Right, where was I?

Ah yes, Sun Yat Sen the opera. We spent the following weekend up at a conference at the centre where tter church does its drug rehab work. Very impressive set up with since great sports facilities including a climbing wall, a swimming pool and all weather pitch. The conference itself was very interesting despite a bit of initial scepticism and cynicism! The speaker was a psychologist who was talking about how experiences in childhood can continue to affect our behaviour today - going back as far as conception! A few real life stories suggested it wasn't as pie in the sky as it first sounded.

Anyway, lots of other bits and bobs have been going on, including catching up with a mate I used to play footy with at uni but hadn't seen for about 10 years. We also took in our first real Cantonese film (our first attempt turned out to be a Mandarin film dubbed into Cantonese): Life without Principle. Worth a watch.

I'm now on study leave - exam on Thursday and then we're heading straight off to Hanoi for a long weekend.

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3 full weeks

Three full weeks since I last wrote something, so it's high time.  Starting with the things freshest in my memory: I had my first go at wake boarding yesterday.  It was nigh on impossible to get going (i.e. to get the boat to drag you out of the water) and everything hurts today, but it was great!  The weather is really nice now - down to mid to late 20s and lower humidity.  The water temperature is also down to about the same level, so it's a bit more refreshing that it was.  With the winter closing in (!), the open air swimming pool across the way is only open during the morning in November and is then closed until April.

A couple of weeks back I had my first work trip to the Mainland - Shanghai and Beijing in quick succession.  It's funny to think that they both feel like quite well trodden territory now and it was great to meet Terence and Nikki for a drink at a Peruvian place in Shanghai.  Beijing was more polluted than I'd seen it before.  It's reputedly the worst its been since the Olympics (when they created rain to clear things up a bit).  It was really easy to spot: just looking at the hotel window you could see it clearly with the sun trying as hard as it could to get through - and largely failing.

I got back from Shanghai just in time to go to Sun Yat Sen the opera - the man who holds the distinguished position of being regarded as the father of both Taiwan and Mainland China - work that one out!  It was the first Western-style opera written in Hong Kong and the first ever Western-style opera with Chinese instruments.  For good measure, it was also banned by the Mainland - apparently talk of revolution and democracy doesn't go down so well up there.

Ah, Matt's calling on skype...

The world's cheapest one Michelin star restaurant?

We went for lunch today at a dim sum place up in Mong Kok.  It's got a Michelin star and is very popular - big queues ensue (although if you wait long enough other people give up and you get bumped up the list!).  The bill came in at a whopping HKD88 - about GBP7.50 - for both of us.

Compulsory retirement age

Was reading about the abolition of the compulsory retirement age and some comments from the Federation of Small Businesses prompted me (via Eve's email address!) to send the chap who made them some comments :

Dear Mr Cave

I read with interest the comments that you gave to the BBC in relation to the introduction of a default retirement age.  In particular, the BBC said that the FSB considered the legislation "unnecessary meddling" and 

"It will lead to a legal quagmire for a lot of small business owners. If you can't get rid of someone, you then have to go through the process of performance managing someone out of an organisation, which if you have a big HR department and you're experienced in these things is easy," said Andrew Cave from the federation.

"The average business in this country employs four people. The owner-manager doesn't necessarily have that expertise."

If I have correctly understood these comments, I must say that I was surprised by them as I had thought the FSB would seek to promote best practice amongst its members rather than endorse the "managing out" approach of larger businesses - particularly because small businesses are of such a size where the relationships can be more personal.  It appeared to me that your position was that small businesses should be permitted "to get rid of someone" on the basis of their age alone, because otherwise it would not be possible to terminate their employment because a small business would not have a sophisticated HR function which could handle these issues and find other ways of letting someone go or follow the correct procedure.  

I do find the suggestion concerning that simply reaching a particular age should be reason enough to let someone go - regardless of any assessment of merit.  The counter point is no doubt that the business would do what it could to keep hold of someone if they were of sufficient quality, but there are various reasons why this is not always the case.

I wondered whether a better approach might be to encourage employers to take a more active interest in the careers of their employees rather than treat them like resources which can be "got rid of".  In practice, performance management is overlooked at a number of businesses - big and small.  However, it is often said that employees feel most engaged when their performance is being closely monitored and being held accountable for outcomes.  I anticipate that your response would be to say that small business owners do not have the time to focus on such issues (although your quote suggested that it was more a lack of expertise which could be easily remedied by a training course - which your organisation could no doubt run for its members).  However, I do wonder whether they would be better off seeing it as time invested in the business.


My husband's grandfather ran a successful small business for a number of years - generally with four or five employees.  If someone's performance did not reach the required standard, steps were taken and the employee in question left the business.  They did not wait until they turned 65 to avoid a difficult conversation and a fair procedure.  I wonder whether this is perhaps more the approach that the FSB might consider adopting?

Kind regards

The highest bar in the world

After work today we popped up to the bar at the top of the ICC building. It's on the 118th floor and claims to be the highest bar in the world. The decor is odd, but the view is great - you can even see our flat from up there. Something to add to the list of things to do with visitors (except those who suffer from vertigo).

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T8

We had our first T8 typhoon signal this week. The typhoon itself was some distance from Hong Kong, but they take no chances here - the whole place was on shut down. We first realised that something was up when the harbour was bereft of the usual hoard of ferries and they was barely a car on the road (I've put a couple of photos on facebook) - then an email came round saying the office was shut.

The typhoon had the good grace to hang around just long enough for the office to be closed all day and then disappear in time for us to go out for dinner.

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Kulcha

We've had our first real forays into the Hong Kong cultural scene the last couple of days: a piano recital last night and some theatre tonight. A lot of Liszt and an unusual, but thought provoking one man piece on the Hong Kong plague of 1894. It reminded me that pure descriptive words only ever tell you so much (but are very handy for accuracy). There's a whole array of other media which can communicate in a very different way and stimulate thought and debate. I think the writer-performer tonight was trying to deliver at anti-religious message, but I came away with quite different thoughts. I've been thinking about how I can explain the details of this, but eventually realised the limitations of descriptive words.

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