Regaining the joy of work

I attended the APAC Strengths Coaches Community End-of-Year Gathering today and it was a good time to learn from the strengths experts as they share their experience and the latest insights from their research data.

What caught my attention was that well-being is now the new challenge, and from this slide, we can see how burnout has been now exacerbated because of the pandemic.

And when I showed this to one of my friends, whom I believe is experiencing burnout herself, she asked me a very good question: why do they talk so much about manager support but I don't see it coming?

A company will never be able to prevent their employees from burning out if their definitions of fairness, manageable workload, clear communication, manager support and reasonable time pressure differ from that of the employees'.

Until and unless we can all agree on what is fairness, how much workload can one take, how communication can be better, what kind of support does the employee need and how much time is needed, the employees will be burned out.

The expectations from the managers has been rising especially in these days of remote working because they fear that their people will not be productive otherwise. 

Managers, don't just talk about support and fairness, don't assume you are communicating well. Find time to talk to your people and find out what it takes for them to put in good work and still be satisfied from it all.

Help us regain the joy of work. Don't let us burn out.

Pearlie

A full day of back to back Teams meetings

I spent the entire day today running townhall meetings for my company from 9am to almost 5pm with 15 minutes breaks and an hour lunch break in between. 

By the time we were done, I practically shut down both my PC and my brain and retired for the day. 

It was not a tough thing to do but having the mind on full alert to manage all the sessions from 9 to 5, it was certainly taxing. 

I hope the next townhall will just be one session for everyone.

pearlie

Getting familiar with MS Teams and MS Live Events

I spent the whole day figuring out how MS Live Events would work for an event for my company, and if MS Teams would be preferred for our purposes.

I did not have the chance to host the Zoom meetings for my church but from my limited view, I can see how much better and versatile Zoom is compared to Teams.

Except that for Zoom's capabilities, it has compromised its security and we are not allowed to use it for work anymore.

We have to use the more secure MS Teams and MS Live Events and it looks like I will be spending the whole day again tomorrow testing it and getting it ready for use next week.

pearlie

MCO Day 10, WFH Day 8

Believe it or not we have gone through 10 days of restricted movement and 8 days of working from home. 

I am exhausted. 

Working from home during this MCO period has been non-stop for me. The moment I start work at 9:00 in the morning, it's a non-stop day until at least 7:30 in the evening, and on some days up to 10:30 at night. There is literally no break in between because lunch breaks are cooking time and that has become work too.

I am exhausted.

The nice thing though is I just received a text message from a colleague appreciating what I have been doing at work. His encouragement and nice words certainly brightened up my evening. Thanks Krishnan. That meant a lot. 

I am encouraged.

That actually brought me to tears because it has been quite an emotional week. My son returned from the US and we are worried about his health and our health. And I have been praying for a friend who had contracted the Covid-19 virus and I received news that he has passed away this morning. RIP my brother James Wong.

I am downcast.

But why so downcast O my soul, put your trust in the Lord, by day He commands His steadfast love and by night His song is with me*. I will trust and depend on Him fully, my God and my Abba Father. And it's a good thing that it's now Friday and the weekend.

I will re-charge. 

pearlie

* Psalm 42:5a, 8a

MCO Day 6, WFH Day 4: changed my work settings

I told myself that I will not use the sofa when I started working from home last week but by the time is was Friday evening, I was exhausted.

One of the reasons I thought could probably be that the chair that I was using is not ergonomically designed and not ideal for long-hour use.

And the thing is, all this while whenever I worked at home, I'm always on the sofa. 

So that was what I did today: worked on my sofa.

And I'm happy. 

However, it's only Monday. I'll have to see if I feel the same on Friday.

pearlie

Are you covered in data and speed?

With us all at home, are you covered in data usage and speed?

Those working from home with Zoom and Microsoft Teams, do check your data usage. It might be massive. 

Those free at home and watching movies and accessing YouTube, you may be maxing out your data usage as well.

To share, we at U Mobile offer Unlimited Data in very affordable plans and much more. Check it out in https://www.u.com.my/.

pearlie

Work From Home Day 3

It's the third day working from home and I'm already exhausted. Why is it that I feel so much more tired working from home compared to in the office?

I kept to my hours just like in the office. I don't even have to drive or get stuck in traffic.

So why am I more tired? 

Is it because it's warmer at home? I don't walk as much as in the office? I don't have colleagues to talk to and laugh with? 

I really have no idea.

pearlie

Cooking at Home when Working from Home

This is one of the best things I have bought: a pressure cooker. 

