Thursday, July 21, 2016
Are you afraid of other people’s feedbacks and criticisms?
Just recently, I've met a friend of mine and he brought up the issues of “Are you an opiniophobe?“. In our discussion, he talks about people who have this phobia towards opinions from other people.
Let’s face it. Not many people like opinions and even more people don’t like criticisms. Some even reject them without thinking much about them. Their brain will just keep telling them “What do they know about this? They know nothing!” or “What rights do they have to comment me like that!?” etc etc.
So they will just shut themselves out from everything be it positive or negative.
I’ll be honest with you. I used to be like that and will just shut myself out from all forms of opinions. It does sting and it’s not pleasant at all when someone just comes to you and say “whoa, your work sux big time, just give it up!” I’ve experienced it before and it can be very very demotivating. But those kind of opinions are pretty rare (they are out there somewhere, but there are rare).
What we need to do is to continue with our work (and work harder to improve ourselves). Ignore all these destructive opinions which are trying to bring you down instead of helping you. Get more constructive ones. There are still a lot of helpful people out there and they want to help you by telling you what is wrong. They have good intention.
So if you really want to be successful in the things you are doing, you must be willing to accept other people’s opinions. Learn to filter them properly but not shut them out altogether. Believe it or not, your willingness to accept other people’s opinions will dictate how far you go in your life.
Labels: careers, Current Affairs
just my 2cents at 1:50 PM |
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Most bosses will say they have good employee retainment policy
But how true is that? I can say that most bosses do not have proper self awareness or perhaps, they choose to be oblivious. They are not aware that their companies, in actual fact, do not have the proper employee retainment policy. Some don’t even have ANY form of retainment policy. And some, worse, they have employee ‘let go’ policy.
One of my friends is a consultant for company A. He has resigned 1 month ago but he is very close with Client B. Last week, he and his boss went to the Client B office to have a meeting and also to announce his resignation. The client suddenly asked the boss whether his company has any proper employee retainment policy. The boss replied by saying that the company has a very good employee retainment policy and the turnover rate is very low. My friend kept quiet. But the client suddenly turned to face my friend and asked “Why do you want to leave then?”
My friend was stunned and speechless. My friend is also one of top people in that company.
The fact is, the boss is (or was) in a state of denial. According to my friend, more and more people are leaving and yet, the boss insists that the company’s retainment policy is one of the best in the industry. Maybe he will only realize the actual situation when his entire company becomes empty.
Fortunately for me, my direct boss is not like that. He knows the situation pretty well, and so is my HR. Boss, are you reading this? hahaha.
In my opinion, bosses should be aware of the situation his company is in – not just the business & sales side, but also the internal side. Are his employees happy or at least content? Or are most of them preparing to leave? If they are preparing to leave, why do they want to leave?
The bosses might not be able to fix all problems, but if he really cares, he can at least solve 50-70% of them. That is still better than nothing. :)
One of my friends is a consultant for company A. He has resigned 1 month ago but he is very close with Client B. Last week, he and his boss went to the Client B office to have a meeting and also to announce his resignation. The client suddenly asked the boss whether his company has any proper employee retainment policy. The boss replied by saying that the company has a very good employee retainment policy and the turnover rate is very low. My friend kept quiet. But the client suddenly turned to face my friend and asked “Why do you want to leave then?”
My friend was stunned and speechless. My friend is also one of top people in that company.
The fact is, the boss is (or was) in a state of denial. According to my friend, more and more people are leaving and yet, the boss insists that the company’s retainment policy is one of the best in the industry. Maybe he will only realize the actual situation when his entire company becomes empty.
Fortunately for me, my direct boss is not like that. He knows the situation pretty well, and so is my HR. Boss, are you reading this? hahaha.
In my opinion, bosses should be aware of the situation his company is in – not just the business & sales side, but also the internal side. Are his employees happy or at least content? Or are most of them preparing to leave? If they are preparing to leave, why do they want to leave?
