Thursday, April 28, 2011

Jika ada saatnya, sanggupkah kita mengubah gaya hidup?


Akhirnya saya nonton juga film ini, seperti biasa via DVD bajakan (aduh maaf sekali lagi Hollywooders – mau nonton yang resmi kok sudah keburu terganti dengan Suster Keramas 2…blame it on my government).

Awalnya saya ingin nonton ini karena memang saya selalu senang dengan topik berbau korporat – karena bisa digunakan untuk bahan pelajaran untuk TIDAK berperilaku seperti itu. Jujur saja rasanya ketidakpercayaan saya terhadap dunia korporasi sudah terlanjur mendarah daging, sejak saya kuliah. Dan semakin kuat begitu usia saya makin bertambah dan terjun langsung ke dunia ini.

Jadi begitu saya lihat judulnya, saya penasaran ingin tahu film ini cerita tentang apa. Plus lihat siapa pemainnya juga rasanya film ini harusnya lumayan tonton-able.

Cerita film ini berkisar pada 3 tokohnya: Bobby (Ben Affleck), Gene (Tommy Lee Jones) dan Phil (Chris Cooper) yang terkena downsizing di perusahaan tempat mereka bekerja saat Amerika terkena dampak krisis ekonomi. Bobby hidup dalam typical American dream: rumah besar di suburb, karir cemerlang, Porsche, keanggotaan eksklusif di golf club. Gene – salah satu dari pegawai pertama sekaligus pendiri perusahaan, sahabat dan tangan kanan dari CEO, yang pastinya tidak pernah mengira dia juga akan terkena dampak downsizing mengingat perjuangan hidupnya yang seiring dengan perjuangan perusahaan mencapai sukses. Sementara Phil adalah juga salah satu ‘orang lama’ yang juga berpikir karirnya tidak akan terancam setelah lebih dari 30 tahun mengabdi di perusahaan ini.

Tapi kenyataannya, apapun yang telah diberikan pegawai pada perusahaan, akan bermuara pada satu hal: angka. Saat angka terancam, maka pegawai adalah hal pertama yang dilihat untuk dikurangi. Performa kerja yang cemerlang, pengabdian puluhan tahun, bahkan pertemanan, jadi tidak berarti. Dan mereka bertiga terpuruk dalam kolam yang bernama pengangguran.

Yang paling ‘tenang’ tentunya adalah Gene – yang telah memiliki saham jutaan dolar karena ia adalah salah satu pendiri perusahaan. Dari ketiga tokoh ini, Gene adalah yang paling tidak terpengaruh dari segi gaya hidup.

Lain lagi Phil, yang akhirnya bunuh diri, karena frustrasi dengan kenyataan bahwa dia tidak dapat lagi membiayai sekolah anak-anaknya di universitas yang ternama.

Sementara Bobby yang sudah terbiasa dengan jas mahal, mengendarai Porsche, rumah besar, keanggotaan eksklusif, mencoba meneruskan hidup tapi cukup menderita dengan 'status' barunya itu. Dan di film ini, Bobby terlihat enggan meninggalkan gaya hidupnya walaupun sudah berbulan-bulan menganggur. Sampai akhirnya tiba cek gajinya yang terakhir, dan dia mau tidak mau harus bangun dari mimpi panjangnya that everything is going to be alright, karena nyatanya, everything sucks. Akhirnya dia harus melepaskan Porsche-nya, menjual rumah besarnya dan pindah ke rumah orang tuanya, dan akhirnya, harus rela bekerja dengan kakak iparnya.

Diperankan oleh Kevin Costner, si kakak ipar adalah seorang home builder. A self-employed man, bekerja bukan dengan jas keren, tapi dengan baju tukang, tangan dan tenaga, dimana tentunya keahlian ‘eksekutif’ Bobby tidak berlaku. Bobby akhirnya harus belajar untuk menurunkan harapannya sendiri, belajar untuk ‘bekerja kasar’ berurusan dengan paku, semen, pasir, papan dan batu, dan belajar untuk melepaskan dirinya dari kungkungan gaya hidupnya.

Menonton film ini, akhirnya yang saya pelajari adalah hati-hatilah dengan gaya hidup.

Tentunya seiring dengan kesejahteraan dan kemakmuran, gaya hidup kita akan berubah. Ada barang-barang atau kegiatan-kegiatan yang akhirnya kita konsumsi, atas nama kemakmuran dan alasan “Saya sudah bisa beli, jadi kenapa nggak?”. Dan tanpa kita sadar, kita biarkan diri kita terbelenggu hal-hal yang superficial itu.

