想飛 I WANT TO FLY

OK, since my boss has been threatening me to take the TW bar exam and pass the test since I started the job, and I don't want to be kicked out of the firm (except I quit the job, haha....), I decided to re-take the damned test once again and applied to sit for the bar on the last day of the application period. Upon my decision is made, here lies two main big problems: First, usually people take a full year to prepare for the TW bar. With only 2 months left for the bar exam and only few hours available after work each day, I don't know if I can win this game. Secondly, it's too late to enroll in a bar preparation course now. Without the help from the cram school where it helps gather bar exam material and useful bar info, I have no choice but to cram the god damned textbooks and work on my own. Thirdly, since Taiwan is a civil law country, memorize all the TW rules and regulations are necessary (no wonder I failed before).
To introduce the TW bar exam to my dear fellow, here are the test info:
Date: 8/24-26, 9:00-18:20

今天很巧的有同事轉寄這本新書的介紹給大家《這是你的船：成功領導的技巧和實踐》，英文名為：It's Your Ship︰Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy。這本書在美國的英文版就賣了三十五萬本。
無獨有偶的，作者提出一個很重要的觀念，認為許多員工離職的原因是：
　　No.1：不受尊重
　　No.2：沒有決策的參與感
　　No.3：意見被輕視

Sxxt.
The partner in the next room yelled at the secretary again for trivial stuff. The terrible one-way communication lasted for 20 min and I overheard every word because the wall is too thin. I don't know how the secretary manages to work here and maintain a stable mood, but I think working in an environment where people behave without showing respect to each other just sucks.
I've worked in different firms in both the US and Taiwan. From my observation only the Chinese (and Taiwanese) boss yells at his own employees. I always wonder why. Maybe it is the work ethical thing or the traditional seniority concept that Chinese people always follow for thousands of years, and so it is still considered "normal" to be mentally tortured by the boss. If you have a great boss, congratulations. If not, well, that's too bad.
That just reminds me of the novel I've been reading recently called "A Year in the Merde". The book is about the things happened to an English guy who worked in Paris for a year. One of the interesting parts in the book is about that the English guy asked his Parisian boss to fire the employees in his team because they didn't make any contribution. The Parisian boss refused because he was afraid that the employees would have a strike for being fired, and that might damage the company's image. A different way to look at it.

來貼幾張去年去溪頭的公司旅遊照片好了
這張構圖很棒吧
除了我以外，這張照片裡的同事全已/即將離職，嗚嗚嗚
Great composition, isn't it?
Except for me, all those colleagues have quit or are leaving.

在辦公室牆上掛上從Gordes買來的普羅旺斯日曆，心情頓時輕鬆不少。
或許就如同村上春樹說的，我在這裡的角色就像個「剷雪者」--別人把製造出來的問題丟給我們，我們把這些問題處理掉。這樣一想，其實做什麼工作都一樣了。
With the Provence calendar hanging on my office wall, I feel lighter somehow.
Maybe I am just a "snow remover", a metaphor used in Murakami Haruki's novel "Dance, Dance, Dance", referring to the situation that we are hired to solve the problems for people. In that sense, it doesn't matter what job we do.

另一位好同事Jannie小姐今天也要遞出辭呈了。雖然說在職場上不能因為同事的來來去去受影響，然而我的心情仍無法避免的沮喪了起來，看著對面昏暗的H的辦公室，覺得好孤單。
一直以來我都對這裡某些老闆有負面的看法，總想著如果這老闆不這麼機車的話，也許他們都不會走。但秘書Eva告訴我，她盡量避免因為老闆的行為而讓自己情緒受到影響，並且努力達成老闆的要求，在老闆還未下達指令前，先行一步完成，期許有一天自己離開時，仍能跟老闆維持良好關係，並成為離開時會讓人懷念的人。這位秘書應該是七字頭的吧，據說在她來當那位難搞的老闆秘書之前，那位老闆在一年間已換過八位秘書，然而Eva小姐抱持著要讓自己更進步的想法，在這裡生存了一年多。
不知道自己應該用什麼態度看待職場上的各種挫折，但顯然的，我這個六年級生也許該向七年級的Eva小姐看齊了。
Today my other colleague Jannie quit the job. Although people always say that you cannot let people's come and go in the office affect you, I still feel quite upset about this.
I always hold the opinions that if the bosses here haven't been so bad-tempered and irrationable to the employees, those colleagues who are close to me would not have quit. However, Eva, the secretary of that bad-tempered partner said that she always thinks in the partner's shoes, tries to do things in advance for the partner, and does the best she can with her role. She hopes that one day when she leaves, she will be missed by the people here (in a good way). I was told that before Eva works here, the partner has changed 8 secretaries within 1 year. With the desire to improve herself, Eva has been working here for more than 1 year.
I don't know what is the right attitude in the workplace when facing all kinds of frustration, but the way that Eva looks at things may give me some inspiration.

今天我辦公室的好友H離職了，且今天是她的最後一天。一早到她的辦公室閒瞌牙時看到K向她使了一個眼色，H馬上告訴我，他們倆要一起去跟大老闆辭職。我還來不及阻止她，她就大步走開了。五分鐘後，人事部門就叫她們今天走，本來還想說今天中午至少還可以跟她們吃個飯餞行一下吧，結果人事又下了個指令要她們早上十一點以前要收好東西離開。連業務交接都免了。真是太過分了！他們倆人覺得早點走也好，雖然被趕走，仍然開心地吃飯聊天回家睡覺，倒是我一整天心情都被影響。以後再也沒有戰友可以跟我打屁聊天了，上班的誘因又變少，已經很boring的工作現在更是讓人無法忍受。更糟的是，三月底要離開的人，除了H與K以外，還有另外三人；四月則會有二人；蠢蠢欲動者：unknown。跟我混得比較熟的人都即將要走光了。這不是個大所，怎麼承受得起這麼頻繁的人事變動？真不知道是大老闆們不懂的檢討，明知下面的人流動率這麼高還不會反省原因，還是現在的人太草莓？這也許永遠也不會有定論，因為勞資雙方永遠都只站在自己的立場思考。
有點羨慕即將離開的人，對他們來說，離開是種解脫，也是新的開始；套句三月底即將要離開的J說的話：「這個工作看到盡頭了當然開心」。我卻不知道這盡頭究竟是哪裡。真是艱難。
H說，早知道當初就過完年後再辭職，否則就可以出國玩個一個月了，機票也不會這麼貴。真是選錯時機。