Wanna Make More Money? Make Your Employees Happy

Copy this article from here, without permission :p

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Wouldn’t it be great if you could wave your magic wand and abracadabra, up go sales and profits? If you flunked advanced wizardry, don’t worry. Believe it or not, this is a trick for mere mortals. All you have to do is make your employees happy.

Happy workers perform

In a Gallup, Inc. study of over two thousand business units on “the causal impact of employee work perceptions on the bottom line of organizations,” researchers found a distinct link between employee attitudes and a company’s financial performance, employee retention and customer loyalty.

Research conducted by the Wharton School found that Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For in America” reported 3.5 percent higher returns than their peers (Harvard Business Review Daily Stat).

Of course there’s the chicken and the egg question. Is company performance better because its employees are more engaged or is it the other way around? According to the Gallup study, the answer is clearly the former—happy employees are productive employees.

But most employees aren’t happy

Unfortunately, for the majority of businesses, employee engagement—a strong indicator of satisfaction and morale—is in the toilet.

According to a study by Mercer, a global HR consulting firm, nearly a third (32 percent) of U.S. workers are seriously considering looking for a new job (up from 23 percent in 2005). Another one in five (21 percent) don’t have plans to leave but also don’t give a rat’s buttocks about what they’re doing—just the kind of people you want on the payroll. (Mercer’s What’s Working survey)

Similarly, Blessing White, a global consulting firm that focuses on employee engagement, found that only a third of U.S. employees are fully engaged. Their research, and that of other industry experts, shows that the most engaged employees are both highly satisfied and high contributors to the organization.

In their 2011 Global Engagement Report, they summarize the level of engagement of North American employees as follows:

• Highly engaged: 33 percent of North American employees.

• Almost engaged: 10 percent—high performers and reasonably satisfied but not consistent.

• Honeymooners and hamsters: 24 percent—either new to the organization in a kind of limbo or “working hard but, in effect, spinning their wheels.

• Crash & Burners: 15 percent—“disillusioned and potentially exhausted.”

• Disengaged: 18 percent—not contributing very much and not very satisfied; likely skeptical and may spread their negativity around the organization.

Millennials were the least engaged (only 23 percent were highly engaged and 25 percent were disengaged). Boomers were the opposite (36 percent were highly engaged and 16 percent were disengaged).

Looking at the numbers by department or function, employees in sales showed the highest engagement (38 percent in Blessing White’s highest engagement category) and IT and R&D workers showed the lowest (26 percent). Worse, 27 percent in engineering and 22 percent in IT were categorized as disengaged. Think about that next time you walk into a smart building.

So how do you make your employees happy?

Based on the answers to Blessing White’s question “which one thing would improve job satisfaction.” it was clear that employees simply want to do what they do best. Career development and flexible working conditions were also high on their radar.

• Opportunity to apply their talents 27 percent
• Career development and training: 20 percent
• More flexible working conditions: 15 percent

From their managers, the report showed employees want:

• A sense of belonging; feeling like they’re part of a team
• Regular feedback on performance
• Recognition for achievements
• Encouragement for them to use their talents
• To be treated like an individual
• To be asked for their input (and have it acted on)
• To not be micromanaged

Employees want their organization’s top leaders to:

• Create an environment that drives high performance
• Communicate honestly
• Act in alignment with the company’s core values and guiding principles
• Link the work of the company to a larger purpose

The Blessing White report observes, “Engaged employees...stay for what they give (they like their work and are able to contribute); Disengaged employees stay for what they get (a secure job in an unfavorable employment market, a desirable salary or bonus, favorable job conditions, or career advancement).”

Which kind of person would you rather have on your team, or for that matter, spend the majority of your day with: a giver or a taker?

Those days are gone

About a year back, when we clean our construction manager shit. I don't know how the management look at these sohais, but I use this photo to describe the word "teamwork", not on paper but in real life. Anyway, those days are gone.

Today we are going to learn a very simple Chinese word, 米. It may look like an asterisk "*", but this word is very important to human being, especially Asian people.

Ok, the word that we going to learn today is 米, pronounced as "mi". The meaning of this word is rice. We all know what is rice, something that we eat. Apart from it default meaning, it also has different meanings.

