Friday, May 15, 2009

it's all a matter of mindset

rather than talking about my bad back and my extended absence from work due to a malfunctioning immune system..i would like to recall an incident which kind of summarises the things that are still malfunctioning in the gahmen sector...

as my initial profile (see previous entry) was rejected for lacking focus and i fervently rejected the ideas to focus on my 1) poetry writing (because i have not written anything decent in years!) and 2) my knack of wanting things neat and tidy (honestly, it's like boring isn't it?), i settled finally on writing about my collection of over 2000 CDs. even though i was reluctant to write about it initially, i thought i did an ok job of it in the end. i submitted it and my colleague and supervisor liked it. then...

...my supervisor asked me why i was still collecting CDs. i was contemplating between 1) it was a (really bad) habit, 2) CDs come with pretty booklets (which makes my room look impressive..which it does by the way!), 3) i had too much spare cash (which is not true!) or 4) "you might as well ask any girl why does she buy so many pairs of shoes, more than half of which she probably does not wear and has no intention to wear anyway!" in the end i settled on the politically correct answer (or so i thought), which was that i preferred CDs to mp3s for its better sound quality. to which she replied...

..."in that case, why don't you collect records? you know the ones that can play on a gramophone?" i was like "oh my gosh! you dimwitted moron!" (being polite, i did not say it out loud of course..though i hope my facial expression conveyed it clearly enough!) firstly, i said "preferred" in comparison with mp3s (apparently, her english not that powerful for someone working in communications) and secondly, "simi era already, still gramophone, even my grandma watches her dramas on dee wee dee ar!"

well, if the gahmen sector wants to reach out to the new generation but continues to be headed by such "gramophone" thinkers, how do they expect to accomplish it? in my short 2 weeks, i have realised 2 things - the gahmen sector is still headed by lots of people who 1) just "do", don't think so much, just "do" because it is what they (their bosses) want (so they ask you to eat shit you eat shit la?) and 2) are promoted to heads of departments just because "they have been there for quite some time already". the gahmen constantly emphasises the importance of capturing and changing the mindset of the new generation..well i think that maybe the changing of mindset should start first and foremost from within.

1 comment:

Jasmin said...

"the gahmen sector is still headed by lots of people who 1) just "do", don't think so much, just "do" because it is what they (their bosses) want"

That's why when you ask them for a more flexible solution or an alternative, they get incredibly flustered and there's that dazed "this is not in SOP!!" look in their eyes that indicates that they have not been programmed to be a little bit more spontaneous.