Culture Shock?

I am often disoriented at work. I think it has a bit to do with culture shock. We claim we are an international office. We are really not. Everyone had similar upbringings in mainland China, with similar work-till-you-drop sort of attitudes, the stay-quiet, don't ruffle any feathers sort of fear, a social awkwardness, a reactive rather than proactive sort of approach in dealing with problems.

In all the jobs I've worked at in Canada, I've been praised for my leadership abilities, my proactive and bold approach to solving problems, and my teamwork skills. I thrived in the cooperative kind of environment of my last workplace with the University Health Network. We valued working smart and hard, rather than working harder and harder.

Here, I am criticized for the following: making unwarranted, uncalled for 'very strange and very bad" suggestions, and involving people who are not involved. I stopped making suggestions. I asked for the boss' approval/opinion for everything. I try my best to stay in the shadows now.

It doesn't help when my MBTI type if ENTP (top worst possible career options for this type include: personal assistant, wedding planner, accountant, travel consultant) and I am an administrative assistant in a very formal, hierarchical, structured environment.

I feel confined and unmotivated. I feel my creativity being crushed, and life draining out as I process the heaps of paperwork lying in a chaotically organized pile on my desk.

I am stressed even though I work normal hours.

I have felt this way since last August, after I overcame the large learning curve of my job (in actuality the learning curve wasn't that great; I wasn't trained/oriented so I had to find everything out the hard way).

Is this culture shock, job nature or both?

Or is this simply me being lazy and not wanting to work? Or even a simple matter of me being immature and not totally adapting in the harsh realities of the HK workforce?

OP + indian food x5

Guess where I went?







The highlight of this month was going to ocean park, and having my monthly fix of indian food (at ocean park). I think this is the 5th time I went to ocean park this year. I'm still recovering from a particularly traumatic workweek. But like many things life, even bad weeks at work can turn into good ones eventually... (or at least that's what I tell myself). I was attacked vehemently by "Phantom" (name of first boss in Devil May Cry, which was quite challenging), the unpredictable fire breathing spider with a poisonous breath, and have sustained a lot of injury. He will take a 'rest' in the next few weeks, giving me some time to recover. One day, I hope to escape his castle. In the meanwhile, I'm just trying to survive.

The plush is as fun to look at as the real deal.

The cooked version is also quite good. (set out for some visitors from saudi arabia...I asked them to serve me camel meat if I came to visit them.)

Floral fishes
A giant aquarium
Birthday surprise for Kelvin (it's not a dinosaur or a crocodile or a penguin ... it's cyndaquil, a pokemon). Before I added the limbs and blue stripe, it looked really uncute... I was starting to get worried (below picture taken one day before birthday, so I was working on a tight deadline).
But it turned out okay!
Pudding in the shape of a fish. Can you tell that I've been eating too much these days?

A fat and probably dumb fish that rich people probably like to own.
It's cute from over the glass. I wonder if I'd feel the same if I was in the amazon.
Living peacefully next to the croc is a white carp that I named "Jelly".

plushies, squished together, being cuddly
Hiding in the bushes attending to nature's call, when companion comes over to spy...
Panda pretending to be fish...
I spent like ~$450 canadian on various pieces of underclothing.... hey... it was buy 10 get 2 free!


One issue I've been thinking about recently is children (attended a christian seminar about childless marriages). Since according to my religion, we have a choice in this... I'm thinking...Should I have one later? I don't exactly have 'mothering' characteristics or 'gravitate' towards children. I'm also uncomfortable around loud noises (ie squealing babies). However, most adults I know strongly recommend having them. I want to decide before 30 as infertility and health risks associated with childbirth are increased after that age. If so, how many children? Another option is adoption, but I wonder what it takes to go that route...