Saturday, October 25, 2008

Are you happy? Trust and Internal Strengths

Had annual work review yesterday... Yes, the concluding one after my 3-year stint at ETD (ironically, it's not at the end of the year, I mean, December! Well, that's MOE's practice, anyway.).

Well, was asked... am I happy here? This is a question that pops up very often during work review - year in, year out, I guess. More often that not, the first reaction why this question?

  • Can't the supervisor or leader able to tell - from what they observe, from what they could sense? Somehow, it comes with some negative connotation?
  • To many, it seems that one would ask this question because unhappiness was felt. So, by asking is to get to the bottom of the cause?

To be fair, we should also consider another perspective...

  • They wanted to know, and give the officer the opportunity to voice out their views... if they are happy, why? This would eventually draw up a list that reminds everybody what makes the place a happy work place.
  • We can also perceive it as an effort to improve/better the working environment, which has an impact on the physical and (more importantly) the emotional health of people in the workplace!
  • Perhaps from this perspective, we appreciate why the question is asked.

To be fair, there isn't a single workplace is just a 100% happy workplace. Sometimes, in our conversation with others, we would envy, from the how happy this person is as he/she describes the kind of work he/she deals with, how understanding his/her supervisors are, etc... However, we would have to bear in mind, what's each individual's yardstick? A happy workplace for one may not necessary be a happy workplace for another.

  • For instance, someone who draws satisfaction from the kind of work they do, despite that it might require him to carry out other duties beyond the main defined jobscope (including work overtime), he would share the excitement with others and express his happiness in terms of the satisfaction he gets from the work.
  • On the other hand, when the same kind of work is given to someone who only want to work within the stipulated working hours and nothing else outside that timeframe, he would be very unhappy with work and subsequently the working environment as it requires him to operate beyond their defined boundary and expectation.

Back to the beginning... yes, was asked the question again... I guess, to be frank, I'm not 100% of the time happy at all times... There are ups and downs... regardless of anywhere - be it the current work place or my previous ones... be it local or overseas... But more importantly, is, I believe, is our ability to handle the situation and iron out, straighten out the thinking. It matters!

I think, the most fundamental thing is TRUST. It has to be established right from day 1... having a common goal to achieve... and having understand where everybody's coming from... and assuming that it's a constant element.

It helps alot when trust exists! It helps one to shape the thinking... and certainly helps one to straighten thoughts out more easily... with that guiding principle - the good intention and trust... No matter what - it's still the good intention... and trust and believe that the guiding principle remains unchange in everyone.

Unhappiness normally arises when there's conflict between views... however, it's also time when one re-examines its belief and reflect... and self realisation of what one could have done and why not doing... of course, what's next is not to pay lip service to give empty promises like "from now onwards, I will... " but did not follow by observable actions... that's evident for improvement.

I also came to realise that it really depends on individual's personality and strengths, being capable to do such self-psycho-ing exercise... Think cool!!!! That's another important condition for this to happen... hahaha.... and yes, another factor to note... how deep-seated are the negative thoughts are when one is frustrated.

2 things in the successful formula - EQ and AQ!!!

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