The bosses might not be able to fix all problems, but if he really cares, he can at least solve 50-70% of them. That is still better than nothing. :)
Labels: careers
just my 2cents at 4:25 PM |
Monday, December 30, 2013
Recruit people carefully or you might end up regret
A friend of mine complained to me about her idiotic colleague few days ago. She’s the HR executive in her company. This idiot is a loner in the office due to his unique characteristics – tai chi master, boastful (quite extreme, according to her), childish, loves to laugh at people’s weaknesses, love to stalk people's FB and other things you would expect from an idiot.
To be honest, I pity her because I have quite a similar experience as well.
I then threw her one question “Why don’t you find a way to force him out?”
She replied “My colleagues and I have tried isolating him. But he’s still the same! Our HR policy does not allow us to terminate someone due to their idiotic behavior. And so far, he didn’t do anything which is against the policy of the company (aka misconduct).”
She’s right. If there’s such an employee in your company who doesn’t do anything against the policy of the company and still do his job (pretty good too), there’s no good reason for you to terminate him unless you want the company reputation to go down the drain.
But the fact that this guy is bothering nearly every single employee (except the bosses) in my friend’s company doesn’t help either. I’ve seen such cases before in my previous companies and the idiots actually left soon after the isolation. Guess the case with my friend’s company is that the idiot does not want to leave. There are already few good people who left because of him and this is not good for the company.
And to be honest with you, I can’t think of anything to handle this guy – except for isolation from colleagues and if possible, bosses.
Maybe that’s why people always say prevention is better than cure. Always recruit people carefully. It’s true that it’s never easy to recruit good people, but I feel that it’s even harder NOT to recruit idiots. Reference checks? Those are useful but they are not 100% accurate. But it’s better than nothing at all.
If I were the boss, I will take in an average guy as my new employee rather than an idiot – all the time. No point ruining the spirit of the entire company because of one person.
Remember, no one person is bigger than the company.
To be honest, I pity her because I have quite a similar experience as well.
I then threw her one question “Why don’t you find a way to force him out?”
She replied “My colleagues and I have tried isolating him. But he’s still the same! Our HR policy does not allow us to terminate someone due to their idiotic behavior. And so far, he didn’t do anything which is against the policy of the company (aka misconduct).”
She’s right. If there’s such an employee in your company who doesn’t do anything against the policy of the company and still do his job (pretty good too), there’s no good reason for you to terminate him unless you want the company reputation to go down the drain.
But the fact that this guy is bothering nearly every single employee (except the bosses) in my friend’s company doesn’t help either. I’ve seen such cases before in my previous companies and the idiots actually left soon after the isolation. Guess the case with my friend’s company is that the idiot does not want to leave. There are already few good people who left because of him and this is not good for the company.
And to be honest with you, I can’t think of anything to handle this guy – except for isolation from colleagues and if possible, bosses.
Maybe that’s why people always say prevention is better than cure. Always recruit people carefully. It’s true that it’s never easy to recruit good people, but I feel that it’s even harder NOT to recruit idiots. Reference checks? Those are useful but they are not 100% accurate. But it’s better than nothing at all.
If I were the boss, I will take in an average guy as my new employee rather than an idiot – all the time. No point ruining the spirit of the entire company because of one person.
Remember, no one person is bigger than the company.
Labels: careers
just my 2cents at 4:16 PM |
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Lead with fear?
Have you ever worked with someone who leads with fear? When I mean lead with fear, it does not mean that the leader is constantly afraid of anything. It’s more like he is using the authority to lead the people under him, by constantly scolding them and threatening them – pretty much like a master and a slave. Some people call this the “military style leadership”.
But is this the right way to lead your people?
In my humble opinion, NO.
I rather lead with respect, and not fear. If your people are constantly afraid of losing their jobs (or afraid of being scolded in front of everyone in the office), they will STILL be able to work hard but the atmosphere is different if compared with people who are working for you because they love to work for you.
Totally different working environments and the end results will be totally different too. Let’s try to summarize the 2 types of leadership.
