Most people are afraid to voice out. They prefer to keep things to themselves and these include new ideas which might be able to help other people. For some of them, they just don’t want to go through all the troubles and fuss when proposing an idea or, they have no confidence and are afraid they will be regarded as stupid. But the worst are those people who prefer to stick to their roles and say “ideas should come from the top people”.

Wrong wrong wrong. Ideas can come from anyone in a healthy environment. If you have some ideas which you think have not been implemented and might be able to help improve things, then do voice out. Perhaps you can voice out to your supervisor if you’re afraid to approach the top people. Start small, maybe just introduce it within your team and see how it goes. The important thing here is to share your ideas especially if you have seen them becoming successful in other companies.

For example, whiteboarding or brown bag session, 360 degrees performance review, etc. Useful ideas that you have experienced in your previous jobs can also be introduced in your new company.

Remember that you are in a company to contribute to the business in any ways possible. Furthermore, you will be able to leave something significant and useful for others to learn and spread the next time they switch company.

“Work is boring….colleagues are boring….I just hope it’s not Monday tomorrow”

Most people have that kind of mentality. And most of them start counting down for weekend on Monday itself (some do that on Sundays). They just dread going to work! In fact, it’s pretty hard to find someone who really enjoys their work (not to say there isn’t any, but those who think their work is boring far outnumbers those who think their work is fun).

But what if their work is not as boring as it currently is? What if their colleagues and their workplace is fun and very dynamic? If you’re thinking it’s impossible, then perhaps you should find another job. Because to me, anything can be turned into something exciting. Yes, it requires efforts but it’s not impossible. Here are some of the things which I can think of.

• Change the way you think about your work. Don’t treat it like something you are forced to do because you have no other choice (you always have a choice, remember that). Treat it as something more meaningful….maybe you feel your job can help others, or you feel you can help extend the business, or you can help people solve problems, etc.
• Decorate your workspace. I never like the open office concept because you don’t really have a “home” in the office. You’ll just move around all the time. I prefer to have a workspace for myself, and decorate it the way I like it – pictures, drawing, plants, etc. Simple/complicated, it’s all up to me. That way, it’ll make me feel more comfortable in the office. It definitely won’t change the work/assignments, but it’ll change my mood when I’m working on something.
• Mix with your colleagues. It really makes the entire workplace more entertaining if you have close friends around. If you don’t have any, then go make some in the office. Sometimes, when the work is really pushing you to quit, you will think of the nice colleagues you have.
• Work longer hours. If you spend more hours on a single assignment, you won’t feel hard pressed for time. Yes, you do tend to lose some sleep but you can also work at a more relaxing pace. Well, at least working at a relaxing pace makes me more productive and also makes the work more enjoyable. The moment you (or your boss) start chasing for deadline, is the moment your work loses its fun factor.

Of course, all these can’t beat the ultimate “Do what you are passionate about”. That’s the best, if you have the option. But most often than not, we’ll be stuck doing something we are not so passionate about in order to feed our family. So the least we can do to make our work more enjoyable is to do those things listed above.

Transform your workplace, your relationship with your colleagues and your mindset towards everything. It’ll really make things more interesting.

And hopefully, you won’t dread going back to the office all the time. Who knows, maybe there are something in the office which makes you want to go back more!

p/s…. if there’s really nothing you can do to make your work less boring and more exciting, then it’s time to find another job. Reason being, you simply can’t perform in a boring environment.

What happens when a workaholic employee works with a slacker in the same team, for the same project?

Chaos. Dissatisfaction. Misunderstanding…

… and maybe project failure if all these ill feelings are not under control.

This kind of scenario does happen from time to time and exists in most companies. The workaholic will be working day and night to complete the tasks while the slacker will still complete his tasks, but at a much slower pace. By the way, I’m not talking about those slackers who just don’t work – those people should never be in the company in the first place.

So what happens next? At time goes by, the workaholic will feel unhappy because he feels he is the only one doing all the work while the slacker will relax and do things slowly. On the other hand, the slacker will feel the workaholic is trying to show off and starts to push people around in order to follow his style. Thus, the gap between the 2 will become wider and in a small project team, this can have a very negative impact.

