Confessions of a Corporate Shopaholic

I have very little expectations over the coming holiday season.   In fact, I’m not sure if it has anything to do with age, but I just find festivities today way too commercial.  It seems that all holidays are focused around elaborate dining, shopping, gifts and parties.  Don’t get me wrong, I am all for getting together with my family and friends enjoying cozy discussions over good food and wine.  All I am a bit tired of, is waiting in lines for the cashier and gift wrapping, paying deposits for festive Christmas party reservations, and squeezing through jam-packed subway exits to get in and out of the city’s most popular destinations.  It just seems to be too much work for a few hours of supposedly happy time.

Instead, I strive to make myself happy in whatever ways regardless of the time of year.  Last weekend I paid enough money for a whole new wardrobe that keeps me excited for weeks if not months ahead.  I have also just made vacation plans to get myself out of the city to wind down, at least for a few days, after the new year.  Keeping myself healthy is also what I have seriously started to do since 4 months ago.   The nutrition routine that I’ve been following since has given me so much energy while losing weight.  If I have not accomplished anything else this year, this could be my biggest achievement so far in 2010.

I usually don’t take time off during December because the peak travel season means exorbitant prices on airfare and hotels.  Plus, many colleagues at work are off on vacation with their families and kids and usually the workload and productivity has sunk to an all time low.  Getting to work in this season is actually a delight.  I remember in my old workplace we have this tradition of “Director/VP for a Week” as an excuse to find a stand-in for senior executives who are on leave.  Of course we sugar-coat the exercise to be one golden opportunity for us to showcase our leadership capabilities by literally attending all the senior level meetings and conference calls during the entire stand-in period.  Supposedly, nothing should be left waiting for the executives to come back from vacation. 

I had the pleasure to become Director of the Week one year, though technically, I had it for three weeks.  The originally quiet December work month turned out to be a hectic one since I had to deal with a few emergency personnel issues across the region.  On top of my then existing Greater China responsibilities, I also attended to operational and personnel matters in India, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand.  There were a few major decisions that I had to make based on incomplete facts, but I made them anyway.  Certain things could have been managed better, but out of all the circumstances, the acting Director role was a satisfactory one. 

Work wise, December is a month of recuperation.  The year’s cost savings targets should have been met by now (or too late to recover).  Next year’s target is already set with a whole lot of uneasy feeling toward how on earth everyone is going to meet them.  All leaders are plotting their engagement plan with senior stakeholders once they return from vacation in a few weeks’ time.   So technically, there isn’t much that can be done instantly.

Ok, perhaps now I get why so many people are fanatically looking for party invitations, dinner reservations, various shopping expos  and 4-hour waits at the airports.  Since there is nothing much better to do at work or at schools, everyone is working their butts off to keep themselves busy by playing really really hard.  Why can’t Hong Kongers just take a breather and relax, for once?