As a mother of three schoolboys, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) Razak Faculty of Technology And Informatics research manager Dr Nur Azaliah Abu Bakar understands the challenges that the school teachers face.
Dr Nur Azaliah Abu Bakar.
During the day, she has online classes, meetings, consultations and webinars to partake in.
“I also have to make sure that my children attend their online classes and submit their homework. Most women academics, especially those with small kids have to wait until night time to focus on producing quality publications.”
After her children are asleep, she will burn the midnight oil on tasks that require more concentration.
“I will focus on writing and reviewing papers as well as checking my students’ thesis. It’s tough that I can only work undisrupted between 10pm until 2 or 3am, when everything else is settled.”
A lecturer’s role typically involves seven tasks, she said.
“The tasks are lecturing, supervision, research project, publication, consultation, industrial networking and faculty administrative tasks. With or without the MCO, we need to fulfil them to meet our KPI.”
Hence, Nur Azaliah is very grateful to have an understanding husband and children.
“Chores such as cooking, cleaning, and laundry are split among the family members. My husband and I will monitor the kids. I’m aware that some women do not have this kind of support.”
UTM provides excellent support to all academics, regardless of gender, she said.
“UTM has always followed a KPI-based system rather than a time-based performance. During the pandemic, the university provides us with good digital infrastructure and flexibility. It’s also important for faculty members to respect and motivate each other in this period.”
Could you be the object of jealousy or envy from your business partners, colleagues, or even your friends? If you’re focused on working toward your own goals, you might not notice if others around you are going green when they look at your status and achievements. But if you look for them, there are signs that can tell you when someone is feeling envious of you. It’s smart to pay attention to these signs so you can handle your friend or colleague’s jealousy wisely–before it grows into something that could damage your working relationship, or worse.
You’ve just made a huge sale, gotten a plum assignment, or won an industry award. You tell your friend, business partner, or colleague your good news. But your colleague or friend doesn’t react the way you expected and something about that person’s response seems off. Could he or she be envious of your success? Here are some signs to watch for.
Downplaying your success.
Whatever plum job or deal you’ve gotten, your friend will find a reason why it’s not so great. This happened to me years ago when I won a contract to write a book for a business book series. A friend of mine who was also a business writer tried to talk me out of signing the contract, arguing that I should be getting a better deal. She even posted a message to a professional group we both belonged to, saying that I was “starry-eyed” about the deal I’d gotten and inviting others to help her talk me out of it. (No one did.)
Questioning how you got there.
This can be subtle since whenever you announce a big win to your friends or colleagues, they’ll naturally want you to tell them how you made it happen. But if you pay attention, you may notice that some of these questions have a subtext: Why you and not me? For example, someone may wonder out loud if you had a special advantage, such as a family connection or an existing friendship that helped you get where you are.
Responding to your good news by talking about their own accomplishments.
This too can be subtle, because most people like to talk about themselves and would likely rather tell you what they’ve been up to than listen to you talk about yourself. But if someone changes the subject to something he or she is doing as soon as you’ve shared your good news, that’s a likely indication of feeling envious.
What should you do about it?
Correctly handling other people’s jealousy is very tricky. It’s natural enough to feel angry at someone who’s acting jealous of you, but do your best to let that go. I’m willing to bet that at some time or another, you’ve felt envious of someone else’s achievements. And if you think back to that time, you’ll remember how awful it felt. There’s no point in trying to punish people who are acting jealous of you–they’re already punishing themselves more than you ever could.
Instead, be compassionate. If they’re downplaying your achievement or reminding you of past failures, don’t take the bait and defend yourself. Instead, laugh at yourself, agree with their assessment, or just say nothing at all. If you’re feeling angry, keep in mind that your non-response is likely to frustrate an envious person more than anything else you could do.
And if they switch the conversation over to their own accomplishments, be gracious about it. Ask questions about whatever they’ve achieved and give them genuine praise. Doing this could help defuse their envy and make for a better relationship, and that benefits everyone. Meantime, don’t forget to give yourself a pat on the back. If your accomplishments make your friends and co-workers jealous, you must be doing something right.
Solid company culture is one that supports employees’ efforts to grow and develop professionally so they can reach their full potential within the organization. Sometimes, these efforts may help the employee realize that they could learn more or would be a much better fit in a different department than they’re currently in. Great leaders want their employees to succeed — even in a different department — but if the transition isn’t done thoughtfully, transferring workers to other departments can cause disruptions and destabilize team morale.
To help, these six entrepreneurs offer their best advice on how to effectively move employees to a new department to help them continue their growth and development, with minimal disruption to the organization.
Plan, and create a framework.
The first step before beginning the move is the development of a clear plan of action, according to WPBeginner co-founder Syed Balkhi: “Creating a plan for any action is always a good idea, and this holds for internal transitions as well.”
Having a strategy in place will help both the employee and the department they want to be transferred to. “You can create a framework that helps your employee and the other people involved understand what tasks to carry out and whom to report to,” Balkhi explains.
Talk to everyone involved.
“Before moving an employee to a new department, talk to the employee, their head of department, and the head of the department they want to move to,” Match node co-founder Chris Madden advises, agreeing on the importance of having a clear plan with clear communication.
Management should first have conversations with all parties involved — individually to assess the situation and then together to work out all the details. “Use the meeting to plan a gradual transition of responsibilities so that no one is wrong-footed by the move,” Madden says.
Look at their existing work.
If an employee voices interest in learning and moving to a new department, managers should first look at their record and work to determine if they are a good fit for the position, SeedProd founder John Turner thinks.
“If not, you can suggest ways they can improve at their existing job, and encourage them to ask again once they’ve implemented your advice,” Turner adds. If the employee has exceeded expectations, managers should go ahead and talk to the department and work out a schedule for the employee to train for their new role.
Start with a cross-functional project.
“Cross-functional work involves working on or with multiple teams at the same time to accomplish a goal,” Jared Polites, partner at LaunchTeam, explains. While looking at their existing work can be a good indicator as to whether they’re a good fit for their desired new department, assigning them a specific project can be more relevant in some cases.
“Find a project that gives them a chance to prove themselves and even see if the other team is made up of people they would be happy working with,” Polites suggests. “Doing this will prevent premature decisions that could harm all involved.”
Find them a sponsor.
To ensure a smooth transition, managers could assign the employee a sponsor or a mentor, thinks Chris Harris, founder and president of BridgeTech. This would be very helpful for all parties involved, most of all for the employee who is interested in taking on a new role with new responsibilities.
“If you can foster a culture of employees being able to follow their intellectual interests into other areas of your company, the folks who do that first can mentor the ones that do it second and third,” Harris explains. “Otherwise, if this is the first time, try and find a ‘sponsor’ — an existing member of the team who is familiar with the new role who can foster the transitioning employee, even if that’s you!”
Make them feel valuable.
No matter how you approach this transition, the important thing is making your employee feel valued and valuable in their department, and also listening to them and considering their requests, according to Patrick Barnhill, president of Specialist ID.
Listening to employees’ needs is vital for business success. After all, moving the employee to the department they are interested in could turn out to be a vector for further economic growth for the company and personal growth for the individual, Barnhill underlines. “People want to feel fulfilled with their jobs, so it is important to accommodate your employees accordingly and make sure they are happy.”
Try out a few balance scales for yourself. Where would you place the following items on your balance scale?
●Work
● Home
● Administration
●Work you want to do
●Work you have to do
● Teaching
● Research
● Health
● Career progression
● External demands
● Me time
● Family/friends
Here are some signs of imbalance:
• increased stress
• worry and frustration
• fatigue and health problems
• loss of interests and motivation
• isolation
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