But is there anything wrong in this scenario? Should we blame the slacker? or perhaps it is the workaholic who is being too demanding?

In my opinion, nobody is wrong in this case provided both of them managed to accomplish the tasks on time. It’s just a matter of different mindset/mentality/attitude. The keyword here is to compromise and understand that everyone is different.

For the workaholic – he can continue to work hard and be a top performer but he should not care what the slacker is doing. If the slacker screws up, the leader/manager should be the one punishing him. And if you ever feel under-appreciated, then talk to your boss on how much appreciation/reward you think you should get and NOT on how unhappy you are that the slacker is so slow. Remember that he does finish his job, just maybe not as fast as you.

For the slacker – maybe you are the type who loves to do things at the very last minute, but do remember that there are times when things just start to go wrong. That is why some people like the workaholic prefers to do things faster. True, you might have your LIFE to go back to but you should never blame the workaholic for being…a workaholic. It’s just his style. And as long as your boss is comfortable with your style, then there’s no problem.

The reason I’m writing this post is that some friends do complain to me once in a while that they are working like shit but their teammates are not. I can only say that, leave it to the team lead or project manager. There’s really nothing much they can do. Different people have different working styles and as long as the task is completed, there’s no issue. And if the tasks are not completed……then the person to get the scolding should be the team lead/manager.

Conclusion? Respect each others in the team. Everyone is different and has his/her own working style.

p/s….. have a team of slacker, and your team will die. Similarly, have a team of workaholic is not a very healthy choice too.

Trust is a very important element in life. Without it, there will be a lot of problems. For example, if you don’t trust your spouse, will you be able to sleep well at night? Or, if you don’t trust your business parter, will you be willing to go away on vacation and leave things to him/her? Or, if you don’t trust your boss, will you be able to focus 100% on your work?

I believe for most people, the answers to the above questions would be NO.

But why do we lose our trust in these individuals in the first place? Is it because they don’t look trustworthy enough? Or is it because they’ve made some promises in the past and failed to fulfill?

For me, the reason I don’t trust certain people is because of the promises they’ve broken. Because a broken promise puts a barrier between me and the person. And that barrier keeps getting bigger with every broken promise. The level of trust is diminishing.

Maybe that is why one of my principles in life is never to give a promise unless I am at least 90% sure I can keep them. Same thing in job interviews, same thing to my bosses, same thing to the clients and also my friends and family. Because I know that once a promise is made, my “level of trust” with that person is at risk. Break the promise, and I might find myself spending the next few weeks/months/years trying to rebuild level of trust.

What about you? Are you a person who loves to make promises but never fulfill them? Do you think the people around you will still trust you after those broken promises? Or are you someone like me who never give any promises unless you’re very confident that you can do it?

Don’t be surprised if I tell you this is actually one of the many questions which I’ve been asked during a job interview. It’s an interesting question and the answer can be quite diversified.

If you were me, what kind of answer do you think you will give?

Gossip mongers just want to network with other people? Hmmm

1. Will you confront the gossip monger and tell him you’re not happy?
2. Confront the gossip monger and tell him the gossip is not true at all?
3. Stay quiet?
4. Spread another gossip to counter that gossip?
5. Or start telling each and everyone you know in the office that the gossip is not true?

I know this is kind of touching human psychology but based on my personal experience, it’s not uncommon in our office life. Every now and then, there will be this group of people who have nothing to do but to spread rumors and gossip about other people. They can be quite notorious at times too, to the stage that whatever they said might actually affect your working experience. So it’s perfectly normal if you feel like confronting them and tell them off.

But is that how it should be done?

Based on my personal experience, it’s actually best to do item (3) which is to keep quiet. I understand that sometimes, the fire might get too hot and burn yourselves in the process but I also believe that if you retaliate to something which is not true, it will only make the fire stronger. So in my opinion, it’s better to make it as boring for them as possible, and they will slowly get tired of it and move on to the next target.

And I told this to the job interviewer and he was quite happy with my answer.

What about you? What would you do if you were in this kind of situation?

p/s….I’ve experienced it on 1 or 2 occasions. If it’s ruining my reputation and a colleague told me about it, I will just tell that colleague the real story. That’s all. As long as there are few good colleagues who know about the real story, I won’t really care what others think.