Are you an annoying co-worker?

Friends...I came across this article and considered it a great reflection piece 

Kahihu.

Quiz adopted from www.cnn.com/2005/US/Careers/07/28/annoying/ 

Quiz: Are you an annoying co-worker?

How many of these statements describe you?

1. You make provocative statements to "foster dialogue" or needle others.
2. You often find yourself delivering a discourse consisting solely of buzzwords and catch phrases.
3. You make up nicknames for all of your co-workers and refer to them only by these names (e.g., "Good job, Chachi!" or "I'm going to have to disagree with you there, T-bone!").
4. Your office is completely decorated in your children's pictures and artwork.
5. You have plastered your cubicle with photos of yourself taken with famous people.
6. It is your trademark to recite rhyming or other cutesy messages as your voice-mail greeting.
7. The questions you ask at meetings are preceded by long monologues of your views and accomplishments.
8. You routinely eat odoriferous lunches at your desk.
9. You bring in dishes that you tried to cook but didn't turn out quite right as "special treats" for your co-workers.
10. People seem tense -- even panic-stricken -- when they see you coming their way.
11. Others back away from you as you speak.
12. You send flurries of e-mails to the rest of the company telling them what you are doing (e.g., "If anyone needs me, I'll be in the bathroom.").
13. You vigorously chew or pop your gum.
14. You wear strong perfume or cologne.
15. You assume your co-workers are fascinated by your personal problems and exploits.
16. You interrupt others while they are speaking or are deep in conversation.
17. You are moody and don't care who knows it.
18. You often give others assignments as they're walking out the door for lunch or to catch the train home.
19. You borrow staplers, scissors and tape from others' desks and forget to return them.
20. Your dialogue with others often end with the other person shouting, "You are so annoying!"

If you counted only one or two, not to worry, you can quickly make changes before you're labeled a pest.

If your actions match three to five of these statements, take heed. You are on your way to becoming the source of many an eye roll.

If you do six or more of these on a regular basis, chances are you are already on the office watch list and have been anointed by your co-workers as annoying. It's time to do a reality check and make some changes.

Could it be kakorrhaphiophobia?

Words by Francis Kahihu: kahihucareers@gmail.com/www.kahihu.blogspot.com

(The author is an Organisational Development Practitioner)

The article on what motivates people to work has drawn a lot of excitement among the readers. There was an acknowledgement of the fact that many people are driven by various factors to work. This week, I want to dwell on a rather common drive factor for many people. As much as many workers are driven by positive forces, there are those who are driven by negative pressure. One such factor is kakorrhaphiophobia.

According to www.healthmad.com, kakorrhaphiophobia is an intense, irrational fear of failure or defeat. The person coping with this phobia may fear failure in every single aspect of their life and may feel that they must constantly prove themselves as being better, more able and more competent than others. A kakorrhaphiophobic individual may aggressively compete with peers, family members, co-workers and may obsessively seek acknowledgment of their achievements. This morbid fear of failure can consume the phobic person’s every thought.

The fear of defeat far out matches the drive for success. In every engagement, a person suffering from this condition exerts pressure on himself as they seek not to fail. They are very keen on their relationships with other people and are always on the lookout for possible sabotage by the other workmates. The fear of failure is so deeply rooted that they read malice in most cases when a coworker fails to deliver results as expected. This makes them very strict in their management of people and resources since they would rather lose people than lose the project goals.

Working with people driven by the fear of failure can a strenuous task. It becomes almost impossible to please them. The achievement of results has to be beyond average. Average performance is categorized as failure hence it is never enough until full targets are met as initially prescribed. A kakorrhaphiophobic staff exerts undue pressure not only on themselves but on others. They seek to work for longer hours, not for their love of their job but for fear of not attaining certain marks. To this end, they subconsciously vilify staff who leave the office promptly as they label such practice as a deliberate attempt to sabotage their efforts especially if they are in positions of supervision and management.

There is intense competition for recognition and fight for space by staff being accelerated by fear of failure. They increasingly consider the success of other people as an indication of their own failure. They hence find it difficult to celebrate the success of other people and are quick to find fault with every excellent performance of other people. This makes other staff perceive them as negativists and pessimists. The competition can get so intense that if not well managed, it can generate into a physical fight.

