Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Career Check

What career will suit your personality?

This description is a generalisation. If it rings true, you've found your career type. If it doesn't, return to the quiz, decide whether you answered truthfully, and not by what you think you should answer. Redo your answers and read your new results.

You would be very happy in a career that utilised your people skills. You want a career that allows you to stimulate your senses and your mind. Some careers that would be perfect for you are:

Actor
Recruitment Consultant
Politician

Discover what career suits your personality
Chat on the Life in the Workplace message board
Test your emotional intelligence
Marketing
Psychologist
Religious Minister
Teacher
Social Worker
Human Resources Manager
Sales
Lawyer
Advertising

You are a great leader. You genuinely enjoy being around other people. Your relationships with others are very important to you. You love talking and meeting new people. You are very enthusiastic about work and about all that you do and have in your life. You love being the focus of attention. You enjoy a fast pace. You are very socially oriented. Therefore, you are much happier being with others than you are alone. You crave interaction with others.

You are very spontaneous and often act before you think. You are always quick to answer when you are asked a question, even if you aren't sure of the answer. It is easier for you to improvise as you go along. You enjoy thinking out loud, and are most creative when brainstorming with friends or colleagues. You enjoy being involved in many activities.

You are very easy to read, and often wear your heart on your sleeve. You are never afraid to tell people what you think. You are very empathetic and genuine. You can sometimes be seen as over-emotional or too involved by others. But that is only because you tend to get so involved in the things you do that they become personal.

You want to be adored, loved and appreciated. You like to please others and to make sure people are happy.

You trust what is certain. You only like new ideas if they can be practically applied to the situation. You value what is real. You use your common sense. You like to utilise the skills you have instead of learning new ones. You are very specific and detailed when writing or talking to others. You follow directions well. You like things to be laid out for you to do instead of working them out for yourself. You like decisions to be made. You don't like leaving things in limbo. You like to know what you are getting into before you commit to something.

You like to focus on the here and now. You enjoy completing projects. It is important for you to achieve and succeed. Therefore, you believe in working hard and playing later. You like to set goals and work towards them.


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1. The results are crap
2. the results are even crap-ier. It's just like...

"Do you like A. hamburger or B. salad."
"Do you like A. soda pop or B. tea"

and the description reads "You prefer salad. You like drink tea instead of soda if you have the choice. For most of the time, you think salad goes well with tea"

Dah!

Can you get dumb-er results than this?~!

Gosh...

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Split into two halves

I'm so so so so split into two extremes

I wanna do all the things in my job and never stop

and yet at the same time, once I stopped, I don't ever want to touch or not even think about anything related to work.

What's that word, "schzophrenia"?

I'm split.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

因為專注‧所以專業

「因為專注﹐所以專業」是一個廣告的 tagline. 最初聽見的時候覺得比較奇怪﹐似乎撰稿員只是想用「專甚麼」來做一個前呼後應的 tagline。

後來在這個書店的小位子做得久了﹐竟然就明白到這一個的道理所在。

同樣的十件工作﹐同樣的十個步驟。A 和 B 兩個工作單位﹐都是要求所有員工都懂得做 10 x 10 = 100 個步驟。在一個開門做生意的小店子來說﹐這也是無可厚非的。但要懂﹐不等於要天天都做。

A 的工作單位﹐五位員工﹐都被要求「輪流做所有工序」。於是﹐每天一定時間﹐就會有「內部換更」的事情發生。早上十時﹐各人做一件工作﹐每人都要做開首的五個步驟。到早上十一時﹐到了換更時間﹐另一個人就會接上﹐做餘下的五個步驟。原先的同事﹐就去做其他工作﹐或者接手另一位同事﹐做的另一件事﹐的第六個步驟。早上十二時﹐又再換﹐未做完的﹐交下一位做。

