People Management

Just came back from a midnight traverse around the West of Singapore for a late night supper session with my camp mates.

Had fried carrot cake and a dollar sugar cane juice. I opened my wallet and realised that the 30 bucks I allowed rashes to take over my body for was almost spent! It's amazing how fast cash is used up when you don't even think you're spending much. Must abstain from food when not hungry.

However, this is not the crux of this post.

Since I am holding a post in army where I have people working under me, I suppose it is crucial that I have the proper people management skills to handle them. I believe I have good rapport with most of them, then again I might be an easy pushover for anyone who wishes to do so. I trust people to treat me well and vice versa that is all. Mutual respect.

I have this storeman who has an unfavourable history. When he first came in, I tried my best not to develop any form of complex of him. I believe everyone has some good in them. While it is easy enough to see it in most of the people, for some it just takes time and patience to discover it in them. Nevertheless I am sure it is inside of them.

Sure, he was helpful and as keen to learn when he got posted in but who isn't when they are posted somewhere new? Everyone knows that first impression counts. Steadily the road got bumpier as the weeks went by. Some bumps were negligible but others will prove to be pot holes in the end. How do I know whether it is all just a front he is putting up? Or is it truly genuine and if so, I feel terribly guilty for the way I am treating him already. It is not entirely explicit the way I am starting to treat him but I feel that despite my determination not to jump to any preconcieved ideas of him due to his history, unknowingly I still managed to develop some slight complex of him.

Then here comes the mirror-effect. In came another guy who joined us who is amazingly helpful and has a ready smile on his face. Not only was he always cheerful and ready to help, but it was his ability to accept anyone for who they are that caught my attention. He made quick friends with my storeman and treated him with the same amount of respect with anyone else he knew. Immediately I could sense the difference between this guy and me. Why couldn't I be the same? I consciously told myself in the beginning to see the good and overlook the bad in everyone I meet so how did I manage to develop such notions of people even before I could truly understand them? Not only did I see the fault in myself, but I felt that it was shoved in my face. My changed behaviour and opinion towards my storeman amplified and shown to me repeatedly in my mind.

So the dilemma is this: Do I see him as a person who cannot possibly be any different from his past and then treat him as I rightly should to anyone who fails to perform their duty? OR should I take the time to slowly understand him and recognise that he really is someone capable of being good and helpful, just that it so happens he fell ill at the wrong time and place.

Either way, I really should seek to see only the good and the possible good in others. And not develop such complexes of people that I have not truly begin to understand yet.