Honestly, I thought that once we have gazetted the Padang as Singapore's 75th National Monument, the work load will slow down but I can feel myself slightly stretched out.
From June all the way to National Day, was the build up and launch of the gazette. Then, we are planning to launch a new digital game and a new activity trail so there has been a lot of trial and error along the way. Now, we realized that the digital game can't be launch this year so we are pushing it to next year. As for the activity trail, we are targeting to launch it at the start of November, crossing my fingers that everything will be smooth sailing. I mean, I think almost 80% of the things related to this trail is sorted out.
They introduce a new internal system that we have to learn, which was supposed to make our lives easier. But so far, I literally have to set aside 1 full working day per week for the past several weeks just trying to figure out the system. Considering that I am in-charge of my division's finance and procurement administrative work, I had to sort doing everything else just to figure out the system and guide my colleagues through it. I had headaches figuring it all out. And it doesn't help that even the Finance and Procurement departments are unsure about my enquiries when I come asking.
Then I got arrowed to be part of a cross-division ITT project with regards to grants, which I have to work with another 2 divisions. I mean, I do assist with regards to all 3 grants that my division has but the structure and inner workings of the grants just fly over my head. So having to be part of this project, feels like I'm back in school, needing to do my research and understanding how all 3 grants work, the parameters set around it. My mental capacity is filled to the brim just trying to understand the legal terms and clauses behind the agreement - which is 58 pages long, excluding all the annexes.
Doing all this, on top of managing all my daily administrative and finance work. That's the thing about admin work that majority of the people dismiss about - it's all the same things that just never ends. Once you stop to do other things, it just keeps piling up and feels that it's not going to stop.
Lastly, just had a meeting a few days back that HQ Admin is finally kickstarting back the eRegistry exercise which was supposed to start back in 2019 and got pushed back till now. They are planning to start the trials in November, and as the rep for my division, I need to sort and prepare things for this. Looks like my weekends might be taken up, but I will get to claim off-in-lieu, it's just a matter of when.
The weird thing about all this is that, I can feel myself getting stretched, trying to cope with these additional responsibilities and projects but at the same time, I looking at it in a positive light. I am really learning a lot of things that forces me to be flexible and constantly take initiatives in order for me to move forward.
Mentally drained but In Shaa' Allah, everything will be alright.
Anyway, 2 more weeks to go to my solo Bangkok trip and I still haven't planned my itinerary.
