KNOWLEDGE-BASED SOCIETY

This is my second blog for May. I know I've missed 2 weeks of blogging and I haven't been true to my words - to blog very week. But truth to be told, it isn't because of lack of time, or because I was deprived of any Internet Connection. I was simply being myself... putting things off until the last minute!

May has been a very rewarding month for me... in terms of career advancement as well as in terms of new knowledge acquisition. I think I've learned a lot these 3-4 weeks than I had been in the last 2 years. When I say learning, I mean in all aspects of consulting work as well as in my personal life.

First of all, I'm now involved in the development of a blueprint for Knowledge Management (KM). Take a wild guess who that is for... hehehhee... To my surprise, this whole KM thingy was actually highlighted by our beloved Tun M. (and guess in which year..) in 1991. WOW!!! How long ago was that...?? In 2001 (if I'm not mistaken), a govt. agency (which naming of it is unnecessary) came out with what they called "Knowledge-Based Economy Master Plan". The heading itself can send shivers down your spine. And in that so-called Master Plan, there is a specific chapter (Chapter 8 - Fast Forwarding the Public Sector into the K-Based Civil Service) - one whole bloody chapter dedicated to the public sector. And in that so-called Master Plan, it is also stated that our public sector should achieve K-Based Civil Service in (take a wild guess again...) YEAR 2005!!!

And here we are... (my team and I actually) just starting to develop the blueprint... so what does that tell you..?? When all the top guns on their leather seats are preaching about KM, the arms and legs are now scurrying about doing god knows what to make this happen. I just hope that this "initiative" won't be like other gov. project implementations where THEY DON'T ACTUALLY KNOW HOW TO ASSESS THE ROIs...

ieja

A NEW CHALLENGE

I missed my weekly deadline to post a new post. I missed my first week of May blog... This is so typical of me you know... putting things off until the very last minute. I always find excuses not to do things. When am I going to change?

The question is not "when am I going to change?", but "am I ever going to change?". People say that old habits die hard... and I believe in that to some extents. Once, someone told me that it is going to be hard for someone to change his routine or habits once he has reached half of his lifetime... which means, if you are 25 years and above, it is likely that you will die with the habits or routine that you have incalculated in you for the first 25 years of your life.

Like I said, I believe in that to some extents. For instance, if in the first 25 years of your life, you have never been serious about praying 5 times a day as a Muslim, it's going to be very hard for you to start in the later years of your life. I have real life examples on this you know... That's how I draw this conclusion. But at the same time, I also believe that if you have great willpower, you can change yourself, no matter how hard it is and how long it will take you. I have also witnessed this in some people.

It's funny you know... with that realisation, I still have difficulties in changing some of my bad habits... like putting things off till the last minute... hehehhee... I suppose old habits do die hard... and I really really really need strong willpower to change that habit of mine...

ieja

A PLACE TO CALL HOME?

I'm so very happy. I finally have a place to call home soon. Well, 'soon' is not as soon as i want it to. But at least I have something to dream about for the next 1 year, like what paint colour do I want to choose for the different rooms in the house... My hubby would definitely scream at my choices. Better leave the ID to him...

The headaches that I experienced in securing the home loan are somehow forgotten. The worries and the stress are now more on getting the financial transaction between the end financier and the developer done smoothly. That means chasing after the lawyers to act as quickly as possible to comply to the timeline given by both parties. Otherwise, the victim here would be me and Hubby, having had to pay for the interest if the payments to the developer are not made on time.

It's funny how the system works. I still can't comprehend the explanation behind that kind of transaction. If the end financier fails to pay the developer on time, it is the purchaser that gets the penalty. How does that work? It's not like it is our fault that the payment is not made on time. The fault should lie on the end financier. Is there a flaw in our home purchasing law? Why should the purchaser be burden with the interest when the delay is actually caused by the end financier or the developer?

Whatever headaches that I will get as the result of the 'communication' among me, as the purchaser, the end financier and the developer, I now have the 'avenue' to dream of the colour of my curtains, what I want to buy for my house, how I want to decorate my son's room and the one coming as well. That should keep me smiling for a while...



ieja

AM I PRO-ACTIVE?

I really admire people who stand up for a cause that they believe in. People who are activists - may it be animal, environment, or anything that is good. I have a friend who once was very active in Women's Aid Organisation - an organisation that is committed to confronting violence against women. She would see victims of domestic violence, try to help and counsel them. Another friend of mine is also actively promoting a change in our political arena, in her own way. But whatever passion that these two friends have, it really awes me.

It dawns to me that when some people really believe in something, they put their heart and soul (effort and money too most of the times) into it. Am I such a person? Are you such a person? Do I have something that I really really believe in and fight for? Do you?

Recently, there are a lot of causes for us Malaysians to fight for. I don't want to talk about our national political situation as I HATE POLITICS (I think it brings the worse in people...!!). One of the issues that really caught my attention is the call to boycott Danish products. All this while, I have never taken notice of any of these calls before - numerous calls to boycott American products, for example. But somehow, this particular call has really made an impact on me. I made an effort to search for a whole list of Danish products that can be found in Malaysia, I forwarded emails that support this boycott - which I rarely do! I have even started to read the labels on the products in Carrefour and Jaya Jusco...!! You can imagine how glad I am that IKEA is not a Danish company.. hehehhe... Another surprising thing that I did was searching for a YOUTUBE video that counter-attacked the film that brought all this.

Even I was surprised with the effort that I put in for this cause. But, does this make me pro-active? An activist? Or am I merely a supporter?

Well, I do have the intention of joining organisations that fight for the environment. I sometimes wanted to write to the authority highlighting this issue in KL. I even blogged in The STAR, expressing how I feel about the A-G's Audit Report of misuse of people's money in our government (which to my frustration no more news coverage on this).