On the flip side, persons who harbor such a fear could on occasions propagate failure for other staff so that their star shines. To such people, if they have to fail, they have to be in the company of other people. It is not acceptable to fail alone. They have to drag other people into the failure picture when they realize it is inevitable. This leads to strained relations at the office as blame is passed to persons who least played a role in the failure of a project. 

What Motivates You to Work?

Words by Francis Kahihu 

It is 4.00am and Peter’s alarm has just gone off. He has over the years perfected the schedule in the morning and without much thought, gets through the preparation for the day ahead. He takes a shower, dresses up, takes his quick breakfast and off he gets at 5 to the nearest bus stage. He has to pick a bus to the city centre by latest 5.30am otherwise he will have to contend with traffic jam for the following 3 hours. He has realized that by leaving his house by 5.00am, he spends atmost one hour to work and reports to work a less stressed worker as opposed to if he were to leave 15 minutes later. In the evening, he spends almost 2 hours through the traffic and gets home a truly fatigued person, ready to take a break in preparation for the following day.

Peter’s case can easily pass for most workers in the urban centers in the developing world. With the persistent traffic snarl-up and the unpredictable public transport, many people have to make with relatively difficult work conditions. But just what drives Peter and others like him to wake up that early, struggle through traffic and survive through the rigours of the workplace? What motivates him to look forward to the following day even when he knows so well that the day will be as strenuous as the previous one? The following could be the reason.

1: Socialisation: Many of us are people persons. We love being around people and would do anything within our limits to ensure we are as close to other people as possible. We cross barriers and overcome odds to present us to an environment where other people are. To many people, the workplace is the ideal opportunity to be with people. For such people, being away from work could be a cause of internal fears. They want to nurture the relationships with people around them and would hence overlook any challenges along the path.

2: Opportunities to lead: Other people are driven by passion for leadership. They are wired to be in charge. They generate heightened internal peace when they are in charge of projects, programs, organizations and companies and seek to fully undertake difficult tasks. Such people are always seeking for challenging opportunities to prove their leadership capacities. They find pleasure in delegating certain tasks and are buried in ‘everlasting’ joy when the project succeeds. To such a person, waking up at 4.00am is a pleasant opportunity as it allows him to get to work earlier to engage in the dream tasks.

3: Fear of losing the job: The third category of workers is that which is driven by fear of loss. Such people wake up early to work, not because they really want to leave the house but since they realize the negative consequences for not reporting early. To such people, leaving for work is one among the various things they would rather not do given an opportunity. This fear can be so much that they start planning for the evening events even before they report to work. The day’s engagement is one big interruption in their life only that they have to undertake the tasks for them to earn their livelihood.

4: Finally, there are those who are driven by the desire to serve society. To such people, rising to provide helpful service to others adds extra years to their life. The joy of the society become their joy and hence would circumvent all odds to be available to other people.

Are you conflict sensitive at work?

Words by Francis Kahihu

kahihucareers@gmail.com

The Kenyan National Assembly has on its in-trays a bill seeking to regulate the use of vernacular in public offices. The proponents of the bill indicate that by use of vernacular languages, people who do not understand it at the workplace feel threatened and sidelined in discussions. In brief, they suggest that the use of vernacular at the workplace leads to potential conflicts when people perceive the switching to vernacular as means to back bite others or make plans behind the back of colleagues. It will be interesting to see how this debate unfolds.

Conflict sensitivity is the inherent realization that the reactions, actions, words or behaviors of one person could trigger a conflict either with another or a group of people. The workplace is one such a environment where individual differences and perceptions could easily lead to either overt or covert conflicts. It is hence helpful to gauge how sensitive we are to others so that we do not trigger conflicts with our workmates. Rate yourself against the following parameters and score your conflict sensitivity mark.

Use of vernacular: As indicated above on the bill before parliament, are you keen on using your vernacular whenever you are engaged in a chat with a staff with whom you share a mother language? As you engage in the vernacular chat, do you realize that there are other people in the office who do not understand what you are talking about and may feel left out in the conversation? In cases where you were chatting in your mother tongue with a friend and a colleague from another community joins you, do you consider it courteous to change the language to one that all persons can understand or do you proceed regardless of whether the colleague understands what you are saying or not?

Gossip: Are you the kind of person who generously opens up their mouth and utters whatever comes to their mind about other people? Are you always itching to leave the office over tea or lunch break so that you can tell others the’ hot news’ about your other colleague or even your boss? Does it bother you that you rarely first seek to confirm the truth about some of the allegations you level against your colleagues?

