Slammed

This morning, I was having a discussion regarding some procedure at work. Just as I was giving my 2 cents worth, the door was literally shut in my face. Intentional or not, there is just no going past this incident.

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I consider myself to be a bit on the quiet side. I don't like giving my opinions unsolicited, and when I do I try to be very careful in what I say, lest I offend or irritate someone. I was never the first person to raise my hand in class, and I am not one for lengthy speeches and drama. I disdain all manner of grandstanding, preferring to keep to the sidelines and not stand out like a sore thumb in a crowd.

But when someone asks me what I think, I expect them to listen. This doesn't mean that they have to agree with what I say or change their minds on my account, just give me due attention and try to respect my opinion and beliefs.

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Naturally, I was pissed off all morning. Well to be honest, I'm still pissed. That was just a rude thing to do to anyone. When I was a child, I'd get a good whack to my bottom just for turning my back on my parents. And in school, you'd get a chalk-board eraser missile cruising towards you at warp speed for simply not paying attention. Why isn't this general knowledge?

Could it be because I belong in the selling industry? Unlike some professions, sales is something that is intristically human. You have to get out there, listen to your client, see the expression on his face, get in their head and appeal to whatever value system they have in place. It's not about how many flattering words you could put out there about what you are selling, rather it is how you choose to present your product according to what matters to the other guy.

Another thing about the sales profession, there is no bigger failure than to have the door closed in your face. Why do you think those door-to-door guys wedge their foot in the door?

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In the end, I know this shouldn't matter as much in a professional sense. We get used to being rejected during our lifetime, with little or no consequence to how we perceive ourselves. It's the manner of how we are rejected and dismissed that strikes a chord in us. And on this occasion, it stings like hell.

Tick tock

In this age of instant messaging and mobile communications, waiting has ceased to be the fine art of self-expression that it used to be. Yes, I believe it is a form of self-expression - as ridiculous as it may sound.

Back in the day, before mobile communications, there was the need to keep true to your calendar. Heck, I even lived phone-less during the dark days when only one out of five households had a landline, which sorta doubled the pressure. As you can imagine, setting appointments and keeping them were quite the challenge. When you told someone to meet you at one o'clock in front of the bookstore on Saturday, you damn well had to be there. Your ability to keep the appointments you make was a measure by which you were judged in all other aspects. Thus, people learned to be accountable for themselves at the risk of everyone having a negative image of you.

As communications improved with technology, accountability took a backseat to convenience. People now had the power to cancel and postpone their appointments and dates in no time, and without the prejudice. The term "something came up" became an acceptable excuse, that stood to mean there were other more urgent matters to attend to, thereby sending the subtle message to the other party that they were inferior to you.

This irritates me no end.

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In a way, we have lost respect for time in this world of instant everything. People seem to have forgotten that time is something that is given, and once it is committed there is no getting it back. The relative convenience of texting someone that you can't make it 10 minutes before call time or that you will be late is alarming.

For instance, when you set a date for 4o'clock and the person texts you to make it 5o'clock at 3:45, that's just rude in my book. So imagine how it feels when someone tells you to wait for their text to meet them. While they are doing tasks relevent to them and at their own schedule, you're stuck there trying to guess whether you still have time to darn your socks or you should get moving already, anticipating that text message.

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Maybe I'm just old-fashioned. It is true that technology has allowed us to accomplish a lot more in an hour than what we could have done in a day, say a decade ago. But it just bugs me at what price we have to pay in terms of respect and consideration to others for all this efficiency. It bugs me that people today tend to keep everything hanging, and have done away with setting definite dates and deadlines. It bugs me when people rearrange their calendars on a whim, not considering how it affects other people's schedules.

Of course, I could just be turning into a grumpy old man. I mean, a lot of things still get done and people are getting better at compromising to move forward. Maybe you lose an hour here and there, but the time you gain with all this progress might have just made it up and more anyway. But I just like to romanticize the concept of giving due respect to the time that we commit to ourselves and to others. There certainly is nothing wrong with keeping things on a fixed timetable, I'm sure there is always some room for flexibility if we give due contingencies to them.

