For Some People, New Year Eve Is Not For Them

Initially I was writing this post for #wednesdaywalk topic, an event which is hold and organized by @tattoodjay. It's a simple but interesting challenge, which all you need is to take a walk, either its a long one or short one and get some shots of the things that are unique and interesting. But somehow in the middle I changed the subject and move it to this community.

This is the place where I am working right now, in a triple A office district in the central of Jakarta. It's the center of commerce and business center here, we can say most of the big shots work here. But I do not work for any office here, I am part of some contractors which have some job to finish the complex.

There are some spot that are not finished yet. The first one, and the last for this post too is that small building. It's a connecting building from garden to parking floor and office building.

Initially I want to get onto the top of that small one and take some shots from above. That's what my initial plan for wednesday walk was and then... I saw things that later changed my plan.

The place felt so empty, where were the workers? this place should be crowded by workers because the deadline was near... 2 weeks after New Year Eve.

I felt sorry for those workers below. They had to finish those scaffolding works themselves, which was on a very minimum workforce.

GEN Z AND THEIR WORK LIFE BALANCE

A few years ago I would take Mental Health Issue as a complete bullshit. It's not like I did not respect other people Mental Health condition, its just that too many cases younger people making excuses avoiding doing things that they dislike or trying to hold on their comfort zone.

However as Gen Z starting to enter the labor market, I realized that I needed to change my own Stigma and saw Mental Health from different perspective. Although I have to admit many from my generation do not want to change their stigma on this thing.

How do I say this? I see these generation is leaning more on freedom. They prefer to pursue work and life balance, which in most cases it won't be suitable for project works. In project, once we set the goal, we set the finish line, its all about completion. The more it progresses, the workloads will keep growing and heavy pressure rises as the time schedule is running out.

Based on %, its very high on Gen-Z workers to be not able to cope this load. As I saw earlier today, and you could see from the shots above, most of the workers were already out. They already went home, they wanted to have New Year Party with their family in their hometown... Most of them did not give damn thing about project completion.

NEW YEAR EVE IS NOT FOR THEM

As I have said bad thing about them, look at the good thing here... Some are still working hard diligently. They care about their work, they care about the company they have been working at.

Some of the workers are still young, a true hard working Gen-Z. They even come with good idealistic vision, they want to be a part of the team that finish one of the most prestigious office building in the city.

It's not all that bad, isn't it?

Well in this post I want to rise an issue here... Actually in some of those young workers, there are small part, a few guys, who are more likely feel like getting forced to work there.

They want to come home, like their fellow friends, having New Year party with their family, or spending holiday together with their family... However their family are... poor. Having wealth family is not a privilege they have.

They need to get every penny they can squeeze from their work, either it is an overtime pay, or just being lucky getting some treats from their foreman. Sometime I am being nice buying some cigarettes and giving those as giveaways for those workers in my team... I am not only giving giveaways in #risingstar game you know 🤣

The sad thing is that a few of them are working without focus because they really want to come back to their hometown, but they are afraid that they might lose the job and they or their family can not afford to lose any income from the job... because getting job is still hard here... Covid pandemic is over, but most companies are still struggling due to lack of jobs and projects.

So later when we are getting a great new year party, please do not forget to treasure it deeply, because there are people out there who wish to have those great time too but their work do not let them have it. Always thank to the people who are still working on the day, because of them, we can have a better New Year event.

How about me? I am ready to send my team back home, giving them 2-3 days off and have some ear plugs because my client definitely will be mad rampaging at me for having no workers on New Year Day. Maybe I will get fired out too 🤣.

I guess I am not hard liner anymore like I was used too

Anyway I prefer to do this because all my jobs require working at height. I do not want my workers working without focus on height, any stupid mistake can cause fatality.