Tapi menonton film ini jadi membuat saya bertanya, “Apa iya semua itu dibutuhkan?. Apa iya semua harus barang bermerek yang dibeli di mal dengan lantai mengkilap?. Lalu kalau sudah melakukan itu semua apa kemudian hidup jadi lebih bernilai?”. Hmmmm….kalau mau jujur banget sih, jawaban saya adalah tidak. Tapi kadang-kadang we just want to feel good about ourselves. Saya sendiri kadang begitu.

Saya pernah tanpa pikir panjang membeli sebuah tas dari Nine West. Padahal saya tidak pernah sebelumnya mau beli tas bermerek. Waktu itu saya beli karena dua alasan: saya sedang suntuk, dan saya merasa itu tadi, kan saya punya uang. Tapi seminggu sesudahnya, saya melihat tas itu dan bertanya pada diri sendiri, “Ngapain sih gue beli tas ini. Bentar lagi juga bosen. Lagian emang apa juga nilai tambahnya buat gue ya – kemana-mana juga gue dekil, mau pake tas apa juga gak ngaruh. Kenapa gue gak beli yang lebih murah aja ya”. Tapi yaaa….begitulah. Ada keinginan untuk menyenangkan diri sendiri, dan ada kesadaran bahwa ‘saya bisa beli’ itu tadi. Dua jebakan Batman yang paling berbahaya…

Tapi hal-hal remeh temeh itu sering sekali menggoda, kita sadari atau tidak. Dan, kita sadari atau tidak, itu terjadi berulang kali dan menjadi pola. Dan kalau sudah begitu, rasanya susah untuk dikatakan bahwa itu adalah ‘ketidaksengajaan’.

Padahal, seperti yang ditunjukkan di film ini, roda kehidupan akan bergulir. Adakalanya kita di atas, tapi akan ada saatnya kita di bawah. Nah, pada saat kita di bawah, sanggupkah kita mengalahkan ego diri sendiri untuk tidak terpaku pada hal-hal superficial seperti segala barang dan kegiatan ‘kosmetik’ itu, dan kembali pada kebersahajaan, kesederhanaan. Cause at the end of the day, kebaikan seorang manusia tidak pernah diukur dari mobilnya, bajunya, tasnya atau klubnya. Tapi dari bagaimana dia menyikapi hidupnya.

Ya mudah-mudahan kita tidak pernah harus menghadapi hal yang seberat Bobby – dengan catatan kita sekarang ini belum sebegitunya membiarkan diri terbelenggu pada hal-hal superficial tadi. Kalaupun sudah terlanjur, ya mudah-mudahan kita masih diberikan kekuatan untuk bisa kembali pada ‘ketiadaan’ dan menghadapi kesulitan dengan selalu berbesar hati. Bagaimanapun juga, rezeki Tuhan juga ada pada hal-hal kecil, yang sayangnya mungkin kita sering lupakan. Dalam dunia konsumtif sekarang ini, mungkin ada baiknya kita mulai makin menghargai hal-hal kecil, dan bukan cuma barang atau kegiatan yang kita bisa dapatkan atau nikmati dengan membelanjakan ratusan atau jutaan rupiah. Supaya saat kita ‘jatuh’, kita tidak kaget, dan masih mampu tersenyum atau bahkan tertawa terbahak-bahak.


(R I R I)

Thursday, April 14, 2011

This feeling...that start of the journey...

Somehow, I knew this year is gonna be different.

I’ve hit my 40 – which felt great. Never thought hitting that age could make me felt so exhilarated. I didn’t expect it would actually give me so much energy to keep on going. Energy to do something different and new. Something that I never thought I’d ever have the courage to do.

But then life always offers some surprises. I turned around a bend and suddenly felt, eh, what was I doing here?. Why did I feel so awful about myself?. Why did I suddenly feel I haven't contributed much?. Why did I suddenly feel like a zombie, just moving along aimlessly and losing the grip to what I've always held dear in my heart: the passion to create something new no matter how little, every single day?. Where has that feeling gone?. Why did I feel trapped and suffocated?.

And one fine day, it dawned on me what happened and what I should do next. I can't and SHOULD NOT, stop here. I have to move on. I have my life ahead of me and I don't want to waste any single moment anymore. I have to make my dreams come true in the ways that I KNOW how.

So now, here I am. Looking at that long road ahead with a big smile on my face and a belief in my heart that though this road is going to be tough, I will make it to the end.That though this road is going to be bumpy, but at least I know I am behind the wheel, and I have co-drivers and crew that I can rely on. I am no longer a lone voice screaming to the wall. I am no longer a zombie moving along without a clear vision in front of me. I am, what I am again: wanting to see things happening, not wanting to stop at one point, not being easily satisfied and yet not too ambitious to reach for too many things. I want to live with passion and fire that keeps on burning.

