Logicless Logic

an ass.

As I stepped on mainland Singapore soil for the 1st time in 12 days, my thoughts were ironically with that island resort somewhere East. The most memorable lessons that 12 day chalet/boot camp(yes, the difference is this big) with more to come had taught me was about time management and interpersonal relationships. Since I'm not actually allowed to blog about events inside the resort island, I won't. But what happened inside can be intricately linked to the civilian world.

Firstly on time management. People always get the idea that it is good to be early. They are not wrong. Being early is good because punctuality is a virtue, and being early is being punctual. Time is therefore not wasted. However, my personal opinion is that being early is not good time management. The time given is not maximised. Such as when breaks are given, people sometimes like to report early, showing enthusiasm in their work. Good for them. But eating up your own time to start duties earlier. I'd label it inefficient time management.

People might argue that it is efficient because it gets work done and one can rest later. Sure, that's true theoretically. But in the real world, when one gets work done early, guess what he gets? More work. Another catch is that no matter how much work you get done, the highest position one can get to is not much. In this case, over-efficiency is overcompensating others with your effort getting nothing in return. In simpler Justin terms, it is known as stupidity.

Then there is the situation of having poor interpersonal relationships, which may or may not be linked to time management. Let's say an efficient(stupid) person is early for an official meeting. Then he shouts at the people with good time management to hurry up when the fact of the matter is that the deadline given is not yet arriving. Some thoughts have also probably never passed through that efficient guy's mind.

1. He is early and the people he is shouting at are not late. Yet.
2. He is not very adept at communicating his thoughts tactfully.
3. His position in the organisation is the same as the people who might yet arrive on time.
4. He is being stupid.
5. No matter how early he is, that position will stay.

Since these thoughts have never crossed his might, his mouth naturally opens and asks people to hurry up. There is a logic to this. As the old adage goes "Empty vessels makes the most noise." Since there is a lack of thoughts in his head, noises naturally emerge. As this is due to the law of the universe, the efficient guy should not be blamed.

Interpersonal relationships are not only between people of the same position. There is also the matter of interpersonal relationships between superiors and subordinates. As a superior, one will definitely have more power than the subordinate under his control. However, there is this tiny matter which is the difference between a good leader and a wanker. This tiny matter is a little something people like to refer to as "respect". Respect is earnt and never demanded. When a superior is fair, respect is naturally earnt. When the superior is obviously biased, respect will never be accorded to him/her. The people he is biased towards will lick his boots and those whom he is biased against would never give him any of the respect he demands. Therefore, when a superior nitpicks on his subordinates, giving unconstructive criticism, bitterness and indignance will emerge within the subordinates and the superior has lost whatever little respect was accorded to him in the first place.

As these thoughts passed through my head, I had already unknowingly reached home from the resort island. In 5 days, I will be returning to learn more lessons about life and beyond. For now, I shall go and pour more nin jiom pei pa koa down my throat so that I do not lose my voice.

justin.

posted by justin @ 8:56 PM