When you come from a different country, with various expectations to a new country, how do you analyze everything? Do you assume everything to be as expected? Do you plan out your schedule? Or do you fail? Yes you do. Talking about a freshman who just comes to his or her new university life does get personal. Often these personal stories are left untold but these stories are real, genuine and can impact to shape a human mind and a person’s lifestyle.

“I am a failure”

“Failures are the key to success”, we have often heard that but does this statement always apply to us? No. University students have often failed in courses, language requirements, failed to join a friend circle, etc. These events in their life did not lead to any success, however, these students suffered from chronic stress in their first few years. When we talk about personal issues most reported topics are about stress. Some people say stress is a good thing, it keeps you focused, makes you work in a routine order. This is not always the case. Most stress reporters are unable to manage the immense pressure. This leads to the suicide attempts for most university students. Every year the rate of suicidal attempts are going high, which is mostly contributed by the students in universities.

The new generation is one standard deviation ahead of the IQ level of the previous generation. This means that the students in universities are expected to be a better on average from the previous generation. Therefore, the examinations and test basis activities are much difficult than before. Not all students can handle this pressure. I have encountered many students who are facing this problem in their life, who are constantly thinking about their future. Failures in life have caused them to be pessimistic to a great extent.

Luckily, most universities have stress management departments and counselling teams who work with students dealing with stress in their life. However, not all students have the courage to go to counselling offices, therefore, societal awareness should be spread on stress management. Personal issues are crucial for our society and it needs to be tackled everyday.

Note: here is a stress story you might want to know.

Word count: 370.

Works cited:

https://www.helpguide.org/articles/stress/stress-management.htm

http://www.ctvnews.ca/w5/campus-crisis-why-are-suicide-rates-rising-among-university-students-1.1463654

https://mindcheck.ca/mood-and-stress/stress

Workplaces can sometimes be very dull. Every single day, you are at the same desk, doing the same job. Over and over again! But isn’t that what the company demands from you, to be doing the work you are supposed to do in a productive manner. Yes, for the progress of the company you have to do what you have to do. But workplaces can be ameliorated so that it can extract extra productiveness from the employees.

Recently, I came across an article by John Boitnott who wrote about “6 Effective Ways to Enhance Work Productivity“. There are many points which contributes to the workplace productivity issue but two major issues John discussed which highlights my thought about workplace productivity. “Get rid of motivation killers” which includes removing the abrasive personalities in an office, poor communication systems and the feel of lack of appreciation. If these issues are effectively removed, workplaces can be an improved place to work in. Moreover, employees who feel that they have a sense of home in their office environment tend to perform to a greater degree. Another issue is “Motivation through Gamification” which involves rewards such as badges, points table, rankings, leader boards, etc. These rewards can motivate an employee intrinsically. There are many debates on whether bonuses should be used as motivation for employees, however, in my point of view bonuses make intrinsic motivations turn to extrinsic ones which may cause a downfall to overall job productivity.Some environmental factors also play a major role in workplace productivity. Which includes better lighting, room colour, use of ergonomic chairs, proper room temperature, room scents, etc. These factors makes the employees focus on their work better which is useful to make sure the office has improved in overall efficiency.  I believe that a manager should always be thoughtful about making the employees work efficiently, more importantly keeping them happy.

Word count: 312.

Works Cited:

http://www.inc.com/john-boitnott/6-effective-ways-to-enhance-workplace-productivity.html

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/15-office-design-tricks-that-will-increase-your-productivity-work.html

http://iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/the-four-intrinsic-rewards-that-drive-employee-engagement/

https://www.hoopla.net/product/leaderboards

The pictures displayed above shows the same person in two different attires during an interview for a job. The attire on the right gets the person a job.

Personality. It is an individual’s characteristic style of behaving, thinking and feeling. Personality describes a person in his or her actions, beliefs and dressing sense. When it comes to a job, hiring managers and recruiters always look for the person with the right fit for the job. The “right fit” has many requirements, which includes overall understanding about the job, previous working experience, skills, etc. But with recent studies in job environments and workplace culture, many interviewees with better appearance and grooming did manage to get a job while competing other competent job seekers. This is an example of an OB concept, the “Halo Effect” which is drawing an impression of an individual on a single characteristic. Therefore, if you have the right personality, you have the upper hand!

As the right personality gets you a job, the appropriate combination of the “Big 5” personality trait may make you the right one for a company. “Big 5” consists of the personality traits which are Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Emotion Stability and Agreeableness. These 5 factors are often essential for earning a job, also it is crucial in maintaining an anticipated workplace culture.

Personality can sometimes be a vague term, but many personality tests which are often standardized can remove the uncertainty in personality. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), a well researched, clinical questionnaire is used to define personalities and psychological problems. Some other projective tests which are Rorschach Inkblot test and Thematic Apperception test (TAT) are also used in measuring personality nowadays. These projective tests can reveal inner aspects of individual personalities as the person describes an ambiguous stimuli. Make sure you use these personality tests so that you know which jobs fits you best.

Word count: 315.

Works cited:

http://career-intelligence.com/appearance-affect-advancement/

https://www.verywell.com/what-is-the-halo-effect-2795906

https://www.123test.com/big-five-personality-theory/

https://psychcentral.com/lib/minnesota-multiphasic-personality-inventory-mmpi/

http://theinkblot.com/

http://www.minddisorders.com/Py-Z/Thematic-Apperception-Test.html