I’m having a ball, don’t stop me now!



Don't Stop Me Now (Queen)

Tonight I'm gonna have myself a real good time
I feel alive and the world it's turning inside out Yeah!
I'm floating around in ecstasy
So don't stop me now don't stop me
'Cause I'm having a good time having a good time

I'm a shooting star leaping through the skies
Like a tiger defying the laws of gravity
I'm a racing car passing by like Lady Godiva
I'm gonna go go go
There's no stopping me

I'm burning through the skies Yeah!
Two hundred degrees
That's why they call me Mister Fahrenheit
I'm trav'ling at the speed of light
I wanna make a supersonic man of you

Don't stop me now I'm having such a good time
I'm having a ball don't stop me now
If you wanna have a good time just give me a call
Don't stop me now ('Cause I'm having a good time)
Don't stop me now (Yes I'm having a good time)
I don't want to stop at all

I'm a rocket ship on my way to Mars
On a collision course
I am a satellite I'm out of control
I am a sex machine ready to reload
Like an atom bomb about to
Oh oh oh oh oh explode

I'm burning through the skies Yeah!
Two hundred degrees
That's why they call me Mister Fahrenheit
I'm trav'ling at the speed of light
I wanna make a supersonic woman out of you

Don't stop me don't stop me don't stop me
Hey hey hey!
Don't stop me don't stop me
Ooh ooh ooh (I like it)
Don't stop me have a good time good time
Don't stop me don't stop me
Ooh ooh Alright
I'm burning through the skies Yeah!
Two hundred degrees
That's why they call me Mister Fahrenheit
I'm trav'ling at the speed of light
I wanna make a supersonic woman of you

Don't stop me now I'm having such a good time
I'm having a ball don't stop me now
If you wanna have a good time
Just give me a call
Don't stop me now ('Cause I'm having a good time)
Don't stop me now (Yes I'm having a good time)
I don't wanna stop at all

La la la la laaaa
La la la la
La la laa laa laa laaa
La la laa la la la la la laaa hey!!....


(R I R I)

Sunday, March 27, 2011

An outfit that fits – finding ways to self-renaissance

About two years ago, I met a friend who was transferred by her company to their office in France. I asked her why she wanted to go. And, she gave me a non- typical answer compared to what I have learned from my fellow Indonesians before (or perhaps I just haven’t talked to enough number of people!). Usually the answer I found was: wanting to learn more, wanting to know what it’s like to work with others with different cultural backgrounds, and wanting to earn more money than what he or she can make here.

This friend of mine, was different. She said, she’s become a big fish in a small pond, her outfit got too snug for her and it made her difficult to move. She wanted to again become a small fish in a big pond, wanted to feel again of what it was like to be afraid coming to office. These feelings she didn’t get anymore. She knew that anything she said or did would not create any criticism anymore, no one would challenge her, even if she was actually talking bullshit.

I was stunned. There she was, a person with enough self-humility to say that she NEEDED to feel afraid again. To me that was such an admirable self-awareness, a refusal to self-complacency, that I do not often find anymore. Many times if someone is already at a certain level – she or he will want to stay there, perhaps out of comfort, perhaps out of a feeling that the unknown is now too risky to explore, or perhaps it is just unthinkable to get out of that outfit.

I ask myself, will I be able to do so when my outfit gets too snug for me?. Not by going off to a place far away – but just to do something that is very challenging, or something that is totally new that it will require a lot of effort for me to ‘be known’ again. My friend did not go to a different industry – she will do what she does well here. But she will do it with a bunch of different people, from a different culture, in a foreign country. To me that required a lot of effort because there is a lot of uncertainty there to face and learn and adjust to.

Talking to her has certainly sparked my spirit to never stop challenging myself. Often we are bound too much to our current lives by our fears and worries, feeling that we would never be able to do something different. While if only we search ourselves hard enough, we actually have learned more than enough to make new steps. And at times, these steps do not have to be huge, little steps will do as long as we do not stop and be lazy to think of the next steps. Little steps, are what making big things evolve.

Well, self-renaissance is a continuous process, or so I believe. And I thank God that in my journey, I have found many intriguing people that have inspired me, and told me indirectly, that stopping is certainly not the way to go. There are more ponds to find, more outfits to try on, so why not – there are always ways to go back to where we were as long as we have enough self-humility to admit mistakes, and enough courage to continue walking.


(R I R I)

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Managers, train and promote your employees wisely, it will go back to you!

