Wrong use of analogies

Analogies should only be used when they are appropriate and useful. If they only serve to confuse the issue, they ought to be avoided at all cost.

On the topic of developing a self-assessment tool for schools, it was being debated on whether there should be standards. One party (the powerful one) was arguing for no such need. Another party (the logical one) stated that implicit in any measurement is a standard (this is Assessment Literacy 101 btw).

And so an analogy was proposed to argue for the former.

A trained engineer from an Ivy League University used the analogy of a ruler to make her case. She liken the self-assessment tool to a ruler and said that it is fine if School A measures itself and it comes up to a 3 and School B measures itself and comes up to a 5. The measurement is neutral and does not in any way say anything about the two schools.

Pray tell, how does this analogy work? Of course the scale says something about the two schs. It says that School A is 2 scale away from School B and that one is shorter than the other. While the numerical value itself might be neutral in the sense that it does not connote anything, implicit in the use of a ruler is the standard of length. And one will argue that if u apply a ruler to something, u must want to know the length for a purpose for otherwise, why bother measuring?

A humbly-trained teacher from a local university proposes that a more apt analogy ought to be the body temperature of different groups of people. If the point is in saying that not all schools should need to achieve the same score (cf. doppy's argument about the type of students a school can produce is dependent on the cohort of students one receives), then use the analogy that one would expect the body temp of a child to be higher than that of an adult because their makeup is different. Consequently, a same reading will indicate different things for a child and an adult. A high reading for a child might not necessarily denote a fever due to a child's high core temperature. Similarly, a school that measures itself using the tool and arrives at a certain score needs to interpret the score in its context. Wouldn't this make more sense?

I am shocked at how a trained engineer can propose the ruler analogy without realising the logical fallacy. Or am I being too critical again?

It's easy to be management. Just add oil and stir fry.

Time is tight! You must deliver! No, your current idea is not good enough!

No, I don't care if that is what was approved. I don't like the idea! No, I don't have any better ones!

You all go and think! You wrote it into the paper, so you must implement!

No, what's in the paper is not good enough!

Your solution distorts the market!

Your solution doesn't train enough people!

How about the existing schools? They have existing degree or poly programmes, no?

No, we need to train those people by this year!

1 day is too short for people to learn anything!

2 days is too long and will discourage people from coming!

You must deliver on this KPI! You must work out what you want to do!

Time is tight! You must deliver! No, I cannot tell you what it is you should do! No, your current idea is not good enough!

Value and Purpose of Literature

With facebook and all, I have been recalcitrant in blogging. Yet there are still thoughts that I would like to keep in a more permanent form then mere FB status updates. So here goes a brilliant argument for the value of literature - a subject which values need constant defense and advocating for.:

"Northrop Frye, in The Educated Imagination, lectures on the importance of exercising the imagination through the study of literature, both asking and answering a central question in the following passage:

So, you may ask, what is the use of studying a world of imagination where anything is possible and anything can be assumed, where there are no rights or wrongs and all arguments are equally good? One of the most obvious uses, I think, is its encouragement of tolerance. In the imagination, our own beliefs are also only possibilities, but we can also see the possibilities in the beliefs of others. Bigots and fanatics seldom have any use for the arts, because they’re preoccupied with their beliefs and actions that they can’t see them as possibilities."(45-46)

I will be sure to share this with my students when I return to the classroom.

I do miss teaching Literature. :(

Call me a cog

Once again, I'm a cog in the machine. A cog that's been repositioned to grease the machine operations better.

5 re-orgs in 5 years. Experience tells me to be professional. To deliver on my new job. To do what I need to do to draw the salary. To come in, shut up, and do the tasks assigned to me.

But it's so tiring. My new boss isn't exactly the nice sort, and if I had had a choice, I definitely wouldn't have joined the department to work for her.

No point complaining I suppose. Nothing has ever made anything change. Nothing ever will.

Away from my family to be in Brisbane for a Conference Part II

And so it has been 3 days since I arrived in Brisbane and I have had 2 full days of conference and 2 social dinners thus far. I am sure that all of you (especially those friends of mine back in office) are DYING to know how I have been in Brisbane with 2 of my bosses. So here goes:

The Screw-Ups
For those of you who follow my fb updates, you would have known the screw-ups happened right after I got off the plane. Instead of a 12-seater van that I chartered for, the silly (5-star no less) hotel sent a 6-seater van instead. Now John, the driver, was most helpful and tried to get the hotel to send another vehicle for us. Being Sunday night, of course we had no such good luck. And thus it was, all 11 of us squeezed into a 6-seater van but thank goodness their vans were built for beefy Australians and the petite Singaporean ladies actually had a decent ride. The only Singaporean gentleman is also on the slim side and he got the passenger seat with the driver. Most fortunately, it managed to take all our over-sized baggage. And so, that's one screw-up down.

Then I realised to my horror upon arrival at the hotel that our room bookings did not include breakfast. Now normally, if I were travelling with normal people, that wouldn't have been such a big issue. In fact, if I was with doppy, he would have just dismissed it and said, 'Oh well, I am sure we can always just grab breakfast at one of the cafes since we are in the CBD area.' However, I was not travelling with normal people. I was travelling with bosses who were used to their staffing officers ensuring that the entire trip run like clockwork and probably not terribly adventurous people to begin with. Actually, I retract that. I do not know them personally but when it comes to work things at least, they suddenly don't behave like normal people. And so my big boss decided that we should all meet for breakfast the next day and since I was busy checking in, I didn't catch the so-exciting discussion in full. And thus I reported dutifully bleary-eyed the next morning at 7 freaking am (when I only fell asleep at 1am that morning) to take communion breakfast, only to realize that they meant to take it within the hotel. And since I am putting up at a 5 star hotel, you want to venture a guess at the cost of breakfast? Apparently, it cost A$39! Yes, you read me right, A$39! Now you must remember that I am the still the same person who made doppy eat Macdonald's with me on my honeymoon for lunch so that we don't spend monies unnecessarily so you can imagine my shock at the price. But since the entire village was gathered at the cafe, I could not very well said, 'Sorry dudes, if I don't take A$39 meals with my hubby on a holiday, I sure as hell won't do it with you guys.' And so I had some scrambled egg, an omelette, a glass of orange juice and a cuppa tea for A$39! Tried as I might to convince myself that perhaps they used truffle oil to fry the egg or made my tea with some rare tea leaves, I honestly could not tell the difference between that breakfast I took and the one I took this morning for just A$13 (yep, I wised up and decided to explore the hood with my roomie while the rest of the people bought cereal and milk to eat bf in their room). And I had a damn good long black this morning too that managed to keep me awake me for the morning presentations (yep, I dozed off through most of the presentations on Mon and Hello Kitty would tell you that I was most amazing in waking up at the opportune moments to applaud and at the debrief session, I could even talk about the presentations like I was real attentive at the sessions).