We like to say someone that rich, or seem to be rich, "有米", mean got rice. Why we say rich people got rice, but not got gold, got silver, or got grass, but we say the bugger got rice. To understand this sentence, we need to go back to few thousand years ago, back to Qing dynasty 秦朝.

At that moment, all the government workers are paid using rice. For example, the prime minister annual salary at that time is ten thousand stone rice. One stone is around 150 pounds of rice. Which mean, the prime minister was given 1.5 million pounds of rice as his salary. So, if you want to buy something, like fish or house, you can pay the vendor using rice. If you want to know the price of an item, you may ask "How much rice?". Therefore, the rich people are those who owned lots and lots of rice.

The story now go to Jin dynasty 晋朝 (the dynasty after the three kingdoms), the vary famous author named Tao Yuan Ming said a very famous idiom, 不为五斗米折腰, we can direct translate it as "don't bow for 5 pecks of rice". According to history, one peck of rice is about 15 pounds, so 5 pecks is around 75 pounds of rice. Tao Yuan Ming was resigning from his post because he did not want to put down his pride to please the higher post officer. A great person don't work for money, there are far more important things than money.

Ok, that's all for today about the rice story.

Thankew you

Finally is my turn to receive the pen from my colleagues and friends. Thanks to everyone, especially my wild horse for preparing the pen for all of us. Good job, he can be a purchasing manager next time.

I hope the resignation heat will cool down after this, although I'm very much doubt it. Anyway, that's not my war anymore. Good luck to everyone.

Someday I wish I can use this pen to sign a $1,000,000 cheque

Unfortunately, that day has come

What's hot nowadays? Owning an Android phone or an iPhone? The collapse of the market? The Bersih? Or the resignation?

The most famous resignation is none but the resignation of Apple's CEO, Steve Jobs. I personally have to respect and salute him for his talents and hardworking in bringing the Apple to the world. We all are going to miss this genius.

So, if my post ended here, I believe it will be too short for the day. Ya, finally I have decided to resign from my current company after 10 years of service.

It's not a sudden decision and also not planned. It's just happen that it is time for me to leave this company. The total number of staffs that resigned since beginning of the year is near to 20 people, and mostly are those working for more than 5 years, some reached 25 years of service. The totals of year of service add up to about 200 years, which mean average of year of service is around 10 years.

I totally agreed that whenever there is a change in the management, there will be someone resigned. But, I believe this series of resign is not because of people reluctant to change to accept new management, everyone will agreed with me that, we can’t see our future in this company anymore. Maybe I am a lousy management people, because I don’t know and I can’t see any action or planning to look for income to the company. With current overhead, I don’t think it can last long if there is no positive income in short time, which I really see none.

I can still stay in this company, if I want, to enjoy task-less salary, play facebook’s game, drink tea at mamak, watch movie. But as I said, working is part of my hobby, sitting and doing these unproductive actions will only wasting my life.

It’s really sad to see it end like this, but unfortunately, that day has come. Therefore it’s time for me to leave to search for better future.

I will not miss this company, but it will be remembered.

It's 10 years

Ok, so today is officially year 10th for me in my current company. Don't want to say too much since there is nothing special to say also. For the pass 10 years, I saw it grow, witnessed it reach to the peak and now I'm feeling it collapse slowly.

It's not the company that make thing different, it's the peoples in the company. It's a simple fact and people just don't want to acknowledge it. So, just let it be.

I will just continue to climb up by my own.

Simple maths

We are learned that a number divided by itself is equal to unity, which is 1, e.g. 10/10 = 1. The question, is 0/0 = 1?

Poor man Mac

It's a Vaio! It's a Mac! No, it's hackintosh!

I saw this today

Well, not that big, it's like Ø with my highest available eye piece (4mm), total of 150x enlarge thru FirstScope. Next target is Jupiter.

Puzzle of the day

One day, Wisely and Dinstein are running on the Olympic stadium running track. They started from same point with back -to-back position and running in opposite direction. Wisely finished 6 tracks in an hour while Dinstein only able to finish 5 tracks.

