Isn't Saturday the best? The end of the week when you can relax... spend time for your self with your loved ones... just the time to rejuvenate your energy after a long week of hard work...
Well, my Saturdays are always half day of work... and every week I meet with my staff reviewing the week's progress... This week is no different, except I'm trying something new...
You see, Indonesian workforce has one major problem... Ethics... Skill wise we may be competitive but ethics wise we're far from standard... One thing that stands out to me is their sense of responsibility is so very lacking... They don't care if they don't complete tasks given to them.. which always makes me disappointed... I'm having a hard time relying on them and delegating works to them...
So my dad came up with this idea... he gave me a book... in Chinese it's called Di Zi Gui... 弟子规 ... It's a set of personal character building teachings by Confucius... It teaches us to become "students of life" ... it teaches us the correct attitude, correct behavior, and the correct life ethics... I decided to give it a try... Because I understands to really change or at least build a character you have to start from the very basic... and this book covers the basic of our human ethical standards...
Then, there I was the book on my left hand and I started preaching... The first teachings is about our devotion to our parents... how we should be thankful of our parents, respect them, honor them, appreciate them and most importantly love them... It got emotional... Confucius teachings about parents are deep and really hit the nail in the head... it makes us think back of the inappropriate things we've done as children... and the things we haven't done for our parents... Some of my staff got carried away... they cried... I mean... adult males in their 20's crying... I couldn't agree more that the words from the book is really meaningful... I even had goosebumps while I was reading it to them...
After I finished... my newest staff shared his experience on how he washed his mother's feet during Christmas last year... and drank the water from that washing to ask for his mother's forgiveness in whatever he may have done wrong to the family... Some didn't take his story seriously but I thanked him for sharing and told the rest of the group to really pay attention to what he had shared... Sometimes we forget... parents are the only one in our lives that would never ask for anything in return... and they are the only one that would always prioritize our purpose before theirs... I told them as I reflected to myself that I myself have not done enough and still infuriates my parents from time to time... I ended the session by reminding them to not take today's session granted... those who still has the time and opportunity... make sure you go to your parents... ask for their forgiveness and promise yourself to be devoted children...
In my point of view... today's session showed some sign of hope... that I can change or preach Ethics to them... given the right teachings and guidance... I'll continue to teach them starting from this book and as I go along I'll find other working ethics book, life ethics, and others...
In the evening I had planned to meet with my girlfriend and friends to hangout... unfortunately I had some unexpected guests... Two persons from Belitung (my home town) District Education Board came to Jakarta out of the sudden because their to other destination was canceled... so they decided to call me to accompany them... I ended up taking them to dinner and driving them to the hotel... With Jakarta's traffic, my weekend officially started at 8:30 pm local time... I joined my girlfriend and friends as they were karaokeing... I had one song and went home... My girlfriend was exhausted... she had low tolerance of loud music and cigarettes... Karaoke clubs are loud and full of cigarettes... bad choice to spend your weekend... but it's not my fault... I didn't plan the evening... :p We separate ourselves from the group as we went home earlier...
So there goes my Saturday... tomorrow morning I will go on biking my parents... So that'll be interesting...
Peace