One good excuse I give myself for my obsessive online buying habit is self respect. I'm beginning to even think that it is a crime to not invest in your looks! Here's why.....
Admittedly, working in the beauty industry now, surrounded by men and women alike who really take good care of their looks, I probably have a higher need than the average woman to look my optimal as much as I can. Still, it is exactly because I am in this environment, I appreciate the motivation for looking good.
It is not always as superficial as I used to think. Among some people and in some cultures, such as the Japanese, looking good is out of self respect and respect for the occasion and people around them. Japanese women wear makeup not to hide flaws, but to show their respect for themselves, regardless of age, dedicating time and attention to look presentable. By respecting oneself, she respects others around them.
I hardly ever wore foundation before, or powdered my face. I thought effortlessly natural looking great skin was to be proud of. After working in this company and interviewing women from various cultures which take beauty seriously, I learned to appreciate the strive for skills and technique (vs sans effort) to look flawless and perfect (vs great).
Same with clothing. Dressing well isn't about brand names, but showing that you gave your look of the day some thoughts, not just pulling together random pieces of clean, wearable clothing. Sometimes I see little kids dressed in ill-matching colors and mix of random patterns (think ducky Tshirt with checkered pants and polka dot jacket and lace hair clip...), I can't help but frown and wonder why the parents are doing that to the kid. Just like you would teach your kid basic hygiene since they are young, why wouldn't you teach him/her basic dressing principles? For that, I thank my mom for dressing me and my brother really well since young.
How cool is it to have a job that inspires me to be more beautiful!
Showing posts with label i Work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label i Work. Show all posts
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Being Good and Honest Does Pay Off
One of the many things in life I am extremely grateful for is that I have met a good number of friends through working with offices in other markets.
Last year I was asked to take part in an internal regional project, where I was one of the few participants with good experience in the subject matter. A workshop was held in Hong Kong and some 25 colleagues from other offices flew in to join. During the workshop, in such group environment, it was quite apparent who had little knowledge of the subject matter (hence no valuable input), who had hidden agenda and tried to push for certain outcomes to please top management, and who were truly knowledgeable and tried to fight for what they believed was the right thing to do. Through fighting together with someone from that latter group, I made friends with this fatherly figure based in Cyprus.
A few days ago, company announced his promotion to a rather specialized role. Today, I saw him on Communicator so I had chat with him.
I said to him, "congratulations on your new role! Of all people, I'm glad you're leading this, because you are a good person and you are honest about what you think is right."
He replied, "Tea Yee, you are a good colleague and friend. Let me give you one piece of advice - Being good and honest does pay off..... at a personal level at least. So continue to be good and honest."
I am very grateful for his piece of advice.
Last year I was asked to take part in an internal regional project, where I was one of the few participants with good experience in the subject matter. A workshop was held in Hong Kong and some 25 colleagues from other offices flew in to join. During the workshop, in such group environment, it was quite apparent who had little knowledge of the subject matter (hence no valuable input), who had hidden agenda and tried to push for certain outcomes to please top management, and who were truly knowledgeable and tried to fight for what they believed was the right thing to do. Through fighting together with someone from that latter group, I made friends with this fatherly figure based in Cyprus.
A few days ago, company announced his promotion to a rather specialized role. Today, I saw him on Communicator so I had chat with him.
I said to him, "congratulations on your new role! Of all people, I'm glad you're leading this, because you are a good person and you are honest about what you think is right."
He replied, "Tea Yee, you are a good colleague and friend. Let me give you one piece of advice - Being good and honest does pay off..... at a personal level at least. So continue to be good and honest."
I am very grateful for his piece of advice.
Friday, July 8, 2011
New Journey
Mixed feelings - excited, nervous, worried.
I suppose like real journeys to countries you've never visited before - your basic travel skills and insights will never go away, and you adapt them to new environments and cultures to enjoy the new experience.
Okay, let me approach it this way and hopefully the worries will go away.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Corporate Life Taught Me.....
To bite my tongue when my boss and senior management is making very stupid but determined decisions. The operative word being: determined.
If they are determined, let them be. I will stay true to myself by not praising the decision. Yet I will also protect myself (and my source of income) by not trying to change what I cannot change.
Indeed, there are some things I can change in a corporate environment - and there are plenty more things I can't. And if I try too hard to change the things I can't change, I not only waste my time and effort, hurt my own morale, but also make enemies in the process. No win situation.
Sorry to disappoint. There is very little justice in work life.
