A Wrong Match?

Last week as I was making my way back to my desk from the pantry, I made a small complaint to my colleague about my boss. She understands the agonizing circumstance that me and my team face in our dept and she asked me whether I regretted coming here. Well, maybe?

Today is one of those unfruitful day at work again. One thing that I couldn't understand is the pettiness or lack of team spirit among the depts in my company. We had a new director in another dept recently which my dept works closely with. Today I sent an email to an external party about the various promotions that our company will have in the coming month. The relevant people were cc, including this new director. I was sure that the information was correct up to my full knowledge of the entire matter. It was even mentioned in a meeting last week and I even checked with another colleague to confirm. When I looked back at the main document that I derived the information from, I wasn't wrong. But the new director said it was wrong and replied back to everyone in the email, including the external party, to inform everyone that the info is not correct and to update the changes. I was uphappy when I saw the email, simply because I felt it was unneccessary to include the external party in the reply. If I was wrong, he could have just email me in a separate reply and I will definitely make the changes and send another email to the external partner to correct the information. But the new director chose to reply to everyone, making us look bad in front of an outsider, who will think that we are not being efficient in our internal communication at all. Why let people know our internal weakness when we can rectify the problem first among us and then inform others accordingly? I don't get it at all. I knew that he wants to make my dept look bad and he is doing so at every opportunity. Although I don't like the way he handles the matter and the way he works, I still feel that getting the work done is of utmost priority.

To make matters worse and this is a different issue, my boss wanted to test the new director's efficiency by forwarding him a media enquiry and see how he handles it. My dept could manage this reasonably fast but my boss chose to waste time and last-minute effort by forwarding the email to him, which he only informed his subordinate today to handle it and the subordinate was furious that he has to rush it as the media needs it tomorrow. If we don't submit it tomorrow, we could miss out a publicity feature. Is all this finger pointing and "who-can-do-a-better-job-attitude" worth it? I must admit I don't like how this new director is communicating with us to get things done but if such obstacles can be minimize, why not? It speeds up the working process and everyone will be happier.

A week ago I came across an article about acing an interview. I read such articles before and I know what are the questions you should expect and the tips that you should remember to perform well in the interview. The only part that was new to me in that article was the questions you should ask the interviewer to gauge if the company is the right place for you. Many a times when we attend an interview, we just want to please the interviewer and get the job but forget to consider whether the comapany's culture and management style suit us. And its only when we are in the job that we realise we are not happy and things are not working out with your colleagues and/or boss. We should find out from our direct superior during the interview about their communnication style, management style, traits they look for in an employee and how they prefer to resolve issues when both parties have a different view on the issue. What a bummer I have been and I should have known all these questions. I only know that I could asked about career advancement opportunities in the company but have neglected EQ related questions.

As I recall what my colleague asked me last week, I did wonder if I had made the wrong choice. But then, remembering what yx told me, I could probably try my best and see where the road will lead to......hmm.....

trying and trying.......

17 March 2008 10.53pm