Whistleblower protections

So all hell has broken out at my workplace, a whistleblower has reported wrongdoing and corruption to the relevant authorities and the old boy's club is in damage control. So while one would expect a whole bunch of measures to prevent these occurrences happening again - that's not how we roll.

Instead we have to mount an inquisition, better known as a witch hunt to attempt to flush out the alleged perpetrator. Instead of providing leadership in a stressful period to stamp out the inequity leading to the disclosure, an approach reinforcing the negative behaviours is their modus operandi.

The Public Interest Disclosure Act 2003, Western Australia is designed to prevent whistleblowers from harassment in the workplace. Ok, so the objectives of these laws are to provide protection against victimisation and appropriate protection for those who make such reports.

The laws should provide a safe means to report wrongdoing with a framework to properly deal with and fix reported matters. So what really happens is the whistleblower whilst trying to remain anonymous really suffers detrimental career effects after the whistleblower is hunted down and harassed into submission.

The Big Short

I hardly go to the movies anymore despite wanting to view The Big Short and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. My second choice was much to my embarrassment but I wanted to see what the big deal was about anyway even if I am not a sci-fi geek.

It never happened but I wasn't perturbed as I knew I was flying Singapore Airlines in late April and could more than likely view the movie on the inflight entertainment system.

When Wall Street II: Money Never Sleeps was released, I immediately dragged my arse down the local cinema for a late night screening. I was not willing to wait a while to watch this excellent depiction of the GFC sub-prime crisis and resulting aftermath as Michael Douglas once again played Gordon Gekko brilliantly.

We already knew Ryan Gosling was an excellent dramatic actor, likewise Brad Pitt is well renowned but the real smokey is Steve Carell. A comedy actor owning a dramatic role in much the same way Robin Williams transitioned from Mork from Ork to Good Will Hunting is playing out before us. 

Carell plays a burnt out fund manager who through experience has observed a huge lie perpetuated by the banks and financial institutions. Lacking fundamental teamwork and communication skills, he attempts to reason with people who have no interest in putting an end to the greed.

Ironically when the collapse eventuated in late 2007, I was in the Philippines and instead of going diving that day I stayed glued to my hotel television screen watching Bloomberg and contemplating my next move. 

I still recall an industry expert telling me by 2010 this will all be a bad memory. Even as this event unfolded the financial experts grossly underestimated the extent of this financial disaster that ruined the retirements of so many innocent people across the globe.

Flying Cebu Pacific

Flying Cebu Pacific is like playing Russian roulette, it is a choice of either red or black. You can't hedge your bets, you are either in or you are out.

A recent flight from Manila to Iloilo saw an sms message received at 4:07 in the morning - are you fucking joking? The reason given was extended service of the aircraft, what that really means is a fault existed with the aircraft - fair enough as safety is paramount.

As the 11:30 am flight was cancelled; the next option was get the 3 pm flight, not a bad compromise I suppose. Though waiting at the airport for hours, the 3 pm flight was delayed, limited messages and limited staff interaction ensured - great. 

After extensive delays the flight was cancelled, luckily for me, I was proactive already changing to the next flight. I felt sorry for the all the people waiting patiently for a flight that wasn't going to happen. 

These poor people were left without a flight and they quickly scrambled to secure a flight when it became clear this one wasn't going; some were rebooked on PAL, many missed out - this is no way to run an airline.

Cebu Pacific totally wasted a day of my holiday; my time is precious and I do not appreciate being treated in such a manner. The wheels of the plane were still on the ground at 5:45 but at least we were on the taxiway now.

It was annoying after all the messing around and inefficiency, the weather had closed in now - great. The flight has been delayed because of weather conditions; the really annoying factor was - the weather was fine when the schedule was in time.

Can't this mob get anything right? I had an appointment that was cancelled - they totally wasted my precious time and they just don't care.

Clairault

The 2010 Clairault Margaret River cabernet sauvignon is not my choice of an outstanding expression of a varietal wine-making from this tremendously important wine region. According to my drinking partner, she detects hints of spice - me, I don't see that at all. She asked my opinion and I immediately shot back "lacks fruit, no wood"; I find it very non-descriptive actually.