Language: Do you usually think twice before uttering certain words to your colleagues? Is it important to you to realize that that people are of different backgrounds with strong convictions on certain issues? Do the differences in religious affiliations, tribal orientations and social backgrounds strike you as important to note when relating with people? Do you make quick accusations of other people without clearly appreciating the reasons as to why they behave the way they do? Are you quick in making generalizations about people and take them as applicable to all in your speech and conduct?

If you have more than 3 positive responses to all the issues raised above, you may then want to consider a mentor’s help in helping you become more conflict sensitive.

Your personality matters during interviews

Words by Francis Kahihu

kahihucareers@gmail.com

As the dust eventually settles on the interviews facilitated by the Judicial Service Commission for the positions of Chief Justice and the Deputy, the manner in which the process was carried out has continued to dominate public discourse since the close of the process. It was a rare occasion for the public to be treated to a real job interview show on live TV. Readers who have been sending emails asking about possible interview questions witnessed live sessions that should add value as they prepare for the interviews.

The most interesting observation however was on the role that someone’s personality plays in the determination of the best candidates for a position. During the interviews, you must have realized that after the panel scrutinized the academic credentials of the candidates, they decided to place more value on the past engagements and personalities of the persons being interviewed. One of the candidates was alleged to shout at clients and this seemed to be her undoing. Just why should the panel be concerned about the personality of the candidate?

Interviewers are people seeking to propose people for certain job opportunities. With this in mind, it is clear to appreciate the reasons why the panel tends to be drawn towards people who impress them. A person with a pleasant personality is most likely to be proposed for a certain job as compared to one with a dull personality. This happens even in cases where the ‘dull personality’ person has better qualifications than the one with a pleasant personality. This is understandable since in certain cases, persons with dull personalities are unable to better express themselves to panelists.

I have been part of interview panels where persons with lower grades were able to express themselves with lots of enthusiasm to the extent of convincing the panel that their deficiencies are well within their plans for capacity development. This tends to make the panel look upon them with a certain amount of favor hence a more favorable score.

The second reason why personality matters relate to the fact that panelists in most cases would be interviewing would be work colleagues. It is human to hope to hang around pleasant people. In this case, panelists seem to be driven by an inner desire to recruit a pleasant team member. As the interviews progress, the panelists subconsciously battle with the identification of a person who will be a great team member, a person they will all want to hang around. The way you express yourself hence has a direct relationship with the possibility of being hired.

It is also worth noting that jobs have a way of determining the appropriate personalities for effectiveness. For people expected to work in front office and customer care or community mobilization jobs, pleasant personalities are preferred. This explains why persons are advised to pick on careers that match their personalities since there is a relationship between careers and personalities. On the flip side, there are cases when people with outgoing personalities have been locked out of certain jobs since they have been seen to be less serious in life. It is hence wise to play a balance around your personality so that you do not unnecessarily deny yourself an opportunity for a job.

It is however good to note that is possible for persons to make certain adjustments on their personalities to match certain job requirements. Talk to experts on how to align your personality with your career choices and aspirations.

The Positive Side of Staff Turnovers

Words by Francis Kahihu

kahihucareers@gmail.com

This came as a pleasant assertion by the CEO of an NGO in Nairobi last week. During one of the several staff exit parties, he articulately let staff appreciate the fact that staff turnovers are not necessarily a negative thing. This was an attempt to help staff realize that turnovers should not always be demonized since they could be an indicator of something positive.

As his brief talk went on, he narrated an experience of a head of a project who was castigated by an evaluation panel since from the start of the three year project, no single staff had left the organisation. This was interpreted to imply that the head had been ineffective in promoting staff development. With the results of the midterm exercise, the manager went back and in consultation with the HR officer and staff developed a professional development policy and strategy for the staff for the remaining project period.

It is true that staff turnovers lead to the disruption of processes and relationships at the work place. The employer has to incur extra costs in the process of recruiting the replacements, inducting the new teammates and have to contend with the speed at which the new staff pick up the tasks. All this slows down the general procedures leading to delayed or non realization of the set targets. Relationships are also interfered with as the remaining staff are left ‘mourning’ the departure of their colleagues.

