Yes that’s right, I have quit my job.

When I first moved to New Zealand at the age of 22 I was more concerned about having a good time then my career or working. 5 years later, a couple of rungs up the corporate ladder and living and working in the UK I still have that nagging feeling in my gut that something just isn’t right.

During this time I’ve worked for a couple of different Fortune 500 companies and have observed some disturbing trends, as well as having gained some valuable insights into the true nature of big business and the effect it has on people.

In his book, Daniel Goleman talks about an emerging phenomenon of people in the 40’s and 50’s suddenly reassessing their lives, deciding what’s truly important and reordering their priorities.

New studies show, for example, a sharp rise in people’s altruism at midlife, a key sign of new priorities. Psychoanalysts now see this increased caring as the flowering in middle age of emotional development that begins in childhood.

Source.

The key phrase for me there is: ‘the flowering in middle age of emotional development that begins in childhood’.

My questions is; if this begins in early childhood and only starts to flower in middle age, in terms of emotional and spiritual development (don’t freak out, I’m not a hippy) what happens in our 20’s and 30’s?

Work Happens

If you work in an office I am willing to bet you know at least one ‘serious guy’. The person that:

·          takes their ‘supervisor’ or ‘champion’ role a little too seriously

·          The boss that sends emails from her laptop at 9 p.m. and thinks because she put’s in so many hours that her staff should be following her example

·          The guy at lunch that is totally incapable of having a discussion about anything other than work

Keep things in perspective

Do you want to be that person? Are you already that person?

When you work fulltime and are heavily involved in your job, it is easy to lose perspective of what is actually important in your life. Family and friends can easily slide down the list of priorities and trivial things can be blown way out of perspective. If you lost your job, would it truly be the end of the world?

I am self obsessed and so are you

Don’t get defensive, it’s true. It doesn’t mean that we can’t be compassionate, loving and interested in people, but the fact remains that we, as people, are primarily interested in ourselves.

The danger here then, is that people can easily fool themselves into believing that getting that report completed by Monday actually is important. That sacrificing time spent with their partner or children is an acceptable trade-off and ‘comes with the territory’.

Understand: your company does not care about you

I’m sorry, but it’s true. If you have a good work ethic then you probably try hard at your job and want to impress your boss(s). If you’re still with me at this point, I encourage you to answer the following questions:

·          How much power does your boss actually have?

·          Will they still be here in 10 years?

·          If so, will they remember and be grateful for all those extra hours you put in on the weekend?

·          Will they remember and be grateful in 6 months?

·          By working extra time and effort during the ‘hard times’, are you setting a precedent that people will come to expect from you all the time?

Decide what is really important in your life. Now.

My major concern with writing this post is coming across as preaching or being pretentious. OH LOOK AT ME!”$ I HAVE QUIT MY JOB AND YOU SHOULD TOO”$!”£. This is not my intention, for the record I don’t have a great deal of money saved to fall back on, or a business already setup. Yes I am scared of failure and concerned that any ventures I embark on may not succeed. (side note, if you seeing how I get on, I plan on tracking all my progress and documenting the steps I take on this blog)

Not trying is still failing.

The point is, by not backing yourself and giving it a shot you are still failing. The precedents are already set. The signs are there, they just need to be recognised.

Look at all the people that have been obsessed with their jobs, what happened 20 years later when they are made redundant? Do you think you are any different? If you continue as you are, in 20 years will you feel fulfilment or resentment?

On July the 17th .me domain name extensions became available to the public. .Me is the national top level domain for Montenegro. Since then there has been a frenzy for people looking to bag an excellent investment.

Most people however, don’t really care what country the .me represents so much as the fact that it has a great ring to it. Marketers have quickly identified the branding potential and have snapped up cheap purchases knowing there will later be a market for it.

Aaron Wall blogged about it which is how I found out about the .me extensions being available. It’s not even a month but I wish I had known a bit earlier.

If you’re in the market don’t despair though, most names are still available. I was looking through big american sports teams and many were not yet registered. The only downside is that they are more expensive then your standard .com or .org to register.

The two purchases I ended up going for were jobresume.me and freeresume.me for a project I’m going to start. Others that I considered were bodylangage.me and sc2.me. If you’re in the market for a new domain or fancy trying your creative skills to find a gem that hasn’t been taken yet then get cracking! :p

If anyone makes any purchases or finds any good ideas but don’t quite want to take a punt of them please post them in the comments.

A friend introduced me into a site called Deezer, it is an uber music streaming site that remembers your music and makes suggestions based upon them.

