Remove the blinkers and start walking in others' shoes

I work at the management level of a mid-size advertising company and would like to share my experience at the workplace and how this relates to the decision to implement the conditional movement control order (MCO).

At the management level, one of my biggest headaches is managing the competing interests of the respective stakeholders. My design team wants the company to pay top dollar to hire the best talents.

My finance department tells me that money doesn't fall from the sky, especially since the sales team wants a better commission structure. And my creative team gets annoyed by the marketing team who they feel know next to nothing about designs.

There's always running battles between the different departments, but thank god, they are all doing what they feel is best for the company. As a manager, it is my job to ensure that we make optimum use of our limited resources and this means we can't please everyone all the time. This involves striking a delicate balance in making business decisions.

Likewise, I can relate to the frustration of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin in trying to walk a fine line between two competing interests confronting the nation in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic: the lives versus livelihood dilemma.

On the one hand, efforts to flatten the curve is not yet finished and there are fears of new waves if we ease the MCO prematurely. On the other hand, he has to contend with the RM2.4 billion daily losses to the economy due to the MCO.

The truth is, not many people have saved up enough for this unexpected health crisis that has disrupted our lives in ways we had never seen before. As mentioned by the prime minister's public health adviser, Jemilah Mahmood, Covid-19 will be with us for another two years.

We can't afford to sit back and wait for this to blow over. I can imagine this is not an easy decision, but Muhyiddin has taken the chance by throwing a lifeline to the economy, while trying to still keep the unseen enemy that is Covid-19 at bay.

This is the kind of decisions that I dread to make at the workplace but the kind which will come to define one's leadership. Muhyiddin took a calculated risk, considering that Malaysia's Covid-19 recovery rate is at 70 percent (and climbing) so far. Mass gatherings are still banned and businesses have to abide by strict health protocols such as social distancing rules.

Not everyone is going to be happy with the conditional MCO and I absolutely empathise with that. But this decision no longer relates to health alone but involves the macro well-being of a nation.

At the workplace, I too get complaints when my decisions seem to favour one department over another. I appreciate such feedback and my advice to the "aggrieved" party is to remove their blinkers and look at issues from other departments or the management. Walk in their shoes.

Similarly, I am not trying to change the mind of those who are against conditional MCO. I am just calling on fellow Malaysians to remove their blinkers and walk in the shoes of the prime minister and those who are having sleepless nights about their incomes, or the lack of, due to the MCO.

Even if it doesn't change your mind about the viability of the conditional MCO, it will make you empathise with the prime minister and those in favour of easing the movement curbs. - Mkini