Cultivating positive values – How?

A nine-to-five job is no longer as straightforward as it seems. In this part of Asia, we spend a daily average of 12 hours or more at work. 50% of our daily time is spent on managing work expectation and socialising just to earn and ease a living. Because  they are not mutually exclusive, segregation of professional life from our personal life is strenuous to achieve.

Unlike school, college, or university days when we worked on projects cohesively with our peers in order to achieve good grades altogether. Despite diverse team members, consensus is somehow easily achieved thanks to safe and less-stake environment setting, two-way scoring mechanism system between self and peers, and transparent common team goals. Everyone understood the beauty of teamwork in driving efficiency and achieving good grades for all.

When it comes to the real world, it is a whole different breed.

In today’s world, it is common to work with peers from different backgrounds. We have been trained to adapt, share, and learn from each other since school days. If that’s the case, what’s the stress? As much as the word ‘diversity’ being overused on resume or job advertisements, diversity acceptance in terms of perception and action are still limited – Action should speak louder than words.

Next, how many organisations today provide room for making mistakes? (This is serious business and organisations are set up to make profit, not a playground for trial and error). Depending on organisational culture and the organisation’s country of origin, it is rare to find established multinational organisations that practise new school of thoughts – transparency, objective-driven, encourage creativity, fair, open-for-feedback, and people-oriented culture. If there are, culture of feedback would have been a self-sustaining initiative. Employees would have been happy when feedback is reassured on, and staff turnover would not be as high (Staff Turnover Stats).

This quick-to-judge culture is not only damaging to employees morale, but also creating a survival sort of culture within an organisation.

Transparency is replaced with gossips.

Objectivity is replaced with favouritism.

Creativity is replaced with processes. 

Feedback is seen as criticism.

People-oriented is seen as an act, not a commitment.

People are left baffled as to what purpose they are striving for.

Professional overtakes personal.

Employees see less benefits of working as a team in an organisation but instead organisation as a political arena to battle for own interest. Or just transactional.

How do we make organisation a happy place to be everyday? – where we are as passionate as the first day we signed up for the job.

How can we be satisfied with the 50% daily time spent at work? – that we are able to keep this positive mindset even after working hours.

How do we achieve a good work life balance? – where professional life meets personal life that contribute to overall positive well-being.

It’s all up to the organisation – just because it is where positive values can be cultivated in the first place. 

Photo by Shane Rounce