How to disagree with your boss and still survive

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two colleagues conversing

Disagreeing with your employer isn’t career suicide because fresh ideas can lead to greater insights. Therefore, if your company’s workplace culture encourages diverse viewpoints and perspectives, “clashing” with your employer will be a lot easier.

Nonetheless, it’s also important to remember that bosses are people with unique leadership approaches. The most crucial thing is to get to know your employer and their management style so you can gauge how much dissent will be welcomed with open arms.

So if you’re planning to disagree with your boss and still survive, stay on this page for more deets.

Avoid judgments

When it comes to communicating your concerns, be mindful of your terminology. You should avoid using judging words like “bad” or “ridiculous” as they may irritate your counterpart. Cutting away unnecessary adjectives can be an excellent move because they can be easily misunderstood or taken too seriously.

Pick the right time

When confronted with a dispute, we all react defensively to differing degrees. And the more stressed a person is at the time of a conflict, the less probable that the grounds for the conflict will be adequately heard. Picking a fight with your manager at a business meeting is pointless because he or she is unlikely to respond positively. Oppose only when you have sufficient time to speak with your superior regarding your dissatisfaction.

Be mentally prepared

There’s always the possibility that you will say what you’re thinking but nothing will alter. Thus, you better brace for such a scenario. Your viewpoint may be conveyed, but it may not be well taken, in the sense that it will not influence any processes, whatsoever. It doesn’t mean you will lose your job; it just means you will have to do what your boss thinks is best. If that’s the reality, even if you disapprove, strive to come to terms with the decision made.

Determine their communication style
colleagues at a meeting

Image Credits: bizcoachinfo.com

Taking the effort to figure out your boss’s main communication style will help you better connect. If your supervisor, for instance, prefers to interact through email, make it a habit to write them an email first, requesting to address them face-to-face about an issue. The more you know about how to connect with your manager, the smoother your work interaction will be. In short, be mindful of the other party’s preferred communication style while exerting your own.

Unlike most Western-style approach which encourages people to open up and establish their identities, Asian culture frowns on challenging hierarchy and articulating opposing viewpoints. Seniority takes precedence over all other considerations, and disagreeing with your boss implies going against the culture’s conventions. However, things are changing for good and there have been an increasing number of progressive businesses, notably in the tech and start-up sectors, embracing conflicting stances. Just remember to mind your tone and disagree politely in a way that adds value to the conversation.

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How To Succeed as a Dual-Career Couple in Singapore

by  in Marriage & Family
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It comes as no surprise that the relationship between life partners has an enormous impact on their professional lives. Sharing a life with someone entails that you are each other’s support system. Moreover, you must take your partner’s ambitions, needs, and wants to account when making decisions.

Career decisions affect how you manage your household. In Singapore, dual-career couples are becoming more of a norm. The Department of Statistics released a population census last 2021, which highlighted the current labor trends in Singapore.

The last decade has seen an increase in the proportion of resident married-couple households with working wives and an increase in households with spouses who hold equal qualifications. The proportion of resident married-couple households with spouses holding equal qualifications elevated from 44.3% to 46.6%.

Let us put our focus on dual-career couples. Dual-career couples were the largest group among married couples, increasing from 47.1% in 2010 to 52.5% in 2020. This significant increase was observed across all age groups. It is understood that resident married-couple households with both the husband and wife employed earned more. In fact, they earned a median monthly combined income of $11,101 in 2020. This is higher than the median monthly income of households with only the husbands were employed ($5,070) and those with only the wives were employed ($3,213).

As more households adopt the lifestyle of a dual-career couple, here are some helpful tips that can guide you through the journey.

#1: COMMUNICATE EFFICIENTLY

One of the main ingredients of a successful partnership is communication. Communication may take different forms for every couple, but it ought to be personal and practical. For day-to-day activities, you need to talk about the actions that will make your household run smoothly. Who will take charge of the household chores? Who will pick up the kids from school? Discuss feelings, ambitions, and challenges in a respectful and intimate manner. This will allow you to know what is going well and what is not.

