Office Politics Lesson No 1

Well so fast the Sunday is almost gone. Tomorrow is another work day. Haha, but to me it does not matter, working everyday anyway. Nice to have someone take me off the schedule though. :P

Anyway, was reading the newspaper and I come across this article written by a famous author in Taiwan. It is a very nice story that I think I should share with readers. I am doing on the spot translation for the story so pls bear with me. Here goes the story.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have a female friend who is multi talented and very independent. She became a lecturer of a university at a very young age and eventually became the dean of a research centre. Because of her innovative teaching methods, she is very well received among her students. But her teaching methods was considered unorthodox by the school system though thus she also received a lot negative comments as well.

One day, when she was at school, the school administration passed her a bag. Inside the bag, it is a 38 page complain letter. Inside the letter are words that exaggerate her 'offences' and questioning her character. The amount of words in this complain letter is might be enough to break a guiness record.

Inside the letter, it contains the opinions of both teachers and students but the letter was anonymous. Someone also sent a copy of it to the principal as well, but thank goodness she has the support of the principal. The principal only said," It is not signed, so cannot trace to the complainant, so there is no need for me to look into it.

My friend on seeing the letter was extremely furious. After putting in so much effort to teach the student and this is the gratitude these students show? Now from what I know, in academic institutions, sometimes the in-fighting can be as worse or even worse then those in the corporate sectors. I guess the purpose of this letter is to make her very angry, so angry that she will leave the institution.

"I am not a very sensitive person. I always believe that my colleagues and students are genuinely nice to me. I really cannot believe that someone would write such a long letter to complain about me. What is more scary is that I would not know which smile has a dagger sheathed in it." This made her want to give up teaching at the institution, she contemplated on leaving the institution. But then she remember what her mentor said to her before. "Good criticism is definitely better than bad criticism. But bad criticism is better than no criticism. If there is no criticism, that means people are not noticing you. What value do you have or add, when no one pays any attention to you?." With this in mind, she decided to stay and act as though the incident never happen.

I can bet that the person who wrote the long complaint letter must be hopping mad. For the person put in so much effort to write such a letter, hoping that it will make her leave, and in the end, the result was not what she expected. In life, we will meet many challenges, the greatest challenger is one where he is not easily shaken. His will and emotions are not easily shaken by rumors and untruth. When she decided not to leave, she has made her opponents angry, and proclaim them as losers.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hope you like this story. I know I learnt something valuable in it.

Cheers!