About Compliment

A meeting just called off as our China counterpart is on public holiday this whole week and instead of utilizing the timeslot for preparing my training deck, I feel the urge of writing something about work, a quick one.

Work lately is a like roller-coaster ride--um, although I never did one, but that's how people would call it. In my description it would be, "one day I learn to do one thing, struggling, cry, then sunshine. The next day I had to repeat as they assigned me to do a new one". Yeah, like a normal work we all do, nothing so serious about it, it's just work.

But work also have fun part! As they also said, if you don't like your job, you wasted one third of your life.

So here I am typing one of the fun parts I appreciate from my current job: Compliment.

I first encountered how people complimenting to each other is when I moved to Sydney. I still remember how at that time when people gave me compliment, I did not know how to respond. I would only say "thank you", which I feel like ending the conversation in "just like that" way. It's such a waste of flow. There should have been more talks from there. I should have utilized that as a starting point to talk more to people and make friends. But I did not. 

Coming back home, it was covid, I did not connect much with new people face to face.  New job and coworkers were online. Life was online. 

I still struggle how to do that compliment stuff. I tried, of course, but it was not very smooth this time because now I am back in Indonesia where most people will be shy when they get such compliment and don't really know how to reply back--just like me. Some conversation would look like this:

Me: kamu kacamata baru yaa? cakep deh!

The person: ah? enggak kok udah lama. (end)

Hahaha. Sounds familiar?

Actually it can be many reasons it went that way.

1) I did not sound genuine, 2) The person dont like to talk to me, 3) The person dont like to be noticed, 4) They just dont know how to reply--just like me. 

And probably that's how people in my culture ended up not verbally expressing compliment, which is actually fine.

Then I moved here in Malaysia, where my office mates are so diverse, coming from different nationalities and backgrounds. It's similar with Sydney days here.

Just like today, I walked from the pantry with my new tumbler and a coworker from her desk simply said "oh you tumbler is so cute!". 

Then I show her my tumbler, saying, "yeah, it's a gift! btw your umbrella [which she place nearby my workspace] also cute. I saw this morning."

Then she replied again, "[it's from Mr.] D.I.Y je.."

Then I said, "Oh, did not know D.I.Y got cute stuff like this one"

See... the compliment leads to knowledge that Mr DIY sell cute umbrella!

On the other event where I became an MC, some people came to me and say nice stuff about how I did at the end of the event. At that moment, my mind was, "Oh! Is this the way I should compliment people?? How come I just knew this way? I also want to compliment people for the great work and effort like that! Oh this feels so good to be appreciated! Next time I will use this method!!"

Yeah, every time, I feel like I learn how to give genuine compliment to each other. I think previously in my culture, when we see someone doing great or wearing nice stuff we just observe and appreciate it in our heart only. I did not know when it is expressed verbally, it would feel so good.

So yeah, now in my Malaysia office day, when I saw my friend did a stunning make up, I tell them. When I notice their KPI is shining, I would tell them they are so cool. I want to appreciate people as they should be appreciated. Because feeling appreciated feels so good!

Reflecting to those days in Sydney, I'm glad that now I could express compliment without feeling awkward at all. And it has been 5 years now :)

Port Klang, 3-Oct-2024