Ego Libre

I know it has been a long time since I wrote my first part of this post, but hopefully you are still interested in what I have to say. So what is the second thing that I feel you should consider when deciding on whether (or where) to take your MBA and that is:Business school do not do what they preach. This was another issue that I had with my short-lived MBA studies. It’s beautiful to hear about proper management techniques, but some of your professors treat your or some of your fellow students in a way that no manager should. It is beautiful to hear about proper planning and organization skills, but nobody gives you the time nor opportunity to implement them in the actual studies. Or what about HR telling you how to create a stress-free environment, when you have to study four subject in ten weeks including exams and no-one gives a shit about your stress. And those few naive souls who try to object to it are being told off that they need to learn how to work under stressful situation and conditions.Anyone smells bullshit as much as I do?I mean seriously. These guys stand in front of you and teach you the theory how you should behave, but in reality act almost contrary. What is the take-out for you? That the gap between theory and practice is so big, that there is no way that all those fancy models can be implemented.So why teach them? Why not be honest about it? Why not say: “Once you get a middle-management job or above, your life will be stressful, you will work too much and you and your co-workers will hate each others guts.” I know I am exaggerating here, but it really bothered me. It bothered me because most of the people who graduate from a full-time MBA studies will see this kind of stress and workload as a norm and will not think twice about inflicting it on other people as well. “When I was doing my MBA I did not sleep more than 4 hours a day, so stop whining and get to your work.”This kind of logic simply bothers me and unfortunately with the advent of students who want to degree for the paper only and want to get to their flashy careers and corporate jets as soon as possible, this will get even worse.So second reason why not do an MBA: It is going to screw up your perception of fair amount of work and the stress levels and tolerance you create here will follow you throughout your career until you either break down, or smarten up. 

What woke me up from the stupor of not writing? My boss got fired.

To all of you future managers, team leaders and multi-billion dollar CEOs, did you lose your job or were you potentially threatened to lose it?

I hope so. This was a first for me.

Sure, people get fired. I have seen it, I have been in awkward situation before, but I was always in the position of either unrelated to that person or in superior one.

This was the first time, when my boss, basically person who created my job for me got fired (unexpectedly) and thus when I had to question my future with this company. Hopefully I still do have a feature and although I feel very sadden by departure of my superior, life needs to go on.

But I tell you this. Suddenly all those Strategic HR Management lessons I took make more sense. Suddenly I can actually feel the effects of lay-off on morale and outlook of other people.  people. Fire people in order to scare or motivate them? Bullshit! When you start firing without warning, your best people are those that will go willingly. Best people have future, best people have possibilities. By behaving irresponsibly your competitors will strengthen their ranks.

I am not commenting on whether this action was proper or not. I am not in a position to judge that. I am simply stating that I learned a lesson: When you dismiss people, have a damn good explanation for everyone around or else your best people will start following a different leade and you will be stuck with those you should most likely avoid.

Good night and good luck.

Hi, it’s been a long, long time. I actually don’t even know what happened. I suppose I had so much free time that I actually did not manage to write anything?

Sounds ridiculous, well it isn’t. Last couple of weeks (or months) I have been actually for the first time in a long time not doing two schools and job at the same time, I wasn’t doing an Pan-Asian Airport marathon or anything closely that exciting. I was actually simply doing one job and enjoying life.

True I was also moving to a new apartment, finishing my MBA exams and other stuff, but all in all this period was closest to holiday I got in a long time.

This post (besides being a silly excuse) has a point though. The point is that working from home is not an easy task (which I will surely elaborate on later) and most importantly, when you are less busy, you become less productive.

You wouldn’t believe it, but I have emails back from August that I still did not reply to. Some of my friends must think that I am a total asshole, some of them already know that I am an asshole, so at least they are not surprised. So the point is this, the less you do the less you manage. So please all of you that are still waiting for a reply/phone call/visit/chat: I am not dead, I am merely not as busy as usual and I don’t know how to cope with it.