An epitome of Occupy Wall Street

In fact, this post is not going to talk about the recent global uprising against the elite class. I worked for a respectable multinational company. Today, i had lunch with a colleague of mine who is very successful, and highly looked up upon by many people in our company. He had shared some of his friends' success story, who can be viewed as cream of the crop by many regular employees including myself. At the end, he sighed for where he is ending up now. However, in the eyes of mine, he is already quite a high achiever. I dare say he is probably among the top 5% in terms of corporate pyramid in our country.

The old saying that "Greed is a bottomless pit" can't be more true. I have to say my colleague is a smart, good-nature, cheerful and friendly guy, but yet he can't escape from the desire of success. This is how the society is operating now, and we see a accelerated hallowing out of the middle class. The worrying part is that we have reach a juncture that you will make it to the top or slip to the drain.

I can't escape that too.

Why people hate their job?

We all know that we spend more than 50% of our time in work, yet how many of us are really looking forward to come to office? I am sure some of us do, however similarly there are plenty of us, if not hate, but forced to come to work. I figure the reason is very obvious when the job don't give you a sense of achievement. The can be many reasons, among them are lack of job satisfaction or mismatch in job expectation. And due to the mismatch in expectation, the management sometimes set unrealistic goals. When everyone is fighting for their own cause, that creates frictions and conflicts. Especially so in office environment, there are always people who like to bulldoze through their objective by pressure. For me, I come to this situation whereby someone who just always over-interpret my message. For a simple act of asking of information, he misread that i'm challenging the authority. All the aggregation of problem really keep me wonder if i'm in the right job. I love the work i'm doing, but the complication of office interaction with people really tick me off. sigh~

Generous gifts

This morning a colleague who just came back from Thailand hand me a bar of chocolate as a souvenir gift. The price tag was still on the gift, I notice that it cost almost RM50. Considering we are not very close yet, and my another colleagues are also receiving other gifts. So far this is the most generous gift i received from a colleague after their trip. Usually we will receive some post cards, sea shells or refrigerator magnetic but seldom "pricey" item like this :) My the other colleague quip that, "she is rich...". Anyway, it's with good intention, it doesn't mean rich people are necessary generous, in Chinese saying, "For some people, the richer they are, the more stringier they become". So we are still feel grateful to her.

Then I share this story with my younger sister. Apparently she has similar experience. Once she received a travelling gift from an fund analyst which worth around RM 100. Considering there is no direct interest on their working relationship, so there is no question of business conduct violation.

For me, I think it boils down to which social classes we usually mix around. For some people, my story may be worthless to brag about. So, what's the most expensive gift that you ever receive in work? Of course, you shall only count those without any intentions behind.

They don't care about what you knows, until they know how much you cares

It happens that after I blog the last post, I run into the above quote "They don't care about how much you know, until they know how much you care". It makes me feel guilty for being too cynical in the last post. What happens outside of me, I can't do anything about it, but I can think positively towards it, and get myself adapt and make use of the external environment.

I feel the quote is very true, and decide to share it here. For if you want others listen to you, you first have to listen to them and understand what's their motive.

Things which are more important than knowledge

After working for a darn 15 years, i am getting more convinced that there are always things which are more important than knowledge. Things like your face. Yes, like it or not, handsome or pretty person has the advantage. People just loath to talk to you, avoid staring at your face, and there you lose your deal. Secondly is about the command of language. Though I had been learning English for good old 20 years, nonetheless flowery words just can't flow out from my mouth naturally. It's merely because I grown up in a non-English speaking environment, I just don't blend in naturally to those English speaking circles. Then it's about how your lifestyle, the more down-to-earth are you, whereby you rather play badminton than play golf, there you choose the place you end up with. I have seen people, now most of them are younger than me, drive the posh car, dressed in the latest vogue, they don't even need to speak, they already win. Who really care what's inside behind your skull. There are just too many other things, like who you know, who's your buddies, who's your drinking partners... so if you prefer to go back after 5, and lock yourself up with your family, you just not belong into the class. Therefore, the world operate in such a order that the technician knows better than the engineer, and the IT architect is talking about business and not IT. The IT vendor are educated to talk business and ROI, the customer told them so "I don't care how the system works, how it's going to benefit my BUSINESS?"

Time's up, I have to get back to my work and continue cram in impressive statements into my business value proposal.

Ugly faces in workplace

One of the most loathsome things in the workplace for me is seeing a bunch of your colleagues flatter the so-called "expert". The expert do carry some credibility, however the way these people treating him as if he is the god really make me feel sick. In such situation, you have 2 choices, 1) to follow the majority and betray your own conscience; 2) to be yourself and make yourself the only eccentric, and eventually you will be thrown out from the circle.

Whatever you want to say i am just sour grape, but I really wish one day I do not need to deal with this bullshits.

Some are looking to come in, some are looking to go out

The above statement can't be more true in the sales organization. Recently saw an exodus of employees from our company. And funny still, just recently chat over with a customer whether he/she should accept job offers from our company. Some one I knew in the internet said this is first time she ever immediately reject job hunter's offer even before listening to him. Whether a company is shabby, has nothing to do if it's a company suits you. Some of the friends apparent works in the best performed company but also curse and swear all days.

Effective communication

To communicate effectively is to add humor in your conversation intermittently. What's humor? it's about looking serious thing at the other side, the light part.

This require quick, witty thinking. Need to talk more, practice more. Like my friend said, what else can you lose further, you can't be worse than sitting down there by not making a move.

Looks lousy and clumsy in front everybody on the stage, but even in my age, i still have lots to learn.

Last day in Oracle

The mixed feeling goes deep into in my heart. Looking back, I had worked with some of the largest MNC over the years and now moving to another giant. But Oracle is special, it's my first ever job in the sales org. My experience here transformed my perception about the sales people. They are more hardworking than I ever thought,more cheerful than I ever imagine, and definitely the most shrewd lot that I ever worked with.

I treasure the friendship I have earned in this company. I remember the glory, the difficult time, and whatever it is, this journey will be a forever memorable one for me.