On the personal front, I forgot to bring along my sleepwear but most of you were already well-aware of this boo-boo. Fortunately, Hello Kitty has a pair of shorts to spare and so I did not have to resort to stripping under the blanket or walking around half-naked and traumatise my roomie.

The Opportunities
The good thing though is that I actually appreciate this opportunity to attend this conference. Besides the fact that I got to watch 3 movies (one of them a most recent release) straight on the plane which is a much-treasured luxury (I hardly go to the movies these days and thus have missed many good shows), the qualities of the papers presented at this conference were generally of a pretty decent standard and some of the things they were talking about assessment were good pointers for me especially since I am in the committee that is looking at Operationalising Holistic Assessment in Academic Subjects in the Primary Schools (bet you didn't know I have such an important job to do from all the rantings of the sai-gung work I had to do, right? But it's true! I do sai-gung and not value-add work but oh well, who am I to complain when that's what a top-tier scholar does too?). Some of the ideas discussed reaffirmed my own beliefs and ideas about formative assessment (such as the argument that formative assessment requires very strong teachers' competency and subject mastery) and others gave me food for thought. So all in all, in terms of professional learning, I do feel that this conference has been a good exposure for me and I have definitely benefited from the conference. I appreciate the opportunity that I have been given and for all the "I-cannot-wait-to-go-back-to-Singapore-to-my-men", I must still say that it has not been a wasted trip for me.

The Pet Peeves
Top of the list? My two bosses. My big boss tops for a number of reason. First of all, she pales so much in comparison to another dd of another branch. That dd speaks her mind, is critical and asks intelligent questions. My dd on the other hand held a 1.5hr debrief session which at the end of it all, no one had any idea what the conclusion was or the point of the debrief at all (except my Head who was busy scribbling everything that my dd said). Secondly, she insists on dragging me to all these social dinners that she has set up with the Professors and the who's who's in the assessment circle in which I cannot contribute to the conversation at all at the table cos I have absolutely no idea what her plans are in networking with these people. That brings me to another peeve of mine, my defunct Head. I have come to realise that she really doesn't like speaking with me and I dislike the fact that when I attempt to make small talk (we were the only 2 kah-gias walking behind when the dds were engaged in conversation with our guests and it was quite a distance that we were walking), she made no attempt at all to sustain the conversation. I must say however that perhaps she too sucks at small talk like me. At the dining table, apart from nodding very earnestly at the discussion and paraphrasing what I thought were clear ideas, she really could not hold her own either in making conversations. On the first morning at the breakfast table, the other dd and I were dominating the conversation (cos stereotypically, we are language and humanities people and I think generally we like to share our thoughts with the world regardless of the world’s interest :P) and that poor Head of mine was just caught in between the two of us and just kept nodding her head very earnestly. I tried to include her in the conversation but whenever I tried for a conversation opener, she just nodded or shook her head. And so, I have given up on trying to strike up a conversation with her. However miraculously when she is in the company of the other officers, she suddenly has things to say and would actually open up and be friendly. This is really strange considering that I am one of the people who works most closely with her. My friends at work think that she's intimidated by me but I fail to see how or why she should be intimidated by old, endearing, friendly, cheerio me. To make matters worse, ENTJ people are the worst group of people you ought to be frightened of. This is because the moment we smell your fear of us or know that you probably cannot hold your own against us, the more relentless we will be with forcing our opinions down your throat and have you completely back down. And so, I have decided to adopt the strategy of ignoring-her-till-she-talks-to-me and if anyone thinks that I am being a snob or real nasty to her, let it be known that I have tried my best but my overtures are rejected.

What I missed
Needless to say, the two boys in my life. Spoke with doppy and xp on the phone last night and I was so happy to hear xp's voice (he usually just listens intently to the voice that is coming out of the phone and rarely responds). He actually said, "Mummy. Shoes, shoes", trying to tell his dad, I think, that he wants to wear his shoes and go look for me. I miss his smell and hugging him, miss kissing him goodnight and reading his books aloud to him, miss him trying to tell me the things he's taking in with his senses ('Mama, birds up, birds up') and miss him imploring me to take him out ('Mama, walk walk. Shoes. Walk there').

I miss the big guy too especially when I am walking down the streets in my jacket and enjoying the cool weather. The cool weather and the space in Brisbane brought back lovely memories of our time in Sydney. There's an Anzac memorial garden right across my hotel and this morning when I passed it, I was reminded of the time we picnicked at Sydney with my hard roll and a cuppa hot soup. We have not been on a holiday for eons (Bintan doesn’t count cos the weather was not cool and we were not seafaring peeps) and I think I shall really contrive to make one come true in Dec. Just the two of us. Though I will miss the kiddo like hell, I will definitely still enjoy the time with doppy.

Alrighty, enough long-winded mundane recounts from me. I am gonna try to finish my White Sargossa Sea and wait for doppy to be done with his french class and get home with xp to video-chat with me. Hopefully the internet connection holds and my web cam works.

and to everyone back in ofc, enjoy the time without government while it lasts and thanks for all the well-wishes you all have for me.

to my friends who I am missing in my absence, including the almost impossible to meet Wed-night Sabbatical dinner group and a certain someone else who reads this blog, miss you peeps and hope to see yall soon.

Away from my family to be in Brisbane for a Conference

This morning I was saying goodbye to XP and he said something that totally broke my heart.

That sleepy head had just woken up and was probably still groggy from his sleep. I kissed him good morning on the forehead and was telling him that I was going to leave him for 6 days and exhorting him to be good and listen to the adults in his life.

Sleepyhead looked at me intently, and suddenly he said, "Mama, cook soup." :( When I heard that, I could not helped but teared as I will not be around for the next few days to cook soup for him. I told him that mama had to go away for work and auntie flo would soup for him and he replied with a very self-satisfied, "Yes, pls. Auntie Flo cook soup." Sigh .. did I mention that I am a full-time worker and part-time mother? Broke my heart that I can't be around to cook soup for him (nevermind that Flo can cook just as good a pot of soup as I do).

