I have been introduced to Dilbert comics by one of my colleagues last year and since love the jokes that Scott Adams has come up with because I can relate some of the characters to the people I met at work. I had a roller coaster year this year in work, with 3 changes in my direct line mgrs, an internal transfer which I have a fair bit of difficulty in seeking blessings from my respectable ex-boss and adapting to cultural changes in my current function. Having gone through the worst in this year from last 3 weeks, I am fairly settled in my current new role and had enjoyed the work surrounding it as it turn out to be really strategic and value-adding (rather than operational). And I think I have started to gain some respect within the dept as more and more co-colleagues have sought my opinions in their work, and even the most political powerful FC has become nicer to me these days..
Here are some of the interesting people that exist around in my organisation:
1) Hypo(crites) - As I am involved in a charity committee, anything to do with numbers got automatically dropped onto my lap, eventhough you seriously don't need a finance degree/trained person to carry out these task. So almost any events, any coordination work has got my name jotted down in their list. And the chairman was not ever sympathetic with the kind of workload evolving ard these tasks. Some comm members, who have only seemed to have led in a particular small event totally washed their hands in any other events that followed beyond. And as they get to understand the kind of work demands in my finance role (after getting to know me as a person), they openly and gracefully said," hey May, let N(chairman) know that your tasks are too heavy so you shd voice out during the meeting that you need help" "let us know when you need my help", etc. etc. Then when emails came flying around on questions in relation to fund raising rules, although they are copied in the email, no one replied. It took me 2 days to observe the non-response and I took on the responsibility to send my reply on behalf of the comm.. I call them Hypos
2) BD (Big Deals) - I happened to find out that some ex-mgrs in my ex-dept went around sharing the kind of achievements given to them. It goes something like this - "u know it is not easy to get a 1 rating from this boss but I got one from him" and understanding that this news will spread because it was shared with a whole bunch of team within the dept. As a sensible mgr, one shd not try to cause discomfort for other mgrs who may not be getting that kind of recognition from the same boss. Something which is not healthy for the dept as a whole, as ratings are deemed as judgement to a certain extent. I usually play down stuff that my ex-boss had done for me simply because I do not want to be seen as a threat to others and cause un-necessary unhappiness. That's how I deal with peers to have a peaceful life..
3) AAA (always attract attention) - needless to explain, this group of co-workers like to have everyone's attention focus on them for them to feel "really impt" in the workplace. I concluded that most of them seek to achieve the most out from their career path. And if such attention is not provided to them, you will be in their bad books.
4) ACB (always act bz) - some group of pple actually do not have much to keep them occupied at work (and I have seen many of such cases!) but they make it a point to look busy everyday and always turn up for meetings late each time to create the impression that they are in high demand! In some extreme cases, they gave many pple impressions that they have meetings scheduled back-to-back but I happened to bump into them at the coffee stalls as I shuttered between PBTP and battery road offices on some occasions.
5) Never make decisions - simply afraid to take responsibility and accountability of what is within their area of work - do I need to elaborate more?
The most absurd thing I heard this week is that a lady who has cumulated longer work experience than me is looking for a mentor (formally!) so that she can discuss with this mentor in any single problem that she encounters in work!! I know this lady is super kiasi in sharing her work opinions when needed and had to seek many pple's advice before executing a task. Wouldn't having a mentor made her more reliant? I cannot help but to advise her that what she needs to do to help herself is to start making decisions based on her own judgement and live with those decisions. Even if they do not turn out right (there's actually no right or wrong if you think abt it in the workplace), take it as a lesson learnt and move on with your life.
Many occasions, I have been toying with the idea of being a SAHM, but without meeting different kinds of people in the workplace, I may shortchange my children in future as I would like to be their good advisors when they encounter even more absurd work situations!