這一個工作程序﹐還有幾個極度非常十分之 UNREALISTIC 的前設:
1. 這店子是沒有顧客﹐沒有電話﹐沒有 E-mail, 總之不會有其他人和事打斷那十個步驟的。
2. 每個人都剛好做到第五個步驟就換更
3. 而且人人都速度效率一致
4. 換更的時候不須要花時間交代做到甚麼地步
5. 下一手可以立即上手
6. 下一手的人不會問你問題﹐而
7. 你亦不須要問上一手你剛剛 send 出了的 email 在那一個 folder?
8. 只有十個工作﹐每個工作只有十個步驟。而且﹐每個步驟所須時間相若
9. 不會亂插工作序進度

A 單位的好處是:它實現了「人人都懂得所有步驟」﹐所以﹐最令管理層頭痛的「所有事都只得某君知道﹐某君請假或更甚突然消失了﹐就沒有一個人可以接得上」。

管理層覺得用了 A 的方法﹐實在妙極。現在人人都知道和做過 100 步驟﹐而同每天都做﹐管理層不會再聽到有客人投訴「乜你地d 野淨係得阿邊個一個人識架咋咩!?」這一個挑起每條神經線的問題。

非常好。這一個問題不會再出現。因為根本不會有一個人知道任何事情的全面真相。

人人都係「識d 唔識d」﹐就不會有人「識晒」而又有人「唔識」。 太好了﹐所有經理都安枕無憂。 不是很完美的結局嗎?

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B 的工作單位﹐一樣的五位員工﹐一樣的 10 x 10 步驟﹐一樣的情況。

不同的是﹐每一個人只負責兩件工作﹐二十個步驟。他們受訓的時候﹐都聽過或做過其他人要做的八十個步驟。但學過了就不會再每天都「插手」。你懂了﹐但不必再每天都做﹐須要你的時候﹐你不會是白紙一張﹐可能會很生疏﹐但起碼懂得過。

好處是:其餘時間﹐每人專注於自己的二十個工序上面。有突發事故﹐都還可以有空間「吸納」更多步驟。不單效率大增﹐而且越做越專業。更會令員工容易有歸屬感﹐最基本﹐是回到店子裡面﹐你起碼知道有一個地方﹐是你的辦公地方。你起碼可以放一個杯子﹐放幾件文具﹐也不會被人說成「這是公眾地方﹐你放了自己的東西別人放哪?」這等令人毫不會有歸屬感的說話。

壞處是:管理層最怕得要死的惡夢:「乜你d 野得阿邊個知架咋咩?!」 一旦有任何人提出這一問題﹐managers 都幾乎會用最高警戒級別去應對......

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所以我的工作單位行的是「B 制」。我很喜歡﹐起碼我不會迷失﹐不會混亂﹐不會浪費時間 pick up 其他人剛做過的事﹐不會「所有都插手做反而所有都不懂」。

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二百三十幾年前﹐有一位蘇格蘭人﹐到了一所做「大頭針」的廠房參觀。當時的「專業」技藝﹐主導的仍是每位工人「由頭到腳」包辦一切。這樣的工作效率下﹐蘇格蘭人發現這十數個工人每日的總和可以做最多數十個大頭針。

但若實行分工制﹐每位工人只專注幾個工序﹐得出來的結果﹐是同樣的工人﹐同樣多的工序﹐廠房能夠生產出來的大頭針﹐每日四千八百個。

We're talking about 四千八百個和數十個之別!

蘇格蘭人大開眼界﹐決定要把這件事和他的其他見解結集成書。洋洋數十萬字論文﹐作為開首的第一章﹐我相信他有更多深奧的理念可以放入第一章。但他沒有。書成﹐第一章第一節第一部份﹐寫的﹐就是「論分工」。

我不是他﹐不知他的腦在想甚麼。但這一個 prime chapter, 放的﹐應該是最擲地有聲的硬道理﹐最簡單﹐最有力的鐵一般事實。

這一本書﹐直至二百幾年後的今天﹐仍被視為經典中的經典﹐不朽中的不朽。所有略懂最基本經濟原理的人﹐無一不識無一不懂。

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但事實呢?

Sunday, August 09, 2009