They started by facing away from each other and at the end of 1 hour they reach back to the same point and facing each other. Count how many times they have met on the running track in 1 hour.

My Astrophotography

I bought my telescope since last month, its look like a toy, but the image is definitely sharper than any toy scope available from ebay or Toys'R'Us. I get the telescope kits and a 2x Barlow lens.

So far I only manage to see the moon since that is the most easiest object in the sky for us to see. The image is very very crisp, I feel so close to the moon for the first time. So, in order to share with everyone, I decided to modify my old webcam to capture the image from the telescope. The modification is quite simple, just unscrew the webcam and remove the lens and put the webcam into 1 piece again and tighten the screw. After that, I cut the bottom of the film roll plastic container so that it become a pipe. Then I stick one side of the plastic container to the webcam so that it can be mounted onto the telescope.

So here is the moon video that I'd captured using my old webcam and Firstscope.



Will try to take the video of Jupiter and Saturn when the sky is clear enough.

七患 The seven causes of anxiety

An ancient article to share, even older than 2000 years after this publisher, it still meaningful to current world. Shared from Chinese Text Project.

子墨子曰：國有七患。七患者何？

城郭溝池不可守而治宮室，一患也。
邊國至境四鄰莫救，二患也。
先盡民力無用之功，賞賜無能之人，民力盡於無用，財寶虛於待客，三患也。
仕者持祿，游者愛佼，君脩法討臣，臣懾雨不敢拂，四患也。
君自以為聖智而不問事，自以為安彊而無守備，四鄰謀之不知戒，五患也。
所信不忠，所忠不信，六患也。
畜種菽粟不足以食之，大臣不足以事之，賞賜不能喜，誅罰不能威，七患也。

以七患居國，必無社稷；以七患守城，敵至國傾。七患之所當，國必有殃。

凡五穀者，民之所仰也，君之所以為養也。故民無仰則君無養，民無食則不可事。故食不可不務也，地不可不力也，用不可不節也。五穀盡收，則五味盡御於主，不盡收則不盡御。一穀不收謂之饉，二穀不收謂之旱，三穀不收謂之凶，四穀不收謂之餽，五穀不收謂之饑。歲饉，則仕者大夫以下皆損祿五分之一。旱，則損五分之二。凶則損五分之三。餽，則損五分之四。饑，則盡無祿，稟食而已矣。故凶饑存乎國，人君徹鼎食五分之三，大夫徹縣，士不入學，君朝之衣不革制，諸侯之客，四鄰之使，雍飧而不盛，徹驂騑，塗不芸，馬不食粟，婢妾不衣帛，此告不足之至也。

今有負其子而汲者，隊其子於井中，其母必從而道之。今歲凶，民饑道餓，重其子此疚於隊，其可無察邪？故時年歲善，則民仁且良；時年歲凶，則民吝且惡。夫民何常此之有？為者疾，食者眾，則歲無豐。故曰：“財不足則反之時，食不足則反之用。”故先民以時生財，固本而用財，則財足。故雖上世之聖王，豈能使五穀常收而旱水不至哉？然而無凍餓之民者，何也？其力時急而自養儉也。故《夏書》曰：“禹七年水。”《殷書》曰：“湯五年旱。”此其離凶餓甚矣。然而民不凍餓者，何也？其生財密，其用之節也。

故倉無備粟，不可以待凶饑；庫無備兵，雖有義不能征無義；城郭不備全，不可以自守；心無備慮，不可以應卒。是若慶忌無去之心，不能輕出。夫桀無待湯之備，故放；紂無待武王之備，故殺。桀、紂貴為天子，富有天下，然而皆滅亡於百里之君者，何也？有富貴而不為備也。故備者，國之重也；食者，國之寶也；兵者，國之爪也。城者所以自守也。此三者國之具也。

故曰：以其極賞，以賜無功，虛其府庫，以備車馬、衣裘、奇怪，苦其役徒，以治宮室觀樂；死又厚為棺槨，多為衣裘。生時治臺榭，死又脩墳墓。故民苦於外，府庫單於內，上不厭其樂，下不堪其苦。故國離寇敵則傷，民見凶饑則亡，此皆備不具之罪也。且夫食者，聖人之所寶也。故《周書》曰：“國無三年之食者，國非其國也；家無三年之食者，子非其子也。”此之謂國備。