Anyways, it sucks to travel with colleagues and not with doppy. Firstly, for some strange reason, everyone seems to be taking me as the default tour organiser when in actual fact, I am just the clerical support staff. And so there is this heavy sense of expectation of me which causes me stress to no end.

Secondly, I think I am either too stressed out with packing the appropriate attire for the conference or just plain silly but I actually forgot to bring shorts along to change into for bed! I kept thinking, I am just going to the conference and I have a pair of jeans and Mary Janes for casual outings and that should be enough clothes for me. Twas only when I stepped into my room and wanted to take a shower that I realised I had no other bottoms other than workwear or jeans! I must have been too used to sleeping in the buff or traveling with doppy (who would not mind me in just my dkny) that I clean forgot I needed to pack something to wear to sleep. Thank goodness for a friend on the trip who has a spare pair of shorts to spare. Otherwise, I will have to resort to going to bed in my jeans and stripping down under the blanket.

Oh well .. the day is almost ending and hopefully the week will zoom by and before I know it, I will be back to my guys' side.

Oh oh .. one piece of good news. Due to (yet again!) changes to the programme, I might actually get Wed afternoon off to go wander by myself! :) Yippee.

Okie doke .. gonna shower and snuggle up in bed with my novels to catch up with my MA readings. Stay tune for more adventures of me in Brisbane.

Sheer Pride

If you are wondering why I am up so early this morning, it is my damned pride.

At work, we were told to submit a report by this Friday to my boss as she needed the information for a paper she had to write.

No one at work has taken the time nor effort to do it as it is a nonsensical report (or rather useless one) that she requires and today we are all going to be out for a whole day of learning journey and professional sharing activities.

My damned cursed pride dictates that I will not miss the deadline that my boss gives cos I wanna prove that I am way better than her (which is sadly a statement of fact rather than arrogance) and refuse to give her any handle against me.

And so, I woke up at 5am this morning, despite turning in only at 1am, all groggy-eyed and brain not functioning. Had to kickstart with a can of Nescafe.

Not that my report is a well-done one but I have tried my best.

And at the very least, I could stand on my moral high ground and say that I have turned in my report on time.

Sigh. This pride of mine shall be my downfall one day. :O

Why I hate being a SWC rep

For those of you who know me, you would know that I am most easy with my monies and the price of a gift is of no concern to me (barring astromical figures) if I have the heart to get it in the first place.

I have had a sudden epiphany why I dislike, in fact hate!, being a SWC rep so much. Of course, the tedium of remembering details and being thoughtful are not my strengths to begin with (I don't even remember my best friends' bd in time most of the time!) but beyond that, it is the entire hypocrisy of the job that I hate it.

I hate it when I have to gather everyone to celebrate everyone's birthday simply because it's the 'right' thing to do.

I hate it when I have to organise events / outings / meals because it is the 'right' thing to do.

I hate it when this morning I bought a fruit basket to welcome a colleague back to work and have 1 Head to email me to put in place SOPs and my boss asking to speak to me about it. My colleague's boss thought that it would be a nice gesture to send her a small fruit basket to welcome her back  as this colleague had been feeling under the weather for quite some time despite reporting for work everyday. She was diagnosed with near bronchitis end of last week and was told that it could potentially develop into pneumonia if she did take care. Despite this, she faithfully reported for work today because she had to conduct a workshop this afternoon. I ordered a small fruit basket of sixty-eight freaking dollars to be shared amongst 15 people to welcome her back and now my boss wants to talk to me about detailing SOPs on the use of the blooooddddy funds which nobody asked me to detail an SOP when I used it to buy CNY goodies for all the DDs who we do not even work closely with!

The hypocrisy of people! Does not a colleague who ran her health to the ground for the unit's work deserve more than the stupid people out there who most of the times make our own lives more difficult rather than easier for us?

This is the reason why I HATE being a staff welfare rep. For truth be told, no one gives a shit about staff's welfare. Some people just cares about doing the 'right' thing for the 'right' people at the 'right' time to be seen by 'right' others.

Ka-pui!

How to write like a civil servant

This is the first in a series (I hope) of posts where I try to distill what I've learnt in 6 years in the civil service to help out those of you that are just starting out as paper pushers.

In this first post, I will share a bit on how to write like a civil servant, in particular, how to write papers (or proposals).

How to write a paper

1. Find out what is your organisation's template.
The last thing you want to do is have your ideas and proposals rejected because of the "form" of your paper not being in the correct format. Your brilliant ideas would not even be read because your boss will assume you are too retarded to even find the right template. The easiest way to do this, is to ask your peer for a recent paper he/she submitted as reference, and tell him/her it's for reference purposes so he doesn't think you're stealing his/her ideas.

2. Figure out what your paper is trying to achieve, and who the target audience is.
This may sound obvious, but it's a classic newbie mistake. Too many papers have been unsure in their purpose because the boss said, "write a paper" and the staff officer did it without thinking through. Is it a paper to seek someone's (some committee's) approval? Is it for information? For whose information? Is it to seek funding? Be clear on the purpose of the paper, so that as you write, you will continuously position it for your audience, and to achieve the objective you desire. Different audiences will require different pitching. Board of your organisation probably doesn't want to know the same details as the finance committee. Therefore, figure out the target audience and the objective, and write accordingly.

3. State the aim clearly.
Another obvious point but one often delivered poorly. Consider this - you're writing a proposal to set up some sort of centre to deliver product XYZ, that will need hiring 20 people, with an implementation plan spanning 3 years, at a cost of $x. What should your "aim / objective" statement be? The answer is, it depends. It depends on point (2) above, which is what you're trying to achieve. If this paper is for the in-principal approval of concept for the centre, then you're "seeking the approval of concept for the setting up of centre blahblah". If the paper is to seek a decision on the implementation plan, the aim is to "seek approval from the steering committee on the implementation plan for the setting up of the centre...". If it's for funding, it's to "seek the funding committee's approval for $x for the setting up of ...". So, like I said, it depends.

4. Framework - use one.
Decide on a framework to use for your paper. Can be a simple thing like "Who, what, when, where, why" or something more complex. This will force you to analyse the project and situation accordingly so that you can find the right arguments and analyses necessary to convince the audience that your proposal makse sense. For instance, if you are asking for money, you will need to show the proposed breakdown of the funding, the expected payment schedules, etc. Or if you're proposing the setting up of a committee, tell the audience who, what, why, etc.