If you don’t want to create an account you don’t have too. You can also embed songs to your blog!

Not bad at all.

Photo by Marcodede

Sharm El Shiek is an Egyptian city that exists purely because of tourism.

With the average wage for most Egyptian men (there are almost no Egyptian women in Sharm) being around a measly 60 - 100 USD per month, they inevitably turn to taking advantage of the tourists in order to make a living.

And they do it well. (more…)

Trying to get a blog off the ground is hard work. After the initial period of excitement died off I found it harder to continue writing and thinking about ways to generate inbound links.

A month had passed since my last post and I began working on other projects, letting Nubtub slide lower down the list of priorities.

Until I finally received a positive comment on a post I was particularly proud of.

I suddenly found myself re-energised and inspired to continue writing. This is a pretty simple concept which is applicable to many areas of life and not just work, but it begs the question:

How can I use this knowledge to my advantage?

(more…)

When I was 17 I used to work in a supermarket on the checkouts. Occasionally an item wouldn’t scan properly and it would need to be rescanned.

I decided any customers that I liked, that greeted me warmly or were a hot girl, would not get their items rescanned. That I would pretend not to notice, effectively giving the item to them for free.

Warning bells

With so many beeps going off in front and behind you I quickly learned that the way not to get caught was to pretend not to notice miss-scanned items. The store security looking out for dodgy behavior from checkout operators couldn’t distinguish the beeps (or lack of) and would rely on reading the people and looking for nervous behavior.

I recall one girl in particular; she had a warm smile and was pleasantly engaging. I liked her immediately. For some reason an unusually high number of items were not scanning correctly.

And she noticed.

When she noticed, she looked me directly in the eyes; I could read the question on her face but waited to see if she would say anything.

She knew I was doing it on purpose.

I knew that she knew.

Neither of us said a word.

I’m no different from everyone else; there are people everywhere in positions with some responsibility making whimsical decisions simply based on how they feel about you.

Do you take the time to smile and say hello? You may get some free groceries.

Wikileaks is developingan uncensorable Wikipedia for untraceable mass document leaking and analysis.

Wow. This is an example of how the Internet changes everything. For so long we have lived with the belief that one man cannot make any real change.

We may say to ourselves; sure, Malcom X made a difference, Ghandi changed the world, but these kind of people are fanatics. They devote their lives to change, what can I really do?

With the advent of the Internet, the sudden overwhelming availability of information, one person can make a difference. Wikileaks is a great example of a group of driven, intelligent and Internet savvy people collaborating towards achieving a specific goal.

They want to stick it to the man

We believe that transparency in government activities leads to reduced corruption, better government and stronger democracies. (more…)

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Photo by gadgetgirl 

Part 1: Why you need to look out for number one

Part 2: Don’t work too fast

Part 3: Let the details tell the story

Part 4: Deflect envy

For my final instalment for this series I want to talk about letting people know what you’re upto. At work there are lots of great people around that I like and trust that I am dying to tell about my blog or reveal that I’ve spent the whole day sitting at my desk reading a book. I want them to know how clever and cunning I am.

But I’m not going to.

Why I here you ask. If I trust these people then surely it’s ok to let them know? Unfortuatly it’s just not worth the risk, people love to talk and a secret can soon become gossip. Also I’ve told one friend before that I fully trust and swore him to secrecy only for him to pass me in the canteen asking in a full volume voice ‘Yo Jackmo! Busy day updating your website today bro?’ (more…)

Photo by w2awfil 

I trained at Telecom for two years and was with the company for about three and a half in total. During this time I trained around 200 people from their beginnings with the company and observed several trends. I recently read an excellent article about cognitive dissonance that resonated with me and got me thinking about the past. The basic premise of the piece was that person’s beliefs are changed – over time – by their daily actions. (more…)

 Photo by mmlobster

The people in your direct proximity are your biggest danger of being discovered slacking, be it on purpose or inadvertendly. You cannot hold it against people for revealing your true game plan, they may not share the same beliefs as you. That energy is better spent learning from your mistakes and devising methods to fly under the radar.

When someone has it much easier then you it’s natural to feel envious. It raises all sorts of ugly and confrontational questions such as; Why do they have it easy and I don’t? Are they better then me? Am I getting a raw deal?

If it gets to the point that these questions are being asked then it’s already too late. As a successful Productive Slacker you need to wise to the beginning signs of envy. Recognising it will allow you to take steps to deflect it. (more…)