Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Names not Numbers

It's nice when colleagues and those higher-up remember details about you as a person, not you as your work persona.

Over the last week I have been listening to psychologists and other Happiness-at-work experts at the online Happiness at Work Summit.  The more I learn about it, the more I hear people talking about it, I really want to be part of something that creates a great atmosphere for people to go to work in. It's just so important and cannot be underestimated!

Now I know some initiatives to keep your employees engaged and happy cost money, but not everything costs money.   It can be as simple as your positive attitude to someone, your willingness to let someone speak their mind, your smile and acknowledgement of someone or in my case today, my manager's manager remembered I was going on leave and wanted to know why I was still present at a meeting.

It made me feel good for 2 reasons:
  1. That he remembered. He's a busy guy and for him to remember, thats nice
  2. He saw that I was committed and interested in the businesses goings-on.
Ofcourse, this then has a snowball effect on the rest of my day, talking with others, speaking with people I would normally not have spoken with and culminating in me speaking with the ANZ chairman of our company. Our company has a philosophy of small actions make big differences, today, (maybe not in the same way our company envisioned that but ...) I directly saw that put into action.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Values based Conundrum ...

I was recently booking accommodation in Japan for my upcoming trip when I came across one hotel that stated clearly (& multiple times) that ... "No 2 men can stay in the same room...".

What is a liberal & values driven person to do?

a) Boycott the place by staying elsewhere? And let them know it?
b) Dont stay there but accept that the world is not at the same level as us (not that we are a country to preach gay rights) and not be so ethnocentric?
c) Stay there and accept that the world is not the same everywhere?

d) Stay at the hotel and talk/discuss with hotel staff & other guests about the issue?

I went with b).
Conservative yes, but who am I to go to another country and preach my way? 
I would hate it if the reverse was done to us.