Mozi said: There are seven causes of worry to a state and they are:

(1) When the outer and the inner city walls are not defensible;
(2) When an enemy state is approaching and yet one's neighbours do not come to the rescue;
(3) When the resources of the people have all been spent on useless enterprises and gifts all squandered upon incapable men, when people's resources are exhausted without producing any profit and the treasury is emptied by entertaining idle company;
(4) When the officials value only their salaries, and the sophists only friendship, and when the subordinates dare not remonstrate against the laws the ruler has made for persecution;
(5) When the lord is over-confident of his own wisdom and holds no consultation, when he feels he is secure and makes no preparations against attack; and when he does not know that he must be watchful while neighbours are planning against him;
(6) When those trusted are not loyal and the loyal are not trusted; and
(7) When the crops are not sufficient for food and the ministers can not be charged with responsibilities, and when awards fail to make people happy and punishment to make them afraid.

With these seven causes present in the maintenance of the state, the state will perish, and, in the defence of a city, the city will be reduced to ruin by the approaching enemy. Wherever these seven causes are found, the country will face calamity.

Now, the five grains are the people's mainstay and the source of the ruler's revenue. When the people lose their support the ruler cannot have any revenue either. And without food the people will not observe order. Therefore, food should be secured, land cultivated and expenditures cut down. When all the five grains are gathered, all the five tastes will be offered the ruler; when not all gathered, the five tastes will not be all offered. Failure of one grain is called dearth; failure of two grains is called scarcity; failure of three grains is called calamity; failure of four grains is called want; and failure of all five grains is called famine. When the country is in dearth, all the salaries of the officials below the rank of the minister will be reduced by one-fifth; in scarcity, they will be reduced by two-fifths; in calamity, they will be reduced by three-fifths; in want, they will be reduced by four-fifths; and when famine is in the country there will be no salaries beyond their rations. Therefore when famine and dearth visit a country, the ruler will omit three from the five items of sacrifice, the officials will suspend the courts, and the scholars will not go to school and the lord will not put on his robe to give audience. Even envoys from other feudal lords and messengers from neighbouring states are entertained with cooked food only, and it is not sumptuous. The side-horses of the carriage-team are done away with and the walks (in the palace) are not weeded. Neither are the horses fed with grains, nor are the concubines and maids clothed with silk. And this is the sign of extreme scarcity.

Now, if carrying her child and drawing water from a well, a woman dropped the child into the well, she would of course endeavour to get it out. But famine and dearth is a much greater calamity than the dropping of a child. Should there not be also endeavour (to prevent it)? People are gentle and kind when the year is good, but selfish and vicious when it is bad. Yet, how can they be held responsible? When many produce but few consume then there can be no bad year; on the contrary, when few produce but many consume then there can be no good year. Thus it is said: scarcity of supply should stimulate study of the seasons and want of food demands economy of expenditures. The ancients produced wealth according to seasons. They ascertained the source of wealth before they appropriated the products, and therefore they had plenty. Could even the ancient sage-kings cause the five grains invariably to ripen and be harvested and the floods and the droughts never to occur? Yet, none were frozen or starved, why was it? It was because they made full use of the seasons and were frugal in their own maintenance. The history of Xia says that the Deluge lasted seven years in the time of Yu and the history of Yin tells that a drought visited Tang for five years. These are the extremes of disasters. Yet the people were not frozen or starved. Why was this so? The reason lies in diligent production and thrifty consumption.

Therefore, famine and dearth cannot be prepared against unless there are stored grains in the granaries, and justice cannot be maintained against the unjust unless there are ready weapons in the armoury. One cannot defend himself unless the inner and the outer city walls are in repair, and one cannot meet emergencies unless his ideas are well thought out. Thus Qing Ji was unprepared, and he should not have set out on the journey. Jie made no preparations against Tang and he was sent to exile. And Zhou made no preparations against Wu and he was executed. Now, Jie and Zhou were both emperors in rank and possessed the whole empire, yet they both perished at the hands of rulers (of states) of only a hundred li square. What is the reason for this? Because they depended on their rank and wealth and made no preparations. Therefore, preparation is what a country should emphasize. Supply is the treasure of a country, armament its claws, and the city walls are the stronghold of its self-defence. And these three items are the essentials to the existence of a state.

