Tin Kosong .....

When I first started work, I found it very irritating (“irritatingly annoying” more like it) seeing some of my senior colleagues and bosses not saying anything in meetings even on straight forward issues. On the extreme days, I even wondered if these people have brains or not.

Over the years, as I became more and more of a veteran, I observed a particular trend. The quieter you are, the higher the chance of you being promoted. At the same time, the longer you are in the service, the quieter you became. So my theory that these people were brainless must be totally wrong. If not, they wouldn’t have been promoted. Or could it be the talkative ones were just all noise but just like empty cans.("tin kosong").

I struggled to understand why this was. One possible explanation I can deduce was there must be a direct correlation between the levels of quietness with the level of "work intelligence". In short, the quiet ones are the clever ones, the ones “pandai bekeraja” not the tin kosongs. That’s why they get the recognitions and the promotions. Well I admit this was not scientifically deduced and proven, so take this with “a panyaluru warning advisory”.

If you really want to be respected, valued, admired and promoted, the following rules taken from an international bestseller “The Rules of Work” by Richard Templar, may help:

• Walk your talk;
• Know that you’re being judged at all times;
• Have a plan;
• If you can’t say anything nice – shut up;
• Look after yourself;
• Blend in;
• Act one step ahead;
• Cultivate diplomacy;
• Know the system – and milk it;
• Handle the opposition.

As for me, may b I should try to be a bit quieter for a start (as if I can)...