All about Lina Lifestyle

I tried Chat GPT for the first time today. It was quite a fun and relaxing experience generating responses. I read through the 10 ways to avoid burnout and felt that they are highly applicable a quarter through the year. Finally, the 1st of May is coming here I look forward to a real Labour’s Day holiday to take stock of my goals and hopefully prevent a state of burnout from happening in this highly stressful profession called teaching.

1. Practice Self-Care: Taking care of yourself is the key to preventing burnout. Make sure to get enough rest, eat healthy foods, and exercise regularly. Take breaks during the day to recharge your batteries and engage in activities that bring you joy.
2. Set Boundaries: Establish clear boundaries around your work and personal life. Avoid overcommitting yourself and learn to say no when necessary.
3. Manage Your Time Effectively: Prioritize your tasks and set realistic deadlines. Avoid procrastination and plan ahead to reduce stress.
4. Learn to Delegate: Delegate tasks to others when possible. This not only frees up your time but also helps to develop the skills of those around you.
5. Practice Mindfulness: Incorporate mindfulness practices into your daily routine. This can include meditation, deep breathing, or yoga.
6. Connect with Others: Stay connected with friends, family, and colleagues. Social support can help to reduce stress and prevent burnout.
7. Take a Break: Take regular vacations or time off from work. This can help you to recharge your batteries and return to work feeling refreshed.
8. Pursue Hobbies and Interests: Engage in activities outside of work that bring you joy. This can help to reduce stress and promote a sense of fulfillment.
9. Seek Support: Seek professional support if you are struggling with burnout or mental health concerns. This can include counseling or therapy.
10. Prioritize Self-Reflection: Take time to reflect on your values, goals, and priorities. This can help you to make intentional choices that align with your personal and professional aspirations.

While reading a Fortune’s article addressed to bosses, I have been thinking about the benefits of a being gainfully employed full time for 4 months now. I remembered struggling moving from self-employment and then juggling my side gig with part time employment and now steadily moving towards more full time job responsibilities.

I felt that the transition was not easy due to a lack of certainty in what an organizational culture is like. What I would say is that compared to 10 years ago, I found a reason to move towards full time employment due to the capability of just one boss. If I were in her shoes, I would definitely feel that there is more to “invest” in human capital.

There is a lot of volatility in work life and I would say that either self-employment or full-time employment is no walk in the park. I was reading an article on the seven strategies written to the CEO or boss of a company and I could concur with the article’s views.

1. Make emotional proofreads a habit.
2. Set clear goals and celebrate mini-milestones.
3. Acknowledge what people are feeling.
4. Invest in your team and their well-being.
5. Praise your team openly and often.
6. Focus on professional development.
7. Set aside time to gather outside of work.

I was reading through “The Karpman Drama Triangle” on a recent LinkedIn Top Voice post and realized how it shed light my usual workplace drama making it less stressful to deal with inevitable conflicts in the workplace.

“This is ridiculous!”, an administrative staff hijacked a staff meeting and decided to deal a blow to my boss I sat shell shocked at the karpman drama triangle playing out before my very eyes.

“Oh no!” I gasped as everyone could not believe her audacity and responded with a shocked silence in the meeting meant to discuss the main business agenda. The whole room fell eerily silent as they could not believe how one could take the role of the “victim” so far.

The administrator started declaring that she is victimized by all these “professional tone” that she needed to use. Seeing herself as fundamentally powerless, she pitted herself against the “professionals” and showed us how a really unprofessional tone looked like as she ranted on about how “poor me” she is.

Everyone felt fundamentally helpless and loserish when in the presence of the boss she had the audacity to speak in such a manner. We could not do anything but feel loserish and wish we had the superpower to understand how to prevent the drama called workplace conflict which may be inevitably ubiquitous.

Here are the roles introduced by the Karpman Drama Triangle

The Bully/Persecutor: The bully is someone who is highly critical and quick to find fault with their colleagues, all while also exerting dominance and control over the situation.

