Honesty does pay

In the far east emperor was aging, he knew it was time to choose his successor. Instead of choosing one of his assistants or his children, he decided to do something different.

He called young people one day and said, "It is time for me to step down and choose the next emperor. I have decided to choose one of you." Everybody was shocked, but he continued, "I am going to give everyone a seed, a special one. I want you to plant it, water it and come back after a year with the outcome. I will judge the plant and the one I choose will be the next emperor."

One boy, named Ling, was there that day and he, like everyone, received a seed. He went home and told his mother the story. She helped him get a pot and the process. Every day, he would water it and watch to see it grow. Three weeks later, other youth began to talk about their seeds and its progress. Ling kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew, even after months.

He didn't say anything to his friends and waited for it to grow. A year passed by and everyone brought their plants for inspection. Ling told his mother that he wasn't going to take an empty pot, but his mother advised him to be honest.

Ling felt sick at his stomach, but he knew his mother was right. He took empty pot to the palace. When Ling arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by the others. He displaced empty pot on the floor and others laughed at him, where few felt sorry for him.

When the emperor arrived, he surveyed the room. Ling just tried to hide. "My, what great plants, trees and flowers you have grown," said the emperor.

Suddenly, he spotted Ling at the back of the room with his empty pot and ordered his guards to bring him at front. Ling was terrified. The Emperor asked his name. "My name is Ling," he replied. He looked at Ling, and announced to the crowd, "Behold your new emperor! His name is Ling!"

Then the emperor explained, "one year ago, I gave everyone a seed, but I gave you all boiled seeds that would not grow. Expect Ling, Everyone brought trees, plants and flowers. You found that the seed would not grow; you substituted another seed for it. Ling was the only one with courage and honesty."

FROM BLAMING TO CLAIMING

The irony about the predictable and widespread political situation in Nepal is how every political party and group concentrates on blaming others for their inability to perform their respective duties. They forge time and again that they too were the ruling party in the past and the mistakes they made were also the same.

Whenever I drive through the busy and chaotic streets of Kathmandu, I find the situation similar to the driving forces behind the political situation. A street vendor to bike rider to cab driver and even pedestrians contributes equally to the chaos. Just like the political leaders blame each other, we indulge in pointing fingers at one another for the chaos and forget where we stand.

Have you ever, when riding a bike, blasted the horn so loud that you irritated pedestrians or other drivers on the road? Have you ever force-stopped a cab of a public vehicle in the middle of a busy road? We have all done it will not stop complaining when somebody does the same.

I was once taken aback when a biker, when asked for his licence for riding on the wrong lane barked in defence,"Why should I hand you over my licence when the white mid-line is not visible?" He was clearly out-of-lane but was defending himself from the awkward and embarrassing situation. It seems that whenever somebody is in such position, dodging blaming others is the ultimate defence mechanism. The blame game generally marks Neapli politics and pervades our everyday life too.

The government is the biggest blame-taker, from the chaotic traffic to parliament not functioning properly. The situation would be very different if the political parties said, "We are all responsible for the unfavorable situation of the country" or all riders claimed, We are also responsible for the traffic jam."

Imagine how beautiful the world would be if everyone played the 'claim game' instead of the 'blame game'. We would have no jams regardless of narrow roads. The opposing party would say, We will support the government constructively because we faced a similar situation in the past." IF all claimed responsibility, our country would truly be a heaven on earth. If we want our country's situation to improve, we need to take the leadership role in our own hands- so stop blaming and star claiming.

CUT OUT OFFICE CHATTER

We all love a friendly and comfortable workplace environment. Having a little chatter at work every now and then is acceptable, but when the conversation extends beyond limits, it becomes a serious problem. And extensively talkative coworkers can make it difficult for you to get the work done. Talkative coworkers can be found in various forms ranging from hen like morning chatter to the constant complainer to the person hovering around your desk like a starving buzzard. Here are differences ways on handing a talkative co-worker.

1.  Converse in a friendly manner and tell your co-workers honestly that you are working under deadlines and do not have time to talk. It is often that your co-workers may not realize that they are talkative or you are under pressure to meet your deadline.

2. If a simple telling doesn't help, ignore them and intently gaze at the computer screen, stapler or papers strewn across your desks.

3. You can inform all you co-workers that you are busy working to not pinpoint the talkative co-workers directly or offend them. Let them know that you need to be left alone for the time being.

4. It co-worker has just started the conversation, handle it with a short answer not giving them chance to speak further or simply ignore the co-worker completely.

5. Inform your boss. Let him inform all the employees to keep their personal matter private, focus on the work and avoid chatter.

6. Use phone head set even when you are not using the phone to show that you busy with the telephonic conversation.

7. If your co-workers are getting on your nerves, move to a different cubicle or office in order to finish the work. Make the move permanent to avoid the talkative co-workers if compulsory.

Time to Quit?

Quitting a job can be the most difficult thing an employee has to do. However sometimes leaving a job is better for your career. There are certain signs, which can illustrate employee.

You dread coming to work in the morning.

Ask yourself if there was something else, you could be being at the same company that wouldn't suck so much. Staying in one company can be good for your careers, but sometimes you need to change responsibilities to alleviate boredom.

You are putting lot of energy into the job, but not making the kind of project and overall progress that you feel is reasonable.

Ask yourself if you are putting energy into the right areas. Can someone else handle that for you? If your company can not provide reasonable support, you might want to look for one that can.

You are putting no energy into the job because doing so makes you want to stab your eyes out with a sharpened pencil.

If you hate the job with the passion of the thousand burning suns, ask yourself why, honestly answered yourself and find a job in which the same problem cannot occur.

Your lunch break is spent bitching to your co-workers about how much you hate being where you are.

Stop bitching to your co-workers. Change the subject, talk about positive things. Listen to people, but give nothing away, especially when it comes to criticizing to your boss or peers.

You boss irrationally hates you.

Politely quite, or if you have the time, let them fire you.

You have bounced laterally around the company for years without the promotion.

Have you gained any skill during your career mambo around the corporation? Do you really bring valuable skill to the table? Are you unfairly being denied a promotion? If you think you are worth it, you often have to ask for a promotion. If it is not much of a least, put your nose to the grindstone.

CAREER-WISE: WOMEN HAVE LOWER EXPECTATIONS THAN MEN

Women have lower career expectations than men, anticipating smaller pay cheques and longer wait for promotions.

Prof . Sean Lyons from University of Guelph, Canada, discovered that women expect starting salaries to be 14 per cent less than that of men.

This gap in wage expectations widens over their careers with women anticipating their earnings to be 18 per cent less than men after five years on the job, reports the journal Industrial Relations.

As for their first promotion, the study found women expect to wait close to two months longer than men for their first step up the corporate ladder, according to a Guelph statement.

"It's a bit of chicken-and-egg-situation," said the business professor, who worked on the study with Carleton University professor Linda Schweitzer and Dalhousie University professor Ed Ng.

"Women know that they currently aren't earning as much as men so they enter the workforce with that expectation. Because they don't expect to earn as much, they likely aren't as aggressive when it comes to negotiating salaries or pay raises and will accept lower paying jobs than men, which perpetuates the existing inequalities", said Prof Lyons.

The study involved surveying more than 23,000 university students about salary and promotion expectations as well as career priorities. The reality is there is a gap in salary with university-educated women earning only 68 per cent of the salaries of equally qualified men, according to a 2008 Canadian Labor Force Survey.