Today’s twiddler:
1. Would you rather your boss were better at his/her job, or a nicer person?
Well, my boss is already both a nice person (far as I can tell) and pretty good at his job. However, I’d chose the former in almost all cases (unless I had a boss who really wasn’t a nice person) as I don’t want to be very chummy with someone who’s my boss – being good at his/her job is therefore much more important to me as that’s the capacity I’ll notice the most (and it’ll make it all the more likely that I’ll still have a job – and a boss – a few months or years down the line, too).
2. Your company is going bankrupt. You still have a little cash on hand, and you can do one (and only one) of three things: provide refunds to customers for unfulfilled orders, pay your employees their back wages, or pay suppliers for goods they extended you on credit. Which would you do, or would you do something else altogether?
Yikes. Don’t we have something called ‘lønnsgarantifondet’ (the wage guarantee fund) in Norway? I think we do – in which case the employees would be sorted through that. In which case I’d probably prioritise the customers. If the empoyees were not provided for, I’d see to them first.
3. The US government has chosen you to select a creature other than the bald eagle to be the new symbol of America. What would you choose?
Oh dear, you’re really inviting insult here, you know… Hm, better not rise to the bait, I’m not that fond of trolls. How about the cougar?
Kittykat, yeah! What that’s got to do with the US, from a symbolic point of view, though…
In the situation of 2, I’d probably try the ol’ostrich approach, although yours makes more sense – and, having come to my senses, I would probably follow your great example before long.
A boss who is good at their job has to be a nice person to at least a certain degree; people skills are an important – if not crucial – part of the manager’s tool kit.
Well, it doesn’t say chose between a boss that’s good at his/her job and one who is a nice person, it says to chose which ability to improve. But yes, I agree, you can’t be a good boss without being a little bit of a nice person, too.
The cougar is a good national symbol, I think. All cats are. Whether it’s particularly appropriate for the current USA is another matter entirely. The Norwegian national shield/emblem thingy has a ‘lion rampant’ on it. Go figure. At least both the bold eagle and the cougar can be found in the USA.
Ah, but you see, all kingdoms have a lion in their emblem somewhere, or wish they had; the lion supposedly being the king of the animals.
Of course, everybody knows that the hare is the true king, hush it up as the lions and eliphants and hyenas may try…