Human Assets

"I've never realised how important you are until you are not with us anymore," so says a supervisor to an ex-staff.
If you get to hear a statement like this from your ex-employer or a supervisor, you will probably be overwhelmed and be very proud of yourself. But this is seldom the case in Singapore because employers here do not usually appreciate the work of their subordinates.

To a local company, employees are just numbers, and numbers come and go. Supervisors of companies or even the staff of Human Resource seldom attempt to find out the truth why employees leave. Exit interviews are often unheard, and even if there are such interviews, they are just for formalities.

Employers and the management usually do not care how the staff are getting on, so long as the work gets done in time. Staff and subordinates are people whom they only call upon to blame and scold when things go wrong. They do not care how things are done so long as the things get done, simply because they are too busy with their own work in their own world to care about how the staff are coming along.

The truth about employees leaving a company is usually because of people, not work or greener pastures. Junior staff are often the most ill-treated, and some supervisors are good at supervising and delegating work, but they themselves do not do the work. Managers above them are often blind to who are doing the work and relies on the supervisor to tell the story, but here is where the problem lies, because supervisors are usually the ones who do not understand and who abuse their staff and pull rank.

By and by, companies such as these lost more then they care to admit, because human assets are still the key to a corporation's success. If they neglect the juniors, and allow frequent turnovers, the operational work at the bottom gets jammed, and hence whatever decision at the top do not matter, because work can't get done and customers don't get served, simply because of the bottle neck at the bottom, a certainty that spells the end of all business plans.

So the story goes, that people at the top needs to know the things happening at the bottom, and to neglect this aspect is to spell the end of the company.

Time vs Money

When you have the money, you seldom have the time, and when you have the time, you are likely to be short of money. That is the irony of life.

When a person has lots of time at hand, he or she is probably a student, a home maker, a freelancer, a contract worker temporary unengaged for duties, an unemployed, or very rich. For an average adult who are neither rich nor a beggar, he or she is probably without work, awaiting assignment, or in transit.

The best time for a person to relax or engage in doing things he or she really likes, is when he or she is without active work. Unfortunately, things that a person likes are usually hobbies, travelling, or other leisure pleasures, and all these activities cost money. Because the person is not actively engaged in income making work, all these pleasures of life are seldom realizable. Hence, the person labors and works hard to obtain the money so as to fulfill wants, but when the cash rolls in, there is simply no time to take leave to engage in leisure pleasures or hobbies. Even if leave is possible, it is often engaged with a non restful mind, stressed by work that are impending, hence, such leisure becomes non-pleasurable.

The reality of life on earth is such. People work hard to get money so that they can have enough for survival and to spend time on leisure, but time is what they don't have. Forgoing the job to find time to de-stress and engage in pleasure on the other hand may be unwise, because without active work, the mind finds no rest and is pressured to find new avenues for survival.

This is the irony between time and money.

Risk Takers

In a world stricken by natural disasters and chaos from wars and terrorism, there is a real need for superheroes ... but in the real world even superheroes die.

Superheroes in the real world are people whom we esteem as more powerful than ourselves, people who can see us through rough times, disasters, and crises. Superheroes are the signs and signifiers that represent our desires to beat the unbeatable and the strength and energy we lack as ordinary people.
When we hear about the death of Christopher Reeves, a man who was once considered the symbol of Superman, we realise however that in real life even superheroes die. Where and who then are the real superheroes when disasters strike?

The superheroes in the real world are the firemen and the civil defence team who risk their lives to save us in fires and in emergencies. They are the doctors and nurses who risk their lives to help patients with transmittable diseases, such as SARS. Soldiers and police are the ones who risk their lives constantly to provide us a place of security and peace. All these people are the real superheroes … the people who risk their lives for others.

Emotional Dissonance

In the terms of Organizational Behavioural (OB) studies, it is called emotional dissonance - the conflict beween required and true emotions. In our every day-to-day term, it is putting on a false front or a mask.
I am a man with a mask who possesses more than one identity. When I am out playing superhero, I put on my mask and demonstrate my capabilities and superiority, but when I am off my superhero duties, I am just an ordinary person facing the same problems as everyone else faces, just as Spider-Man faces the reality of life in his alter ego as Peter Parker.