#2: LOOK AT THE BIGGER PICTURE

When you make decisions, it is important to look at the bigger picture. For instance, a mother decided to quit her job to take care of her kids due to the excessive costs of childcare. However, this decision can decrease the net earnings of the household and affect their overall financial status. On the other hand, taking a short-term financial hit to pay for childcare may increase the earning power potential of the couple in the long run. Think about your current situation and examine the best options for your future.

#3: CONSIDER ALL THE PARTS

A partnership incorporates two people’s needs and concerns on the table. Moreover, you must include the needs of your family as a unit. Listen carefully to your partner and reach a shared understanding of each other’s goals. Doing this will help you strike a balance in your life as a spouse, a parent, and an employee/employer.

#4: SEEK PROFESSIONAL HELP

Let us face it! Communication does not come naturally to every couple, and that is okay. It is essential to acknowledge this and find other ways to communicate formally. For starters, a counselor can help you work as a couple to ensure that you are being equally heard and that you are developing your goals with consideration for one another.

Image Credits: pixabay.com

If your issue is finding time to communicate, you may ask a trusted family member to help lessen your workload at home. Seek part-time help while still meeting the needs of your household and your children. Seeking help can give you the physical and mental space to re-connect to your partner.

Sources: 1 & 2

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How to conserve iPhone battery life

by  in Lifestyle
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charging an iPhone

If you have owned an iPhone for a while now, it’s safe to say that you like both the design and the functionality of your gadget, which is suitable for work and play. Nonetheless, you are sure to have encountered drawbacks such as restricted battery performance.

The average battery capacity after a single charge varies greatly based on the iPhone model and how you use your smartphone. That is why we’ve written on the following strategies that can help you reduce iPhone battery drain on a routine basis while maintaining the majority of its functionality.

If you don’t want to modify any of the settings, we suggest you get a power bank, upgrade your battery, or buy a new iPhone. Otherwise, read on for ways on how to conserve iPhone battery life.

Brightness

One of the most significant battery drainers is screen brightness, hence, reduce the brightness of your screen to conserve energy. Swipe down from the top-right edge of the screen to launch the control center and slide your finger down the brightness bar to reduce it. You may also enable auto-brightness, which automatically adjusts the intensity based on the amount of environmental light available.

Airplane mode

When you’re in a location with a weak signal or no cellular service at all, your iPhone uses up battery power searching for a signal or attempting to reconnect. If your cellular service is poor, turn on airplane mode because you won’t be able to accomplish anything with a weak signal regardless. Airplane mode will keep your iPhone from hunting for a signal indefinitely, preserving battery life until you can get to a stronger connection.

Low power mode
low power mode

Image Credits: imore.com

When you need to stretch your battery power, use the low power mode. With a single toggle, the function suspends mail retrieval, auto-downloads, background app update, and more. Your iPhone will stay longer in low battery mode before needing to be charged, but just note that some functions may take longer to load or perform; they may not run until you switch off low battery mode or charge your iPhone to 80% and above.

High-power apps

Apps that require greater processing capacity from your phones, such as HD video editors or high-resolution games, can drain your phone battery. Keep to applications that don’t require a lot of data to launch or are mostly text-based while attempting to preserve power.

This includes the camera on your iPhone. While not as draining as other apps, repeatedly snapping photos or videos may deplete your battery faster. FaceTime is considerably worse because it must load both your video stream and the live video of someone else. Explore the battery section for more details if you’re unsure which applications are the culprits.

Is there anything more frustrating than seeing your iPhone’s battery bar turn red? Annually, the battery capacity of iPhones advances; this means that the iPhone 12 lasts longer than the iPhone 11, while the iPhone 13 series last even longer. Every new iPhone model, however, brings with it a host of new methods to deplete the battery. Consider the suggestions in this article if you want to help your iPhone’s battery survive as long as feasible when you’re out without a charger or power bank.

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Why you should not add your colleagues on social media

by  in Career and Enterprising
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social media apps

Without a question, social media is a fantastic way to remain in touch with friends and family.

When workmates are thrown into our digital lives, regrettably, the distinctions between our work and social lives disappear. Before adding your coworkers on social media, consider if you’re okay to allow this individual to see your posts.