I'll stop here at these "high level" suggestions and go into more details on each section of the paper in a future post if there's interest. :)

Principles

It was announced that My Head (Convering) was confirmed as Head wef 1 Apr 09 yesterday and she was also recently promoted to the Substantative Grade of a Senior Education Officer.

I do not want to drege up history but this is the same officer who has admitted openly that she was not coping and cried a number of times in plain sight in office.

Granted, she was going through a bad time on the personal front and I was willing to cut her some slack as we all have our bad times too.

Thus far, she has not performed her job well, not even meeting basic expectations that I would have for my own officers when I was a Level Head and reporting officer to beginning teachers.

Today's section meeting took the cake.

She sent out an an email at 6.20pm last night to change our meeting time from morning to afternoon. The schedule for our meetings for the entire year was given since the beginning of the year.

It was unclear why she had to be away but another officer reflected that she was not able to make it for the meeting in the afternoon.

My boss then responded with another email to say if everyone can make it in the morning, then we shall still have the meeting in the morning.

I ignored all the exchanges as technically, as a matter of principle, I do not check my emails after 5.30pm. To make a point, I also made sure that I arrived at the venue of the meeting promptly this morning at 9am.

I waited for half an hour and no one turned up. I texted my boss to ask if the section meeting was still on as I had been waiting at the meeting venue for an hour. Her reply: "Oh. xx just sms me. I be there at 10.30. U call him." So texted my colleague I did and he said, we will wait for boss to come back. Bear in mind that all this while, there was no confirmation of a cancellation of the meeting at all.

When she finally waltzed in with the team at 10.15am, I said, "I have been waiting here since 9am". Her reply, "Oh. I emailed everyone to ask if they could make it this morning and no one responded." This was not true. For I did respond with a "I have already blocked out my whole morning as it was communicated at the beginning of the year that this is our meeting time. So I am good to meet in the morning." She did not acknowledge that email of mine.

Other frustrating things happened in the meeting but the straw that broke the camel's back was her response to me. I have 3 top-tier scholars in my unit and I am the only non-scholar at this meeting. When I reflected my concern about my development as an officer as it appeared to me that I merely served as a Secretariat for meetings and manage events, her response to me was, "You must realise that there are different tracks for different people."

:( I am married to a former top-tier scholar and she's the last person I need to tell me about the realities of life in the civil service. Never in my 9 years of service in school had anyone told me that so bluntly before and I was most conscious of managing my own officers feelings when I was a RO.

I refused to take it lying down and said that as far as I know, all HQ officers were placed on the leadership track and the difference only lies in the speed of our career advancement.

This is the boss that I am going to have a work review session with tomorrow to talk about my targets for the year and discuss my professional development.

Pray tell, what should I say to her?

Sigh. I am so disheartened, sad, and tired. And this is merely April. :(

Grouses on my retreat

1. It's a working meeting, not a retreat.
2. We spent 10 freaking minutes arguing whether we should keep soft copies or hard copies of filenotes.
3. Lunch was catered for 10 pax when we had 16 people because we have no monies.
4. I get to earn credit cards points because I had to sign for the room charges on my cc as the organiser was called back to HQ for a meeting.
5. And if you are wondering where all these were taking place, it's in freaking ulu Kranji Resort.

Back in my school, my boss would have slaughtered me for planning a retreat like this.

Sigh. And this is HQ no less.

Aim low to find meaning at work

I happen to do a job that for eons, has been credited as meaningful work. In fact, one of the taglines used in the recruitment ads commonly emphasize that we can make a difference.

However, I think this article is also rather insightful and it's probably relevant to all of us who at one point or another, ask ourselves, why do I get up every morning just to drag myself to work?

At the risk of violating copyright laws, I have reproduced the article here as it is only available if you have a subscriber's account.

Enjoy.

Aim low to find meaning at work

By Lucy Kellaway

 

Published: May 11 2008 18:14 | Last updated: May 11 2008 18:14

 

At a party last week, I met a man who until recently was a government minister. We chatted about this and that, and he said how much he was enjoying his assortment of sinecures – non-executive directorships, speaking engagements and so on. He had both more money and more spare time than he used to have; in all, life was good. I asked him if he was missing the power. He looked at me as if I were a simpleton. Government ministers don’t have any power, he said.

 

As an agony aunt, I am used to people telling me that their jobs are meaningless. In fact this, is the most popular problem that readers submit. Lawyers, bankers, fund managers and all sorts of people with grand jobs write in with the same complaint: the money may be good but where is the meaning? How can I make a difference, they wail.

I always tell them to stop looking for meaning at once. If they go out looking, they are most unlikely to find anything. It is the same thing with happiness: the more you search, the less you find.

 

No one takes the tiniest shred of notice of this excellent advice. The search for meaning at work not only goes on unabated but also seems to be getting more urgent all the time. When government ministers join City professionals in fretting that their work doesn’t amount to a row of beans, we are really in trouble.

 

This crisis of meaningless is a relatively new thing. A report from the Work Foundation published last week argues that looking for meaning at work would have seemed outlandish even a generation ago. But now, as a joint result of affluence and our general leaning towards introspection, it has become the norm. We all insist that our jobs should mean something.

The author of the report, Stephen Overell, points out that meaning is a subjective thing: what counts as meaningful work to one person won’t to another. This means that companies, for all their insistence on “employee engagement programmes”, can’t create meaning and should not try.

Instead they should concentrate on not destroying it – which many of them manage to do effortlessly enough through treating their employees badly.

 

There are two things that give work meaning. First is the satisfaction that comes from the work itself. I am lucky in this way: I (mostly) enjoy putting one word in front of another, and that is meaning enough for me. Yet this sort of simple pleasure in the job is not open to most people: the majority of jobs are either boring or beastly or both.

 

The second strand is the more dangerous one. That meaningful work must be somehow worthwhile; that in doing it we must feel that we are making a difference. This way of thinking can only lead to despair. If you start asking if your job is worthwhile, you have to conclude it isn’t. Viewed this way, all work is pretty meaningless, whether you are journalist, banker, busker or government minister.

 

In fact, whoever coined the phrase “making a difference” has made a difference, though not a positive one. The phrase gestures towards grandiose achievement that is out of reach for almost everybody. Most of us make very little difference at all – which stands to reason if you think there are 30m workers in Britain alone, making it almost impossible that any of us will make a difference, except to the people we work directly with.

