I think, therefore I write. (我思,所以我写。)

Cogito ergo scribo

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Not offloading

Sometimes I can't help but ask myself, "why do my staff go home no later than 7pm, while i'm working my ass off everyday and leave office not earlier than 9pm?"

It was yet another late night today. Left office at around 9.30pm.

When I was a consultant reporting to my ex little boss, I gotta work late, or work at home and over weekends for the tasks he assigned to me. He also works long hours and is very dedicated to his job.

Now I'm at the same level as him and having my own team, i get to experience for myself on how the top presses the heavy workload on us, the middle management.

Yet, what I do not want to do is to do the same to my team members.

Big boss does not really care whether or not the work he gives us is more than we can cope, even though he would act as if he does care sometimes. Basically, he assigns the work to me and expects me to juggle within the resources I have. That is what i'm supposed to do in my position anyway. Being a manager leading a team, I am supposed to delegate the work to the subordinates, and I indeed do so.

But then, i'm in a bit of a dilemma here.

You see, i'm a firm believer of the Golden Rule - "do unto others as you would have others do unto you". If i do not want to be treated a certain way, then i should not treat the others in that manner either.

I've always advocated a work-life balanced lifestyle. I've never believed that career should be the topmost priority in a person's life, nor should the person spend more time working than doing other more meaningful things in life or spending time with the people we love and treasure. I've always hated that all employers seem to always pay the employees for the work of 8 hours per day and 5 days per week, and yet expect the employees to actually work more than 12 hours per day and 7 days per week.

That's why i cannot bring myself to offload the work to my team members, knowing that they are already busy with some assignments, or knowing that if i do so, they would end up like me, working late into the night everyday.

Of course, my boss is not gonna give me any less work simply because i'm being "too nice" to my team members. Since this is the choice i made, then i will have to do the work myself. And that's how i end up killing myself with long working hours and stressful workload, and not to mention the energy that is draining out of me bit-by-bit, day-by-day.

So back to the question i posed at the opening of this post, i actually know the answer - i ask for it myself since i do not want to be the "bad boss". And the ironic part is that my subordinates would never know about how i filter away all the excess workload and take it upon myself. Perhaps despite doing all these, i'm still a bad boss in their eyes. But then again, i'm not doing this so that they will be grateful to me. I'm simply staying true to what i believe in.

And don't be mistaken that i'm complaining about this. No, i'm not, since it's my choice - my choice to not offload the work, my choice in working late, and my choice in staying on with this underpaid overworked job (for now).

This post is simply the disorganised late-night thoughts of an overworked, exhausted lonely person. And no one should ever take such thoughts from such person seriously.

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the confucious wisdom of "do unto others as you would have others do unto you" is not really wise after all...

by the way, you should come to see my company (production/development), it's astonishing that even after 7,8 and 9 there are still people doing work (me included sometimes). what you need is dedicated energetic subordinates, maybe you already have but you just did not discover the quality in them, or just you haven't properly given them task and opportunity. gosh, if only i also have boss work late and dedicated to their job also.

cheer up-lah, don't always rant and be negative, it's not the end of the world yet. if you're not a superwoman, so be it, and don't push yourself hard for it :).

打工就是帮别人完成他们的梦想!仔细认真的想一想,值得吗?

After my trip to Shenzhen & Suzhou plants, I really have to ask myself : why they all can knock off on dock, while my staffs here are working overtime almost everyday. Is it due to A)their poor time management? or B) they are overloaded?
I personally have the answer, the answer is B. I can always see the staffs in Shenzhen watching movie online, play "happy land", chit chatting. I think they are over-staffed. So UNFAIR!
I think I have to start doing something for my staffs liao!

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/5214/comic11.jpg

you so think of others and less of yourself. sometimes, that's not really good either...

ah, i made you looked anorexic :(. i cropped the image so that it be much better:

http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/4175/comic11u.jpg

apology for the my imperfections.

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Tuesday, June 15, 2010 @ 2:58 am: Unusual night
Monday, June 14, 2010 @ 3:30 am: Random updates
Friday, June 11, 2010 @ 3:28 am: Nice drawing
Friday, June 11, 2010 @ 3:17 am: Birthday gifts
Tuesday, June 08, 2010 @ 9:36 pm: Mom's baptism
Saturday, June 05, 2010 @ 5:06 am: Long weekend again
Wednesday, June 02, 2010 @ 3:57 am: Working late
Monday, May 31, 2010 @ 2:53 am: Cute bed sheet
Monday, May 31, 2010 @ 2:48 am: The past long weekend
Thursday, May 27, 2010 @ 5:23 am: Late night in KL