Future Your Work
2016年6月1日 星期三
Happiness and Sucess
The TED talk, Shawn Achor: The Happy Secret to
Better Work is an inspirational talk. It makes me reflect on my study and work.
The main theme of this talk is happiness leads to better work and higher
success. Before watching this TED talk, I believe that most of people think
that the more successful we are, the happier we will be. People believe in a
clear formula, working hard, then you'll be successful, and then you'll be
happier.
However, Shawn Achor gives me a new perspective
about happiness and success. He pointed out that our brains actually work
in an opposite order. It's hard to find
happiness after success if the goal keeps on changing. We generally want to
purchase more and more. It makes us feel stressful and tends to be unhappy.
In the TED talk, Shawn Achor points out that our intelligence level,
creativity and energy level would raise when we are happy, and all these help
to improve our performance and contribute to success. At the end of the talk,
Shawn Achor also teaches us how to train our brain to be able to become more
positive, such as writing down the positive experiences or things that we are
grateful and let our brain relive it. It would dramatically increase our
happiness and optimism. Being a happy person is actually not that difficult,
just spend a short period of time each day, and we can then march towards success.
It makes me reflect about my ways of studying
and working. I want to get higher score in assignments and exams. Therefore, I
worked really hard for it. I think that I might be happy after I got an A in my
assignments or exams. However, it makes me really stressful. The stress affects
my performance and I cannot do my best in the exam. I would then be sad about
the result and become more stressful. It is a vicious cycle.
Therefore, I think I have to change my attitude
and thoughts about my study and work; and try to maintain happiness and be
positive. I believe I can have a better
performance and higher productivity when I am happy. It is also important to enjoy
the leaning process, but not just focus on the result. I hope I can be a optimistic
person and be more motivated in my study and work after trying to write down grateful things or events every day.
2016年5月29日 星期日
Symbolic meaning of technology
I have read one of the chapters of the book, “Media, Modernity, and Technology: The
Geography of the New”. That
chapter is mainly talking about the symbolic function of the technology. Therefore,
in this blog, I would like to focus on discussing the symbolic perspective of
the technology.
Usually, people mainly focus on the rational function of technology,
such as using mobile phone to talk with other, using computer for doing
homework. In the book, author used computer as one of the example to illustrate
that there are symbolic meaning of technology. Computer is a really common nowadays.
However, in the past, computers were still rather new and uncommon. Computers
have been sold domestically as the key technology of access to
knowledge. It symbolized educated, civilized, and intelligent. It doesn't
only imply knowledge, but also implies modern and ahead of others, because
technology is something expensive and complicated at that time. It brings one
more meaning to it.
From my point of views, smart phones also may symbolize particular
kind of cultural identity of the owner. Smart phone is an icon of the new.
People who own a phone means he or she is in the trend of the generation.
Besides, a mobile phone is also a tool to reflect particular styles.
The color, design, materials of the phone reflects the owners’ style and
character. Therefore, people started to pay attention to the outlook of the
phone than the function of it. Some people may have decorative stickers on
their mobile phones or order a beautiful phone case to match their phone. By
doing so, they can distinguish themselves from the others or make the phone
more unique. The similar situation also emerges in Hong Kong. Hong Kong youngsters
seem to be more emphasis on the style reflection function of phone. For girls,
part of them may stick some sparkling elements on the smart phone cases. Not
only can they attract people’s attention including strangers and friends, but
they can also gain recognition within certain social circles.
In addition, a phone is a powerful symbol of the owner’s status. For
instance, it is easy to distinguish one’s financial ability to see he is using
iphone or Nokia phone. So, some people will sacrifice themselves financial
burden to buy an expensive phone in order to hide its financial status.
In conclusion, modern technology not only have its real function,
but sometime it also has been attached some symbolic meaning.
References:
David Morley. (2007) “Magical Technologies. The New, the Shiny, and the Symbolic.” In: Media, Modernity, and Technology: The Geography of the New.
2016年5月22日 星期日
Film sharing----"The Cove"
I watched a documentary called The Cove in past few days, and I was shocked and impressed by the scene in this documentary. Therefore, in my third blog, I would like to share my opinions about it. .
The Cove is a documentary which illustrated the dolphins hunting
situation in Taiji of Japan. Dolphins that being hunted are mainly sold to the Marine
Parks all around the world for entertainment or being killed for eating
purpose. This film hoped to raise people’s awareness about the dolphins’
protection and call for the action to stop the slaughtering and trading of dolphins
in Japan.
