Professional Studies Academy with Unprofessional Management?

Being a student is the best way to really see what the world does not see of an academic organization. They make sure always that the media sees what the well dressed highly fluent qualified people represent. But when once inside you see something totally different in every organization. You are able to see lecturers, instructors, office staff and other management representatives of different heights physically and mentally.

I have been to few different academic organizations and have seen differences but never so far have seen such misrepresentation of the management.

You could be the next victim!

08^th August 2006

I walked into the class to find my instructor leaning to a wall and the classmates looked worried and distressed. From the first looks I realized that they were discussing about something not related to the lessons. They were for sure discussing something and the moment the door was opened they stopped talking. When I took a seat I was told the most unfortunate news, "Our classes are rescheduled, would you be able to come?" It was such a shock. They changed our timing because we were unable to finish the course according to a schedule they had already issued. It was the last day of our course according to their schedule and they gave extra 5 days, extra five days for special classes.

"Where have I just walked into?"

The management just told our classmates that the students were not up to the mark and did not complete work the students should have done to the date. Does it make any sense? Is it the students who make sure that the course content is covered on time? Or is it the management which should make sure that the content is covered?

The picture became clearer.

The manager walked out just before I walked in. The manager told our classmates that the classes are rescheduled and will be held from 1700 to 1900. Our "regular" classes are over because the course was scheduled to be over by 8^th August 2006.

"Were we given any choice?"

The "principal" came in and instructed "the students" to come at 1700. We were not given a chance to even talk. I was "not happy" with the timings. We are not slaves to PSA, after all we are getting a service from them after paying a lot of money. The class agreed to invite the manager in and have a conversation with him.

"Please, could you join us?"

The manager came into our class and took a seat. There were 6 candidates, a lecturer and the manager himself. The lecturer was still away from us, not taking part in any of the conversations. The manager was right in front of the six of us. I myself wanted to say really less if at all possible, just wanted to be the silent one in the meeting. Different candidates started to express their thoughts of inconveniences and the manager did not accept that the management failed. According to him, there were five special classes arranged because of the candidates' to failure to complete the course according to his proposed schedule. Candidates' failure it is, because one night the class was not conducted as the promised books were not supplied to the candidates by PSA and the candidates went on a strike, the other night it was raining cats and dogs and only 3 out of 10 candidates turned out and the class was cancelled.

"… the bloody management…"

"Are you saying that the course was not finished in time because of us? It was the bloody managements' problem. Not ours!" I just could not be the silent one I wanted to be in the meeting, I shouted out. The manager got furious and started to shout out louder than I did, he took it more personal this time. He pointed at my eyes. He tried to teach me English. He tried to teach me professionalism. He wanted me to take back 'the bloody', I denied aloud!

06^th November 2005

I walked into PSA at about 08:55 the second time ever after about 20 days from the first visit. In the first visit to the PSA I met the PSA's sales representative and the instructor for the course and discussed about the holiday I had already planned. This time I did not go alone to attend the class but accompanied another candidate for the course. When we went in, we were told that the classes were rescheduled to be held in the evening from 20:00 to 22:00. It was my second visit to the organization and the person who I accompanied with had no idea that the class was rescheduled. Though this was my first time to attend to the already ongoing class, the candidate I was going with was attending the classes during the month of Ramazan while I was on holidays. Disappointed we went back to our respective offices hoping that the management will improve.

"Which atoll are you from?"

I went to PSA to attend the class at about 19:55. I was new to the premise and was looking for where I belonged. Before I went to PSA I called the sales representative and talked to him. When once I was there I asked the help desk for help. I explained why I was there and I was redirected to the manager after a while. I explained again why I was there to the manager. He was very concerned. He asked me which atoll I am from. I asked him if it matters and he insisted that it matters, the office I work for was not any he was concerned about. He clearly told me that the people who come from "islands" are incompetent for the course which is only intended for professionals of the field and I was not very willing to accept it. To summarize, I did not make a very good impression in my first meeting with him.

25^th June 2006

It was a second program I was joining at PSA, another professional course after about 4 months from the first course. The candidates were put in a classroom where familiar faces greeted us. The introduction was humble: "This course is very tough! So far only 2 students have passed. We are successfully running this program here at PSA." Now that is a summary of what was said. This time of course we had no manager to greet us but it was the sales representative and the instructor for the program.

08^th July 2006

The manager insulted the students of the recent two batches of the program. He did take it personally and attacked me verbally in everyway he could. He insulted our intelligence and he stated that we are incompetent. He specifically stated that I was incompetent and to prove his point he pointed out that I had not taken the online examination for the previous program because I was not self-confident. He also stated that I was not qualified to be in the class. He finalized that the class schedule cannot be changed because there was a program arranged for some Dhiraagu personnel at our "regular" time. After all the damage was done, satisfied with his completed successful work he left the class saying that he will think about arranging extra classes during the weekend. Extra classes for the incompetent?

