About working

As we were talking about high staff turnover in our office today, I've mentioned that one of the biggest thing I've learnt from this job is that I'm actually very capable and competent (only to a certain extent I guess, lol). I said before I started, I thought I will probably be struggling with basic jobs and even be lucky to get 20k per year, and now I've realized that working is not as difficult as it sounds/seems, and many people are definitely not smarter (see my previous post re incompetent employee).

Since working, the importance of problem solving skill becomes very apparent. On many occasions, people (including myself) would simply ask "what should I do" or trying to pass off a problem to someone else rather than trying to spend a little more time and effort to solve them. As you progress in the job, it will become one of the key factors to determine whether you will get the next promotion to further yourself. It is really simple, all it takes is to look at a problem from a different angle/perspective, taking a detour. This sounds easy, but it does take time to be good at it, and now, I think, thanks to my work, I am pretty good at it now! Although this has a lot to do with our not so good management style, where certain employees aren't willing to contribute/participate yet others are being overworked and not receiving appropriate credit/recognition for the effort. I have seen some very good employees with strong potentials leaving because of this, we had an excellent staff that was able to pick up new tasks quickly, but after a while, their approach to problems became "how am I supposed to do that?" or "I have no idea how did that happened". Unfortunately (or fortunately) I was put into a position where I had to deal with a lot of those problems that no one would want to handle, which in the end, gave me the opportunity to practice and improve. (Sometimes at the company's expense, but hey, I'm trying my best lol)

If you are in a crummy job and thinking it's going nowhere, firstly, it may not be you, do not underestimate yourself or your potential; secondly, do not say no to new challenges, accept them and allow yourself to experience the challenge, you will get benefit out of them; finally, if you think you deserve better, you most likely do, take risks while you can, you never know what lies ahead of you unless you take that first step!

If you are an employer, good help is HARD to find, if you have a competent employee or someone with potential, give them opportunity to further themselves, encourage, do not discourage them by finger pointing and blaming; recognition and reward must be proportionate to input and effort, not necessarily financial incentives, but understanding and good temper might even get you further!