Decisions by emotions

Most of us probably know that we shouldn't make decisions based on emotions. Emotions tend to skew our thinking at that moment in time as one's feelings tend to overrule every other factor necessary to make a decision. Then again, there are times, when everything else is equal, that emotions can play a part in the decision-making process.

During my studies, we were taught that decision-making depends on the cost-benefit analysis as well as other non-numerical factors, but gut feeling wasn't one to be taken into consideration. However, there are many a times when gut feeling was / is important.

Some of the few who know my secret think that that I am crazy, silly in fact. Although my decision for this may not seem entirely logical, maybe because it isn't (?), I did do a few calculations. For me, it isn't something that is entirely far-fetched. I would still consider that my decision was made while I was of sound mind - I did think this through many (and I really mean a lot) times before saying, "Yes, I am gonna do this!" (well, not exactly in those words). I would say that my decision was based on 50% facts and figures, and 50% of what-if feelings.

The what-if-feelings analysis was based on the level of regret if I chose one action over another. Eventually, the level of regret that I would feel if I didn't take one action would be more intense than the regret of taking the other action. In a sense, it's still similar to looking at opportunity costs, without the figures. And opportunity cost is a factor in decision making. So hey, emotions can be considered as a factor in decision making, no?

Slow wit

One month after I started working with my current employer, I was making daily complaints about the employer to anyone who'd listen; I'd still talk about it even if they didn't want to listen. The problem with my employer is that things are so disorganised. On top of that are the lack of decision making, lack of trust and the must-do-this-immediately-even-though-you-have-other-more-important-things-to-do-because-I-forgot-to-keep-you-in-the-loop-otherwise-you-would-have-known-earlier attitude (when my then superior was still in charge). If you have / had someone in the top management like that, you'd know how stressful it is to do your job, especially when you are the only one handling almost everything.

Working with my current employer can be so unpredictable. My then superior was a dipshit, and still is. My colleagues and I weren't sure if it was the cultural difference, or the lack of his understanding of the English language, or both. Whatever the reason, it was too difficult to communicate with him, which made the already stressful job worse.

One weekend, I was sitting down with my brother, complaining again, and being my crazy self, when I'm around people I'm comfortable with, talking nonsense and being lame. He asked me why I couldn't be that lame, crazy person at the office. My response: (1) Nobody in office would understand what I'm talking about and that would make the funnies become un-funny; (2) My wit slows down when I'm stressed.

Point 1
Of course I would love to spout nonsense and be lame if at least one person understands what I'm talking about. But you see, my then superior and most of my other colleagues are those must-be-proper-in-office people, and some just don't have a good command of the language I like to use. I don't want to say something, which I think is hilarious, but get blank stares / puzzled looks from the person I was talking to. That would just spoil the moment.

Point 2
When I'm stressed, I can't think out of the box, and everything that is said to me doesn't have any humour whatsoever in it. If I can't find the element of humour in something, I can't make a lame remark about it. On non-working days, I'm able to make lame remarks because my mind is more relaxed. Perhaps it's time for me to learn how to relax my mind at work even with the piles of work waiting to be done. But even if I did learn the art of mind relaxing at the office, point 1 will still exist.

This brings me to another topic, which I should blog about one day: The corrupted English language understood and used by Malaysians - Manglish (what I like to call mangled English).

Think like your colleagues

When an employer looks for an employee, they like to look for those who can 'fit into the organisation'. Or so they like to say. What that may actually mean for them is that they're looking at your personality / personal character, apart from the usual academic background and work experience screening. Of course, a more polite person is usually favoured above one who uses profanity in every sentence as the former is likely to be seen as one who can probably get along with almost everyone in the organisation.

That's usually what job seekers should expect when joining a new organisation - to fit in with the crowd, especially fresh grads. You'd really never know what you're gonna get.

When I first started working 4 years ago, I never had a clue what to expect. Blur as I always was, and still am, I'd just go with the flow of things. As the months passed by, I finally understood that it was very critical to think like my colleagues, especially when some of them were dimwits, enough to drive you nuts. I'm not saying that I was above them, but somehow there was the lack of intelligence, or sometimes common sense, in some of them. It's either that they don't see things the way some of us did, or they were just ignorant f**ls.

When I started working with my present employer, I had to point out to my new HR colleague that whenever she drafts e-mails / announcements, that she must think like the people who were going to read that e-mail / announcement. I know from experience that if you do not think like your colleagues, it's going to be very tough (and annoying when you already have so many other things to do) when they come and ask annoying questions, which incidentally may / may not have been addressed in the original e-mail, and they were too ignorant / lacked common sense to figure it out themselves.

Heck, even when the most detailed instructions are given, inclusive of all possible what-if situations, there will be at least one colleague who would send a reply to enquire about something.

Rule of thumb when working with people, always, ALWAYS think like your colleagues, especially the ones who can't think for themselves.

Thoughts for some pennies (and bills)

The age old idiom is to give someone a penny for their thoughts to find out what they have on their mind. These days, when recession tends to show its ugly face ever so frequently, some of us would have to share our thoughts just to get them pennies. Oh, and with inflation, sometimes bills.

This, we can see, hear and experience daily in the working world, especially where professionals are involved. Professionals are paid, supposedly for their skills in a specific field. But if you stop to think, it's more like they are being paid to share their thoughts, where appropriate, and inapropriate.

Jobs aside, many people are now looking into other methods to increase their income. The interwebs allows for the diversity in looking for additional income. Blogging being one of the more prominent method. Setting up a blog with ad space is relatively easy, as you can see from this FREE blog with all the ads around the blog. Yeah, I'm no exception. I'm sharing my musings with you, who's likely a stranger to me, and I get some form of monetary compensation later on by the ad company. So in essence, I'm sharing my thoughts for some (additional) pennies. Same for other bloggers who generate income through their blogs.

If you haven't already guessed, I'm blogging for two specific reasons. ;)

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