More than 20 years ago, I started work as a young engineer assistant in a government-linked manufacturing company. It was a high-pace and challenging environment with tensions and pressure. But I was young, with full of energy, & worked long hours, with a group of senior supervisors who were senior citizens. I never understand why they seeemed to work slowly at their own pace, without any pressure or tensions, and still find the time to tell me many men's jokes in their spare time. Now having reach their age, I now realise why. It's their way to stay happy & to keep work stress at bay ! Perhaps, this is also their way to tell young people to slow down their working pace..............
This was also roughly the time I started to draw caricatures of co-workers.
I have now lost contact with them totally. I believe they have retired and are enjoying lives now. I hope one day they would see my caricatures, & they could contact me for coffee breaks to catch up on old times.
In my working career, I worked with many interesting and strange people.......
No two person has the same character or style. That's why I think we are called the human species.
In one company, I observed that this manager is always busy, always got bullied by his 2 female subordinates. He worked very hard while his workers have lots of spare time playing or just talking about otther non-work related topics in the office. I deduced that the manager is either a very nice guy who accepts most works from his boss, and delegate little, or just not affirm enough. But he was happy doing this,........ So I learned early that "soft" managers would be bullied.
Working with women, can be more challenging than working with men because women have "special needs". The needs for affection, understanding, sensitivity, monthly mood-swing, attention,........................
I have to think what to tell them before I tell them. For men, I just tell them directly what I think.
I realized that dealing with women need special skills & techniques too. Always praise them on their looks, their excellent dressing tastes, etc. in order to get work done for you. Never say they are ugly no matter what. Just tell them they look pretty or good, and your work day would be peaceful and easy.
One secretary I worked with, was a very good cook.
She spent lots of money and time to learn cooking skills from others.
I asked her why she did not use these skills to make money in food business, but she told me it's not time yet as she wanted to be free, and enjoy life first. Food business is a tough trade, although it could make lots of money. If I had her skills, I would be a good cook or chef in the F&B industry. I would have a different story to tell. I told her if she ever goes into food business, I would invest in her business. today, after a few years, I'm still waiting, ...............she is still enjoying life full of activities & zero worry.
When she left the company, I drew this picture of her in her farewell card.
I wonder if she still keeps it.
My co-worker soon discover my drawing skill as I used them alot in my communication and presentation sessions in organisations. Sometimes, I received requests to draw them for special occassions like in this picture of a colleague with her husband. She was getting married and has planned to go to Australia for their honeymoon. So, I designed this picture theme of a special transportation vehicle for them to sight-see the country. I made it into a 3D card which they displayed at their wedding dinner reception. On that night, many guests were indulged in the free-drinks than looking at my picture,.........so sad,........
Not only you have to manage upwards (your boss & corporate people), you have to manage downwards (your staff). You have to constantly engage and motivate them in different ways as each has a unique character and interest. I listen more than talk, & lead by example.
This picture above is kind of boring as I drew these staff like dolls in static postures. In fact, they are very active people. This drawing could be more interesting if I had drawn them in motion or in some activities. After some self-reflection, I learn this mistake & remind myself on other drawings.
As a manager, I often get nominated or "arrowed" to do "extra duties".
Once, I was nominated to be the recreation manager for planning and executing recreation activities for employees in the company. I knew I could not do it alone, and recruited some staff to help me. To announce my recreation team, I drew this picture for the announcement of the year's recreation committee. It was a great year of challenges and learning for me. I believe I could be an event manager for orgnising company's functions and activities. If you want to try my organising skills, just contact me in advance. No last minute surprises as my heart is weak !
I once worked very closely with a french quality manager.
He is friendly, humble and understanding of my limitation in my job.
After a few years in the job, he decided to quit the quality team & profession, and transferred himself to another job scope in the same organisation. I felt happy for him for his opportunity to jump to a new and challenging job. I drew this picture and made it into a book-marker as his farewell gift.
I remember his face was quite tough to draw, and I don't have much pictures of him. I had to draw it a few times to get the likeness of him.
I am pro-environment.
My view is - we should re-use, re-cycle more.
For this drawing, I re-used cardboards and created this drawing and made it into a 3D door signage just to add some humour into my new job. One day, when nobody was looking, I put it up onto the main door. Everybody was shocked, and spent many hours trying to figure out who put this up. The subject didn't like it, so he took it down on same day after some laughs,.......but he did pose for pictures for me, just for the fun of it.
Drawing People Whom were my bosses
In my career, I worked for many bosses. Not many had I drew them.
Some bosses do not like to be drawn. I guess they are afraid of appearing on something funny, and people would laugh at them. They want "face" like in asian culture. So it's unusual for a worker to draw his / her boss in a funny stage, and fear reprimand. I never had this fear. Not sure why. I draw what I want, when i want it.
There was a time of tension in my previous job. A big customer was scheduled to audit our plant. Everyone was tensed and worked day & night to prepare for this customer audit. So I drew this picture of my ang-moh boss and his boss on how to treat the auditor to distract him during audit. We knew this tough auditor coming for the audit was called Joseph. But in order not to offend him, I drew his back instead, featuring his unusual short hair. I never met him again,.......even in small singapore island.
I observed that he had a tough time as he needed to listen and please both bosses.
But I admire his patience and calmness in dealing with both.
I drew this picture of Mr LEE with the 2 bosses just to add some humour in my company presentation held close to christmas period.
I tried to hint to my boss that I was already fully loaded with many tasks, but to no avail.
Then, I tried to show him the above picture, he just laughed but said nothing. I still had to carry on with the tasks,.......ya, ya, ya,......eventually, I learned alot from these experiences.
Eventually, he left his post as GM of the company, and I made the above drawing into a farewell card. I gave him an elephant send-off. That's the power of caricaturist - you give others "special treatment", by just lifting a pen / marker.
Drawing People Whom are CEOs
When I was in the lower rungs in corporates, I don't bother about who is the CEO or president of the company. I bothered more when the pay is paid out late !
Anyway, I believe they don't have to time to know all the employees in the company. Even if they have the time, I don't believe they can remember you unless you did something great (extreme good or bad deeds) in the company. Then, for sure, they would remember you. Either you would get promoted or "disappear" from the company.
When I moved up the career rung, I would find out about the CEO of the company, read about their speeches, their tag-lines, etc.
I observed one CEO as a humble man. Man with few words,.........but his slogan was printed in bold & hanged on the company's lobby.
Every CEO likes to give vision, mission statements,.....and Company likes to make employees, especially new hires, aware of these statements. So, I made this drawing with his famous slogan, and was intended to be used for new employee's orientation briefing, I believe using visual is more effective than using lots of texts in presentation. But I never did use it. It was not my job to run new-hire orientation programmes.
After a few years, this CEO retired. A new guy took charge.
He was younger, not so friendly, man with many words,.......with a very strong character.
He flies a lot to visit all his factories in over 30 countries.
So, I gave him the superpower of superman, so that he could fly to anywhere he likes, when he feels like it, and to save on air fares for the company. That's the power of caricaturist.
My colleague used this drawing on a kite for the company's kite design competition. I warned her not to mention the artist's name to avoid troubles for me. They tried to fly it one sunday morning. But it was raining heavily with thunderstorm, and the kite never took off to the sky. Today, he still flies around using the normal & expensive way.
For your information, I had removed the company's logo on his attire to avoid troubles, even if I do not work there anymore.
It is intersting to see some of your masterpieces. They bring memories from yester years!
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