Walking in the workplace
My brain is not working too well today because I slept at 6am and woke up at 9:30am. Three-and-a-half hours of sleep does not an awake person make. Thank God for flexible office hours most days I walk into the office at 10:30am. Then again, I usually leave after 8pm, so its all good. :)
As yesterday was a Thursday and my papers youth pages are slotted for Thursdays, two of my stories appeared in print. (Did I mention I write stories about/for the youth? No? Well, now you know. *grin*) The first is a story about the United Nations birthday party.
The Boss sent me for this assignment mainly because the UNDP Goodwill Ambassador, our countrys number one female squash player, was going to be there. Shes 19, so shes a youth, and... well, to tell you the truth, I didnt have a clue what kind of story the Boss expected me to come back with. There I was, at the event, not knowing what on earth I was doing there, or what kind of questions to ask!
Then the UNs Communication Officer (read: PR lady) told me that the entire event had been organised by children. Aha! Youth! Yes! Something to work on! And thus the story was birthed. *whew*
The second story is more or less a free advertisement. Advertising department decided to volunteer our services to a food manufacturer in order to woo their advertising budget. We are supposed to do a series of write-ups, indirectly plugging this particular brand. Out of the blue, I was told to go interview this guy, and because the story was for the youth pages, I had to find a youth angle write it in such a way that youth would find it relevant.
Remember when I said that the Boss threw one of my stories out last week? He didnt like it because there was no youth angle. I was supposed to write about traditions, so Id spoken to some older folks. Youre writing for the youth, and your story is full of 50 and 60-year-old people. Its not appropriate! *sigh* So now Im paranoid about finding a youth angle for every story I write. :(
As a matter of fact I feel that the quality of my work has not been as good as it could be lately, and that makes me feel guilty, which in turn increases the Im-going-to-be-booted-out-of-this-company-any-minute-now feeling. After my story was thrown out, my superior told me that Id better make sure I do a good job with the next major one coming up, which is due two weeks from now. It doesnt help that the premise for that story is again something thats extremely tricky to tackle.
Because of things like these, and also the fact that the Boss has spoken to me about spending too much time on email, I so feel like I am a lousy example of a Christian in the workplace. I feel like I have let God down, bringing Him a bad name
Early last month, I received a message on the companys internal network, saying that a group of Christians in the office were setting up a sort of Christian fellowship, planning to meet up once a month. Those wishing to join or to help are requested to email or message me, the message went.
You know what? I didnt reply to the message. I was afraid to join the group, afraid that when the others saw me there, they would say incredulously, YOU, a Christian?! I am ashamed, I am afraid that others will condemn me like I have condemned myself oh, it is hard