Narrative Tale of a Travelling Workman

by Marlon Viloria
(as published 3 years ago in MVP)

In my younger years, I’ve always had this envious feeling about people who travelled to different countries to perform their tasks, deemed as part and parcel of being successful and experts in their own chosen profession. At that time, in my imaginative thinking, travelling here and there by plane, staying at hotels and meeting people at all levels, of different background and culture, were somehow symbolising success, job satisfaction and perhaps reaching the pinnacle of one’s career. And to top it all, it must be an exciting world to be in. Imagine that! And so it became my hidden ambition, played frequently in my mind that one day I would also be in that enviable position of a travelling workman. God’s willing!

That day came when I joined a US company which has offices in different countries. I was first sent to Chicago, or Naperville, Illinois to be exact, just on the outskirt of the city, to carry out some specialized functionality testing and debugging of one area of UMTS system, or in layman’s term, third generation (3G) of mobile or cellular network, during its conception and infancy at research and development level. At last, my first assignment abroad where plane ticket, hotel accommodation and a service car were all pre-arranged for me. What more could one want or ask for?

It even felt more impressive when I saw the massive and modern office buildings belonging to the company, which, in my opinion seemed much better than their main HQ in New Jersey. Two of which are all covered in glass, one has a facade that can easily fit in a full-size tennis court and has an eye-catching view - high ceiling/roof shaped in the form of a gigantic satellite disc, and yes, all covered in glass. Boy! My first thought was: if I could secure a contract to clean those glasses all year round even for just one building only, I would be rich! It would have been a cyclical and unending job because once you finished cleaning the last window; it would almost certainly be the time to clean the first window again, from where you’ve started. But obviously just like anything in life, it is much easier said than done and it is not as simple as it may sound too. Although I checked in at a hotel just across the road, it became apparent to me that I indeed needed a car to move around to different buildings as they are quite far apart from each other, albeit in the same vicinity owned by the company. What a waste of space but hey, this is US of America, everything is big!

It was all perfect until I reported for work on the next day. After the introduction, many handshakes and other pleasantries, I headed straight to the test lab, together with four assigned colleagues who worked with me and started working… or testing to be precise. Yeeehahh! Here comes John Wayne the troubleshooter entering the famous world of work…a spacious and nicely laid out telecoms lab occupying a big portion of the ground floor in one of the glass buildings…and gosh didn’t we work like donkeys! We didn’t even have time to get fully acquainted with each other and the next thing I noticed it was already dark outside. I thought that was the end of day one but I never sensed any reaction from my colleagues wanting to go home. Weird! Surely, they must have a house to go home to or loved ones waiting for them, but no signs of such urge to disappear. Damn! Instead, we carried on working, ordered pizzas for dinner, and ate while working too. It was just a blessing that we ran into problems where support was not available anymore and decided to end the ‘day’. That was almost 4 am! I went back to the hotel, crashed on my bed, slept for about 3 hours, changed clothes and off I went to work again. Such a predicament was repeated over several days and I was starting to feel drained, agitated and frustrated especially when I received phone calls from my boss in the UK asking me if I could extend my stay, apparently a request from his counterpart in Chicago. What a cheek! Reaching near saturation or boiling point, I proceeded to making a statement at a meeting and voiced out my concerns why such an approach was necessary. We all knew our rigid schedule but it didn’t mean we worked ourselves into full overdrive everyday that could even cause sudden breakdown of health. And for what purpose? Just so that the company can claim and declare to the world it is ahead of the game and potentially sends its share price rocketing high? The ends do NOT justify the means surely, and it was not right.

In some parts of Europe particularly France or even here in Germany, working long hours (with the exception of other jobs) does not always and necessarily mean you are a hard or dedicated worker but more likely a slacker. If you work smarter and your 8-hour efforts can equate to 12 or more hours of work in terms of performance and productivity with the same level of quality, you’ve just saved yourself a lot of time and energy, and have spare time for pleasure too - a more balanced approach to a decent existence. After all, we work to live and not live to work. But one observation I can vividly recall was that some people were actually arriving at 4 am to “work”. Why? I was very impressed by such level of commitment and dedication but looking closer, it became clear to me that the first few hours were spent sorting out personal stuff like writing cheques, paying bills, internet shopping, or just merely chit-chatting with each other. The devil is definitely in the details and Uncle Sam was not really watching close enough after all.