Lead with respect
• People willingly work for you
• The environment will be friendlier
• The people will be motivated and work with good morale
• Turnover rate will be lower since a good and respected leader can really keep his people
Lead with fear
• People will only work with you because they have no other choice
• The environment is quite hostile and negative since everyone is afraid to lose their jobs (or get scolded publicly)
• People will be moody and pretty much demotivated, even though they will still do the work
• Turnover rate is very very high since everyone will try their best to get out from there
From what you can see, most of the things associated with the latter are bad things and yet, there are many leaders out there who prefer to use this way. Perhaps it’s due to the way they’ve been brought up in the corporate world, or perhaps it’s due to their ego. But either way, it’s bad for the employees and also the organization itself (having high turnover rate is not a very good thing to have in any organization).
For me, the keyword here is “respect”. Respect other people and others will respect you. If you cannot even understand that simple word, then I doubt you have the rights to lead.
p/s... and in an extremely stressful environment, the last thing you want to do is to force people to do things they don’t want. Everyone has their limits and as a leader, you need to know that.
But is this the right way to lead your people?
In my humble opinion, NO.
I rather lead with respect, and not fear. If your people are constantly afraid of losing their jobs (or afraid of being scolded in front of everyone in the office), they will STILL be able to work hard but the atmosphere is different if compared with people who are working for you because they love to work for you.
Totally different working environments and the end results will be totally different too. Let’s try to summarize the 2 types of leadership.
Lead with respect
• People willingly work for you
• The environment will be friendlier
• The people will be motivated and work with good morale
• Turnover rate will be lower since a good and respected leader can really keep his people
Lead with fear
• People will only work with you because they have no other choice
• The environment is quite hostile and negative since everyone is afraid to lose their jobs (or get scolded publicly)
• People will be moody and pretty much demotivated, even though they will still do the work
• Turnover rate is very very high since everyone will try their best to get out from there
From what you can see, most of the things associated with the latter are bad things and yet, there are many leaders out there who prefer to use this way. Perhaps it’s due to the way they’ve been brought up in the corporate world, or perhaps it’s due to their ego. But either way, it’s bad for the employees and also the organization itself (having high turnover rate is not a very good thing to have in any organization).
For me, the keyword here is “respect”. Respect other people and others will respect you. If you cannot even understand that simple word, then I doubt you have the rights to lead.
p/s... and in an extremely stressful environment, the last thing you want to do is to force people to do things they don’t want. Everyone has their limits and as a leader, you need to know that.
Labels: careers
just my 2cents at 2:52 PM |
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Employee Retention = the hardest thing to do in the universe?
All of us know that we’re working in a world where modern slavery thrives. Some people can take it (being a slave that is), but most cannot. So most people will opt to change job and go to the other side where the grass is greener.. But again, the grass is ALWAYS greener on the other side.. in the end, they change again.
Changing jobs so often will of course, increase the turnover rate in our country.. in every company.
When people started to leave, the top management will of course panic because it is not easy to find good people nowadays (even if you do found some.. you need to train them or give them 1-2 weeks to settle down). The top management will then ask the Human Resource folks, why are people leaving?
Well, if your company is paying good salary, has good benefits, good work environment, can learn.. then people won’t leave unless they have a very good job opportunity or want to change something in their life.
The next thing you know, the HR will start having things like Exit Interviews (which to me, are not useful at all since no actions will be taken).. or launch / introduce new policies as part of their new Employee Retention Policy.
Ok.. guess what, I don’t believe all these “Employee Retention” policies because to me, they are just like World Cup fever. It comes n goes within few months.. and then it goes down the drain again —> months of effort, wasted.
Management people should realize that “talk” or “communication” is the most important thing in retaining employees. You need to talk or communicate with your employees, to know what they want or what they are not happy with. If they have any complaints, do take them seriously. If they do not have any complaints or they are too hopeless to complain.. then there’s nothing much you can do or change. BUT if they do complains, please.. make sure you try your best to rectify the problems because those are normally the reasons if they (the same people who voiced out) were to leave in the near future.
Respect the employees.. gain their trust.. don’t just talk, but make sure you WALK the talk. I know it’s easy to say than to do.. but well, that’s just my opinion after seeing so many of my friends leaving my ex and current companies.
