NORMAL LIFE: Moving On And On And On?!

It's kind of relieving in a way, how the brain starts to process and rationalise things once a decision has been made. If only we were so intelligent that we could rationalise things beforehand. Perhaps man wouldn't be so prone to the mistakes it has made during its time here on earth. What am I rabbiting on about now, eh?

Well, after the weekend's decision to take a year out and travel to Australia (planned for end of August next year), my brain has been asking all the usual questions: why do I really want to do this? How will I deal with the loneliness, when Bree isn't there to drink tea with in the evenings? Will I be able to lipread the Australians, what with their accents? Despite these initial doubts, I am biting the bullet because some things have happened recently that made me realise that life really is for living. Things have happened that made me realise that I can be unhappy in the workplace in my forties and fifties, but right now, I want to experience life.

When I think about my experiences of working in three Finnish workplaces, one thing that makes English speakers stand out is our ability to socialise and network. Of course, there are some Finns who have excelled far better than I have in this area, but while Finns may be more civilised (they are not exactly bombing series' of countries in succession, are they?), their inability to socialise often drives me beserk. Fortunately, I have some of the bestest friends I could ask for in Finland, but the weirdos certainly outnumber those I would regard to be 'normal'.

In my office, I work with five women. A further two women working in the States comprise part of my team. As the only man, I feared that I would repeat the mistakes I experienced in my previous workplace, where I worked with more than twenty women. This time around, however, it has been a refreshing change, but my own despondency has caused me to ponder on some of the more negative aspects of my colleagues. For example, there's a certain project, which doesn't seem to be moving forward. I advised one of my colleagues to look into using Microsoft Access to address the issue. It infuriates me that, two months later, she is bring the same issue to our weekly meetings simply due to a lack of willingness to take the initiative.

Then, there is the oldest one, in her mid-fifties who came down on me like a ton of bricks after I sent a well-received bulletin to the sales field. While I acknowledged one or two fair points, her insistence that a better template could have been used infuriated me because, hello, we don't have any other templates! Until Marketing Communications provide a global template, I can't simply halt my communication to the field. She argued that that is the way we have always done things to which I retorted: "The old ways are not always the right ways!"

And it gets worse. But for once, I am in support of the American side of the team. At my firm, we do our appraisals online. You rate your own performance and then nominate twenty of your closest colleagues to do the same. Needless to say, the Finns gave very modest ratings and not so favourable feedback whereas the Americans gave quite favourable feedback. Among the Finnish feedback were two crucial things which I found quite amusing.

The first comment I received was that I "should learnt to adapt to the Finnish working environmnet". Okay, let's start with this one. First of all, we work for an American company. Furthermore, our process are American by nature, and our business language is English. It's a shame I can't respond to the people who posted this comment so I could tell them to roll up their feedback and shove it up their arse!

The second comment suggested that I "should refrain from using my British sense of humour in the office". Again, I say shove it up your arse! The Finns rarely say good morning to eachother so forgive me for wanting to spread a little cheer in the office! When I read that comment, however, a surge of pride rocketed around my very being for, nearly six years after leaving England, people still perceived me as being British, something I am proud of!

All this dragging of my colleague's feet has come at a crucial time. You see, our boss left a month ago, the second one to depart within a year. I have to point our, however, that our boss' departure is no reason for the procrastinating and the whinging which, unsurprisingly, is perceive as overt laziness by other functions in the organisation. When a new boss arrives comes onboard, the challenges will still exist and, as the workers, it's up to us to make things better. But the whinging isn't limited to the Finnish team. Apparently, one of my colleagues in the US is feeling 'ignored' by the boss, which I find amusing. I've never really sought the acknowledgement of my bosses. To be honest, the less I see them the better! Such is my respect of authority, you know!

Is my despondency causes by the fact that I am constantly surrounded by women? Or is it because I am focusing too much on the negative side? Whatever the case, 2008 is going to be fantastic year for me! A friend of mine said to me yesterday that, in all the time he had known me (about seven years), there never had seemed like a better time to go. But then another - albeit unimportant - question arises: will the name of my blog change to something like "Moving on and on and on"?