The Office Influence

Now, working in an all Hokkien, Mandarin, sometimes-just-to-please-me English speaking environment has had a slow but steady influence on me. I have started to pick up certain words/phrases that these colleagues certainly enjoy saying every now and then when they are trapped in their daily dose of conversations.. Here goes:

Tio bo!!!? Tio!!

Zhen de ma!!! Zhen?

Simi tai qi?

Lao pan!!!

Zho kang liao!!!

Zhi peng!!

Zhi fan!!!!!!

Podah la!!!

There are more to come!! And yeah, the last phrase is not a hokkien phrase. But my own personal phrase that I always use when these colleagues just dont seem to stop talking!! But its all good la. POdah!!

Office Politics

Now, I have been in and about the workplace for the past 2 weeks. And wow, one thing is for sure, everything that happens at work is rather suspicious. I mean, first and foremost, Work is there simply to keep a human being occupied. Thats all. Occupied. Coz, there is no way, a person would wake up in the morning and do those things that he/she does at work voluntarily. Its because you want the money to finance your life and ur consumption needs, you try to make the best out of it. You do the work to fulfil your KPIs and targets set for you so you get the money.

So what to employees do to make the best out of it. The good mornings, the good byes, the occasional question on what are you upto, how are you feeling today, whats going with your son,daugther, maid, grandma, and ur pet giraffe. I mean these are all very personal questions posed that become very habitual at the workplace. I guess employees have to see each other as colleagues,acquaintances and basically allies that work in the favour of the company's bottom line. Thats why its best the working relationship remains that way. Its a fine balance between being PRO BUSINESS and PRO Employee. Coz, Business always comes first all the time. But because we are humans, we possess the inate nature to care and be compassionate to one another at times. Thus, a bit of care and concern to the employee's welfare,needs and wants are in order.

Business is all abt profit. Making money for your own consumption. Singaporeans are in a fix. They grow up thinking that being frugal,calculative and risk aversion are crucial qualities for survival in this global marketplace. True. Thats why, we work till our last day. Average Sporean pay lies in the region of 1800 to 3000/month(excluding the bankers of course.) Now, the cost of housing will suck you dry. Thus that leaves you very little for urself, so there u go on working to ensure that u have enough money to finance ur monthly payments. And there u have it, Work takes over your life!!! Work !! Work!! More Work!! Because, we are in debt, and we need to pay our debt. Debt, work!! Debt, work!!!

Leave the second part of this topic for another day. Let me see how my next 2 weeks go. Rock on!!

Day at the Clinic and a Marketing Idea

Went to the clinic recently to nurse a gastric virus. Noticed how the patients in the waiting area do absolutely nothing but stare at each other and try to decipher what kind of problem each patient has. Seriously, waiting patients dont really have much of a choice. They go to the counter, get a queue number and wait.

Of course, every now and then, one patient will sneeze. All patients will scurry for cover not knowing what kind of flu bug he/she might be spreading. In fact, aside from just looking at each other and smile and try to act genuine and sincere to each other's problem, they spend almost 98% of the time looking at the digital number display. This creates a massive opportunity for the advertising industry.

Now as patients earnestly wait for their turn, they look at the number display hoping for their number to just skip 10 numbers and display theirs. Now, a marketing guru should take note of this. This is a potential market to advertise their brands. Considering statistics like percentage of eye traffic, that digital display has massive potential. Why not just put a brand like TamilFlu at the bottom of the display, let the brand be stuck in their head. Why not?