If they are determined, let them be. I will stay true to myself by not praising the decision. Yet I will also protect myself (and my source of income) by not trying to change what I cannot change.
Indeed, there are some things I can change in a corporate environment - and there are plenty more things I can't. And if I try too hard to change the things I can't change, I not only waste my time and effort, hurt my own morale, but also make enemies in the process. No win situation.
Sorry to disappoint. There is very little justice in work life.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Thrive on Chaos
I realize that while some people thrive on stability, others thrive on chaos and challenges by nature. I happen to belong to the latter group, although I do crave for stability.
Work has been relatively stable for weeks, and I was started to get bored and unchallenged. I was not complaining though. I wanted that stability and eventLESSness. Then suddenly, these two days I suddenly became swamped with work, with numerous requests to respond to, emails to send out for requests, mini crisis to manage, rights (of my staff) to fight for, decisions to make, feedback to give, and so on and so forth. Strangely, I immediately came alive with an adrenaline rush as these chaos approached and did more work in these 2 days than in the past 2 weeks! So I came to the realization and hence conclusion that some people have an intrinsic ability and desire to deal with chaos. It's almost like their life mission. Chaos gives them purpose in life, reason for existence, since they have a natural instinct to rise to the occasion without the common first reaction of fear and avoidance.
I like watching others react to chaos. That's when you see their true colors.
Work has been relatively stable for weeks, and I was started to get bored and unchallenged. I was not complaining though. I wanted that stability and eventLESSness. Then suddenly, these two days I suddenly became swamped with work, with numerous requests to respond to, emails to send out for requests, mini crisis to manage, rights (of my staff) to fight for, decisions to make, feedback to give, and so on and so forth. Strangely, I immediately came alive with an adrenaline rush as these chaos approached and did more work in these 2 days than in the past 2 weeks! So I came to the realization and hence conclusion that some people have an intrinsic ability and desire to deal with chaos. It's almost like their life mission. Chaos gives them purpose in life, reason for existence, since they have a natural instinct to rise to the occasion without the common first reaction of fear and avoidance.
I like watching others react to chaos. That's when you see their true colors.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Generation Y in the workplace
Generation Y, or Post 80's generation, is often a topic my friends and I (who belong to Generation X) passionately, head-shakingly discuss.
I am not a sociologist, or anthropologist, so I won't even bother justifying my explanation of their unique behavior in the workplace. Just want to share some funny discussions here for a laugh!
My friends and I are largely people managers/ team leaders, and people we work with largely belong to Generation Y. We often find them lack of direction and purpose in life and career, quite egocentric, not very willing to conform to established formalities, like to feel that they are individualistic but without clear individual edge, very easily distracted/ short attention span, think it is uncool to take things too seriously (think it is cool to appear laid back), take everything including opportunities for granted, lack of perseverance, lack of motivation to progress and shine, over-reliant on technology, lack of confidence in human interaction (face-to-face communication, phone communication).....and the list goes on.
When talking to a colleague some staff evaluation of supervisors (360 degrees evaluation), my colleague told me one of her sub-ordinates had the nerve to write, as area for improvement for her: _______ is not considerate, when she leaves the office she turns off the aircon for her work section. Another sub-ordinate wrote: __________ needs to hire more proficient manager. I don't think my manager is good enough. I laughed out loud when I read her message! Come on, kids, be a bit professional! Don't write such juvenile comments!
When having dinner with some ex-colleagues, we discussed why Generation Y don't seem to learn from their mistakes. If you watch over their shoulders, they call you nagging and not giving them freedom. If you give them freedom, they abuse it by either not taking prompt actions as necessary, or they make big decisions - often times without thorough thinking and consideration of longer term consequences - without informing you. Then someone raised a funny point:
Managing and trying to motivate Generation Y can be a university course on its own. I really hope these kids will miraculously grow up overnight and feel "cool" about being mature and professional. At the same time there needs to be more updated people management trainings targeted to management of Generation Y as they clearly need to be motivated and managed differently.
I am not a sociologist, or anthropologist, so I won't even bother justifying my explanation of their unique behavior in the workplace. Just want to share some funny discussions here for a laugh!
My friends and I are largely people managers/ team leaders, and people we work with largely belong to Generation Y. We often find them lack of direction and purpose in life and career, quite egocentric, not very willing to conform to established formalities, like to feel that they are individualistic but without clear individual edge, very easily distracted/ short attention span, think it is uncool to take things too seriously (think it is cool to appear laid back), take everything including opportunities for granted, lack of perseverance, lack of motivation to progress and shine, over-reliant on technology, lack of confidence in human interaction (face-to-face communication, phone communication).....and the list goes on.
