Working under Minimal Supervision?

I was once told by someone that working life is easy, simply because those who have come out from the ivory tower have a better sense of direction in life and that their lives are much more stable as compared to students'. Of course, these words came from the mouth of a student.

I held my tongue, shaking my head and smiling helplessly in my heart: "Wait till you come out to work..."

It has been 4 years since I left the campus, working under tight scrutiny of superiors. Later I joined the consultant world; and I started to work under minimal supervision. It may sound fun owning the whole office to myself. But in actual fact, it is not as easy as I thought.

Working under minimal supervision, I have to be really disciplined. Discipline means I must constantly motivate myself and get myself on my feet to work. At the end of the day, I need to show the results of my work. My boss is not so much interested in how hard I work but how much money I can earn for the company. This is something definitely very different from my previous working culture whereby results were not as important as hard works. My previous bosses would want to see an iron man working 24-7.

In this new environment, I need to be independent because everything is dependent on me. Previously in my old companies, whenever there was problem with my PC, it was easy for me to get the IT guy to fix the problem, without having to raise my eyebrow. Now, I have to frown and look to myself whenever the PC or laptop is giving me headaches.

So far so good, I have survived this long. I am confident that God has put me in this for a reason. It is not an end but a mean.