Working Life

Time is flying by like a blink of eye. Now it is my second week in working. Days turn to be okay now. However, I am still a stranger to my superiors. Blame who? I am the one - poor in communication skill. Somehow I feel that they think I am not interesting people because of my vegetarian practice. Once I told them about it, one of the colleagues complained I am very ‘sien’ sort of person.

As days go by, I started to make friends of Bangladesh. I do not look them as my workers that level but friends. However, when it comes to working, I always keep pushing them to do so that they can complete their works on time. It is also because of my responsibility to my job. It is funny that one of them teased me saying that “Kamu ada sini, saya kerja, kamu tiada sini, saya tidur.” We joke, we laugh, we smile.

Last few days, my site happened with an accident where a worker’s finger was crushed by the hollow section. Looking at his finger with blood, I felt so uncomfortable with my stomach and likely to vomit. It was suggested by the doctor in clinic to send him to the hospital. However, this idea was stopped by my colleague. He explained that if the worker is sent to hospital, the site may be closed for one week for police investigation. To avoid delay that may cause monetary loss, the only way out was to get the treatment from clinic but not hospital. I was also told that my boss would not pay for medical treatment if the worker is sent to hospital as same case happened once before. It makes me wonder human life is so small until to the extend that money is about everything. After the accident, I immediately warned my workers to be careful with what they were doing.

Next week will be the client’s inspection on the block I am in charge of. I got to be ready for the reprimand and chastisement. It will be a very busy week. ^^

Current Working Status

Sigh… My work has been started one week time. First day was already a bad day to me. I guess I should be the one to blame on because I thought I am ready for the job. From the beginning, I was looking forward into this job. During last practical training in Sunrise, I worked as client and experience gained was nothing but more in inspection. Thus, I promised myself to make good use of the holidays to beautify my life and gain necessary experience of working. As I work for Contractor, there will be tremendous things for me to learn.

Back to talking about my first day, I was late for work. However, the time of working in construction site is flexible. Nobody will care whether you go out for ‘yamcha’ or own businesses to settle as long as the superior does not notice. Sometimes, the superior also behaves the same. Who to blame on? I don’t know. This is the benefit of working in construction site.

I am feeling uneasy in my site until now. I don’t know why I keep on comparing my colleagues with my ex-colleagues. As I mentioned, I thought I am ready for the working environment at first as I went through my internship before. However, I was terribly wrong. I am not very used to the vulgar environment. Almost all of my superiors can have few vulgar words in a sentence. It makes me somehow feeling lost and fear into talking to them. True to tell, I am just like a stranger to them until now as I barely speak with them. The unfriendly site environment makes me missing my ex-colleagues. Almost all of my colleagues do not speak vulgar words, if they did, just once in a blue moon. Furthermore, my ex-colleagues did not scold their contractor like scolding dog. Scolding people will only make people feeling dissatisfied and de-motivate them in job performance. Maybe this project is one-month delay. Everyone is in fury and anxiety especially the boss. I was told boss is having bad mood recently. The most awkward matter is the close of the toilet. Oh my gosh, toilet is closed to forbid the workers to use it discriminately – do not flush the toilet after the use or not taking care of the toilet cleanliness. I was told that every pillar in the site is place for urine. Oh my god, it really drove me nut and uncomfortable. It makes me feeling like a dog to pee in pillar. Don’t you think so? Many times I have to bear the shit even though the shits almost drop to my pants. I was teased for pretending to be high-class. In my mindset, there are difference between human being and animal. Human beings do not pee in anywhere but toilet. Human know in hygiene but animal do not. Luckily, these days the toilet is open. It is no wonder that I felt happy during my practical training all the time.

Management of workers is not an easy task as. Sometimes you have to set them free and sometimes you have to control them. The scariest thing for me is to call the sub-contractors to push them to do the work or residue. You have to play nice to them. Some of them are always willing to give cooperation and listen to orders given. Some of them do not bother your call and give abundant of reasons. I cannot fight with them with their reasons as I am still fresh in construction field. The only way out sometimes is to listen and learn from them. In communicating with them, I have to be cautious to avoid unhappiness with the workers. I always know that my communication skill is poor. The only way I can do is try my best to talk nicely to them.

I started to feel the construction workers are so honourable as compared to professional like Architect. Without workers, you cannot ever have the building built no matter how astonishing the design and technology are. If you ever walk in construction site, you will see the danger their lives expose to – working in height, etc. The Indonesia women are so strong and tough that able to lift a 50 kg-weigh cement that man like me cannot do so. Skin care is not an issue to them some more as they are exposed to sun all the time. It is so admirable. Sometimes, I help them whenever I can.

Sometimes I feel myself more suitable to work as a quantity surveyor. I cannot ever get accustomed to such harsh environment of construction site, even though I keep on trying. Maybe I am too fresh and young to say that now. I really hope days will turn to be brighter. I started to feel work is boring and just the same. Although I lost the passion for work now, I will always want my work get done. Hope that I can get along perfectly with not only my superiors but the workers. There are numerous things for me to learn out there. All I have to do is to be patient and responsible with what I am doing. I am so blessed that there is a restaurant for me to settle my daily meal. It is already a gift to me.