Precious Moments
For the last few days, Stardust and I have been struggling. Or rather, Stardust is well but I have been struggling. It is really hard at midnight when one is already on the verge of crying from overtiredness, to deal with a wailing baby who is already crying from overtiredness.
Today, I received an email that really put things into perspective for me. It made me remember that how blessed I am that Stardust is strong enough to cry.
Culture Shock #4
I am shocked to realise that:It is unacceptable to leave work at 5pm even though there is no more work to be done. One has to stick around until the senior doctors have either dismissed you or have gone home themselves. Even though there are no more outstanding tasks to do on the wards, one has to look busy and overworked. A doctor? Finishing work at 5pm? Impossible! He or she must be a terrible doctor - so irresponsible! This has absolutely nothing to do with good time management or being efficient or maybe having a life outside of work. It's just plain LAZY to leave at 5pm!Thus, if there is little work to be done that day, Singaporean doctors will take long lunch breaks, wander around, go to the library and read journals, have a nap, work on their research projects/presentations in order to kill time.In the UK, if I had to work late - which was not very often - it was usually because there was so much work to be done that it could not be finished before 5pm. On days like these, I would not even have enough time to eat lunch or drink any water.Over here, I work late everyday. Usually it is because of the workload, but there are days where I could go home at 5pm, but I stay late...just because it is expected of me.