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In the end, what I'm truly harping about here isn't really time per se. But rather our commitment and recognition of others and their importance to us. You can always earn more money, eat at that fancy restaurant any other day, play that computer game another time. But the time that we waste on people who do not recognize the same amount of importance for us, I don't think we can ever get that back.

Which reminds me of a true story which I find encapsulates how I feel about waiting. This story about a dog in Japan who waits each and every day for his master at the train station, even after his master's death. The dog waited at the precise time each day until the day of his own death 9 years after.

For the dog, the exercise of waiting for his master was certainly not a waste of time, but rather a tribute to the man who cared for him all his life and an extraordinary display of loyalty. The act of waiting, even in futility, can be the highest form of respect one can give. If only others can learn to use their time to show respect and consideration for the time of others, I'm sure the world would be ticking forward in harmony, like clockwork.

Because my boss says there's no such word as "unproductive"

The IT guys here at the office have been slipping, usually I wouldn't be ablt to open my blog on my office computer. Well, now that I'm here I might as well let the lot of you know that I'm not actually working at this point.

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To be fair, I can't really say I've been working the whole week. Sure, I've been able to churn out what's been expected by way of reports and answered emails, but nothing has been at par with what I have been doing the past months. Why? Can't say, really. Must be the really crappy weather we've been having lately.

Or maybe it's my vision, I've scheduled myself a check-up with the optometrist (or opthamologist? I can't really figure the difference) tomorrow. My right eye has been bad at focusing, forcing me to either squint or read stuff skewed sideways. You can imagine how awkward it's been when reading lengthy emails or blogs about eating salamanders. It's been going on for a time now, but this week has been particularly bothering. During a meeting last Monday, people actually chuckled each time I closed my right eyelid when reading through my presentation. I had them all fired, of course.

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I'm kind of excited to have my vision checked. My bet is that there isn't really anything wrong and the eye-guy (which could be either an opthalmologist or optometrist) will attribute the recent termination of my staff to stress or a psychological preconditioning of sorts. If this happens to be the case, I've kept my trusty lighter and a gallon of kerosene handy to burn down the clinic. I've always been suspicious of doctors who cite such nonsense as cause for illness. To me, that just seems lazy. Plus, it breeds a whole generation of crybabies who whine about just about anything that is slightly inconvenient for them.

When I was a kid, it was all simpler. If your vision was impaired, it's because you are an old geezer with cataracts or you watched Captain Planet too close to the television screen. The flu was because you were dumb enough to play in a thunderstorm. And what is now known as carpal tunnel symbol was a mark of distinction for jerking off excessively. These days, it's never anyone's fault. It's because the man rode you hard at school or the office, causing you all sorts of physical and mental turmoil ultimately leading to stress-induced what-have-yous.

Don't even get me started with the whole EQ/IQ thing. Anytime spoiled brats want to get their hands on dessert before dinner, some parents have attributed it to their built-in EQ levels. And if the kids are slow with their schoolwork, they've been unjustly dealt with lower IQ's so a medal for everyone is a good way to compensate. Back in my day, if you got your hands caught in the cookie jar, you got yourself a red bum. If you got bad grades, you were lazy. No one ever screamed that they needed to have their cookie right now because they had low EQ, you want it pronto... you face the consequences. And a month without the playstation was a month with more time to catch up with your studies.

Am I the only one who thinks that not spoiling kids and teaching them all about the consequences of their actions when they did bad is okay? Maybe its because I'm not a parent yet, but I just can't understand it. I've paid my fair share of pain and suffering to be what I am today. Granted that I may be a total loser with nothing better to do than write this blog, but in general I think I'm doing okay for myself.

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Come to think of it, though, I've heard my parents talk of the same gripes with my generation throughout my life under parental control. The "In my day, we had to..." speeches ran twice daily. The "You kids are so lucky these days..." thrice, and the "You ingrateful son-of-a-bitch..." rants every 30 minutes. I always counter with the "It was different back then because..." rebuttal, which is kinda whiny, isn't it? So are we just running full circle here?