This series of post is inspired by a sermon delivered by a Thai monk, Luang Por Jarun. He taught his lay disciples how to make their boesses like them. In that way, they can do well in their career. The sermon by Luang Por Jarun are in yellow boxes. My comments are not coloured.

15. Try to practice tolerance and stay on with your job with a conviction that, “I will prove myself to my boss. I will make him appreciate my effort.”

I think it will not reflect well on our resume if we change jobs frequently or stay at a job for less than a year. With the tips provided previously, we hope our work relations with our bosses will improve.

Some bosses can also be extremely bad characters and we need to use our intelligence and wisdom to decide if it is worth sticking to our job. But at the very least, we try not to quit in the heat of the moment, without adequate planning or provisions.

I guess this message is telling us not to throw in the towel too easily but try to be patient and tolerant of adverse situations in life and rise to the challenge. After all, life is not always a bed of roses.

16. Be mindful and remember our past shortcomings at work. This is so that we can improve ourselves and not repeat our mistakes.

We need to have humility in order to improve ourselves constantly. As an ordinary being, making mistakes is inevitable. Everyone makes mistakes. What is important is that we shouldn’t be overwhelmed by our shame or be blinded by our pride.

If we keep a balanced approach towards mistakes at work, it becomes a vital experience for our own upgrade. This is what learning on the job is all about. If our bosses observed that we can learn from experience, I think most of them will be willing to give us a second chance.

17. Don’t drink on the job or engage in any frivolous activities too

I guess most of us will not be doing that but sometimes temptations can find their way into our lives in the strangest manner. Drinking is referring to drinking alcoholic drinks or consuming intoxicants. Frivolous activities include stuff like gambling, watching porn, or even having sexual escapades with co-workers, etc.

In short, do not do anything unprofessional while we are working.

18. Before assigning any work to people, make sure that they are willing to take on the assignment and have the capability to complete it.

This is the last piece of advice by luangpor. Beyond the situation of a supervisor assigning work to his/her subordinate, it also covers situations whereby we ask colleagues to help cover our work.

For example, when we go on vacation, we might ask someone else to help us take care of certain tasks during our absence.

Once we assign or request someone else to do a piece of work on our behalf, we are responsible for making that decision. And if that person fails to deliver, then we are responsible for making a wrong decision.

In such scenarios, we need to make sure that our colleague knows how to help cover our work properly. We have to train them adequately if necessary.

Hope you find this series of advice by Luang Por Jarun useful.

May all be well and happy.