For the employees (which mean us, the modern slaves.. hmm.. somehow i don’t like to be called slaves. wahahaha.).. we will need to voice out in order to be heard. That’s our role – voice out. If they cannot do anything…at least we’ve played our role.
Remember that one cannot change something they do not know.
Changing jobs so often will of course, increase the turnover rate in our country.. in every company.
When people started to leave, the top management will of course panic because it is not easy to find good people nowadays (even if you do found some.. you need to train them or give them 1-2 weeks to settle down). The top management will then ask the Human Resource folks, why are people leaving?
Well, if your company is paying good salary, has good benefits, good work environment, can learn.. then people won’t leave unless they have a very good job opportunity or want to change something in their life.
The next thing you know, the HR will start having things like Exit Interviews (which to me, are not useful at all since no actions will be taken).. or launch / introduce new policies as part of their new Employee Retention Policy.
Ok.. guess what, I don’t believe all these “Employee Retention” policies because to me, they are just like World Cup fever. It comes n goes within few months.. and then it goes down the drain again —> months of effort, wasted.
Management people should realize that “talk” or “communication” is the most important thing in retaining employees. You need to talk or communicate with your employees, to know what they want or what they are not happy with. If they have any complaints, do take them seriously. If they do not have any complaints or they are too hopeless to complain.. then there’s nothing much you can do or change. BUT if they do complains, please.. make sure you try your best to rectify the problems because those are normally the reasons if they (the same people who voiced out) were to leave in the near future.
Respect the employees.. gain their trust.. don’t just talk, but make sure you WALK the talk. I know it’s easy to say than to do.. but well, that’s just my opinion after seeing so many of my friends leaving my ex and current companies.
For the employees (which mean us, the modern slaves.. hmm.. somehow i don’t like to be called slaves. wahahaha.).. we will need to voice out in order to be heard. That’s our role – voice out. If they cannot do anything…at least we’ve played our role.
Remember that one cannot change something they do not know.
Labels: careers
just my 2cents at 4:48 PM |
Monday, March 18, 2013
No salary adjustment..
.. until you’ve resigned?
I’ve just got my salary increment/bonus notification few days ago. I’m happy but not to the state of jumping up and down around the office. At least, it’s better than my expectation especially I’m just join less than 1 year and during such difficult period of time when most companies (mine included) are not doing that well.
However, some of my friends are not pleased with their increment. I only told them that they should talk to the bosses if they’re not happy with it. Maybe together, they can come out with a solution.
Hmm, the thing is, there are some companies I’ve heard of, which don’t give people much pay raise until the day they give their resignation letter. Then the boss will start to panic, and will ask the person for an emergency meeting. They will sit down and the boss will say..
Boss : How much did they offer you?
Victim : RM xxxx per month
Boss : Hmm….what if I counter offer you?
Victim : ...
Boss : 10% more than your current
Victim : but the new pay is 20% more
Boss : Ok, I’ll pay you the same as the new offer.
The thing is, normally people leave it’s because the new job offers more (in terms of prospects, excitement and money). In this case, let’s talk about the “money” part. There are a lot of companies who don’t give increment to employees (or minimal increment). It happened to me once. The company did not give me any increment, and gave me a RM 75 bonus. I was so furious since I’ve worked 12 hours a day for them (minimum) and my performance review was very good. So I found a job which paid me 30% more. When I resigned, my manager said she wanted to counter offer me with the same amount. I said why didn’t the company do that earlier. In the end, I rejected even though the updated salary (after the counter) was higher than the new salary.
The thing is, employers should try to retain their employees WHILE they (the employees) are still in the company and not when they’ve resigned. Furthermore, what’s the point of keeping an employee who has already set his mind on leaving? It’s better to keep the loyal and good employees.
Just my opinion anyway. But well.. sadly.. you’ll get to see a lot of such incidents in Malaysia companies.
I’ve just got my salary increment/bonus notification few days ago. I’m happy but not to the state of jumping up and down around the office. At least, it’s better than my expectation especially I’m just join less than 1 year and during such difficult period of time when most companies (mine included) are not doing that well.