Our coworkers are frequently also our buddies. We spend the entire day with them, so they’re certain to learn something about us over the months. Adding a coworker will give you a better idea of how they are outside of the workplace and might help you form a tight-knit team and provide you with topics to discuss. It isn’t always a bed of roses, though.

Read for reasons why you should not add your colleagues on social media.

Awkwardness

Although more information is empowerment, it may also lead to discomfort, especially if you know what a coworker has been up to in their spare time. They may have skipped work for the day owing to health conditions, but if they’ve been tagged in images getting wasted at a bar in the wee hours of the morning, that can be accessed on your social media feed. Knowing how they act outside of the office may blur the perception of borders between personal and professional behavior over time.

No 100% control
gossiping about a colleague

Image Credits: Business Insider

Even if you’re familiar with your social media sites’ privacy options, they are constantly changing, and you may not have the degree of control over the content you believe you have. Yes, while you can maintain your profiles carefully, being mentioned in an embarrassing status posted by a friend is out of your control. Giving your employees a front-row ticket to a potentially damaging post on social media might harm your good name at the workplace and make you wish you could turn back time.

Saying the wrong things

You never know when the impulse to say anything nasty about your job is so powerful that you mistakenly talk badly about the company or a teammate, whether it’s because you’re extremely upset or drunk, or just because you’ve forgotten they are one of your “friends”. Even if the individual you’re criticizing doesn’t have access to your profile, another colleague may, and if they’re very close to them, might reveal your negative remark. We all have slip-ups at times but these mistakes can cost us big time.

Coworkers frequently request that you follow them on social media; this is particularly true if you work in the creative field. It’s quickly becoming the preferred method of keeping in touch. But it’s undeniable that social media blurs the divide between business and personal life. While this might help you better connect with your colleagues, it also puts a strain because any uncomfortable or insensitive occasion could impact your job or office interactions. Before you add your coworkers on social media, stop and think twice.

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How to parent a rebellious teenager

by  in Marriage & Family
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a teenager smoking

Have you noticed that your teenager has started becoming defiant as they struggle to discover who they are and where they fit in society?

Yes, your lovely, affectionate child may seem alien to you now but that’s just part of the growing process. Prepare yourself as you may have to cope with further mood swings, rule-breaking, and other signs of a rebellious youth toward whatever authority figures present.

While coping with a rebellion may be draining, stressful, and plain challenging, there are methods to make it easier for all parties involved. You won’t be able to transform your kid with a snap of your fingers, but there are steps you can take to aid your teenager and yourself through this shift.

Here’s how to parent a rebellious teenager.

Respect

It may be quite irritating when children act rudely and disrespectfully toward their parents, teachers, or other people in authority. Regrettably, many people respond with rudeness and hostility, which is not the right way to approach the matter. You must mirror the conduct you wish to see as a grownup. Irrespective of what you teach, if your kid witnesses you behaving in a demeaning manner toward them, they will use it against you to justify their actions.

See the good
happy mother and daughter

Image Credits: swhelper.org

Positive feedback is a technique that may be used not only when your child is a preschooler, but also when he or she is a teenager. Make it a point to compliment your teenager on proper behavior. Showing your child that you are pleased, even if it is the tiniest action, can drive good conduct in the future.

Negative attention is sometimes the quickest form of attention for a headstrong teen to obtain. Your odds of your kid doing something right are limited if you just pay attention when he or she does something improper. Instead, focus on the positives, and the negative issues may go away.

Listen more than advice

The most effective technique to break past the barrier of teen disengagement is to listen more than you speak. When you provide counsel instead of listening more than 75% of the time, you’re interfering with a teen’s ability to take responsibility for their life.

Not to mention your body language. You’re not signaling that you’re aware of and sensitive if you’re preoccupied with anything or constantly scrolling on your smartphone. Put everything aside and focus on your child when conversing. However, some kids may be uneasy over eye contact and prefer to converse while looking away. If that’s the case, walking in the park or going for a short drive that does not involve direct eye contact may help.

Handling a rebellious teenager might feel like an absolute nightmare, but there is hope. Keep in mind that your teen’s early adulthood years are only a passing phase of his or her life. Communicating tenderly with your child now can pay off later in life by assisting him or her in developing appropriate coping skills and a better bond with you. Try the abovementioned tips and see if it works for you.

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