ESL employee

(ESL = English as second language)

After all, English is not my first language and I do tend to think more in my Cantonese mind than anything. During today's meeting, my second-level boss mentioned dates involving the words like "August" and "September". I had to stop listening for a short while to translate those into something that my mind could process. Nope, I ain't saying I didn't know what those words mean. It's just one of those times that takes me a fraction of a second to interpret English words into something I can paste onto my mental canvas.

My employer has revamped the way how it evaluates employee performance. It is now less comparative among peers but more focused on setting reasonable commitments and achieving them. During the speech, I couldn't help but thinking of each "successful" coworkers I know and about their mindset in achieving their successes. It immediately came to me that they shared something common—they were really excited in what they did at work. I admit that I have problem recognizing the positive impact my job has on others. Maybe that makes me not as excited when I come to work each day. Does that mean I do a crappy job? Not so. I am still very diligent at what I do. But maybe I have not got a "sacred" vision in the works I performed. Without vision, we end up working for just our own integrity and interests. The end result is not hard to figure out: losing out on agility and competitiveness over time. And it's not hard for the management to sense that one lacks the enthusiasm to push his/her service to the next level. What does all these means? With the change to the evaluation system, peer pressure has been lessened to an unprecedented level. It should not take more time for one to show his/her true work attitude. Let's hope that I can climb up from the ruins. In fact, I pray to my Lord to see His will on me at work. Pay attention to how He wants to use my gifts to serve others.