And I don't believe I have had it since 2016. It still feels so new to me. Probably because I don't use it as much as I should. 

But with the current work-from-home arrangements, this is coming in handy. I wanted to make a simple lunch today and decided I'd just make chicken porridge. 

To got the chicken out of the freezer at 8:00am, pop everything into the pressure cooker at 11:45am, which is just rice, water and chicken, and cook it for 13 minutes. 

I was only able to break from work after 12:30pm and the pressure cooker was already on warm setting for 26 minutes. 

And here's my simple chicken porridge. 

For those who seldom cook may feel that it's a very difficult thing to do. I'd refer you then to what I have posted before, to what Michael Pollan said in a Coursera lecture I have attended.

He said that cooking isn't so complicated if we don't make it so. All you need to have in your home are these few basic ingredients: olive oil, onions, garlic, lemons, sugar, and salt. And as an Asian, adding soy sauce and oyster sauce would complete the list. 

And I had thought that the more ingredients I put in, the more complete the dish. Now I think differently. It was then that I made the yummiest stewed lamb shank with only 2 ingredients, lamb and onions. 

We can cook. We don't have to make it complicated. 

pearlie

Work From Home Day 1

For someone who does not prefer to work from home but having no choice about it, Work From Home Day 1 went on surprisingly quite well.

I was wondering where in my house should I work in. I refused to use the sofa, which I usually do when I do some work at home sometimes, and thought the table behind my sofa would be perfect. 

It was good except I am not used to sitting on that chair for hours on end. I realised I had to get up and walk around once in awhile.

Our team had a virtual meeting that lasted for two hours, all because we didn't have anyone chasing us out of the meeting room that we would have booked for one and a half hours!

Therefore, I made a point to have a time keeper for our next meeting.

So what did I do to make it work for me? 

1. Dress for work. I am a notch more casual than what I would usually wear to work but at least I dressed up.

2. Don't work from bed or from the sofa. I set it up with a table and chair as close as what I have in my office. My only problem is that I am sharing the space with my husband. We kept invading each other's space in the sounds that we make and the TV he watches. It's learning to be patient and not snap at each other so readily. 

3. Maintain my normal hours of work. This is most important. I can be someone who would work late into the hours if I get into the zone. At least when I'm in the office, I leave when it's time to leave. There will always be more work tomorrow. But when I'm working at home, there's no "leaving". But if I keep to the hours, I will tell myself to stop. 

4. Follow my calendar closely and record what I do from hour to hour. I am a go-with-the-flow kind of person and I need to make sure I don't go down a rabbit hole and forget to come back up. At least when I'm at work, my team will walk over and start discussing with me pulling me out of my hole if I'm ever in one. 

5. Have frequent check-ins with the team. We have no problems communicating in the office since my team and I sit in a row and we'd just start talking to each other without any barriers. But now we don't see each other any more. So we use Microsoft Teams to chat just like we do in the office but then we don't say as much, since texts are always short. But we did have a team video conference meeting that almost felt like we were all in the same room.

So this is Day 1. I just shut down my computer, took a shower and got into my pajamas. 

So far so good. Now onto Day 2.

pearlie

Getting ready to work from home

Our government gave a Movement Control Order to restrict our movement in the coming two weeks. 

With that, we still have a day today at the office to get ourselves ready: for our core functions to work in office and non-core functions to work from home. Since we are an essential services organisation, we can still operate in this period of restriction, but we are keeping it skeleton with just the core functions in the office. 

It was indeed a busy day getting communication out to staff, and getting logistics and equipment ready. 

We were also busy testing out our tele-conferencing tool as well. Not preferred, but not a choice. 

And for the first time in our lives, we need to have enough necessities stocked up at home in these coming 2 weeks.

I have been stocking up bit by bit in the last month. I had realised then that if it did turn into a panic buying, which did, it will be troublesome if not too late.

However, I did not buy any perishables. So when I went to the supermarket at the mall where my office is situated this afternoon, I'm quite surprised it was still quite well stocked. I have heard of panic buying in many other supermarkets in the last 2 days. Probably this one is not in a housing area and hence lower in density and demand.

I am glad I managed to get some bananas and vegetables and raw chicken. 

I don't have a lot but I think I am all set for the next 14 days working from home.

The challenge now is getting the hang of working from home. I never like the idea. I very much prefer work in the office, rest and leisure at home. 

But life has certainly taken an unexpected turn. 

pearlie

On leave but at work

I took the day off today to destress but why do I always end up working anyway?

pearlie

Book Review: The Culture Code

I know I'm suppose to write a review on the note taking book I have read. I know there are some of you who are waiting for it. 

