I have realised that, sometimes, when you put in your best effort to accomplish something or go out of your way to help people, you are not necessarily appreciated. One very glaring scenario would be my temp job. I received another message today asking me if I were available to help out tomorrow. I was, but I see no point in helping. So I made a request that I know the company would definitely not agree to. And it worked. I also discovered that many of my friends are facing the same thing, employers asking them to spare a day or two to go back and help when they have nothing to do with the company anymore, some even offering them incentives and attractive packages. I don't know how I feel about that. To glorify it would be to think that they actually can't manage without us, the
temps even though we caused quite an amount of inconvenience with our naivety and mistakes. To condemn it would be to think that they are making use of cheap labour to milk all the profits they could. My mum was telling me about my aunt who skipped lunch to complete her responsibilities, claiming that it is a foolish thing to do as the employer won't even show any appreciation and you end up having gastric problems etc. In the past I would have think of this comment as selfish, but now I would think that it is rather practical. From the business point of view, obviously the employer will want his employees to work hard and commit to their responsibilities. But in striving for greater profits, it is hard to keep humanity and compassion in check. And I don't like the fact that some employers think that they are doing you a favour by asking you to help, as you gain income, when they requested for our help at the last minute and sent us pushing away our plans. July/August must be the months employers dislike the most as there would be a massive exodus of all the cheap and 'brainy' labour, breaking their work flow and having to teach the new staff skills all over again. That's just too bad.
