking expenses. The minimum is AED 300 per month for parking fees only. Of course, there is the petrol too.

More time with Hubby. Since long working hours are not tolerated in my new company, I go home on time. In my previous work, the earliest I could leave the office was at 7pm and it happened rarely. So oftentimes, I reached home exhausted that I simply wanted to lie down.

Now, I have time to cook healthy meals for our lunch and dinner.

I am really happy and content nowadays because I am liberated from my previous demanding, stressful and long working hour job.

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Posted in Driving, Employment, Life in Abu Dhabi

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Finally!

Posted on May 5, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Finally my three months notice period culminated last Thursday, 3rd May 2012 and I felt relieve. Gladly they didn’t organize any farewell lunch as it was my personal request but they gave me a present as farewell gift.

On the other hand, my dear colleague and friend Tarek had taken an effort to drive all the way from Al Ain to simply have a dinner with our few chosen colleagues and friends. I really appreciated his effort because the distance between Al Ain  and  Dhabi is approximately 140 kms.

We dined in Castello Restaurant and Café, a nice Arabic restaurant and I liked really the location. And of course, we concluded our dinner with a shisha..

Thanks Buddy!

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Posted in Employment

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Overhaul

Posted on April 12, 2012 by | 1 Comment

My life is going through an overhaul right now and in a way I am proud of it (I’ll tell you the reason later!). Actually the process is just initiating and the result is still to be seen and felt.

Work
I am one of those who keep their jobs for years for the sake of paycheck. Instead I endure the misery of working in the corporate world as I trade off my happiness, time, passion and health. Few more days from now, I will eventually get rid of the job that I detest for four years and five months.

Not only that, I will be office base worker soon. I am expecting a period of boredom on my first few months because for the last two year, I am always on the go – driving on the road, visiting clients in their respective offices, having lunch or dinner with guests or chatting on the phone to sort out issues or to extend assistance.

Soon, I will have a very minimal contact with clients, less time on the road and in my car, no work related phone calls which are disturbing on weekends and no more late night work oriented social functions.

Clothing
I am not yet sure though but I will probably be wearing smart casual clothes in my office because that’s what there staffs were wearing during my interview and it was a weekday. No more high powered business suits and high heels.

New Home Sweet Home
Hubby and I moved to a new flat. We just finished shifting last night, not an easy one but glad it was over. We realized yesterday that we really had a lot of personal effects which need to be trimmed down (and we should be ruthless in doing that!). Actually, we already downsized but I think it was not enough.

I believe that we should only stay in job that makes us happy. Why? Personally in my current job I come to office at around 7.45am and do not leave before 9pm and twice a week I have to stay until 10-11 in the evening. Imagine, I am not happy with my current role and I am spending 60% of my time at work. It implies during that 60% of my time I am not happy too.

I mentioned in the beginning that somehow I am proud of it. You know why? It took me so long to heap enough courage to take this decision because I was afraid to explore the world of unknown instead I chose to live in misery in my comfort zone.

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Posted in Accommodation, Employment, Finances, Life in Abu Dhabi

Dare to Change!

Posted on March 1, 2012 by | Leave a comment

I was ecstatic yesterday. God is really good and his great providence never fails. Yesterday I met my old friend, Ruby and we had a dinner. It has been awhile since we last met.

Early this year she decided to leave her unfulfilling and stressful job. She took the risk without any job offer at hand and I really admired her when she took that decision. Though she does not have obligations because she is single, but still, considering that we are here in UAE where having a job means having an employment visa.

Anyway, I am glad because she already found a job and her employment visa is on the process already.

Then later in the evening too I received a call from Qatar. Another good friend of mine, Mylene, who also heaped enough courage to leave the job (without any job offer at hand) she was not happy at all .

So last week, she flew to Doha to search for a new job and yesterday she shared the good news. She found already a job and her visa is on the process too.

I am really happy for both of them. They succeed in taking a daring decision to change and to get rid of their stressful job.

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Posted in Employment, Life in Abu Dhabi

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Your Delay is not my Emergency

Posted on February 20, 2012 by | Leave a comment

There is a part of my job that involves contracting.  The peak of this task is during the end of the year until mid January. The contracting process involves a lot preparation and once finalize it is sent to our clients.  I am quite used to this contacting season considering that I have been working for four years in our office but this year, it seems to be the worst one.

For whatever reasons, there is a delay from every aspect. Unfortunately, the consequence of this delay boils down to one person, our secretary. She will work until midnight or worst early morning to finish everything.

This reminds me of my ex-colleague. She was working as a secretary and she posted a bold text in here PC which was really visible even if you are at a distance. The words were “Your delay it not my emergency”. If you have bosses who tend to delay things and later dump these responsibilities to you with unreasonable deadline, then this adage suits him.

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Posted in Employment, Thoughts

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Things to Focus in 2012

Posted on February 17, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Photo Credit: http://www.clker.com

 

With my decision to leave my current job, I am optimistic to land a job that does not require me to work longer hours at the same time an uninterrupted weekends. You see, I enjoy tremendously my two days off but oftentimes I slot in few minutes of office work like checking and replying to important emails. Also, there are the inevitable phone calls from the clients and the company either requesting for some assistance or issues that need to be resolved.

Hopefully with my new job, I will be freed from this and I look forward to having more time honing my writing skills and do my side business which I aim to be my passive source of income soon. Let me know if you are interested. And most importantly, spending quality time with my hubby.

My brother has been urging me to pay attention and consider seriously my writing business. I used to do it for fun. It is more of a hobby and the earnings that come to it is more of a bonus only. This time, I want to follow my brother’s advice.

I am keen on learning the ins and outs of freelance writing and the potential business opportunities that come to it. I am willing to start the learning process all over again. This is one aspect that I want to focus and invest my time this year.

Secondly, I targeted to thrive in my side business. I just joined this company last month and so far I am still on the process of learning the business. I know that it takes a lot of hard work and a long stretch of perseverance to succeed in this field. I am working on it!

I will focus only on these two things this year..

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Posted in Employment, Finances, freelance writing, Life in Abu Dhabi