But I haven't found the time yet! That book is so rich and packed with good stuff that I will need time to get back to the notes I have taken to write a fair review.

Moreover, I have not really figured out the numbering system yet, if ever.

In the meantime, this is the second book I read using the Slip Box notetaking method and I was enjoying reading and notetaking so much that I finished the book last night and slept at 3am as a result.

The Slip Box really works. I finished the book at about 2:40am but my brain was so busy thinking and connecting ideas that I had to force myself to think about other things in order to fall asleep.

Well, I did take a cup of tea during dinner, without thinking, that caused my insomnia. And of course I took notes of the connections and ideas before I slept at 3.

Anyway, I was looking for a book to fill my brain with some language and thinking in the line of a company culture to help me get a deck done up for work. 

Which was when I found this...

The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups

by Daniel Coyle

...and it is an excellent read.

The book is segregated into 3 sections with the first about creating a safe environment in an organization, then about being open and vulnerable with each other so that change can happen and finally gathering together to focus and work on a common purpose and direction.

I learnt that it is not about putting together a group of people with good individual skills to perform, it is not about sitting together to merely come up with a mission statement, it is not about strategizing and coming up action plans to implement them.

It is about using subtle patterns of small behaviours to build a safe environment, it is about giving and receiving honest but sincere feedback, it is about being tough but caring to drive results.

The book is packed with so many good stories that I can really identify with and learn from.

And it's good that my Slip Box is now full of stuff to work on.

pearlie

I'm so exhausted

I really thought of doing this today.

The only reason why I didn't was because the toilet cubicles are always occupied all the time and there is always a line out there waiting. 

pearlie

Sleep and Work

pearlie

Inappropriate Recommendation

I left my Kindle on my office desk and when I came back I see this:

Seriously?

Amazon does very well in recommending me books in my account but why can't it do the same in my Kindle?

I don't read this genre of books and on top of that I upkeep my professionality at work. 

Kindle certainly isn't helping. 

pearlie

开工酒 hoi1 gung1 zau2 - A Start Work Banquet

Here's a good start to the new year for our team with a new year 开工酒 hoi1 gung1 zau2 in Cantonese or literally a start work banquet.

May the work of our hands be prosperous and excellent!

pearlie

Conversations in Outlook?

I'm back at work today, not taking any days off for the Chinese New Year and as I was viewing through my emails in my Outlook, I  nonchalantly thought about how I wished that my emails in Outlook can be in conversations like in my Gmail.

But I did an about-turn. And asked myself more seriously, can Outlook actually do that now?

I did a search and yes! You can view emails in Outlook in conversation form.

Check it out here on how to make that happen in your Outlook. 

But being a slow day at work today, I have not had the chance to really try it out. So I'll reserve my comments till when I can really test it out. 

A good discovery nonetheless.

pearlie

Feels like I just attended a kpop concert

I had a long and full day today with back to back meetings and discussions and it is a good day. However, I had to find some time to think through a proposal deck, through the storyboard on how to present it to management. 

I needed a place quiet enough to sit down and think without anyone disturbing me and so I took the lift down a few floors and walked to Starbucks.

But it is no longer quiet. It sounds like I am in a kpop concert. Starbucks's neighbour has undergone massive renovations and the new outlet now plays their music at maximum volume. 

I got my Chamomile Tea--since I better not take in any caffeine at this time of the day--took my seat and tried to concentrate. 

It was not ideal but it was a productive hour in spite of the loud music. I was quite happy about the results of my thinking. 

Back in my school days, I used to listen to Japanese songs when I study. I didn't understand the songs and so it wasn't a distraction but it did help me concentrate. I don't understand much of the Korean songs either, but just that it's just too loud.

Looks like I need to find another quieter place to think, unless the mall do something about it. 

pearlie

Back to Work 2020

I had a very, very good year-end break and I am glad I took my hubby's advice to go travel and it was one of the best year-end break I ever had.

And now I'm back at work. My mom did ask me why I didn't just take the Friday off too and start work on Monday. It's a long story but here I am back at work. Which is a good thing too because I can take a slower Friday to catch up and reorient myself back to work. 

Monday is going to be a killer.

pearlie

Oh my brain...

The brain can only focus on one thing at one time.

I have so much happening today, it took a toll on my concentration.

There came a moment when my staff was telling to look into several things one after another that I had to stop her and asked her to please say it to me one at a time. 

My brain just can't take it today. 

pearlie