Why I’m Not Learning Anything at Work

I’m writing this from office. Deliberating whether to GPT this or keep it raw. Maybe raw un-GPT content could be my niche.

Real posts by a real person. Maybe it’ll make the writing folk more secure in their job in case something earth-shattering happens that ruins GPT forever.

Anywho, this is a way to build some skills, any skills at work, and look like I’m not a complete slacker. Even though I really am not slacking. Nobody is giving me any work. I’m just a decorated intern. There was another term for this, but you know what, I’ll resist the urge to Google it. You get the meaning, I get the meaning — it doesn’t have to be perfect.

I’m trying to learn free flow typing right now. That would be the best thing I learned at this role honestly. It’s boring and an absolute waste of my time.

I don’t know how many people can relate, but the experiences that I’ve had so far in work have just taken up space in my resume. That’s all the contribution they have made in my professional life. I haven’t really learned any skills or capabilities that I can use in my future jobs.

It’s just -“yeah, I worked as a marketing intern” or “a business research analyst.” So yeah, can you build a GTM strategy for our brand or handle Google Analytics?

NO.

BECAUSE I DIDN’T DO THAT.

I wrote emails and made PPTs about the emails and PPTs I made.

I try to take up courses to bridge these gaps and learn these skills, but they are just that -courses. They don’t teach you what to do in a real-life situation. It’s just a certificate. You only learn by doing. But who would let you do if you haven’t done it before? Perfectly logical, yet so painfully illogical.

The worst part is, you can’t really blame anyone for it.

I think a little bit I would blame myself. I always tried to shy away from intensive work that cuts into my personal life. Like I could have worked at a marketing agency, I would have learned all these on-job gruelling skills there but at the cost of my personal life.

I would be working till 11 pm because a client didn’t like the outcome of the brief that they had given me. I don’t think I would be very happy in a role like that. Moreover, I don’t think I would’ve been able to take those unnecessary overtimes seriously. Like — you’re launching a soap brand, the customers can wait a couple of days for the first ad to go out.

That’s the main problem you know. Why I am probably not the best employee (even though I do my work very well, my managers have always been impressed). It’s because people take the work that the company mandates too seriously.

Like a meeting is not more important than having lunch in peace. You don’t need to have a working lunch. EVER.

People create unnecessary pressure and urgency on the people that are reporting to them. Sure, if that pressure is not there, work probably would not get completed. But I feel like that’s just an excuse to lessen your burden.

It’s the burden of the manager to ensure that the work she is passing down is perfectly balanced. If the work day is 9 hours minus 1 hour for lunch and 1 hour for personal use, the employee has 7 hours. So give them work worth 5–6 hours each day, so there is leeway to clarify doubts and maintain perfection. Don’t give work worth 10 hours and expect them to deliver.

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Today’s craving – Pani puri