When talking to a colleague some staff evaluation of supervisors (360 degrees evaluation), my colleague told me one of her sub-ordinates had the nerve to write, as area for improvement for her: _______ is not considerate, when she leaves the office she turns off the aircon for her work section. Another sub-ordinate wrote: __________ needs to hire more proficient manager. I don't think my manager is good enough. I laughed out loud when I read her message! Come on, kids, be a bit professional! Don't write such juvenile comments!
When having dinner with some ex-colleagues, we discussed why Generation Y don't seem to learn from their mistakes. If you watch over their shoulders, they call you nagging and not giving them freedom. If you give them freedom, they abuse it by either not taking prompt actions as necessary, or they make big decisions - often times without thorough thinking and consideration of longer term consequences - without informing you. Then someone raised a funny point:
When we were their age, after being scolded by our bosses or making a big mistake at work, during the time we traveled to and from office each day, we would reflect on what we had done wrong, why our bosses had scolded us. Nowadays, Generation Y spend their traveling time finger swiping on their iPhones, iPod touch, playing games. There are all these distractions for them to forget they had been scolded by their bosses! That's why they don't learn!So true! Ha ha!!
Managing and trying to motivate Generation Y can be a university course on its own. I really hope these kids will miraculously grow up overnight and feel "cool" about being mature and professional. At the same time there needs to be more updated people management trainings targeted to management of Generation Y as they clearly need to be motivated and managed differently.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Paranoia?
Paranoia is critical in my profession, because we manage large-scale, multi-country projects where many things can go wrong if not carefully considered, prevented, and checked. When mistakes happen, there are consequences, some repairable and less serious, others irrepairable and severe. In the latter case, it could cost a lot of money, future business, and our reputation. Paranoia?
I manage a team of 7, from juniors to senior manager. I am the youngest in my family so my big-sisterly attitude to managing my team did not come naturally. I have changed from being very hands-on, demanding, strict, and critical in my early years of being a manager, to my recent style of nagging, hands-off, supportive, and more approachable. I don't like to nag, but if I don't nag, they forget. Kids these days are forgetful and have very short attention span. They can't visualize the severity of mistakes because they never had to be held responsible.
A few months ago, when traveling for work, supervising execution of a project, I already noticed some indications of quality issues with my team's work. I ended up picking up all the mistakes and sending them email after email to remind them the importance of checking their own work, and their subordinate's work. Paranoia?
In project meetings, I also reminded them again and again the potential pitfalls and how to avoid them. When designing the project flow, I also put in a number of procedures to ensure we would have enough checks in place to prevent mistakes. Paranoia?
Today my worst nightmare came true. The team told me they had left out two questions in one survey, and the fieldwork had completed already. Two questions which could not be recalled (could not call back respondents to ask those questions again due to bias). What?! Apparently, they ignored all my previous warnings, bent rules and policies for greater flexibility - so the mistake was not spotted until very late.
I feel very disappointed and upset, but I had to keep my cool - for professional reasons and also kids these days don't take strong language / tone very well. Of course, it is useless to scream at them now since the damage is done, all I can do is make them realize the severity of the mistake, make them think of remedial actions, and review what they have done wrong. Sadly, only one of them - who wasn't responsible for the mistake - was able to suggest one possible remedial action to explore.
I was so upset I went to Pret and bought foods I had never picked from there before: Tomato soup, Parmesan sandwich, Kettle chips. I found my ex-boss from internal messaging tool, and vented to him. I vented to him because he would understand, and also he knew how lucky he had been for having me support him all these years without ever causing him such headaches.
I think I am feeling so emotional about this because my team has failed, and being their leader, I feel like I have failed. I worked so hard all these years avoiding such critical mistakes, and as a leader - even though I no longer had to run projects myself - I tried my best to pass on my knowledge and experience to the team, giving them directions and pointers to protect them from falling hard. Yet, by being their security net, they took advantage of it, and never developed the paranoia critical to our profession. There was never fear of failing, fear of making mistakes.
Please, can anyone share with me THE way to motivate the younger generation? I don't want to give up on them, but I can't find a way to inspire them and encourage them to grow up, step up.
I manage a team of 7, from juniors to senior manager. I am the youngest in my family so my big-sisterly attitude to managing my team did not come naturally. I have changed from being very hands-on, demanding, strict, and critical in my early years of being a manager, to my recent style of nagging, hands-off, supportive, and more approachable. I don't like to nag, but if I don't nag, they forget. Kids these days are forgetful and have very short attention span. They can't visualize the severity of mistakes because they never had to be held responsible.
