A friend of mine told me about this story where a young manager came into the office on the manager’s first day and started to threaten every employee in the office. This manager told everyone to work hard or get lost.

Of course all the employees in the office were afraid of him but most of them were not happy as well. People started to leave but  few of them had no choice but to continue to work. Then one day, 2 employees made a mistake which caused the manager to terminate them on the spot. It was a small mistake. And this action of his created an uproar among the existing employees.

Soon, the director became aware of this incident and came to investigate. He had a 1 to 1 chat with the manager.

Director: Why did you terminate the 2 employees over such a small mistake?

Manager: I’ve warned them that I would terminate anyone who is not performing or is making the company lose money.

Director: Everyone makes mistakes and this is but a small mistake. Also, do you think you have actually found the solution by terminating them?

Manager: ……..

Director: So in the end, the underlying problem has not been fixed. All you did was to react unproductively to a problem. Now, we’ve lost 2 people, and the problem is still there.

Yes, it’s easy for people to just sit down, complain or even punish those responsible. But everybody makes mistakes. Nobody is perfect in this world. So rather than punishing, complaining and whining…..why not focus on the problem and how can one come out with a solution to fix it?

Nothing is more important than to find a solution to a problem. So, be aware of what you are focusing on when you’re faced with a problem.

p/s….. over the years, many people have been terminated by hot shot directors/managers who love to flex their management muscles (abusing their authority). This is the harsh reality of the corporate world. Yet, most of them only know how to show off their authority and not solve the underlying problems. Because for them, their ego can only carry them that far.

We live in the information age, and in my opinion, it has make our life somewhat more complicated than before. Perhaps it’s due to the unlimited amount of information that we’re exposed to and the countless of options available to us.

Our designers are coming out with more and more complex designs. Our building architects are doing the same. Our consumers demand more and more features in a single product even though they don’t need all of the features. And our doctors are giving us more and more medicines when the simpler approach would be to drink more water and eat more fruits.

Well, in some cases, going the not-so-simple direction does help but most often than not, it just complicate things. Perhaps we are being trained this way, or our environment forces us to become this way. I don’t know. All I know is, we are starting to lose what we always call “common sense”. Ever heard of people saying “common sense is no longer common”? Maybe that has something to do with our way of life which ignores the simple stuff and focus on the not-so-simple stuff.

Heck, some people even come out with many different ways to cut a fruit!!

But people, I guess it’s time to wake up a little and be aware of how simplicity can actually improves our life. There are many problems which don’t require us to think of complicated and complex solution. All they need is one simple solution, that’s all. Not everything is complicated, so don’t assume everything to be complicated. Start thinking the simple way and if cannot be solved, move on to more complicated solution.

Hope it helps.

p/s…… the reason I am writing this post is that, nowadays, i really notice a lot of us tend to think a bit too much on a problem. We would think of sooooo many complicated solutions and yet failed to solve the problem. Why? Because the solution is supposed to be simple and straightforward, but most of us just failed to figure it out.

I’ve heard of many cases where the person who is paid to do the work, somehow ends up seeking help from the customers. One example is what happened to my sister. She’s an accountant in a MNC and there was this fresh graduate auditor who kept pestering her and the other accountants……not for information or documents, but for help. The fresh graduate did not know how to do her job! To make things worse, my sister actually gave her some documents to study but she didn’t study. She preferred to be spoon-fed.

Spoon-fed by a customer…? Hmmm.

Actually, this kind of incident happens a lot. These people have no idea that they are dealing with the customers, and they are supposed to be the one providing solution, not the other way round. If you can’t give me solution and expect me to teach you how to do it, then what’s the point of paying you? Isn’t it better to just hire a maid?

If you seriously don’t know how to fix it, then just seek assistance from your seniors or something and don’t let the customers know that you can’t fix it. Always know your role and where you are. It won’t benefit you or your employer if you allow the customers to know that you can’t fix the problem (and pestering to teach you to fix it will certainly make things a lot worse).

As for the guy allocating resources, always know who are your main customers and the skillset of your people. No point sending a lazy rookie to the front line of a warzone. You’ll just lose more people and give the impression that your squad (company) is weak. Try to allocate them under some helpful seniors and put them elsewhere.

Remember that if I’m paying you to fix the problem for me, and you can’t do it…then the least you can do is to spend some time figuring out how to do it (and not asking me for help!). If you still can’t do it, I’ll just find someone else.

I’ve been saying this for a long long time now and I feel the need to say it again since the people around me are becoming more and more negative each day.

I understand that people are afraid of getting pay cuts (some of my friends are suffering from pay cuts already…some 20%), retrenchments, etc. If I tell you I’m not afraid, then I’m lying. I AM afraid of all those things because like everyone else, I need money to survive and to pay off my bills.

But the thing is, even if we’re worried and being negative about it, will that actually change anything? I doubt. That’s why rather than worrying and doing nothing, it’s better to focus our energy on something more positive. Find alternatives or solutions to our problems. Or it’s something yet to happen, then make some precautionary steps. For example, if you’re being forced to only work 4 days a week, then maybe you can fully utilize the Fridays to do something which gives you some income.

Seriously, the possibilities are endless because whenever we’re faced with such problems, most people will move away or tremble with fear……..leaving a lot of opportunities for us to grab. It’s really up to us whether we can see it and whether we’re willing to grab those opportunities.

And let me tell you something. If you’re always feeling negative, there is absolutely no way you can see those opportunities because you are not thinking on the bright side. Whatever opportunity presented to you will be regarded as too risky and useless. In fact, everything will appear to be negative if you are thinking negative. So change the state of your mind before it drains your energy too much.

I know whatever I say here will be useless because in the end, the only person who can change yourselves is you. If you don’t want to think positively, nobody can help you to change that.

Last but not least, remember 2 things – things happen for a reason and there is no problem in this world which is without a solution.

p/s……… for those with stable jobs, you’re more fortunate than those with pay cuts.

p/s……… for those with pay cuts, you’re better off than those without jobs and have family to feed.

p/s……… for those who are without jobs, you’re better off than people in Africa where food and clean water are rare.

p/s……… and finally…..most of us are better off than those who are suffering from chronic diseases. I was told that one of my friend’s sister is actually counting her time in this world. The last time I met my friend, she was very tired but still able to put on a smile. I don’t know how to help esp since I donno her well…and all I can do is to pray that miracle will happen and her sister will be fine.