by Deepa BHOOKHUN

Our friends the civil servants are getting particularly wound up during this festive period, the poor souls. The insensitive authorities are not letting government employed staff leave work at midday on Friday the 30th! Can you believe this? Now to add insult to injury, the diligent state workers will have to actually physically go into their workplace on the 3rd of January to earn their keep. So unfair!

Now I don?t know if it is the trade unionists who are giving their fellow workers a bad name but really and truly, people should just stop moaning, get on with it and enjoy the unique end of year atmosphere. Why do the citizens of this country always have something ? the wrong thing, to moan about? Why do they think that government ? or any employer for that matter should be the benevolent Big Brother?

But it?s not just about employees; it is about the whole mentality concerning work. Workers seem to forget they should work for their wages and employers likewise seem to forget they should pay the price to get the job done and well. I remember when I was a student and had to work to make ends meet. Every year I made the resolution not to work on Christmas Eve and New Year?s Eve because I promised my friends I would go out celebrate with them. But every single year, when I weighed the pros and cons of working against partying, I ended up working. (It was hard to say no to bonus, overtime, and tips). And I made a small fortune! Plus I had fun working?

Here, try going out for a meal on the 31st. I won?t because I tried it on the 24th and I?ve had my fair share of bad service, thank you very much. Nightmare, I tell you, nightmare. The restaurant staff had all deserted the place. I asked the manager of the restaurant I was at where all his staff was. ?It?s Christmas you know, they also have to celebrate,? he told me rudely. Well, the world didn?t go to sleep did it? People were going out, money was being spent; services and goods were being bought. And if he cared about the quality of the service he was providing, he would have paid his staff well. But of course I didn?t say all of this- it was Christmas after all?

In any event, I hope our friends the civil servants will take comfort in the knowledge that I, for one will be grudgingly working on the 1st of January, along with a few other colleagues. The others will happily sleep their hangovers off but we?re not complaining, as they had to work on Christmas day. We?re not happy about it but we like our job and we believe in what we do. I am by no means a model employee but at least I?m not doing anyone a favour by working and my employer is not doing me a favour by depositing money in my bank account at the end of every month.

Have a great New Year? Oh and my New Year resolution is? next year, I?m out celebrating!