Interview

How often you are in for an interview for managerial position, you get a question like this from the interviewer,

How do you motivate a team of people working for you ?

I decided to answer the question differently.

In an organization/company , like a manager/owner with a few of the people working for him/her, what the person must do is differentiation of reward scheme to the performer and non performer (Meritocracy).

Performer means a worker that truly bring values to the organization, be it intellectually/academically, maybe he is a manager that runs his/her own team very well with productive  ideas to bring about changes, or an engineer that able to cook up out of this world killer product or able to keep the yield/quality of the company flagship product above its competition and raking in profits, just to name a few simple example.

Non performer needs no mention here, those that bitched and nagged about missed opportunities with excuse and yet do nothing about it, as one example.

If the manager trying to be politically correct and starts protecting the non-performer by buying into excuse and reasoning and yet still reward the non-performer like it is being done to the rest of people, chances are, he is going to pissed off all the rest of performer.

Rewarded for lousy jobs

and

Promoted to prevent further damages

Now, you wonder, how the above two sarcastic quotes came from.

In order to motivate the people, first thing to do is, do not piss off the performer and award them accordingly, for those non performing , send a clear message to them , either they stay on and wise up, or start looking for another job elsewhere that fits.

Simple answer to the interviewer, in order to motivate people, do not demotivate the performers first. If you have some performance related messages within your own organization, send ONLY to the non-performer, not to everyone, the performers (that you want to keep) may get the wrong message and starts looking elsewhere for a job that fits and very surely, they will have no trouble finding one with their own impressive track record.

-woody

Orange

Mandarin orange and sore throat. What do they have in common ?

Around Lunar New year, eating mandarin orange is a well known tradition. However, there has always been advice about eating the orange, Chinese here always said, the mandarin orange is “heaty”. If you eat too much, bound to get sick.

Yup, many times , I recalled after Chinese new year, sore throat would just set in. However, for the past two years, inclusive of this year, I have decided to do some simple experiment regarding this “heaty”  thing. To me, sore throat is a sign of either hypersensitive or infection, or throat feeling very tight.

Anyway, during the Lunar New Year before last one, I decided to have a good look at the orange. I noticed something very funny, quite often, due to orange was kept in chiller compartment of refrigerator , every time it was taken out and served , there is always some water condensation (Malaysia is quite a humid country), even at times , i noticed some tiny mold actually appeared on the skin. That observation led me to be very careful when handling the orange.

Some of the orange came wrapped in paper too, some in plastic, but that did not stop water condensation while it is being taken out and sold in supermarket, or taken out to serve our guest. Those cyclical exposure of the skin to the atmospheric moisture led me to believe that, good deal of bacteria/fungus were growing on the skin.

The common way of eating mandarin orange has always been peeling the skin and eat the juicy content, of course, using the same hand. But for me, past two years, I did that with care , I ensured the skin was cleaned before I started peeling, and after peeling, I washed my hand again before handling the juicy content again.

Guess what? Past year, no sore throat, this year, also no sore throat.

Yup, I have been swallowing lots of fungus/bacteria that brought on throat infection.

Peace

Nothing much, a few stories that caught my eyes .

This one, a boy refuse sex with a cleric in Pakistan (Not need to mention the religion), he refused to give in and ended with dire consequences.

acid-attack-on-boy-who-refused-sex-with-cleric

Is religion part of the solution to the problem, do not think so. I thought they hate gay right ? How come some clerics  want to have sex with little boy ?

Another one, facebook divorce. First one in the world.

facebook-divorce

Speechless.

This is another one, I seriously do not know what the dog did to offend that lady, she stabbed the poor dog.

woman-stabbed-dog

At least I used only BB gun to chase away the dog . This lady sent the dog to see virgin.

-woody

Dua

Recently , there was a big political tussle in one of the state in Malaysia, the state government lost its Menteri Besar (like Governor), due to a few state law maker decided to leave that state ruling party. Now , with the new one swearing in and old one refuse to leave. That state looks like having two governors. I make this logo for the occasion.

Stupid as it may sound, I am just curious that if Obama won the election, then one year later a few Democrats law makers decided to leave the Democrats to become independent, then McCain comes back to oval office to ask Obama to leave because he no longer represent the majority voice. By the way, such thing only happens in Malaysia.

woody

Gaming

I am not sure what readers thought of me as a real person , if they happen to stumble upon me in a coffee shop. Many probably thought I am more like a quiet nerd sitting at the corner with nothing much to say, but quite opposite to that, I can chat easily with anyone at all.

Just about last week, I managed to chat with some aunties that like to gamble and I decided to do some quick calculations on how much they really spent or make from those gaming (buying 4 digits, gaming).

Assuming they buy RM1 big and small -  total RM2 each number (will explain what Big and Small means later), every draw they would have spent 3 sides (Magnum, Toto, Horse Racing)- RM6 on just one number, assuming they buy every week – 3 draws (Wednesday,Saturday,Sunday), the total amount they spend each week is RM18 (excluding special draw).

For 52 weeks /year that amount is RM 18 x 52 = RM936/ year.(Excluding monthly rest interest if that amount were to save to a bank with FD interest)

For 4 digit, odds is 1  in 10,000 – (number is 0000 to 9999), % probability of  win is 0.01%

Now we come to what Big and Small means. Check out this one explanation in local gaming website.

So, in a way, after reading the explanation, one will realize that RM936 is almost equal 1 third prize win, right ? At least in (1) one year ? Because one third prize is about RM500 for big, small is RM1,000. Drawing upon that conclusion, I suggested that they open up a soda can piggy bank. Anytime, they feel like buying, just throw the money into it and within 1 year, they are sure to win at least once with 100% probability- third prize.

Now coming back to the question, how much do they make ? Zero + losses . Because upon my checking with them, their winning is about < 1x /year (not always first prize)  and every draw they spend like RM20 -RM50, at least. That is why, the gaming company always win.

When you do buy, there is hope.

That was the advice they gave me.

My advice to them,

When you don’t, you are sure to win.

Have a nice weekend.

woody