The issues of training and promotion have always become one of the hot topics, especially in the industry where I work where talents are rare. Training is often treated as ‘on the job’ rather than as a structured activity – with the excuse that understanding market research is not as simple and as client’s problems are various, training becomes more difficult to structure. While promotion is a challenge because in market research, sometimes it is difficult to determine what skills are needed for a certain level, since one role to another sometimes have similar work to do.

That’s why, since day one I started working in this industry, those two issues have always come up in most discussions about human resources. As I moved up the ladder, I have gotten questions around those from my colleagues. I have asked the same question myself and often consulted with either my superiors, or people from HR in the company I worked in. The question around training always revolves around what to give, and how to structure it so that it makes sense to us and the employees and of course at the same time can get them ready for the next level. While the question on promotion is always how can we promote someone according to the skills needed, while at the same time create a differentiation of role between one title to the other.

Amongst the many answers that I have received, one of the best answers was somewhere along the line of: think of your employees as your brand ambassadors. They can either put a bad, or a good name, on you depending on what skills they bring that are supposed to fit that title.

That line of thinking comes from a very simple logic.

However unstructured, training at the end of the day must answer one very simple needs: to enable the person to do the job that he has to do. So, before we even think of training, we must first understand: what is the job. In other words, we have to come up with clear job descriptions. I am sure every person who has read any books on human resources has already known this. But how often have we really adhered to it, or even tried to understand ourselves and make sure that our expectations of that person and the job that he needs to do, fit with the job descriptions?. I am sorry to say that I have seen too many examples where people just don’t do that often enough. Expectations to the person can be too low, or too high, from the actual jobs that he has to do. And hence, training becomes erratic. Or worse, is not done properly.

And this of course affects on how promotion is then done. Without a proper look at job descriptions, promotion can be done haphazardly. Sometimes it is done on reasons that have nothing to do with the jobs, e.g. in order to keep up with the salary increase, to keep up with the years of working, to keep people from leaving, and so many other reasons. While there is nothing wrong with those reasons, but there is a danger in doing so: we forget to look long and hard at what skills have the person equipped with for the next level, does he/she fit enough with the title that requires certain skills to do the job well in that role. And I think we even often forget to ask ourselves if we are the managers: what have I done to equip that person well enough to go up the ladder.

If you notice, that process always comes back to us as managers. Yes, because at the end of the day, it is not just the responsibility of the employee to understand what he has to do, it is also our responsibility as managers to really understand what the job expects the employees to do, and to equip them with skills to do so.

Let’s ponder for a while. Have you ever encountered a situation when you have hired an employee, who has worked in other company, and then wonder after sometime: what has this employee got in the previous company in terms of training?. And sometimes even make you wonder: how on earth did this person get to his previous position in the first place? How is training and promotion done in that company?.

I have faced those situations more than once in the 16 years of my career in market research. And that can mean a good sign – that the employee performed even better than I expected. Or, the other flip of the coin, the employee did not know even the basics of what he/she had to already know given the position. And more often than not, those situations did take me to think of where the employee has come from – what company, and sometimes even, who was his/her boss. Which, if you work in an industry as small as market research, the best bet is, everybody will know who everyone has worked with before, who was the boss.

So is it wrong to say then, that as managers we cannot ignore the fact that we will also be judged based on the people whom we have worked with, and supposed to have been trained by us?. You can say that other people’s judgment in that area does not matter. But, let me tell you. I have often heard stories that a company declines from hiring someone for a managerial position because of the reputation that the person does not train people well. So it does, matter.

Even when you think you do not want to leave the company where you work now, it still matters. Because your employees, ARE your brand ambassadors. If they are good in what they do, as the situations that I have given earlier, people will want to know where they have come from, and who they have worked with. And I did not make it up. There are excellent people in the market research industry, who are known as good managers, whom people would love to work with them, and many companies would love to have those people on board. When you have good brand ambassadors, you will also have no difficulties to get good people. Hiring people will not be so much of a challenge because you have the reputation and people will want to learn from you.

So, just like karma I guess, it does go back to us. How we build our reputation does not only rely on how good we are in getting money into our company. But there is something beyond that. How we are contributing to the development of talents, is also an important part of what we should consider, to have a good name in any industry that we work with.

It may sound idealistic, but in the world that keeps on changing, talent development will become a key issue everywhere. And our ability to prepare employees for the changing world, by giving them the right training and prepare them well for the next level, may one day be one of the key skills that companies will look at when judging a manager. And also will become a factor that employees will consider when they wish to move to a certain company. I know, because I’ve been in those situations.


(R I R I)

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