A friend of mine was in Jakarta for an IT project which was for a Japanese client (different client from the one I was ‘serving’). From what he told me, the entire project was a total mess…maybe worse than the one I was involved in.

Told you common sense is very rare nowadays!

First, the client didn’t know what he wanted and kept on changing the requirements. Second, when the project has been ‘completed’, the client scolded my friend and his team for being useless because they have no common sense and kept giving him things that he didn’t want. According to him, my friend and the team should just use their ‘common sense’ in order to know what kind of business processes the system should cater for. Hmm…no information….so they have to use their common sense to get those information……..does that mean he’s asking them to GUESS what the system should have?

Now now now…don’t you think this kind of situation sounds pretty familiar? A lot of clients actually expect the consultants/programmers or anyone they’re paying their money for, to have the right common sense and to come out with whatever they want WITHOUT asking them. This is possible, if there’s someone in the team who can do mind-reading. Otherwise, it’s impossible.

This is because each company has its own unique business processes and no matter how much we try to use our common sense, it’ll be very hard to ‘predict’ or ‘guess’ which is actually the correct one. The best solution here is to suggest to them your ‘best practices’ if they don’t have one….and if they do have one, get it from them without making any wild guesses. That’s the best we can do.

Because at the end of the day, you will be surprised that some companies have really weird business processes…..processes which don’t make sense at all and processes which make your wild guesses look childish.

So now you tell me, do you still want me (or my friend, or anyone you’re paying to work on a project) to use my common sense ……..or do you want to minimize the time I spend on guessing, and tell me right away what are your business processes? Remember that your common sense might not be the same with my common sense.

Decide now, and don’t blame me if your decision makes you lose money though I’m pretty sure you will. Hahah. Because the ‘blaming’ and ‘flaming’ are part of the deal after all

I’ve been working pretty hard for the past few weeks due to a never-ending project – weekdays, weekends, day and night. A friend of mine knows about this and messaged me in Yahoo Messenger.

Friend : Hey Alvin, working so hard?

Is working hard = spoiling the market?

Alvin : Yeah. Project deadline is coming and still got tonnes to do.

Friend : But today is Saturday leh.

Alvin : Sundays also need to work, not just Saturdays.

Friend : Wah, you shouldn’t do that you know. If you do that, the bosses will think the other people are lazy since they are not working on weekends.

Alvin : Hmm, I just feel its my responsibility to deliver this project on time.

Friend : Aiyo, spoil market lah you.

A year go, when employers are trying to find people desperately, one can always tell his/her friends not to spoil the market by working too hard. But that was a year ago when the global economy was at its peak. Things are pretty different now.

To be honest, what my friend said that day kinda surprised me a little. I thought the news on job cuts have been quite wide-spread to most people. But it seems that there are still some people who realize about the situation….but are unwilling to let down their ego. To them, they are not being paid to work hard and if you want them to work hard….then please, pay them more (OT, claims, etc).

Well, the thing I want to say here is that…….time has changed. The demand for job is higher than before, but the supply is becoming lower each passing day. If you think that you are not being paid to work hard, then by all means, do as you wish. Remember that if you don’t want to do it, someone else will do your job for you HAPPILY.

Sadly but true. We, the employees, no longer have a strong bargaining power. It’s either we do it and become an asset to the company, or we don’t and become a liability.

And when economy is bad, the first thing people will remove is — liability.

Perhaps it’s time to change your mindset that working hard = survival + being responsibile, not spoiling the market.

During my first job in a local IT company, I used to play a lot of Warcraft and Starcraft games in the office with my colleagues. We would go to office every Saturday, work for half day and play for half day. It’s a very fun and enjoyable working culture – you work hard, you play hard.

And this kind of culture is not new in most companies since there are a lot of people (mostly the guys) who will use their company resources to play games together.

Seriously, I wouldn't mind if we have an employee like this playing game in the office

The issue here is, this is illegal. One should never use company resources to play games since it is not part of your job description. Company resources should only be used for work-related purposes and by using the computers to play network game (and to install illegal software into the computers), it can be considered as serious misconduct depending on how strict your IT support and HR people are.

To make things worse, there are people who actually play such games DURING the office hour.

Maybe this kind of behavior is OKAY few years ago but certainly not OKAY now. Remember that we’re in a recession now where many people are still jobless and more companies are trying to terminate people.

My advice to everyone – don’t give your bosses reason to terminate you. Misconduct is a serious offence and they don’t really need to compensate you for terminating you.

If you want to play games with your colleagues, spend a few bucks, go to the cybercafes.

After all….it’ll be very sad and pathetic if one is being terminated by the company …for playing computer games.

P/S … i might not be able to reply comments as often as before since i’m in the middle of a WAR. =_= din sleep for few days already…project going live.

Becoming financially independent is one of my lifelong dreams not because I love to have tonnes of money (er..well…it’s one of the reasons, but not the most important reason). Its because I can pursue my REAL dreams with those money (like owning an animation studio, etc). But firstly, I need to achieve the first part – achieving financial freedom aka financially independent.

That’s why I’m quite stingy financially conscious nowadays. I don’t spend much anymore and I cut down a lot on my WANTs. Some of my friends and relatives noticed this change and told me that life is short and I should enjoy life more. According to them, too much planning and thinking might not be good since I will not enjoy my life that much due to the constraints.

Will I become like this? I mean in terms of the hair and the look Hope not!

True. We will never know what may happen tomorrow. We might no longer be here to use the money we’ve saved, to drive the BMW we just bought or to enjoy the newly-installed jacuzzi. And we can’t bring those things with us to the other world. So the best thing to do, logically speaking, is to enjoy while we’re still here – buy those things we want, and enjoy!

A lot of people told me that (and a lot of them are still telling me that).

To me, my opinion is slightly different. I prefer to strive or ‘suffer’ a little now, in order to pursue what I believe in. I might not achieve those dreams in my lifetime since there are things which are outside my control (the LUCK factor). However, I feel that just like everything we do, the important thing is to try our very best and don’t regret. The last thing I want is to regret for not doing my best in pursuing my dreams or something I strongly believe in while I still have the ability to do so.

I’ve been given the opportunity to live in this world. And when I leave this world, I want to know that I’ve at least done my best to pursue my dreams. Whether I achieve them or not, it’s a different story.

So the next time someone tells me to stop worrying so much or stop thinking so much and just enjoy life, I will tell them that even though it’s important for me to enjoy my life, it’s even more important for me to pursue my dreams as long as I’m in this world.

Life is short. So, if there’s something you really want to achieve…I strongly believe you should try your best to achieve it. Whether you enjoy your life or not, it depends on how you manage your time and how you look at things. Remember that to some people, they can enjoy life with the simplest of things – sky, birds, family, coffee, etc.