As a result of restructuring our work strategy, we became more productive and even had time to crack a few jokes in between, and you’ve guessed it…we also had time to check some places out in the evening - walk by night so to speak, or call it perks, where an encounter with one or two interesting creatures (A or B) took place, who seemed to be fascinated by a creature (C) from the other side of the Atlantic talking with a funny accent. Or, could it also be this creature’s (C) irresistible charm and good looks? (you can smile) Or just the effect of toxic substances consumed (more likely) thereby producing some sort of chemical reaction in the body of C and (A or B), which in turn, were just merely following the laws of nature instinctively, i.e. chemistry at work perhaps? But the excitement was short-lived and got nipped in the bud and it almost ended in a disaster due to this creature (C) unknowingly flirting with other creature’s (D) creature (A or B) (transparency is out of the question folks, though just a slightly muddied water). Such is life in a creature’s world… but worth the fun and memory you must agree! It’s just that there are times when a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do, right?

Eventually, I also found time to talk with my wife’s relatives living there who thought I was initially dodging their calls, being unsociable or shy as each time they tried to call me at the hotel, I wasn’t around to pick up the phone, I was still at work. And neither a cell phone nor any radio-emitting device was allowed inside the lab too due to interference it can cause and may distort our test results. So while at work I was in communicado from the outside world except in emergency situations. In the end, we managed to finish our tests, (with a zillion bugs still to be ironed out) a couple of days before the deadline and the need to extend my stay did not materialize. Issues we found were someone else’s job and we just passed the ball over to their side of court. I got a pat on the back, a predictable thank-you speech from their boss with all the niceties one would expect and treated us out for a decent dinner too, i.e. no more pizzas or burgers, and continued well into the night (less creatures this time) hopping from one place to another especially when the boss (after a few drinks) bragged about authorizing all expenses incurred using our company Amex cards, as an extended way of saying thank you. Big, big mistake and I guess he must have been sh*****g himself the morning after by saying that! Interestingly, I did in fact extend my stay a couple of days more but for different reasons – to give myself a well-deserved treat and to please relatives who were keen to show me around the windy city, visited some tourist attractions and attended Pinoy gatherings in the evening too. I’ve always been more interested in natural wonders rather than man-made beauties but nevertheless, their gestures were greatly appreciated and it goes without saying that I enjoyed myself too. And it came as no surprise to me too that there’s a big population of Pinoys settled there who are now fully interwoven into the fabric of Chicago’s innate multicultural character.

So overall, how was my first assignment abroad one might ask? With a little bit of exaggeration, it was shockingly great... horribly exciting… overly satisfying…and ungratifyingly memorable. I’m inventing my words here and could be talking gobbledygook but I hope I’m making my point clear. An analogy would be like two traversing signals of the same wavelength but differ in phase therefore cancelling each other out, resulting in nothing more than a flat line. In plain English, I got more than I bargained for in a negative way but an eye-opener and a notable experience in a positive manner. I guess it was just another stage of moulding my own self into becoming a grown up man, however slow a process it can be of separating from that ‘boy’ in me, if ever. That was almost 10 years ago and I’ve moved on since and have worked in other countries and with different companies too but mainly as a freelancer, up to the present time. And I guess it’s fair to say now that working in another country does not seem to excite me as much as it used to, nor does constantly travelling. Looking back, it seemed like a joke sometimes; imagination (in the sense of fantasy) can never match reality but it surely did push the hell out of me to the extremes that I never knew I could also be capable of holding my head above water, most especially at times when the going gets tough, the tough gets going... and keeps on going. ‘Sink or swim’ is the name of the game, ‘friss oder stirb’ as the Germans would like to put it, but personally I tend to follow the self-indoctrinated ‘who dares wins’ mentality most of the time, a British/Aussies’ SAS regimental motto. It gives me that ‘killer’ instinct to face whatever hurdle and uncertainty that comes my way… that lion or tiger ‘grrrrrr’ feeling, if you know what I mean.

What’s more? Without sounding philosophical, the feelings you derive while imagining things seem more exciting than when actually experiencing it in real life. Agree? Well, I can think of more analogies or examples to emphasize my point but maybe inappropriate to someone’s taste, let alone sense and sensibilities, or shall I say sensitivities, so it’s wiser to be left unspoken. But putting it mildly and in a general concept, I think it’s applicable to almost anything in life. Then again, I can only speak for myself in this regard so I’ll leave that to one’s own imagination and judgement, or experience. On the contrary, I’m sure we sing the same tune and dance the same rhythm when I say that ambition can drive people into something good and can indeed come true, regardless of how one would imagine or perceive it to be. As the living proof Barack Obama simply puts it, yes we can.

(Should anyone wish to have private correspondence with me on any topic, please feel free to email me at: reach.marlon@gmail.com)