I'm somewhat disappointed actually, at $22 a bottle at airport duty free, I expected a whole lot more. Describing the flavours, I expected a 2010 to be a whole lot more developed, much smoother and finely structured. I struggled to identify a distinctive flavour, a sour note in the aftertaste was all I could find, not much tannin or acid to hold it together. This wine has no legs and I wouldn't be laying this wine down for more than 30 minutes. I decided to let it sit for about 4 hours and see if it develops further. The unfortunate answer is a resounding no.

Influencing and decision-making

The course title sounds interesting enough, influencing is leadership and decision-making is the quantitative section of the course. For me, the outcomes were not so clear, after 12 weeks, what could I take away from this? There was tons of reading involved and it was pretty drab material, maybe I expected more?

I am a concept person who prefers working with hard models and data, we never really worked our way through multiple  contemporary decision-making models analysing the positives and consequences of each model. In fact, I took on some extra reading because I didn't have enough hard models. I had to work through decision-making chapters from organisational behaviour and contemporary management reference books to get the information I desired.

This helped me immensely, we had to work in virtual teams to develop a decision-making rubric and I provided the bulk of the content from my organsational behaviour textbook to score our group an 88% high distinction. Of the 80+ students in the class, the second highest scoring group was 63% falling a couple of percent short of a credit and third place was 48%, a couple of percent short of a pass - the rest of the class were significantly lower.

The rubric case study made up 50% of the total marks of the course, the second exam for the remaining 50% was a one hour timed test taken online for a combined total. This will no doubt damage some grade point averages and absolutely add to the stress of the timed exam. I could relax to a certain degree knowing I only need to get 6% to pass the unit where as the majority of the class need a good result on the timed exam to get anywhere near passing.

This raises some serious questions regarding the content. If our team had the highest group mark out of the class and I wasn't really sure of the outcomes of the unit after getting bogged down in academic reading - what then? If I didn't have the organisational behaviour and contemporary management chapters of various textbooks, we would no doubt be in the same boat as the rest of the class.

In preparing for the timed exam, do I continue to review my outside organisational behaviour and contemporary management material that brought success to our team in the previous case study rubric? Or do I try a different approach using only their course material and risk bombing the exam?

Regardless of exam success or failure, the reason for undertaking this unit is to learn tangible principles to bring to the workplace to be more efficient and employable, we need to add value to our employment. I'm not sure this unit really met the objectives of what we hoped to achieve.

McKinsey and Co

Successfully completing an MBA once got you a shot at joining a market leading consulting firm like McKinsey and Co. That option is still available for young MBA recruits but is now reserved for the leading candidates in each class.

Normally the cut-throat world of consulting takes it toll on team members who normally commit to a number of years of consulting to gain a firm understanding of the core concepts and build their CV before embarking on a management career.The experience that a top line consulting firm offers builds capability, confidence and reputation for the consultant, what the role lacks is stability.

I'm guessing the world of consulting doesn't offer a regular pay-cheque as I once met a consultant while on a diving expedition, he was between contracts and only just got notification that the next contract would begin in the next month. It is probably a good start for a young guy starting out in the world of management, but once you have a number of responsibilities such as a mortgage, your consulting days are over.

The Aussie battler

A term that drives me mad and frequently overused is the Aussie battler. Whilst the term refers to working class individuals who perceive themselves to persevere through adversity. With the exception of a very small minority, we all have to head off to work daily, we all have to work to pay the bills - we are all working class. 

The notion that a certain subset of people battle harder than others because they find themselves in a bad financial position due to poor decision making really grinds on me. Whilst the term is considered one of respect and endearment; however, it really fails to recognise and empower those who feel they barely exist at the bottom of society.

The notion of the Aussie battler is an outdated mindset; instead, the term needs to reflect an aspirational class of people working towards a goal. Let's face it, Australian workers are some of the highest paid workers in the world, we also have a very strong social security system acting as a safety net for those who need help in times of hardship.