I’m missing Hanoi like crazy. So much so, that when I see pictures, I get quite teary. I have flashbacks where I see myself walking to the supermarket, cycling to Keep Hanoi Clean, strolling to my Vietnamese lessons at Oriberry, chilling in my apartment and waiting for my Vietnammm order while rain pours down in sheets, taking a Grab to the Old Quarter, going out to eat a cheap and cheerful vegan buffet with dear friends. I miss the conversations, the convenience, the connections. I miss the many things to do. That’s not to say that I’m not grateful to
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This is the 7th essay in the #26essays2017 challenge that I’ve set for myself this year. I’m doing this because I’m the first to admit I’ve become a lazy writer: allowing guest posts and series and cross-posting to make up the bulk of content on The Diane Lee Project across 2016. The brave, fearless writing that readers admired and respected me for has all but disappeared. This year—2017—will be different. I’m reclaiming my voice—my write like a motherfucker voice! Opportunity (noun) – a set of circumstances that makes it possible to do anything. In Australian workplaces, there exists a strange, mythological beast. This beast is
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This is the 2nd essay in the #26essays2017 challenge that I’ve set for myself this year. I’m doing this because I’m the first to admit I’ve become a lazy writer: allowing guest posts and series and cross-posting to make up the bulk of content on The Diane Lee Project across 2016. The brave, fearless writing that readers admired and respected me for has all but disappeared. This year—2017—will be different. I’m reclaiming my voice—my write like a motherfucker voice! “Be the change you want to see in the world.” “Somewhere inside all of us is the power to change the world.” “If you think you
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This is the first essay in the #26essays2017 challenge that I’ve set for myself this year. I’ll be writing one personal essay a week: 26 in total. And I’m doing this because I’m the first to admit I’ve become a lazy writer: allowing guest posts and series and cross-posting to make up the bulk of content on The Diane Lee Project across 2016. The brave, fearless writing that readers admired and respected me for has all but disappeared. This year—2017—will be different. I’m reclaiming my voice—my write like a motherfucker voice—and I’m starting with this essay about pride in aforementioned voice even though many would consider
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Fuck It Right Off. After a year of wandering around in a work desert, with a brief respite in only one or two oases, I’m checking out. And by checking out, I mean checking in. For the last three months, I’ve been back in a marketing communications role. Finally, after close to nine months, I thought I’d found my home. That I could relax. Nothing could be further from the truth. After working my butt off for the last three months, putting my hand up to help out my immediate team (who by the way, are wonderful and I respect
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Sunday Best is a curated list of awesome articles I’ve read over the past week or so that I find enlightening, educational or just plain interesting. This week’s focus is not on stuff I’ve read, but on stuff I’ve written: my best posts for 2015—the ones that were the most read, and the ones that are my favourites. Enjoy! Most read posts Don’t make these 6 self publishing mistakes Published on August 7, this post about self publishing had close to 1000 views. Disillusioned, I wrote it after I didn’t become the overnight gazillionaire I thought I would once I embarked
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This week, I left a job I had been in for three years. I came to this job licking my wounds from another workplace that didn’t work out so well. In that workplace—which I entered with the hope of finally building some sort of career—I exited within five months, feeling completely disempowered, my confidence shattered. I questioned my ability to judge who I could and should trust, and I learned some hard lessons about what people will do when they’re backed into a corner. I stopped blogging because of it, and it took me over a year to tentatively dip my toe
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At the beginning of July—in a couple of month’s time—I return to my old job in my old department and I go back to my old salary, which is around $20,000 per year less than what I’m currently earning. I took a leave of absence, sabbatical, diversion—call it what you will—for three and a half years, and I left because I was heartily disheartened by a restructure that didn’t work in my favour. I was deeply unhappy. I inherited a manager that I couldn’t get along with (and who I felt didn’t value me and was–how shall I put it?–difficult, to say the least), a
Continue reading...A psychological contract represents the mutual beliefs, perceptions, and informal obligations between an employer and an employee. It sets the dynamics for the relationship and defines the detailed practicality of the work to be done. – Wikipedia In my last post I explored how I am usually pro-change in my approach to work, and how, because of a restructure, I have become quite anti-change. While I was doing my Masters degree I read a research paper that said only 4% of corporate change management programs succeed. Or something like that. The point is: workplace change is difficult and this is
Continue reading...I have always been someone who is comfortable with change. Generally, while others are protesting and digging their heels in (and I’m talking about work here), I’m the one rolling with the punches and just getting on with. I believe it’s a hangover from my dysfunctional childhood, where every time my mother married and divorced (and there were a number of marriages and divorces) my siblings and I had to move. Along with my mother, of course. The point is: I couldn’t fight it and there was no point trying, so acceptance of change became my default position. I have
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