 

But what is the matter with that? Why isn’t that enough? Indeed, according to a survey published last week by YouGov, having nice colleagues is as important as money in persuading employees to stay in their jobs. This means that simply by being liked by your colleagues you are making a difference, even if only a modest one.

 

In fact as long as we set our sights low enough we all do make a difference at work. By performing the tasks we are supposed to perform, we are making a difference to our employers. If we weren’t, they would have fired us long ago.

Yet many clever, decent managers don’t find this enough. A friend who works for a large company that sells dog food said to me the other day that, if she didn’t do something worthwhile at work soon,she was going to go mad. So she has come up with a charity for her company to sponsor in Africa, and suddenly claimed that the meaning was back in her job.

 

This strikes me as an upside-down way of looking at things. If we define meaning as helping people in faraway places, we implicitly subtract meaning from the actual work we are doing. Helping Africa is a good thing but, then, so is selling dog food. A dog has to eat, after all.

 

There is a tiny glimmer of hope that we will all soon start to be less unreasonable in demanding reason from work. And that glimmer comes, of all places, from the credit crunch. If my agony customers are anything to go by, the people who worry most are in grand City jobs. My hunch is that this is because they are paid so much more than they feel their efforts are really worth – a thought that tips them straight into the it’s-all-meaningless abyss. But when these people feel that their pay may cease altogether as they join the other thousands who have just been fired, they may suddenly find that their jobs aren’t quite so meaningless after all. Or, better still, they will stop asking themselves the question.

 

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008

FT.com / Columnists / Lucy Kellaway - Aim low to find meaning at work

Will you get promoted? Take the test » Brazen Careerist by Penelope Trunk

I remember in the early days of our service, PJ once nicely asked her HoD to make explicit the criterion for promotion as we perceived that we were passed over for people who were contributing less to the organisation than we were.

Though very few of us entered the service thinking of climbing the corporate ladder (truth be told, many of us just want to be left alone to do what we love best, teach!), undeniably when the promotion list comes out on April each year, there is bound to be talk and feelings of discontentment. Some may wonder why certain people are on that list and others may wonder why their names are not on it.

I used to believe that if I was doing good work, there is no need to sound my own horn for surely good work is plain for all to see and people are bound to recognise it for what it is. If the organisation fails to recognise the good work I am putting in, then surely it is the organisation's loss and not mine.

Of course, I have failed to realise that the above belief only holds true if one reports to a competent boss. Unfortunately, I have come to realise that not all bosses are competent and at the end of the day, if we do not take responsibility for our own career, then we really have no one else to blame but ourselves when we realise that people who are less deserving end up getting promoted over us.

So go ahead, take the test and see if there's anything that you need to do to chart your career better. After all, if we are spending so much time at work and getting so stressed by it, we might as well be duly paid for our work. :)

 

April 29, 2008

Will you get promoted? Take the test

 

One of the most important indicators of whether or not you should switch jobs is if you are in line for a promotion. It’s not so much that you should be climbing a ladder, but more that if you are not being recognized for great work then you’re probably not doing great work. And if you are not doing great work, this is not the job for you. We should all be doing great stuff.

So take this quiz to find out if you will get promoted.

 

1. Are you friends with your boss?

 

2. Are you working on high-profile projects?

3. Are you paid at the high end of the range for your position?

4. Do you work fewer hours than everyone else?

5. Do you feel like you are due a promotion because of your experience?

Will you get promoted? Take the test » Brazen Careerist by Penelope Trunk

How does one quantify 8 years and 9 months?

Last Friday marked the last day of my teaching career. Though everyone assumes that I have gone on leave, truth of the matter is that my maternity leave only starts officially tomorrow on 17 March 2008 (I thought there was no point in wasting one week of leave on the March holidays).

After 8 years and 9 months of teaching (not including my early teaching practicum days), I don't really know how I am supposed to feel. Albeit I am not actually leaving the service nor is it a certainty that I will not assume the role of a teacher again, going to HQ does however mean a temporary break from teaching for 3 years at least. Perhaps a reflection on what the past 8 years and 9 months have been for me will allow me to understand my own feelings better. So bear with me while I reminisce about the days gone by.

When I first started in May 1999, I was an enthusiastic young teacher who saw so many things that I could improve in the teaching of English and Literature. I readily volunteered my services in designing curriculum materials and took pride and satisfaction in  coming up teaching resources for my students and other teachers. I guess you could call me the 'chao' enthu young teacher, raring to go and finding meaning in whatever I do.

I gave my heart and all in those early days of teaching. I would faithfully prepare for my lessons, think of interesting ways to teach, try to engage my students actively and try hard to strike a balance between being a firm teacher and one who was approachable. Unsurprisingly, a lot of my time and energy were also given to my CCA, NPCC. I remember spending hours on the field with the cadets during weekly training activities, setting up for meetings during the weekends (those were the days when 5-day work week was not implemented yet), stayed every night for every single camp, initiated activities that I thought would be beneficial to my students, spent shit-loads of monies treating my volunteer officers to meals and snacks to show my appreciation for their dedication to the unit and their help etc etc. Needless to say, my entire life practically revolved around school and I remember going through this period being able to meet up with my pals only at term break and the June and December vacations.

Gradually though, I began to realise that my life could not go on like that. I was beginning to experience burnt-out and I had to find a release valve for myself. Call me a late-comer to the clubbing scene but believe it or not, I only started clubbing in my third or fourth year into teaching. I guess that was when I could afford it and being single at that time (which is a rare period in my life considering that I was always in a relationship since 17) definitely made hanging out at the nightspots with my girls a fun thing to do. Our choice hangout at that time was Bar None and one of PJ and my favourite songs was "Shout, shout, let it all out" performed by Douglas O. I used to treat my clubbing nights as a kind of treat for myself, finding all reasons to go dancing be it to celebrate the end of a crazy marking season or the end of term. Along the way, I guessed I realised that it was equally important for me to have a life beyond school otherwise I would go mad.  