However, some of my friends are not pleased with their increment. I only told them that they should talk to the bosses if they’re not happy with it. Maybe together, they can come out with a solution.
Hmm, the thing is, there are some companies I’ve heard of, which don’t give people much pay raise until the day they give their resignation letter. Then the boss will start to panic, and will ask the person for an emergency meeting. They will sit down and the boss will say..
Boss : How much did they offer you?
Victim : RM xxxx per month
Boss : Hmm….what if I counter offer you?
Victim : ...
Boss : 10% more than your current
Victim : but the new pay is 20% more
Boss : Ok, I’ll pay you the same as the new offer.
The thing is, normally people leave it’s because the new job offers more (in terms of prospects, excitement and money). In this case, let’s talk about the “money” part. There are a lot of companies who don’t give increment to employees (or minimal increment). It happened to me once. The company did not give me any increment, and gave me a RM 75 bonus. I was so furious since I’ve worked 12 hours a day for them (minimum) and my performance review was very good. So I found a job which paid me 30% more. When I resigned, my manager said she wanted to counter offer me with the same amount. I said why didn’t the company do that earlier. In the end, I rejected even though the updated salary (after the counter) was higher than the new salary.
The thing is, employers should try to retain their employees WHILE they (the employees) are still in the company and not when they’ve resigned. Furthermore, what’s the point of keeping an employee who has already set his mind on leaving? It’s better to keep the loyal and good employees.
Just my opinion anyway. But well.. sadly.. you’ll get to see a lot of such incidents in Malaysia companies.
Labels: careers
just my 2cents at 11:53 AM |
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Why Do You Earn More Than Me?
So what?
One of the biggest taboos while working for people is to talk about your salary publicly especially when your colleagues are around. However, there will be times when something as confidential as salary, is being broadcast or informed to the wrong parties. The result? Dissatisfaction among employees.
Let’s be honest, most people are not content with what they have and that includes their salary. And most people also think that they are the one working harder than most of the people in the team. So when the news of a peer/colleague receiving a promotion or a higher salary than themselves, all sorts of negative feelings will appear.
Questions like these will keep popping up in the head all the time. It’s normal. After all, we’ve put in so much hard work for the company and it seems like we’re not being appreciated (funnily, some people who always spend their office hours chatting and Facebook-ing also think they’re not being appreciated enough). I’ve been through that before on a couple of occasions and man, I was pretty pissed back then.
But things have changed, and I believe I’ve changed.
Over the years, I’ve given much thought on this issue and I can tell you it’s a very common issue which exists in every organization. But rather than making my life miserable by asking myself questions which I could not answer, I prefer to ask myself a few questions and also try my best to answer them HONESTLY (without any discrimination and with extreme fairness + calmness). It wouldn’t help if you answer these questions when you’re jealous of some people.
• Is the guy really better than me? Or perhaps my performance is actually not-so-good?
• Is there anything I can do to match him or even better than him?
• How much time do I have left until the next performance evaluation? I need to use those time to improve myself.
• Is there a need to talk to my supervisor regarding this? Maybe my supervisor is not happy with something I did which I’m not aware of? Remember, this is to have an honest heart-to-heart talk with your supervisor and not a confrontation.
• Maybe your supervisor has some ideas on how you can perform better in the future?
• Perhaps there are something which this guy has to do, without your knowledge? Maybe he really did go that extra mile?
• Will you be happy after the promotion or the increment? Will you be happy with your new job role or you rather stay where you are now? After all, money is not everything.
• How much is this affecting your mood and overall well-being? Do you think you’re wasting too much time thinking about something you have no answer of?
• And most importantly, do you think there is something that you can really do to change the situation?
Among those questions above, I find the last 2 to be the most important question. If there is really nothing you can do to change the situation, then why do you even bother to think about it? If there IS indeed something that you can do, then do it and change the situation. Get out from that emotional hell you’ve put yourselves into.
