tag:www.beckenham.id.au,2007://5/tag:scrambler.chopdesign.com,2005://5.261- Comments for dealing with change I was just another expat in Shanghai Movable Type 4.01 tag:scrambler.chopdesign.com,2005://5.261 2005-07-14T19:59:23Z 2007-11-02T07:28:01Z dealing with change I haven't been too forthcoming with how I'm travelling here in my new life in Shanghai. It isn't all roses, sunshine and smiles here. That's how I fill my days and spare time to balance the stressful areas of... Tim http://www.beckenham.id.au I haven't been too forthcoming with how I'm travelling here in my new life in Shanghai. It isn't all roses, sunshine and smiles here. That's how I fill my days and spare time to balance the stressful areas of my day to day life. Most of my problems have been coming from both my move to a foreign country (not so surprising) and starting a new, high pressure job (not unexpected, but still a much higher level of workload that I expected). Other issues (right now) like homesickness, missing friends and family, and other little things from your past life haven't been the main detractors (at this point). Shanghai is a place of many cultures, and you can easily switch, mix and change your levels and exposure to cultural experiences very easily.

My appetite has dropped and I've lost about 10kg now (but I think that has more to do with the lack of parental quality food force-feeding than outright stress). I haven't been sleeping well of late, maybe only 5-6 hours of sleep a night. Mostly that's interrupted - like last night. Its a vicious circle, feeling tired and worried about what you're doing. I'm feeling anxious about my job, and how I am doing in it. There's a lot of pressure that ebbs and flows between manageable and outright swamped with work. Needless to say I am not 100% satisfied with what I am doing right now. The lack of satisfaction comes from two main sources, my ability(?) to deal & manage a high workload, and being overloaded at the same time. I'm working on the first problem, so there's still a lot of room to manoeuvre within that area and get issues sorted, but increasingly my initial enthusiasm for this position is being replaced by the cold stark reality of a tough, constantly-challenging job.

I came up against a lot of problems like these with my PhD studies. I would admit that I could have handled things differently, perhaps been stronger standing up for myself. I was guilty of not playing a smart game, but only a hard-working one. Now have I got an aversion to toughing it out? Yes, but that depends on my frame of mind. I do realise that this approach is not the most effective way of resolving problems.

Common-sense tells me that this is a stage and it will pass. My pessimism tells me this is the start of a long and difficult road. I've just got to think more about whether I'll be proactive about this (the corporate way - da deda daaa) or sit on my backside and let it flow over me. I don't think I've been guilty of indulging in anyone of these. My current approach isn't going to cut it at this rate - the question is what to do?

]]>