I was very fortunate though to have amongst my colleagues a very strong support group consisting of three teachers who entered the Madhouse the same time as me. PJ was one of them and there were two others. One of them, K, was my senior in NIE and though we were worlds apart in terms of our interests and personalities, our initial convenient friendship blossomed into something more real and steady in a pretty short time. The last person in my clique so to speak was PJ's maths colleague who also happened to be my fellow NPCC teacher officer. We affectionately addressed him as Ah Hia as he was the oldest in our gang. This group of friends were invaluable to me for they saw me through one of the most stressful periods in my life. For some of you who are reading this blog, you probably only got to know me in the latter part of my teaching career where I have already learnt certain coping skills. Trust me when I say that the early days were really not easy especially with the amount of markings I had to do as a double-lang teacher (chicken-hearted K and PJ who both hold a degree in English managed to talk their ROs by the second year to convert them to full-time Art and Maths teacher respectively and never had to mark a single script of composition again!) and being given more and more responsibilities year after year with no corresponding reduction in workload. I still remember those days when I actually feel guilty going to sleep because I could not clear my markings and feeling really despondent and lousy about myself for not being more competent when I perceived that everyone else around me seemed to be coping fine. This group of friends are the ones who preserved my sanity and the only reason I managed to survive teaching in the first 3-5 years was because I knew that no matter what happened, I could count on them to give me their support and help, and see me through the tough times.

Gradually though, our paths diverged. Ah Hia left the service and K was setting up her own family with her Kiwi husband. I was promoted to Level Head while PJ was also trying to set up her own family with her long-time (and only) beau. Increasingly, I spent less and less time with my students and more and more time in attending meetings and doing administrative work. It was also around this time that I got to know doppy and started dating him. I also saw that many people around me have either done their post-grad degree or were in the midst of pursuing their own. After marrying doppy, he got me thinking about my career and what I really want to do with my life. He was especially critical of my school for he perceived that the organisation was merely exploiting me and we had numerous arguments over the toll that work was taking on me. With his support and encouragement, I also applied to do my MA in Literary Studies and struggled to balance work, family and studies.

My years as a Level Head and sitting on the Planning Committee have opened my eyes to what goes on behind the scenes and what actually takes place at management level. I respect some of my fellow heads for their capabilities and they never cease to amaze me with how they manage to juggle the day-to-day teaching and all the other administrative stuff they had to do. Others made me wondered how in the world did they made it this far and in a perverse way, assured me that if they could make it to headship, I was most definitely qualified for the job. My stint as an LH had also mellowed me somewhat, tempered my impulsiveness and taught me to choose my battles. There were valuable lessons that I had learnt on the job that allowed to gain deeper self-knowledge and also allowed me to look at things from different perspective. One thing was for sure. I definitely improved in my inter-personal skills since I had no choice but to interact with people who were not necessarily my type. At the end of the day though, I have learnt just as the rest of them had to learn to deal with my outspokenness, I also have to accept them for who they are.

In the grand scheme of things, 9 years is not a long time. Comparing my career path with others though, 9 years is a long time to have stayed in one organisation. And these 9 years have seen me coming into my own in this organisation and no matter what gripes I might have about the Madhouse, I cannot deny the fact that it is a place that I have grown comfortable with and do not feel the incessant need to prove myself anymore.

Will my stint in HQ allow me to find greater satisfaction and a better balance between work and life? Only time can tell. For now, I only know that I am definitely going to miss the people I have worked so closely with in the last 9 years and the experience of going into class to deliver a good lesson. I am definitely going to miss teaching Literature (I already feel this keenly this year as I do not have a Literature class to teach) and having my students come back year after year to tell me that I have inspired them to love Literature.

One chapter of my life is closing and I shall embark on a new journey come June 23. I do not know what to expect but what I do know is that I will always have doppy's support and all of your love and care to see me through any challenges that may come my way.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Apologies for the rambling nature of this post. There are so many thoughts and feelings that it is not possible for me to put them across in a coherent manner.

Singapore - Renaissance city? Really?

Recently, there's been a lot of talk in the official media regarding Singapore's status as a "hub", a "renaissance city", or a landmark city. They point to events such as F1, the launching of the IRs, the revamp of the Singapore River, the Youth Olympic games, the transformation of the local arts scene, as examples of the overall trend towards this new status.

I find this hard to swallow.

How much of this is political posturing, and how much of it is real revamping? Even if the intent is sincere, we must not forget that we still need other people of the world to agree that we are a hub before we become one. Lest we forget, there are plenty of other cities out there who are also competing for such a status.

Besides, Singapore is hot. The climate sucks. It's either raining or too hot. If I were a rich foreigner, would I really want to live here?

Safety and Security? When the JI guy has just managed to escape so easily, do you think it doesn't affect other's perception of our country?

Our country is being divided into two - a small rich elite group, and the larger poor masses. All the plans rolled out only help the small group, yet it is the status of the middle class, the wealth they own, that will truly determine how much of a renaissance city we are.

Until the day when people can quit their jobs to start an art gallery and take such a risk, Singapore will never be a renaissance city.

From 17% to 67.9%

3 years ago in 2005, the cohort which guru and I taught only obtained 17% distinctions for Literature in English.

It was a huge blow to me. My only comfort then was that guru taught that year too and we were both equally responsible for the results.

2 years ago, the cohort of 2006 scored a 91% distinction rate and topped the nation in our Literature results. Though guru insisted that she would like to question the UCLES markers to find out how we could have swung from one end to the other, cos she was the one who taught both cohort, nonetheless, I felt the pressure to deliver a decent report card for my cohort of 2007.

Praise the Lord (indeed!) that between another colleague and me, we managed to garner a 67.9% distinction rate and more importantly, our MSG was 1.97! That meant that on average, everyone scored at least an A2 for their Literature. :)

Though grades are not everything (and I should know since I am a late bloomer! who only scored a B3 for my 'O' Level Literature), nevertheless, it is a proxy indicator (in BSC lingo) of both the students' and teachers' ability.

As my guru said, I can now leave with a peace of mind, knowing that I have done my job well.

Finally, after 9 years in the service, I finally managed to met the target set by the school. :)

TODAYonline

Stumbled across this article on my staff's notice board in the pantry area when I was getting my cup of water.

Struck a chord with me. Worth a read.

HO KONG LOON

IN 1983, my school head nominated me for the post of vice-principal.

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But he was shocked when I turned it down, persuading me to reconsider my decision because that rejection could adversely affect my career advancement.

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He relented when he realised how resolute I was. I thoroughly enjoyed doing what I loved most: Teach with passion, dedication and, compassion.