But I still feel that I can't call all those as "passions". If they were my "passions", I would have invested my energy, a little bit of my money and my quality time with my husband and son to fight for the good causes that I believe in. So am I pro-active? Not in this sense, I guess... I think I'm just a good supporter.

ieja

WHAT JOB SATISFACTION?

After a discussion with my boss, it is final that my last day of work would be this end of April. Then come May, I'll be at the new company in KLCC. But frankly speaking, after experiencing the new office, i don't actually looking forward to starting at my new office. This could be because it only takes me about 10 minutes to drive to work nowadays. I know I'm going to miss that short drive when I start at KLCC.

But then, the pros of leaving outweigh the cons. Thus, the leaving will still happen with much anticipation, largely because of the perks and the increment in salary. I guess that is what motivates most people to change jobs. Find me a person who would stay in a job because of job satisfaction alone, I'll bet you my one month new salary that if the conditions are right (salary wise), that person would surely be happy to move to a new one.

But I have met not one, but many people who would stay on a job because of complacency. These people are parasites to me as they don't contribute anything worthy to the company. Their daily contributions are very minimal that they don't add value to the company. Yet, some of these parasites (or passengers) hope for annual bonus and increment. Yes, I've met these people and some of them are my friends. How do you tell these people that they can produce better results for the betterment of the company? That they can do better than the "auto-pilot mode" work that they usually produce?

As a supervisor, I personally feel that the annual bonus and increment should be based on staff's performances for that year. If they perform above the average expectation of a boss, then they do deserve the bonus and increment. But the question now is if a staff's performance is what is exactly described in her/his job scope, does s/he deserve the 10% increment and the 3-month bonus? Logically, if the staff performs as what is described in her/his job scope, s/he deserves the monthly salary as that is what promised to her/him. The amount of effort that s/he puts in every working day is paid for. Increment and bonus come in only when s/he performs tasks that are not prescribed.

I understand that it is at the discretion of the management to consider the cost of living when they pass the judgment whether to give their staff salary increment or not. But usually that is not the case. Take my husband's company, for example. He's been working there for more than 10 years... and he only got his increment this year. Bonuses... well, they call it "ang pau". No offense to the company. But why does my husband stay that long with them? Well... you guessed it wrong... it's not job satisfaction! He arrives at the office usually at 10 am or later... and he comes back at 6 pm... well, may be slightly later. But the catchy part is... he gets to go on leave unrecorded, and usually at his own convenience. But of course I can't argue about his diligence in completing his work despite the privileges that he enjoys.

Well, the bottom line is, different people think differently on how they should be rewarded and recognised in a company. At the same time, the management also has different ways of evaluating the staff. If you're lucky, you will be rewarded for the things that you put little effort in. Lucky you..!!

ieja

RESIGNATION ACKNOWLEDGED

My resignation was finally acknowledged by the management. But they are quite reluctant to release me as per my notice period. I can understand why. Not to brag, but it's quite hard to find anybody that can replace me. Not because I'm indispensable (well, in a way, their reluctance says it... hahahah), but because the work that I'm doing is quite specialised that it is hard to get somebody to just come on and carry on with what I'm doing. The person needs months of training before s/he can do exactly what I'm doing. And even that it is quite impossible to achieve my kind of level 100%.

But, as my old boss told me before, we sometimes outgrow the organisation that we work for. When that happens, we have to know that it is time to move on to something better and more challenging. I guess that is what I'm doing, moving on to something better, although it is a scary feeling.

I remember the first time I resigned. Of course that was from the first real job that I had after graduating. Well... in that particular case, I didn't actually properly resign... hahahaha... i actually asked for a 2-month unpaid leave, giving my "poor health" as a reason. Then, when the management approved, I simply went to my second real job and sent a resignation letter after a month of leave (or did I? Can't quite remember really... hahaha). I know.. I know... you must be shouting hell... But to my defense, that company was really crap, treating the staff like shit. For all I know, they deserved it. One of my colleagues even wrote the management a letter citing how bad they treated the staff. He really had the balls. But then, it was a poison letter.... hehehhe.

Ieja

MY FIRST POSTING

This is supposed to be my first posting. I've been putting off writing this blog for many months now. Not because I don't have anything to write about... I do. But maybe because I'm still a little bit skeptical about blogging. Numerous stories I've heard before about blogging, how bloggers "reveal" themselves in cyberspace... so I guess my worry is that how you (the readers) are going to judge me based on what I'm writing.
To update on what's new with me... well, I've tendered my resignation about two weeks ago. It was a scary move if you ask me. I'm so comfortable with what I'm doing now and the thought of moving on to something new is kind of scary. Everybody feels that way I think. Attempting something new is never a not-so-scary feeling. Most of my worries (worries again...??) are mostly about the new job that I'll be taking on. I know it's going to be a big jump from where I'm now. But there won't be any flexibility that I'm enjoying now. There won't be any "free time" for me to go anywhere I want. And most importantly, the working hours are fixed and as such, I won't be able to "flexi" my time to stretch my quality time with my son.
But all in all, I want to believe that I am destined to be great. I really want to believe that, although there are parts of me that doubt myself. But I really want to believe that one day, I shall be a 'somebody'. That's one dream that I always have, even when I was a child pretending to be a corporate leader in my mom's high heels, driving a fancy car to work (I used my house key as the car key and a rattan sofa as the car... and this was when I was about 9 or 10 years old... hehheheh).
Enough for my first posting. A glimpse of what I am now, what I will be in future and what I was as a child. So judge me...!!!
ieja