I have 2 days left before leaving the Cyprus Agricultural Payments Organization.  My stay here was an experience, and so was my departure.

I started here as an IT Officer with a 3 month contract that was renewed 2 more times covering a total of 6 months.  I was assigned programing duties on a dead end project which represents nothing more than a typical example of how governmental organizations waste the tax payer’s money.  The project was outsourced which meant i was pretty much doing donkey work for the people who already worked on the project.

The system here is such that you accept the phrase “less is more” as part of the natural daily life here.  Soon you find your self doing less and less and even getting stressed about not doing enough.

I actually went through panic modes as they kept me idle for most of the 6 months, occasionally giving me things to do such as reports.  I actually used my time here to read and expand my understanding on certain subjects such as technical skills, design, or politics.  Ebook reading became a daily ritual. Over all it was a good experience to understand first hand how the government engine works and how things get done.

My exit was also interesting,  my contract was simply not renewed.  Although i was renewed twice and was congratulated on good performance on both times my contract was renewed. My departure coincided with the visit of one of the 2 big political parties in Cyprus, a few weeks before election times.  One has to wonder but for those who know me, they by now know what happened.  It was nothing personal at the end of the day, people needed work, some people needed to go. Votes count and so do friendships. The excuses used were obviously excuses, and not much can be said or done.  Nor do i want to do anything about it.  People complained for things such as me annoying them asking for more work et cetera.

To be honest i am happy it happened as I was just wasting myself here, and actually started getting used to the system here.  I showed 0% growth professionally although i did pick up a lot of people skills (as well as office politics skills). The salary and hours were great don’t get me wrong, although waking up at 6 and driving through 1 hour of traffic to get here wasn’t.

On the plus side i made new friends here, one or 2 of them read my blog actually so thanks guys

Overall i am thankful to the people here, for their kind words,  for not letting me waste my time here and helping me actually get out and try and do something more with my life, even if it pays less at the beginning.

So I look forward to the new challenges i have ahead, starting on the 11th of April