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A decade or so later, the education landscape underwent great change with improvements in salary scales, better and faster prospects for promotion, attractive study bursaries, generous sabbaticals, annual performance-based bonuses and so on.

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Still, there were teachers who much preferred teaching to fast-tracking their way up the pecking order to become heads of department, subject or level heads or senior teachers.

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The ranking of teachers set many teachers working feverishly to come up with the best possible professional portfolios, one that their reporting officers have an avid interest in.

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Differentiation took on an added significance when ordinary teachers and their hierarchical counterparts worked from different rooms.

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Staff camaraderie nose-dived. Contact time, originally intended for busy teachers to interact professionally or socially once a week, was transformed into lengthy staff meetings, in the guise of sharing sessions, mini meetings and briefings.

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Walk into any school before assembly, during the breaks and after dismissal, and it is not uncommon to see teachers working at a frenzied pace — marking written assignments, keying in data at the computers, responding to the voluminous work-related emails from colleagues or superiors, keeping an eye on the kids at the canteen, supervising silent reading ... and the list goes on.

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Gone were the days when teachers could take time off to relax with their colleagues after school hours.

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But I soldiered on. The children in the class were my main concern and if my portfolio seemed embarrassingly slim, it did not unduly bother me.

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When it was time for the battle-weary horse to move on, he did. I was an anachronistic remnant from a bygone time. I was nurtured and trained to be the front-liner in the education of the child, who held centrestage in the process.

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It is the passion, creativity, love, care, concern and commitment, which collectively make the learning process enjoyable, productive and permanent.

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Now, it is rare for the teacher to have all that time with the kids.

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Teachers today have an overflowing plate attending to issues well beyond the classroom. There is only so much they can accomplish daily.

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The better-qualified ones are not necessarily more committed, nor are they, in comparison with their lesser-qualified colleagues more effective teachers.

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Grow 2.0, while welcome and comprehensively packaged, aims at institutionalising the culture of reward for diligence, upgrading, multi-tasking and versatility.

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A tsunami-scale mindset revolution, to get back to the basics of dynamic, creative and dedicated classroom teaching, is hopefully attainable, too.

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The author is a retired teacher.

TODAYonline

Newsweek

A number of readers have been asking why I have not blogged for a while. Well, I am coming to the end of my second trimester and entering my third (this is the 27 week for me) and the tiredness is beginning to come back to plague me again. I doze off on the sofa at 9 plus every night and more often than not, I hit the sack by 10pm (after reading to cayden or listening to doppy's fairy tales). And of course, I have also gone back to work and these two weeks have just flown by me with lesson preparations and trying to complete all the overdue work that I still owe others. Everyone's been telling me to take it easy at work and I honestly do try. Yet for those who are teachers, you know that it is inevitable that we are swept along with the tide and pace in school. As it is, I get breathless from climbing the flights of stairs to get to my classroom on the 4th level. I need about 5 minutes to catch my breath before I can start talking. My students look at me gasping for my breath with amusement and my colleagues who have 'been-there-done-that' laugh commiseratively at me. So yeah, between trying to take care of that little one in me and those big children at my work, I didn't have a lot of time to blog. Since I am at work on a Saturday morning and I really don't feel like reading my big kids' essays, so here I am, blogging some of the highlights as far as my memory can serve me, especially to provide some updates and entertainment to my dearest friends who are both at down under right now.

Pump Room

Before 2007 came to an end, my gfs and I had been talking about having a girls' night out. That talk finally materialised itself about a week ago when we met up to go for drinks and dancing. Yes, you read it right the first time, dancing. Initially Petals suggested Gotham Penthouse since none of them had been there before. She actually thought that we could go and laugh at the 'strippers'. I was perplexed as to where she got the idea that they would be funny to laugh at. Unfortunately, when the three of us (Meow, Petals and me) finally arrived at the doorstep of Gotham Penthouse, we were informed that the show had been stopped temporarily as they were revamping it.

Thank goodness we were at Clarke Quay so being the creatures of habit we are, we trooped back to Pump Room to check out the scene. The waitress asked us for our first drink and Petals in her classic fashion blurted very loudly when I was offered cranberry juice, "Cranberry juice is good. It prevents urinary tract infection." There was a stunned silence before she quickly redeemed herself with a "Not that you have it lah". Gosh! She never fails to make me laugh with her classic comments. :)

The place had plenty of standing room and both of them fussed over me in trying to get me a seat. Petals even activated one of her students who was working there to try to coerce the other customers to share a table with us. I had a ball of a time dancing (or rather, just swaying very gently) to the songs which we were all familiar with. I even caught the eyes of a couple of guys there though not for the same reason that I caught my husband's ones 6 years ago. A number of them pointed at me and jabbed their friends in their ribs in a bid to make out whether I was just fat or really pregnant. Petals and Meow had a hoot of a time trying to prevent people from bumping into me and tried very hard to take videos of my dancing. Well, we all had a great time but we decided to call it a night by 1.30am because the songs were becoming less and less familiar. Cayden must have had fun too because he was kicking me very vigorously the following night when it was time to go to sleep.

Cayden - our little warrior

Speaking of little cayden, our little one is growing a little way too fast. At our last visit to our OB, she said that cayden's on the big side. Though she reassured us that there is still a long way to go and his size might change, both doppy and I are of the view that he is big-boned like doppy and is likely to be on the big side. The kiddo has not even put on his baby fats yet (so far, he's still growing his skeleton, experimenting with his five senses and his weight will only shoot up in the last trimester) and he's already considered big. Doppy, in his usual problem-solving self, began to suggest exploring a C-section birth with me. Oh well. We'll cross the bridge when we come to it and see what our OB advises then.

We also had a little scare on New Year's eve. If you had met us this week, you would realise that doppy is driving an ah-pek-chia, the Toyota Altis, instead of his bengster Lancer. That is because we got into a minor accident on NYE on our way to lunch and his car is currently in the workshop hence he is driving a replacement car. Our vehicle was stationary along a slip road and we were waiting for the on-coming traffic to clear before we turn out. This Colt came up from behind without slowing her speed down and rammed straight into us. Thank goodness the impact was not a very big one and except for the yelp that Sotong made and the curse that doppy muttered, we were all none the worse for wear. Fortunately, I did not hit anything but merely jerked forward suddenly at the impact. The OB checked cayden out and he was also fine. Doppy was real nice about the whole thing and even told the lady driver to try to have a good new year still. Now we are just waiting for our car to return cos poor doppy's legs are in a permanent cramped position due to the car seat being too low and close to the pedals.