The film indicated that the trading of dolphins brought huge profits
to the local people. Dolphin which sold to marine parks for the dolphin shows
worth $150,000 each. There are also dolphin performances every day in the Ocean
Park in Hong Kong. People are entertained but dolphins are suffered a lot
because of it. Dolphin actually felt very painful while in captivity as they
are very sensitive to the sound and the filtration system in those marine parks
are noisy, so made they feel stressful and this killed them. Therefore, trading
of dolphins between Taiji and marine parks around the world and the dolphin
shows should be banned. Apart from selling dolphin to the marine parks, the
fishermen hunted it for making dolphin meats. However, there is high level of
mercury in dolphin meats. It is toxic and will harm human health. Thus, people
should stop selling and consuming dolphin meats.
The scene that dolphins are being bounded together by a net in a
cove and the fishermen used spear and knife to kill the dolphins made me feel shocked
and grieved. Dolphin’s blood stained the cove and it became red. It is a very
bloody and cruel process. I cannot imagine how the people can treat dolphin
like this. I believe this heart wrenching scene can let the Japanese and people
all around the world know what is happening in Taiji and raise their awareness
about protection of dolphin as well as the biodiversity.
The number of dolphins that being caught and killed every year are astonishing.
I opine that the Japan local government should bear the responsibility for this
problem. Because of their cover-up of the cruel hunting practice of the
fishermen, fishermen killed more and more dolphin in order to gain economic
benefits from it. As shown in the film, ordinary people in Japan did not know
the truth that 23,000 dolphins are killed for meet and some of them even do not
know that there are dolphin meats in the market. Furthermore, environment
activists, like Ric O'Barry are being threatened to stop the investigation
by police and the government officials in Taiji. I think that International
community and the NGOs should follow up this serious problem and urge the
Japanese government to solve it as soon as possible. The traditional thought of
the fishermen should be changed and policy should be formulated to forbid the
large-scale hunting of dolphin.
All in all, I think that we should not sacrifice
the ecology for the purpose of pursuing huge economic profits. It is because
the damaged ecosystem takes a long time to recover or even could not be
recovered. If people continued the
large-scale slaughtering of dolphin, dolphins might be extincted. We have to strike a balance
between the economic development and environmental protection. Not only in
Japan, but also other countries ought to prohibit large-scale hunting of
dolphin and the dolphin performance in Marine Park in order to protect the
dolphin.
2016年5月10日 星期二
Long working hours in Hong Kong
Nowadays,
most of employees are suffering from long workings hours in Hong Kong. It is
very common that employees need to work overtime in all industries. The working
hours in Hong Kong is comparatively longer than other countries. According to
the data from the Hong Kong Census and Statistic Department, there are more
than 40% of workers in Hong Kong work more than 48 hours per week. We can see
the problem of long workings hours is really serious in Hong Kong. Suffering
from long working hours lead to a lower living quality since it imposes
negative influences on both physical and mental aspects.
Negative impacts on physical health
Suffering
from long working hours can definitely physically harm the health of employee.
A research was published in 2012 found out that people who worked long hours
has a 1.8-fold increase in coronary heart disease than people who are not.
Besides, employees can more easily to get injuries when they need to work for
long hours. Human error is easily occurring when people are exhausted. For
instance, employees who are working in kitchen may easily get incised injury or
scald etc.
Negative impacts on mental health
Apart from
that, long working hours could badly affect the mental health of the employee. The
problem of long working hours may lead to work family conflict. If employees
are suffered from long working hours, the time that they can spend with their
family will be definitely decreased. Besides, employees will be exhausted after
the overtime working. They may have less energy to interact and communicate
with their family members when they back home. The family relationship may be
harmed in this way since their family members may not understand why they must
spend so much time on working. This may make employees feel stressed and harm
their health.
Importance of work-life balance
Therefore, I
opine that maintaining a work-life balance is very important. We should split out time and energy for work and family
more equality. For example, we could develop a calendar for work and family
and stick to it. Besides, we should have a better time management and work more
efficiently. Earning money is important but family support and having a good
relationship with family members is also essential for us.
In conclusion,
we can see that long working hours can impose long term consequences to the
employees on both physical and mental aspects. We can also see the importance
of maintaining a good work-life balance. Without the support of the companies and employers,
it is hard for the employees to achieve it. Therefore, I believe that the
government and the companies should limit the working hours of the employees
and support the employees to have a healthier and balanced life.
Sources:
Hk.epochtimes.com, (2015). 香港人工每週工作逾60小時-香港大紀元.
http://hk.epochtimes.com/b5/8/7/18/85337.htm
Leviticus, J. and Leviticus, J. (2015). The Effects of Long Work Hours
http://www.ehow.com/info_8319760_effects-long-work-hours.html [Accessed 22 Nov.