A few months ago, when traveling for work, supervising execution of a project, I already noticed some indications of quality issues with my team's work. I ended up picking up all the mistakes and sending them email after email to remind them the importance of checking their own work, and their subordinate's work. Paranoia?
In project meetings, I also reminded them again and again the potential pitfalls and how to avoid them. When designing the project flow, I also put in a number of procedures to ensure we would have enough checks in place to prevent mistakes. Paranoia?
Today my worst nightmare came true. The team told me they had left out two questions in one survey, and the fieldwork had completed already. Two questions which could not be recalled (could not call back respondents to ask those questions again due to bias). What?! Apparently, they ignored all my previous warnings, bent rules and policies for greater flexibility - so the mistake was not spotted until very late.
I feel very disappointed and upset, but I had to keep my cool - for professional reasons and also kids these days don't take strong language / tone very well. Of course, it is useless to scream at them now since the damage is done, all I can do is make them realize the severity of the mistake, make them think of remedial actions, and review what they have done wrong. Sadly, only one of them - who wasn't responsible for the mistake - was able to suggest one possible remedial action to explore.
I was so upset I went to Pret and bought foods I had never picked from there before: Tomato soup, Parmesan sandwich, Kettle chips. I found my ex-boss from internal messaging tool, and vented to him. I vented to him because he would understand, and also he knew how lucky he had been for having me support him all these years without ever causing him such headaches.
I think I am feeling so emotional about this because my team has failed, and being their leader, I feel like I have failed. I worked so hard all these years avoiding such critical mistakes, and as a leader - even though I no longer had to run projects myself - I tried my best to pass on my knowledge and experience to the team, giving them directions and pointers to protect them from falling hard. Yet, by being their security net, they took advantage of it, and never developed the paranoia critical to our profession. There was never fear of failing, fear of making mistakes.
Please, can anyone share with me THE way to motivate the younger generation? I don't want to give up on them, but I can't find a way to inspire them and encourage them to grow up, step up.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Huge Work Disappointment
I ended my work week badly on Friday, with bad news from my biggest client - potentially the study would be cancelled or significantly scaled down because of cost control pressure from their headquarters. The client's share price has dropped by 10% in just 3 days last week.
It was a real blow to me. I had worked very hard to win this enormous study back in Dec.
Today because I was busy preparing alternative quotations to client, I missed an internal meeting. My "new" boss, for whatever reason, announced the news to other seniors of the department. My work "partner" immediately asked him about the implications on his team and my team, and allocation of accounts, as if I had already lost the entire project. Then 10 minutes ago (it's 9ish and I'm still in office preparing quotation), another colleague dropped by and said she was sorry about my project. I was so upset even though I knew she wanted to show her concern, and she said my "new" boss had asked her to check with her friend in my client's company what had happened. What the hell is going on? I haven't lost the project yet, and already my boss is making it sound like I have. And what contact could my colleague have at my client's company, who's more senior than the global contact that I have??
I complained to my "old" boss, and told him I wasn't happy about such internal marketing. He understood, and I'm sure he felt just as crap.
I feel so upset that there's been so much internal marketing of this before anything was even finalized. It's causing so much gossip, rumours, speculation already. And it's making me feel even crappier than the incident itself.
If only there was someone I could cry to.
It was a real blow to me. I had worked very hard to win this enormous study back in Dec.
Today because I was busy preparing alternative quotations to client, I missed an internal meeting. My "new" boss, for whatever reason, announced the news to other seniors of the department. My work "partner" immediately asked him about the implications on his team and my team, and allocation of accounts, as if I had already lost the entire project. Then 10 minutes ago (it's 9ish and I'm still in office preparing quotation), another colleague dropped by and said she was sorry about my project. I was so upset even though I knew she wanted to show her concern, and she said my "new" boss had asked her to check with her friend in my client's company what had happened. What the hell is going on? I haven't lost the project yet, and already my boss is making it sound like I have. And what contact could my colleague have at my client's company, who's more senior than the global contact that I have??
I complained to my "old" boss, and told him I wasn't happy about such internal marketing. He understood, and I'm sure he felt just as crap.
I feel so upset that there's been so much internal marketing of this before anything was even finalized. It's causing so much gossip, rumours, speculation already. And it's making me feel even crappier than the incident itself.
If only there was someone I could cry to.
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