Recession

I ain't any Tom, Dick or Harry. Cos it seems that the Tom, Dick and Harry are all out there predicting a recession or arguing against it. I ain't in that group for the simple reason that "I DO NOT KNOW". Heck, if I knew, I'd tell you ya? Oh, I do read the papers, including the Economist mind you! But nah, I am probably too young and my neurons have not done enough connection for me to say that there's a recession. But I can tell you this... Warren Buffet thinks so. Mr. Soros thinks so too I believe. And well, my chairman thinks so! Whether I belive that or not, here's the deal: Behave as if there's a recession! How to behave? Beats me. But as a humble employee, that's sticking to what you're doing. And do it well. Keep upgrading and keep improving your processes. You must show that you are worth keeping if ever there's a very very severe depression. And you must contribute towards ensuring that the company cuts costs or sustain, if not increase, revenues. Well, you must make sure that Singapore remains competitive!

You might say that's a naive reaction/belief. Maybe so. I am no judge of myself but at least, I live by my conviction. In back office, in such low volume, it's time to upgrade everything. Upgrade the systems, upgrade the documentation, upgrade the people of course. We must believe there'll be light at the end of the tunnel and when volume/business comes back again, we'd be ready to handle them.

But it's not easy. I sometimes find it difficult. I'd rather leave at 6:30pm and spend time with my wife. But hey, if you think likewise, you might be missing something here. It's not about leaving early or late.... It's about getting things done. It's about first wanting to improve things and then having the guts to execute them. Give a student 30 minutes and he'll stay and drink his Starbucks. Give him 1 hour and he'd still be thinking his coffee. For goodness sake, if he wants to stay the whole day, he'd still be drinking that coffee at the end of the day. This is probably the biggest problem if we are not careful.... we relax by doing the same thing in a longer time! And that's human I believe. So, leave at 6:30pm for goodness sake, ensure that you 8 working hours or so are productive, to the max. Do not leave any rocks unturned. List the issue and start hacking at them. If you're good planners, do your cost-benefit analyst... else, do not stand still and just get any initiative started. Start small but think big.

And remember, if you supervise, your staff is the most important asset. If you instill in them this sense of urgency despite a sluggish market, you'd achieve far more that you could on your own, breathing down their neck with deadlines that they do not understand. But be sure you let them off at 6:30pm!