(The present rulers) squander great amounts of wealth to reward the undeserving, empty the treasury to acquire carriages and horses, exhaust the labourers to build palaces and furnish amusements. Upon their death, again, thick coffins and many coats and fur coats are to be furnished. Porches and pavilions are built for them while they are living. and tombs when they are dead. By this the people are embittered and the treasury is left lean. While the amusements are not yet satisfying to the superiors, the hardship already becomes unbearable for the subjects. Such a state will fall under any attack and such people will perish by famine. And all this is due to the absence of preparation. Moreover, food is what the sages treasured. The history of Zhou says, "Without three years' food (in store) a state cannot be a state (as it is in danger of losing its sovereignty). A family being without food in store to be sufficient for three years its children cannot be its children (who are in danger of being abandoned or sold to others)." Such, then, is the preparation of a country.

Bersih 2.0

First of all, I would like to tell you that I'm not posting about politics here. So please don't use ISA or anything to catch me.

Second, I don't care who the hell are governing my country, but I do care how they governing it.

So, about Bersih 2.0, I really don't have much details on this, but you can read the wiki. Therefore, I can only tell you what I feel about Bersih 2.0 from my point of view.

Bolehland is a democracy country, so we do have some rights, although not really much, to express our view. If you ask me do I support Bersih? My answer is yes, and I hope they can do it in peaceful way. We want to tell our government that we are not happy with what they did previously and we want to tell them we want change.

The rally shall not be a politic tool for any politicians to promote them self or to condemn other parties. It should be a gathering of our people to tell the government of what we want and why we want that.

I just came back from Penang yesterday night and I'm lucky that I have avoided all the jams happen last few days. From all the messages I received, I can tell our government that the way they handling this issue is just making us more pissed and angry. I saw lot of trucks sending polices to KL to setup road block, even in Penang, they setting up the road block. What the hell these idiots are doing? They wasted all our resources including man power and money just to stop something which is allowed in democracy country. Why don't they put more effort to make it right at the first place so that we don't get pissed and come and tell you how lousy you are.

Today, there is no much different to declare state of emergency since we can't really go out, everywhere is road block and you will suffer in the jam for hours and hours. And guest what, we should inform Guinness book of records to record this event as the longest jam in the world, or the largest car park in the world.

Do worry about me if you think I will go rally, anyway I don't have yellow shirt and I'm kiasi people. But I will write here and tell the world that I'm pissed and disappointed with the morons and I will make sure I will vote the other party even they put a monkey since that make no different. But what really different is that we want tell the government that we are pissed, we are angry, we are disappointed, we are tired and we want change. We can't guarantee that the new comer will do better, but that's the only way to tell everyone that we can put you up there and we can bring you down if you don't do it well.

So, last word, if you plan to go to join the party, make sure you do it peacefully and come back in one piece. Deliver the message but not damage our lovely country.

Good luck.

Coming home

Finally, I going home tonight, together with my natural enemy, Mr. Toh. This trip will be his last trip to the desert since he going to leave us to the greener land soon. But please don't quote my word as I hardly can predict what his next move. My project manager also took the earlier flight to go back to Bolehland this afternoon, and this is also his last trip to this piece of desert.

So if you ask me when is my last trip, I can only tell you that I don't know since I always the last person who leave the battlefield. Anyway, I hope I can stand it until the completion of the project which I believe is still quite sometime to go. Again, don't quote me, cause I may leave sooner than you can expect. So, lets time record the history.

Staying here for two weeks this time and can't really do anything since there is no skill manpower to do my job. Anyway, I'm waiting until all the equipment have been installed, then I will come to complete the system, hope I'm still with the company that time.

So, everyone seem to be leaving this company which previously has nearly zero resignation over ten years. So what happen? Please don't ask me, I don't know. Anyway, it is none of my business also.

July will be a travel month for me. Next week, I will go to Penang to attend the manager training again. Thanks to company for spending the money to make sure we become a good manager.