The turnover of staff can however be a positive indicator of positive happenings within the organisation. It could also be what the organisation really requires for improved performance. It has been said that market leaders provide human resources capacities to those behind them. At a CEO’s forum held recently, one of the leading CEOs indicated that leaders should not always blame themselves wondering how to stem the transition of staff. He said that as a market leader, you will always prepare human capacity for other players hence is an unstoppable result. He then encouraged them to appreciate turnover especially when they are sure they have put in place adequate measures to ensure that staff are not necessarily leaving the organisation for lack of growth opportunities but for greater challenges.

The turnover of staff can be a great blessing to the organisation. After years of engaging the same staff, people get into the ‘normal’ gear where no much energy is expensed. Staff slacken in their service delivery as the challenge of the work diminishes. Since familiarity begets contempt, the quality of services is compromised and the level of internal skills transfer reduce. Habituation creeps in. This is the experience when staff get used to certain stimuli that they no longer appreciate the gaps in the system. This is detrimental to the growth of the organisation. The turnover of staff hence ensures a natural flow of fresh energy and ideas into the system. How many times have you heard new staff raise issues at the workplace that make others wonder ‘and we have been here yet haven’t seen it in that way’?.

Finally, staff turnovers have a tendency to revitalize an organisation’s culture. People with different personalities join the organisation and influences the culture either for the better or worse. When well managed, the organisation can harness impressive character traits to empower the rest of the team with a valuable culture.

When a job takes away your life

Words by Francis Kahihu (the author is an Organisational Development Practitioner)

kahihucareers@gmail.com

When Paul requested Andrew for a coffee date, it was clear in Andrew’s mind that Paul must have been going through some kind of psychosocial challenges. The tone with which he talked on phone was indicative of a friend experiencing difficult times. Andrew scheduled for the meeting the following week to the delight of his friend. True to his expectations, Paul was a man under pressure. ‘My job has taken away my life’ he told Andrew. The rest of the story is left to my narration.

Since Andrew got employed at the company, he had come to love his job. With great diligence and commitment, he served the clients and this led to his quick upward mobility. He moved from an officer position to a senior manager’s position within a period of 2 years. The promotions however came with their bit of challenges. Due to the tight deadlines and the ever increasing portfolios, Paul would work till late in the night. Leaving the office past 9pm was the norm rather than the exception. Severally, he had to report to work over the weekends and on public holidays as he had to keep the processes in motion.

By the time he called his friend Andrew for a chat, he had for sure endured the pressure to the brim. At this point, he realized that with all certainty, his job had taken away his life. He rarely had time to interact with his wife and children as he left for work long before they woke up and returned home a fatigued man unable to engage in any active activities with his family. He was for sure giving the rest of the world his best time and energies and providing his family and friends with his life’s crumbs. This was a cause for worry for him.

And Paul is not alone in this experience. I have interacted with many workers who are going through the motions of work with a biting feeling that their lives have been hijacked by the jobs they liked at first. The demands at work always push people beyond their initially imagined limits hence robbing the workers of their time and space. With higher targets being set every year and the expansion of both geographical coverage and types of products, employees are being pushed to the wall as they have to deliver the expected results failure to which they risk losing their jobs.

The challenge however has been on what to do when an employee finds himself in such a state, a state where he likes the job yet the job seems to be taking his own life away from him. These are the moments when an employee needs to re-engage with his values and motivation for work. Whoever had developed the criteria that had a day divided into three 8-hour blocks, 8 hours for sleep, 8 hours for work and 8 hours for socialization had considered the best balance for life. Whenever someone’s job eats into the sleep and socialization territories, there is need for an evaluation of whether the job is either building or destroying the staff’s life.

Successful individuals are those persons who manage to excel in all the three key spheres. They do well at work, are good with their social lives and find adequate time to relax and reenergize their systems.

Q and A: I completed form 4 last year and had performed well in my subjects of interest. My parents however have informed me that they have consulted and are planning to have me enrolled for a course that least interests me. Should I keep quiet and let the ball roll or should I confront them and tell them point blank that I am not interested in ‘their’ course?

A: This remains as one of the key challenges that young people and their parents face with regard to career choice. Parents tend to suggest what they consider the best choice for their children with little or no consultation with their sons and daughters. Many young people have kept quiet when confronted with similar situations and have lived to regret their silence. I would advise that you consider a chat with your parents for an appreciation of their reasons for their choice. It could actually turn out to be your best bet in life especially if you are not fully convinced as to why you want to pursue the course you consider appropriate.