Monday, May 10, 2010

A revival

This blog idea came about from the culmination of events in the last 2 weeks where I found myself giving advice to the son of a friend who was under seige at work. And I thought I escaped it all, ha ha. But that exchange gave me a reason to write my experiences down while they are still fresh in my mind; from an employee and a boss's point of view. Who knows, someone might actually find some of this stuff useful to fend off the wolves in the concrete jungle.

First, a bit about me. I took voluntary retirement after having spent nearly 30 years in the corporate workforce where my first job was to sell products from a paper mill. Over the years my work took me to quite a few countries around the world. It included a long phase in my life where my home was the airports and Starbucks was my kitchen. Been through just about every configuration of business you can imagine, from a 2-man show operating from a hole in the wall to a multinational with 200 people reporting to me, and styles of management from convent-like saintliness to something that resembled a mental asylum.

I confess I don't know everything. All I can share is what I saw, what I personally experienced and what I did to handle (or mishandle) them. You be the judge of whether they apply to your situation and if you've seen better ways to handle them, please share.

Welcome to the 27th Floor.

5 comments:

LC Teh said...

I haven't been up that high in any corporate building, but I do know that estasies and agonies sometimes come within moments of each other on any working day, and when you least expect them.

I look forward to reading about your 'misadventures' in the workplace.

SFGEMS said...

Congratulations! Somebody has to do it and why not you?

I've found that when people trawl the net in search of answers, sometimes they chance upon a line your wrote and, you never know, it may be just what they were looking for.

Good on ya to share! By the way, I'm on the 28th Floor! LOL

Paper Wrapper said...

Hi LC, I look forward to your sharing your experiences too as I'm sure you have plenty. :-)

Paper Wrapper said...

Hi Lita, you're on the 28th floor? You know what they say. The higher you go, the thinner the air. Just make sure they didn't tamper with your oxygen mask and parachute, ha ha.

Haruki said...

Hi Johan, I am on the 10th floor now, not sure if I really want to go up, as you know. But when they ask me, I always portray myself as super-ambitious, as I know they really don't want to hear that I plan to retire young, retire rich...hehe.

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