How To Avoid Being A Villain In The Office

Photo by Finn Gross Maurer on Unsplash

 

 

 

 

There are loads of super hero movies these days.

Most blogs would take advantage of the super hero movie craze and talk about how to be that super hero, but I thought of giving it a new spin to look at how to avoid being a villain in one.

The Evil Post Box

The first advice I was given by a manager was “I didn't hire you to be a post box. Post box just take letters and wait for them to be picked up. I hired you to value add to the company.”

This stuck to my head since. From every job and role I took, I look I could value add to that position.

For example, one of my jobs required me to read tech publications daily. I had this bright idea then that if we were reading all this publications and reporting them, why don't we provide media monitoring services too.

Soon the media monitoring business grew. One of the challenges though was how to purchase less expensive publications from overseas, especially those from Malaysia.

There was a shop that sold Malaysia newspaper in Singapore that cost SGD3.50 per edition then. If you were to buy the paper in Malaysia itself, thanks to the generous exchange rate for Singapore dollars, it will only cost about SGD0.50.

Another idea struck. Why don't we hire somebody in KL part time just to scan the papers and online to assist us with the monitoring. Hiring and buying the paper would save cost. Since the sales had various customers requiring the same copy of the newspaper, economies of scale would increase the profit margin.

There are two downsides of being a post box today. The first being that there will always be somebody cheaper who is willing to be that post box. The other, in today's automation age, the post box is the first to be at risk of being replaced by algorithms.

The Brainy TaiChi Master

TaiChi is a Chinese exercise with a lot of slow hand movements which seem to push the wind.

In Singapore colloquial, when someone is called a TaiChi master, he/she is known to push away his/her responsibility to somebody else.

Working with TaiChi masters can be very frustrating as the responsibility gets push around.

There is a difference between saying no and being a TaiChi master. No means no but a TaiChi master will just push the responsibility to somebody else. It takes brains to push the responsibility as usually TaiChi master responses come quick and swift.

The downside of being a known as a TaiChi master villain is your colleagues will start avoiding you, knowing that your immediate response would be to push the responsibility to some else.

You be isolated. In a world today that asks for teamwork, being isolated would be good for your promotion prospect.

Solo Rambo Commando

A Solo Rambo Commando is someone who goes into the field alone and gets the job the done by himself/herself. Sounds like an efficient, effective and productive worker.

A solo player like is only as good as his/her last achievement. If the next task goes wrong, the Solo Rambo Commando will face the flack alone.

In today's workplace, most employees are measured upon how well they are as a team player and sometimes a leader. Sometimes, a situation calls for a role reversal when one needs to play a follower instead of a leader.

Collaboration is such a key word today that digital communication tools have evolved around collaboration rather than communication.

Thrown into a battle field, management often look to how one make use of existing resources and collaboration to win the battle, or even the war. Working as a team exemplifies your ability to lead, follow and even ask for assistance when needed.

If a war is lost as a team, most management would look at such loses as team experience.

A Solo Rambo Commando, on the other hand, bares the full responsibility and can probably the one sacrificed for the good of the company.