For me, even though I know there are people who earn more than me, I don’t really think much about it. Perhaps they are indeed better than me in certain aspects of things. All I can do is to commit myself to do my work, and to get the expected reward from my company. The important thing is that the company or my supervisor should appreciate what I do, and I myself must like what I do.
Whether the company appreciate that guy’s work more than mine, is not really something I can control.
And when I think there’s really no other option for me.. then I might just go find another job and find someone who I think will really appreciate me.
Remember, it’s not worth torturing yourselves by feeling lousy or bad especially on things that you have no answer to. If it’s within your control, then change it. If not, then just ignore it.
DISCLAIMER — I don’t Facebook that much in office. Nothing much in there except other people’s photos.. :P
One of the biggest taboos while working for people is to talk about your salary publicly especially when your colleagues are around. However, there will be times when something as confidential as salary, is being broadcast or informed to the wrong parties. The result? Dissatisfaction among employees.
Let’s be honest, most people are not content with what they have and that includes their salary. And most people also think that they are the one working harder than most of the people in the team. So when the news of a peer/colleague receiving a promotion or a higher salary than themselves, all sorts of negative feelings will appear.
“Why is that idiot getting higher salary than me when all he does is talk talk talk?”
“Why is the new guy getting the promotion ahead of old/senior employees like us?”
“Why is he getting a higher increment and more bonus when our job role is the same?”
“Why is the new guy getting the promotion ahead of old/senior employees like us?”
“Why is he getting a higher increment and more bonus when our job role is the same?”
Questions like these will keep popping up in the head all the time. It’s normal. After all, we’ve put in so much hard work for the company and it seems like we’re not being appreciated (funnily, some people who always spend their office hours chatting and Facebook-ing also think they’re not being appreciated enough). I’ve been through that before on a couple of occasions and man, I was pretty pissed back then.
But things have changed, and I believe I’ve changed.
Over the years, I’ve given much thought on this issue and I can tell you it’s a very common issue which exists in every organization. But rather than making my life miserable by asking myself questions which I could not answer, I prefer to ask myself a few questions and also try my best to answer them HONESTLY (without any discrimination and with extreme fairness + calmness). It wouldn’t help if you answer these questions when you’re jealous of some people.
• Is the guy really better than me? Or perhaps my performance is actually not-so-good?
• Is there anything I can do to match him or even better than him?
• How much time do I have left until the next performance evaluation? I need to use those time to improve myself.
• Is there a need to talk to my supervisor regarding this? Maybe my supervisor is not happy with something I did which I’m not aware of? Remember, this is to have an honest heart-to-heart talk with your supervisor and not a confrontation.
• Maybe your supervisor has some ideas on how you can perform better in the future?
• Perhaps there are something which this guy has to do, without your knowledge? Maybe he really did go that extra mile?
• Will you be happy after the promotion or the increment? Will you be happy with your new job role or you rather stay where you are now? After all, money is not everything.
• How much is this affecting your mood and overall well-being? Do you think you’re wasting too much time thinking about something you have no answer of?
• And most importantly, do you think there is something that you can really do to change the situation?
Among those questions above, I find the last 2 to be the most important question. If there is really nothing you can do to change the situation, then why do you even bother to think about it? If there IS indeed something that you can do, then do it and change the situation. Get out from that emotional hell you’ve put yourselves into.
For me, even though I know there are people who earn more than me, I don’t really think much about it. Perhaps they are indeed better than me in certain aspects of things. All I can do is to commit myself to do my work, and to get the expected reward from my company. The important thing is that the company or my supervisor should appreciate what I do, and I myself must like what I do.
Whether the company appreciate that guy’s work more than mine, is not really something I can control.
And when I think there’s really no other option for me.. then I might just go find another job and find someone who I think will really appreciate me.
Remember, it’s not worth torturing yourselves by feeling lousy or bad especially on things that you have no answer to. If it’s within your control, then change it. If not, then just ignore it.
DISCLAIMER — I don’t Facebook that much in office. Nothing much in there except other people’s photos.. :P
Labels: careers, Current Affairs
just my 2cents at 11:49 PM |
