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What the hell does UnAustralian mean?

In Lessons,Life on April 15, 2011 by kiltforhire Tagged: , , ,

I noticed my friend Jaya Myler (@jayamyler) on Twitter saying she thinks the term UnAustralian is being bandied around too much this week.

In fact this ad came out this week:

And it made me realise that having lived in Australia for the last seven years I have no idea what UnAustralian means.

It only seems to be used by people who want to have a go at other people when they have no basis for attacking them or when they don’t want to be as honest as they should.

People have tried to explain UnAustralian as being all about mateship, a bond between people etc etc and yet I don’t see that happening a lot. At least no more than in any other country I have been in.

Now I realise this blog post may upset some of my Australian friends but to be honest I don’t think I’ve heard any of them ever utter the phrase except in jest – the problem is that politicians, advertisers and a whole bunch of others seem to use it as a way of getting at people they don’t like or don’t agree with and I personally think that’s damned rude. If you have something to say to someone then say it and don’t hide behind a phrase that doesn’t seem to exist in modern day.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’m UnAustralian for writing this blog post but to be honest the bond I have with my friends in the UK is the same bond I have with my friends in Australia.

I’m proud of my Scottish heritage. I swell with pride when I hear the Flower of Scotland sung and I have no doubt Australians do exactly the same when they hear someone sing their national anthem.

So yeah I guess I’m calling out the phrase UnAustralian. Maybe I just don’t understand it but then I guess I’d like to ask people…do you understand it?

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Chivalry isn’t dead…but maybe it should be?

In Lessons,Life on April 15, 2011 by kiltforhire Tagged: , ,

Whenever I’m sitting down on public transport I always get up to give a woman or an elderly gentleman a seat.

I always hold doors for people to allow them through.

I hold car doors open for women.

I hold seats out for ladies at restaurant (although it’s not like I run into restaurants and then do that for random women that would be weird).

Most of the time I’ll allow a woman to go in front of me at a bar (unless I’ve been standing in a massive queue for 10 minutes).

But over the past few years I’ve noticed a strange disturbing trend and that is that many women just don’t accept a man being chivalrous anymore. They tut, they ignore, they say “no thanks I prefer to stand” when you offer them a seat and, I suppose, it feels kinda weird for me because I was brought up to always do those kind of things.

My mum (who I should point out called me the other day because she read my blog and was all teary about my post on family so I really should say hello *waves*) brought me up to be polite, to be respectful of people, to always ask people how they are and be concerned for people’s welfare. She made me realise that the most important part of being a human was to care for those around you and to treat women with respect.

But these days it’s getting harder and harder to be chivalrous and pleasant. I find more and more people are quick to snap at you and god forbid you hold a door for someone. Yesterday I held a door open for a woman and she said “I can do that myself you know” and gave me a horrible look.

I’m back using public transport these days and have now gotten up from seat to offer it to someone eight times. Only once has someone taken the seat. It’s getting to the point that I’m starting to think that I shouldn’t do it anymore.

So I put it out to the world – do you think that men should stop being chivalrous?

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Like a boss

In Lessons,Life,Work on March 17, 2011 by kiltforhire Tagged: , , ,

The other night I had the pleasure of seeing Heston Blumenthal and something he said really piqued my interest.

He said the boss of a workplace should never get angry and lose his temper at his staff. Obviously most chefs you see seem to be rather angry (especially a certain Scottish one) and always seem to be shouting or lambasting their staff however Heston had this to say.

If a staff member is failing at his job then, said Heston, one of three things has gone wrong…

1. There is too much expected of them

2. They haven’t been trained enough in the role

3. They are not right for the role

And all three of those things are the fault of the boss.

This made me think of all of the bosses I have worked with and their attitude towards staff and the way they treat them. Now over my years I have worked with some very unsupportive and very unappreciative bosses and I always think I learned from them how not to treat staff.

1. Shouting at your staff, screaming at them, telling them they are useless etc is not the way to help staff stay productive. All it does is create doubt in their mind which isn’t good at all. You may get a quick boost out of them but ultimately you are messing things up for yourself and the company.

2. Your staff are the single most important aspect of your organisation. You should expect a lot from them but not the world. Give them enough to extend themselves but not too much that they end up in too deep.

3. You should train them up but never organise training sessions over the lunch time of the staff. It’s rude to think they should give up unpaid time to do training when the training is to help them be better at their job.

4. Give praise where praise is due.

5. If someone doesn’t enjoy something but another staff member does whey not switch tasks. People who don’t enjoy doing certain tasks will take twice as long and the job won’t be completed as satisfactory as someone who does enjoy the work.

6. Offer constructive criticism but also help them understand where they have went wrong and how they can avoid it in the future.

7. Friday’s from 4.30pm are beer time. Seriously. Your staff work hard so reward them from that point on to enjoy themselves.

8. Ensure they attend events outside of work to interact with others in their field. Yes they may meet people who may try to steal them but if they are happy and enjoy the work they tend not to leave. Attending these events help them learn from other peers.

9. Just cause you are having a bad day doesn’t mean your staff have to know. All it does is create confusion and fear in the office.

10. Be confident and strong in the office, listen to your staff but don’t bend backwards to please them. Ultimately you are the boss and still need to have the final say.

11. Don’t choose favourites. Again this creates discord in the team.

12. Enjoy yourself. It’s your job too 🙂

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