Thursday, March 30, 2006

Constructive Confrontation

I attended this class today; which was scheduled to be on Monday but was cancelled due to poor attendance which was also partly caused by the bad weather; it was raining very heavily on Monday morning.

Well, guess there's always a silver lining beneath every cloud...this class was definitely fun!!~ The instructor was so cool...basically added to spicing up the class teaching and learning environment. They should definitely have more instructors like these; gets the class going and makes everyone eager to participate in the sharing and discussion. Sometimes it's just the little things that gets a person or a class going:)

Now, constructive confrontation basically revolves around the process of making yourself heard and how to confront a problem or to talk to your peers and superiors in an effective way, making yourself heard and at the same time, not offending others. This particular instructor is pretty funny and I find it amusing that he used the examples of couples; somehow the men and women relationship topics always works in attracting the attention. Pretty interesting and hilarious....he brought up this issue of a married couple; an accountant wife and a civil engineer. The wife vowed to be a good homemaker and thus prepared the meals for the husband daily after work. However, one day, the light bulb in the kitchen broke. The wife, on the other hand decided not to tell the husband and cooked under the dim light. Her intention? To test the husband's sensitivity to her and how much he cared about her.

To her dismay, she ended up cooking under that condition for a month. Finally, she resorted to directly confront her husband and to question his ignorance to the matter. So, this is where we have to think; why do these 2 people have such difference in their thinking?

There were all sorts of answers coming from the class(of course); one being that women always make a big fuss out of little things, family background or upbringing environment, men tend to be more direct and straightforward while women prefers the beating around the bush approach, the husband does not go to the kitchen( conservative values), etc etc.

The answer? (This is based on a real-life situation) - The husband was brought up in a single parent environment with a widowed mother who man handles all matters at home and her main focus was on the kids to be equipped with the proper education for a bright future ahead. As such, they do not meddle with the little chores at home which will be handled by her. With the cultivation of this mindset, it is of no surprise that the husband only prioritizes on his career and achievements and does not put his mind and finger to the matters at home since he was used to his mom taking care of matters like these.
The wife, on the contrary, is brought up in a conservative environment and thus had the mindset instilled that men are to do all the hard work while women do all the cooking and washing.

So, you can see that this all actually attributes to the environmental effects and also the culture.
Confronting sometimes may not be rude or loud; it's actually a channel for communication. When we confront, we are actually letting the other person know what we think or how we feel instead of assuming everyone knows.

Besides, to be able to communicate is better than not....so who cares about arguments and quarrels?
I still remember back in high school; the motto that the scouts held was "Never argue; nobody ever wins an argument"....hahaa....maybe they should take this class....if you never argue...you'll never know:) Most importantly, argue with an objective and know clearly what you are arguing about...else, why waste time?

Monday, March 27, 2006

Cold and Freezy

Warm and fuzzy...is definitely not the word to describe the recent weather. In fact, I was feeling so very cold in the office; hmmm....the rain and cloudy weather probably brought the temperature down....and instead, I am feeling cold and freezy. <*sniff*>

Working in an office for more than 10 hours does not help at all...since you are cooped in the space constantly freezing yourself...brrr...
I am currently wearing a black sweater and still feeling cold; but, I don't think it's raining out there.

This morning a parcel arrived and when I opened it, the dust started flying around....*cough*....yeah, and I have a sensitive nose which could probably cause my difficulty in breathing...poor me:(

Better get back to my training practicals....as my mentor has mentioned this morning..hehe..:)
Pretty happy that mentor is happy with my progress and he's also touched and impressed with my commitment...haha, and he's making fun of me; since I went to the office at 5am on a Saturday morning just to attend his training session which was scheduled earlier. He was pretty guilt-ridden over it...pretty sure of himself spoiling my Saturday. I sent him an email to make him feel better and now he tells everyone in the world I am a hardworking gal who goes to work super early...LOL :D



Sunday, March 26, 2006

Red shirt/bag baby:)

Hehe...I got another new nickname from my big boss today...he's always around to tease me...and he likes telling everyone about the color of my attire. He's kinda fascinated and definitely amused with the different colors of attire I put on daily.

Well, probably kinda catchy too since I usually go in matching colors from top to toe and as if that's not enough, I will match it with the stuffs I have and also my accessories..hehe, but one point though, I don't do it to attract attention; I do it for my self-satisfaction and happiness. Hehe...it is to my own content;)

So, he went calling me the red shirt baby or the red bag baby....I find that kinda cute...haha:p Maybe I liked it too...hmmm... *wink*

Today is red...actually today's kinda happy too although it didn't started off too good this morning...I was supposed to be in Penang campus for a training. Also it rained very heavily...which was pretty cool;).....but then due to that too, the training was cancelled as the attendance was way below the expected statistic.
Not that I was too disappointed although I have to reschedule my training again:p
Anyway, I did quite a lot of writing today as well....which I'd say was pretty cool...I did my write-up and also updated my blogs and some of my profilic materials and compiled the data needed for my weekly meetings. Pretty much, I got some of my work done as well:)

It's very very cold though today....so even if I am in red, hahaha...it doesn't make me feel hot or warm at all...:P