2015].
2016年5月8日 星期日
Stereotypes of men and women
The first blog is about the stereotyping. Stereotypes of
men and women means that people based on the difference of gender, make
assumption about their abilities and personality and have a set of belief on
what are the proper behavior, social roles, abilities and personality of them. It
might bring negative effects to the society. Nowadays, the impacts of the stereotypes
of men and women become less significant, there are still stereotypes
everywhere in our society.
These stereotypes might not be true and reflected
reality. For example, people think that men are
more capable than women in workplace. These thought is not true. Gender is not
a factor that could affect the working ability. In fact, there are also good
female leaders, for example, more and more female CEO nowadays. However, majority
of the CEO are still men. According to
Fortune, only 25 companies in
the Fortune 500 are
run by women. It shows that stereotyping is still affecting women’s
work.
It might also affect our expectations on
others and ourselves and thus affect our behavior
and decision. For example, men is good at calculation and logic, so they tend to
study mathematics or science subjects, while women is good at language, so they
tend to study the subjects of Arts. Some parents also not allow their children
to do the jobs that are not fit with their gender. For example, girls should
not be a football player because it is too masculine. It would affect people’s
work choice and the career development.
Besides, the stereotypes forms
pressure and affects people mental health. For example, people think that men
should be strong and tough, they cannot cry, so some male tend to not share
their feelings with others. Thus, men cannot vent their pressure properly and
might have mood disorders easily.
From my point of views, it is unfair to
have a fixed impression or assumption about a person just because of its
gender. I think some of these stereotypes underestimated people’s ability. Therefore,
I think that we should not be limited by these stereotypes and
should develop our potential and talent according to our own personality and
ability.
Fortunately, the society is kept on improving.
In the past,
people thought that men should be the
breadwinner, taking in charge of external matters, while women should take care
of domestic matters. Nowadays, it becomes more and more common that men
would stay at home and take care of the children and housework, while their
wife would go to work. Society is more opened and individuals’ choices are
being respected. We should adopt an objective and open attitude towards the
issue about men and women and stop those stereotyping. It is hoped that, the
negative impacts that brought by stereotyping in the society could be reduced.
Source
Why so few women are CEOs (in 5 charts)
http://fortune.com/2015/01/14/why-so-few-women-ceos/
2016年3月22日 星期二
Happy Company in China---Starbucks
Happiness at work is really important for
both the employees and employers. It is a key of success of a company. It is
because it would affect the job satisfaction and performance of the employee
and so the development of the company. In this blog, I would like to write
about a happy company in China, which is Starbucks (China). Starbucks (China), won
the price of “Best employer” and its’ stuff are happy at the workplace. I can
feel that the staff there are enjoy their work though and happy though their service.
Their smile is not faked. I can see their enthusiastic about their work.
Close relationship between company and the employees
The first reason of why the staff in
Starbucks are happier than other company might because of the close
relationship between company and the employee. Starbucks would call their staff
as partner. This shows that Starbucks
respects and stress on their employee. It also shortened the distance between
the company and the employee. Thus, it enhances the sense of the belonging of
the employee. Staff might then enjoy their work and love the company.
Good relationship between staff and customers
Staff in Starbucks could build up
ties and friendship with their customers though their service. For example, they
will write down customs’ name, some encouraging sentences, and drawing picture
on the cup. Customers can feel their care. Therefore, customers would smile in
return and give encouragement to the stuff. Stuff might even share their experience with
the customers and become friends of them. I believe these kinds of good interaction
between customers and stuff can make them feel joyful and happy about their
work.
Comprehensive labor welfare
The welfare of Starbucks
in China is also good and comprehensive, such as house allowance programme and medical
insurance. I am especially impressed by one of the welfare of it, which is the
stuff who had worked in Starbucks more than 10 years could have 12 months
no-pay leave and the welfare and the positions of the stuff would remained the
same. This allows the employee to pursue and achieve their dreams or spent more
time with their family without affecting their career. All these policies can
show the caring of the company to their employee.
Caring of staff and their family
Starbucks chairman and ceo, Howard Schultz, greets partners (employees) and their family |
Not only the employee, Starbucks also
care about employee’s family members. For example, they invited both employee
and their family members to join their meetings. This allows their family
members to know more about their jobs and working environment. I believed that
family’s support and recognition played an important role in employees’ satisfaction
of their works.
Having a good company culture and policy and
good interpersonal relationship are very important in maintaining the happiness
and satisfaction of the employee. I believe that Starbucks’s employee-oriented
policy is the main reason that makes their employee feel happier at workplace.
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