Tutu Ku

There was once an employee asked me, “If I put you as a referee, can you not share with them about my disciplinary records?” “You mean you want me to lie if they ask me if you have any record in disciplinary?” “Yes, I would really appreciate that if you could help me with that.” … Read more

I remember the first time I had given someone a reference check. It was for an ex-staff who left me not too long ago. I was actually quite nervous during my first ref check call. What I was going to say was going to somehow determine whether she was going to get the job or … Read more

A lot of people do tell me that reference check is biased, so why bother. Because: The referee is referred by the candidate. Of course they will choose someone who most likely going to give a good ref check. They have known each other way much longer than that 5-10 mins call that you are … Read more

The other day I conducted a candidate’s reference check. The candidate applied for a leadership role so I called up one of his previous subordinates. In the interaction with the referee, he was telling me a story of how he was developed by him a decade ago when he first started to join the workforce. … Read more

Yesterday I conducted a candidate’s reference check. The candidate applied for a sales-oriented role so I called up one of his customers. In the conversation with the referee, she was describing about an incident in length on how this candidate had helped her to solve a problem last year. Some key phrases I picked up … Read more

Emotional Intelligence is something I struggle a lot with. I think it’s because I tend to overthink things. A lot of times when something happens that requires me to exercise my EQ, it’s like I can hear the angel me on one side of my head and the devil me on the other side of … Read more

Yesterday a friend asked me, “If the employee is under quarantine, it should be under medical leave instead of no pay leave, right?” Yes. She then continued saying, “My HR insisted it to be under annual leave.” Huh? If it’s a directive of MOH/Company, it should be under medical leave. As simple as that. I … Read more

“You know some people are scared shit of me.” “You sound like you are so proud of it.” Ouch. My friend really got me questioning myself there. He is right. Why do I sound like I am so proud of it. Do I really enjoy intimidating people for the fun of it? That would make … Read more

The other day, I received a complaint about my staff on her unhelpfulness and her impoliteness. I had a session with my said staff to give her the feedback and coached her how she could be more helpful and polite. Though she didn’t fight back with me, nor did she showed displeasure, I could sense … Read more

I was having a chat conversation with an ex-colleague yesterday. We spoke about our feelings with people who we had cross-fired with at the workplace that eventually lead to bitter break-ups. I asked, “Are you still angry?” He said, “Nope. I’ve learnt to let go and move on.” He then continued, “Nor I have ill … Read more