Then mid of July we will have sport club trip to Medan. After so many years that we didn't have any sport club trip, finally we got one this year. Again thanks to the management for giving us this trip.

By end of the month, I will going to Krabi and Phuket with some of my colleague. I hope the company don't ask me to cancel my leaves or else I can't finish it by end of the years.

Ok, sign off now. 

The death of Symbian

This is now a latest news. On 11th Feb 2011, Nokia has announced that they will work with Windows and that day they officially certified the death of Symbian.

Source from Nokia.

You can read this interesting blog and how a Symbian supporter get pissed with the giant phone manufacture and the "used to be" best phone os.

Patapon 3!

My wife, she just crazy about this game series.

It's summer

So, it's officially summer today, 21st June 2011. We also call today as summer solstice or you can call it tropic of Cancer. So, what does it mean?

Some basic about the Earth. We know that our Earth is tilted 23 degrees and 26 minutes. Therefore, on the day that the sun reached the highest point in the sky which is 23d26', then we named that day as summer solstice. And on this day, we will have the longest day (shortest night) in a year and after this day, then length of night is growing longer and length of day getting shorter.

So, what does the summer solstice mean to you?

Inside Job

"Why should a financial engineer be paid four times to a hundred times more than a real engineer? A real engineer build bridges, a financial engineer build dreams. And when those dream turn out to be nightmares, other people pay for it."

Andrew Sheng, Chief Advisor of China Banking Regulatory Commission.

How much you should be paid?

Recently I start to wonder how much I should be paid. So, I google my question and I found the answer from Kelly Services' salary guide 2010/2011.

On page 25, second row, electrical & instrument engineer, degree holder, with 4-6 years of experience, the salary should be between RM4500 - RM6500.

Then I search for my current post, engineering manager, but somehow they don't have this position. The nearest position is lead electrical engineer, where his job function is to lead a team of engineers in design base environment. Quite close is it? So, how much he should be paid?

On page 24, first row, a degree holder with 8 years working experience, the salary should be between RM7000 - RM12000.

Ok, now is the serious part, before I become a manager with more than 6 years of working experience, my salary is much lower than the lowest paid of E&I engineer; and now I am a manager but my salary is still lower than the lowest recommended paid of lead electrical engineer.

So, when my company said they have adjusted our paid based on the market rate, it's just bullshit!

Hello Chinaman, you know what are you doing or not?

What's hot in the market today? I believe nothing hotter than Taiwan's food scandal and it make me reopen my chemical book.

So, what do you know about DEHP? Well, it's an organic compound, it's colourless viscous liquid which soluble in oil but not in water. It's widely used as plasticizer in manufacturing of articles made of PVC. In a layman term, it's plastic. Because of it's plasticizing properties and our genius Chinaman come out with a genius idea, "Why don't we use it to replace palm oil as clouding agent for our product?". In their mind, every single cent they saved, is a cent gain in their pocket, other than that is none of their business.

So, what will happen after you consumed these products? The most significant is the effect on male, it will feminizing a male. Now, I begin to understand why more and more gay, especially at Taiwan.

Do you still remember the melamine case? It's another type of cheap plastic that mixed with milk powder or dairy products in order to earn more profit.

I really need to thanks God for giving all Chinese great intelligent and evil mind. We can create anything, and we are as good as God. You heard about the man made egg? I can't understand how us Chinese can create egg from chemical compound. The creator shall be awarded with Noble prize. And I believe in very near future we can create chicken, beef, fish, and whatever food you can name it. It will be tasted as good as real food. You will never able to differential it until you use very precise lab instrument to decompose it into smaller element, then you will found plastic element in all these foods.

I don't know how many products in the market are really safe to consume, and I don't want to know also. You will dare not take any foods once you'd heard all the stories about food. You can start to do farming if you want to live longer, or you can move into jungle and share the house with monkey.

Anyway, don't worry, because we, Chinese, will destroy this world very soon. So you will only suffer for maybe another ten years and you will die with all kind of cancels.

So, to all the Chinaman, please continue your good work to produce more and more plastic foods, make yourself a billionaire and die together with all these dirty money.