"… I mentioned to him that the management is bloody, because that is how I have seen it."

While we were in the class beaten to it, we noticed the presence of one of the directors in the office. We invited him into our class and had a conversation. Was the management misrepresented? Or is Professional Studies Academy with an Unprofessional Management?

Internet and Organizational policies

It is interesting that some people do not care much about data security in most organizations in Maldives. But would it be true to say that they do not care?

I know a system administrator who had the administrative account's password to the email server set with just 3 characters and he was using it at public locations. Almost all organizations allow internet access from the users' desktop machine and they are allowed to use instant messaging and also web-based email most of which allow up to 10MB to be uploaded.

The staff are highly trusted and they could use thumb drives and CDs and most are allowed to install software on their systems. This would go on probably for another five years before it is put to a stop. Already most are realizing the mistakes they make. We have in the past seen photocopies of documents and scanned images of documents on the net "leaked" by some loyal staff and it is quite common that others hear about the news before we inside the organization hear of it.

May time heal all the DATA which is lost due to carelessness of people who are responsible.

Ideas were good, but the marketing was poor!

From April 19th to 21 The Youth Challenge organised by the youth ministry was a smashing event. It was a success story for those who had good advertisers bought by their money and a punch on the nasal bone for those who were not willing to advertise.

The organisation I work for participated too. Time was not in in my favour for this event and I had to say a 'NO' for the proposal of me being in charge to manage the event. Of course the right people were assigned the task and I was to go too to see it. I was in fact invited to go there.

Shafee: xaahir mire annahche youth challenge ah 2c da works v did, n giv yur comment inge
me: you want comments you got it!
Shafee: u know this time v did a perfect job, so ru cumin2youth challenge 2nite th

So, I was invited and I had to go. I really wanted to go, not only to see and comment but also to represent our organisation if possible. I went to the youth centre at about 22:30 and visited different stalls and completed the one complete round but I did not find our organisation's stall. I went back to the Help Desk and asked them, they did not even know that our organisation was listed. I went through the list of participants and found it and matched the stall number from a site map by myself and went to the stall which was located in the second building at a corner with no visible ads from a distance. Even when I was at about 10m I did not see the stall. The lighting for was dull, the stall looked empty, there were some four to five visitors and there were no banners of invitation. That was when one of the staff saw me and mentioned it to the head in charge of my presence and I was ignored. There were another senior staff and three secretaries. Since I was ignored by the head the rest also chose to ignore me too. They had some excuses; to start with the stall was remarkably not upto the standard of the fair, then of course it was one that does not even meet the image of our organisation and how things are done in our organisation. What I noticed most was that the head was talking to a some stall visitors refering to a photograph or a printed image of one of the historic scripts which was in bold terms really very interesting to the current generations. The poster or the picture was printed on an A3 paper so, the length of an A3 paper but a width of about 4 inches. It was an insult to the great artifact itself. I am sure that no stall visitor could try to read what was written on that script.

Now, let me show few picture of the stall if it had been this:

Say, I wanted to do a show, a fair open show. I chose to make a label for my daughter's music book. So, the label is going to be the show and it had to show that the book is for Music lessons.

I wanted to include some great images as demos of what music can be. So I chose Google Images to search the great internet archive of images related to music and out of first few hundreds I chose these images.



This image I thought I will include since it is the music note. Most people see this symbol as music.
















This image I chose since if any theory goes in and writing of music is required then obviously it gotta be this.














This image I included as I had to include one at least out of so many musical instruments Google gave results of.


















With the great collection in my possession all I had to do was add "MUSIC BOOK" to it and I had this as the final show:









I showed this to a cousin and she said, "It has no creativity and it looks DULL."

I felt insulted. I did my research on the internet. I know the basics of what I wanted to do, not to mention the music and the theory I learned from one of my best friends I listen to music and use software to create tunes which are never good to listen to. Oh well, I should not be insulted, she did not mean to. She only wanted to tell me the truth.

I had to do something about the label. All I had to do was show that I had good ideas there and I had to sell them, advertise and market the ideas I put together, my research only needed good marketing.

PREASURE - a simple technique used to find how authentic your boss or colleague is

Amazing how people who others think are great at what they do just get up and say, "if you don't, I leave".

Wow! People who are leaders, samples for us just crave for more attention despite the fact that they are no longer suitable for their jobs. I do not want to include any names here but sure they, the great leaders are no greater leaders.

What if the management changes all of a sudden and I get to work under these super generals? OMG! Would I be able to work with him? If ever it happens would I go, "I quit, too"?

Lets hope not. I ain't a quitter! The last time I had a clash with one such a leader, I had the guts to tell the others seniors that the office is mine as much as his! I felt good, of course it is good to face the truth.