Work

On the work front, I am actually having things a little easier this semester. I have actually managed to pack my table and it is now 2 weeks after school has reopened and it still remained very neat and tidy. I am slowly trying to farm out the things I am doing in view of my impending maternity leave. I have applied to go on leave earlier as I do not want to start work at my new post later than the official date as they have held the position for me for half a year.

It sure makes a difference when one can see the end of it. I find myself counting down the weeks and honestly, I only have about 8 more weeks to go. 7, actually, if you take into consideration that the CNY week is an non-existent one.

Things to do

Speaking of which, we need to start preparing for CNY soon. It is a mere 3 weeks away and our place is still a mess. My Fil and Ah-Yi are flying in as usual and we would need to clear out the spare room for them and the maid subsequently. I am looking forward to cooking the reunion dinner cos doppy always enjoy a home-cooked meal and I could do more dishes with more people eating.

I have also yet to sign up for my prenatal classes (note to self: do it this weekend), engage a maid, sort out cayden's stuffs (we're very blessed. All our friends and colleagues are offering us stuff that they could spare and I think we're saving quite a fair bit. hehe) etc etc.

Movies Caught and To Be Watched

As I caught "I Am Legend" with doppy, the points I earned got me "American Gangster" last night! :) Washington was superb in his role (doppy puts him in the same league as Tony Leung leh)and though the pace was a little slow in the beginning, it was engaging enough to sustain my interest for the 2.5 hours it was screening.

We are going to catch an anime today with Yogi, Vexille, at Cathay and hopefully, it is a good one too (the cinema is really small and Rotten Tomatoes did not have a review of it yet).

The other shows that I want to catch are the following:

1. Eastern Promises (doppy frightened me off with the purported violence so I am still trying to decide if it's worth watching)

2. Atonement

3. Love in the time of Cholera (my guru colleague said that the book was superb and I thought I should check the show out)

If anyone is interested in any of the above shows, leave me a comment and I will jio you when I eventually go for the show.

Well, I think I have bored all enough with my mundane life. :) Hope that this long post more than makes up for the posts that have been missing.

Have a good weekend, all. :)

An Exercise in Creative Writing

It is the time of the year again for me to exercise my creative juices and engage in the act of writing writing my work review.

Not that the stuff I wrote are fictional (which is what creative writing suggests), but rather, I really hate filling in this document and it usually takes the 11th hour to be staring me in the face before inspiration strikes and I get going.

Tonight, I sacrificed a night out with doppy and missed one of his friends' house party. His ominous words to me before he left the home was, "Xiaomeowme, you better make sure that you finish your work review by the time I come back ah." Implicit in those words was the suggestion that he had better excused my absence for a good reason.

So there. When the clock struck 12, I finally put the final full stop to my work review. I feel compelled to share with all my comments so that you may admire my diplomacy and be in awe of my ability to produce such prose in the hour of need.

I am actually rather sincere in this part of the document and my words truly convey my honest feelings. There are of course unsayable things but this is precisely what makes me a biddable and lovable JH to have - the awareness of how to say what I want to say without putting my RO in a difficult position.

Enjoy!

Officer’s Comments:

This has been a very busy year for the department especially in view of the sudden departure of a staff member in June and with one of the staff members’ health taking a turn for the worse. Nevertheless, the key personnel in the department, the VPs and P have been most encouraging towards me and supportive of me. I feel a great sense of satisfaction in bringing the Language Arts programme into fruition and leading the department in curriculum redesign and working together to use the TfU framework to design and teach our curriculum.

 

I have been given a lot of autonomy in the department to chart the direction for curriculum planning and lead the team and these opportunities have allowed me to grow as a Level Head. In terms of my inter-personal skills, I believe I can further improve my relationship-building efforts with department colleagues and establish a stronger rapport with them to unify the department further.

 

After working in xxx School for 8½ years, I would like to experience a change in perspective and learn new things. Thus I applied through the Annual Open Posting Exercise (APEX) 2007 for a position in MOE HQ and was successful in securing a position as a xxx officer in the xxx Division. I am grateful to my RO who provided me with invaluable advice and my P who supported me in my decision and gave me her best wishes.

 

I look forward to working with the new HoD (EL) and HoD (GP) in 2008 to take the department through this transition period before I assume my new position in MOE HQ in June 2008.

Three simple ways for any leader to increase productivity | Slow Leadership

While surfing blogs to destress at the 11th hour, I came across this article.

A lot of what is written makes a lot of sense. This is part of the reason I am leaving my school. I have enough of people not leaving me alone to do my work (be in in the form of my bosses calling our stuffs in to check or documentation for SEM or whatever's the flavour of the month or god forbid, work review documents!). It seems like the results are not enough and we have mountains and mountains of paper work to justify that we have been doing good work.

Of course, I recognise that the process is important and once in a while, we do need to stop and stock-take to see if we can improve or how we can do things better.

But I guess it has reached the stage for me when I feel like that I am no long being left to do my job and figure things out for myself. I have stopped thinking for myself for I know that ultimately, the power of decision does not lie with me.

Worth a read for everyone of us as inevitably, we do lead in our own capacity from time to time.

Doppy actually does this very well with me. He 'benignly neglects' me in the running of our home and trusts that I will just accomplish the tasks I am supposed to do. Except in the area of tidying up the house of course. :P

How to neglect people to best effect

Here are three simple ways for any leader to help people find success and develop themselves:

• Make sure they have the right conditions — the authority, the resources, the training and clear direction, and the time needed — and then ignore them as much as possible while they get on with their work. It’s their job, not yours. If they’re busy, you don’t need to be. Neglect them a little. Do your own work and stop messing with theirs.
• A major part of any leader’s work should be keeping down the weeds. Keep others away from interfering with your people’s work. Cut out unnecessary demands. Pull up useless meetings and slice off pointless reports. Weeds like that can choke any hope of good results. Be ruthless. Clear a space for your team to thrive and grow.
• Give them the time and space to do their job and develop as they should — plus the knowledge that the organization will let them get on with it, unless they call for help.

Benign neglect works with people because it shows that you trust them. It shows you believe in their commitment and ability. It proves that you believe in their ability to deliver what’s needed without being watched all the time and treated like small children.

Plants thrive on a bit of neglect. So do people. Try it.

Three simple ways for any leader to increase productivity | Slow Leadership