When at work (or in the office), I have to put on an invisible mask or a front that demonstrates my authority, so to subdue my subordinates and ensure they do not climb over me. Out of office, I am just another ordinary person facing the same problems as everyone else everyday, struggling to make ends meet, to acquire my basic needs, financially, physically, mentally, and family.

This is the life of a superhero, a man with a 'mask' while at work, and a man without a 'mask' when at home or when with friends. All of us are superheroes, and we constantly play duality of roles. The dual roles we play each day are sometimes 'unreal' because we often put on a false front simply to show, our discipline even when we are struggling, under the pressure of heart-aches surmount by the multitude of needs. We act the role to show a good example to people who look up to us, because we are tasked with the responsibilities to uphold not only our homes, but also the duties at our workplaces. We run faster than we think, and we often breakdown with poor health as we 'swing', to hurry our paces, because we can't wait for the phases, before the processes fall in the right places!

So what is the meaning of life as a superhero? Just our simple lives, to live it meaningful, to do the best we can, living our lives as they are meant, to unmask our pretence, and enjoy the 'real' life till the end.

Being Yourself

The story of The Incredibles is about being true to yourself and about living life according to who you are, not what others expect of you, or trying to be someone you are not.

To try to be someone you are not is to be like the villain in the story, whose end is disastrous. To force a person to work in a regular job is to restrict the person's ability to do something different, just like the way Elastic Girl expects of Mr Incredible. To tell children to conform to what is seemingly a better prospect in the future and not to pursue areas that they perform best is to decide the future for them, leading to possible rebellion or intimidation, similar to what is being faced by the son and daughter of the Incredibles.

In the real world, not everyone is suitable for a regular job in the office. Some work better on their own as entrepreneurs or freelancers. Not every kid can live up to the expectation of the academic school system. Some students are academically inclined and work well with their brains, while others may be better as athletes or at working with their hands.

People are made up of different abilities, different interests, and different motivations. To expect anyone to conform to a certain standard of life is to kill the individual's creativity and sense of purpose in life. Without purpose, there is no life. In a family, it is the task of everyone to discover oneself and others to understand one another, so as not to stifle the interests of the other. It is helping each other in developing the full potentials according to the direction that makes him or her perform at the very best to fulfil the roles each one is accountable for within the family and the society.

The Incredibles is therefore about being yourself, doing the things you do best in fulfilling the dreams of your desire and interest. It means working together with your family to fulfil each other's dreams in life using 'superhuman' energy and strength, with great enthusiasm!

Superhero Tendencies

A superhero is reliable, dependable and responsible at all times, possessing courage and perseverance. He or she abides to ethical principles and possesses a will to help others. A superhero is someone we can look up to and be exemplary in doing good for mankind and nature!

As a superhero possessing great powers, Spider-Man is one such hero who knows with great powers comes great responsbility. Spider-Man possesses courage and perseverance, and fights to the end for the good of mankind. He takes responsibility of saving people even when he is devoid of any energy left, proving to all his reliability and dependablity. Even when society and cops are against him, he abides by ethical principles to do what is right. He is, to the discerning, an example of a great superhero.

All of us to some extent possess similar closet superhero tendencies. Like others, I can be reliable, responsible, and dependable (most of the time). My passion and my will is to help people anyway I can, and I hope to do good to serve the community and preserve the natural environment in the ecosystem. I am therefore a superhero in the making. You can too!

Moments in History

Today is a special day to me because it is the day my writing forms a part of Singapore history, a day that celebrates the end of a chapter and the opening of a new chapter of yet untold future. It is the day fond memories of the National Library at Stamford Road are crystalized in words and photography in a coffee book entitled, Moments in Time: Memories of the National Library.

The launch which was held in the evening at the library in Esplanade earmarks the untold stories of numerous memories from the public in recalling the days when the National Library at Stamford Road stands in glory. Edited by Philip Lee, the chief editor of Streats newspaper, the book boasts of content written by more than a hundred individuals and contains writings of diverse stories, including love story, ghost story, Christian testimony, reminiscence, humor, and others.

Priced at S$12, the book is available for purchase at the major NLB libraries beginning tomorrow. It is my privilege, therefore, to be one of the article contributors in this book that records the memories of the library in history and in case you wish to know which is my article, you can find it on page 69 under the title, "Home to Writers' Circle."

For details of the launch, please read "Memories of National Library at Stamford".