The Victim: The victim sees themselves as fundamentally powerless and hopeless. They are likely to complain about their situation and adopt a ‘poor me’ mindset. They may see themselves as being bullied, and seek help from the rescuer.

The Rescuer: The rescuer over-functions and enables the victim by stepping in to ‘save’ the victim regularly. They appear self-sacrificing and over-responsible, but they do not resolve the problem in the long term.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/bully-victim-rescuer-drama-triangle-juliana-chan-phd/?trackingId=TRcigvrOSjqRW5KVx%2BLnAg%3D%3D

Being an introvert, I find that I am more natural with books and the library. I was very self-conscious as a junior college student and kept to myself. I could spend hours at the school library as I love books on psychology and philosophy and did not dare to venture into public speaking. I was glad that my natural major was in Philosophy as I could spend hours at the university’s library on my research on writing. I chose the major because there was no group work for most of the modules.

Ironically, I took on jobs in social service and teaching which requires standing in front of groups of people or talking to people. The nature of such jobs require me to make a lot of pitching to people. I have to talk and talk and talk.

In my current job, I had to work more with human beings than books and computers. In fact, I could only retreat to story books and text books in their earlier part of the day. From the afternoon timing, I had to counsel, teach, advise and speak to people. It was such an abrupt change from my youth days.

Indeed, it was such a miracle that I am no longer stuttering like a Moses character when it comes to addressing potential problems faced at work. Speaking convincingly and intelligently does not come easy. It can take a decade to be a fish in water and not out of water when it comes to speaking.

During the heights of the pandemic, I was wondering what kind of governmental support there is in the tough employment market. I attended one of Workforce Singapore’ career counselling class. It was a psychologically enriching experience as there were career counsellors out there who were interested to give their opinion on using social media to find the hidden job market. The hidden job market is a gem because that is where there are many unadvertised jobs out there. That was when I was introduced to LinkedIn as a possible avenue to make new connections which can unlock the potential of work. I started exploring LinkedIn by setting up an account at the last quarter of 2020.

It was a novel experience for me as the buzzword was VUCA. Volatile period where there was a lot of uncertainty. I was not courageous enough to write anything on LinkedIn yet. I had no inspiration back then. I started reading the posts by many successful LinkedIn top voice as they have given their opinion on everything from gender to science. Gradually, I managed to find friends on the platform that is willing to make small talk and then grow the conversation to deeper ones. That was when I decided to blog about my all my experiences to a wider network of audience. My growth to more than 3000 followers is organic as I felt that people started affirming my interest in writing. I grew more courageous and wrote more postings without fear of judgment. In the midst of writing, I also kept this wordpress blog to keep track of all the postings that I had made. Glad to have enriched my life after life has changed in its trajectory and I am now kept extremely busy with full time job commitment. Indeed, I have progressed from my lost and confused VUCA days.

It is a Saturday and it is time to unwind and relax. This is the season where I didn’t expect the cold and rainy weather to continue for a prolonged period. It is a season where there is a cold spell in Singapore when winds get chilly and there was a grey fog over the city area. It does get dull and a little depressing. Ironically, things in my career had been the opposite of this prolonged season of cold. Instead, it is one filled with adventures due to the risk I have to take. Life is now colourful where things can be warm and bright.

The cold weather mirrors the season when I was quite lost and confused over what I wanted to do in terms of work. Around the same period last year, I felt that there was a fog over my life where I could not see quite clearly ahead due to this prolonged rainy season. I remembered that there were cold seasons where I went through life with no guarantee of a meaningful stint. In the waiting period, the silence felt like long chills.

Things got better when I tried venturing into Virtual Events and Production. After that period of study, I moved into the current position where life feels like a constant battle of adventures and life feels more meaningful. The lesson learnt is not to take good weather for granted when things could possibly get worse. I do yearn for the weather to not be so cold and hope that the chilly weather will clear up.