yeop.blog

Brunei

When Connections Go Beyond the Screen

When Connections Go Beyond the Screen This month, I had the opportunity to travel to Brunei 🇧🇳 and finally meet customers I’ve been working with for quite a while. Despite having over 10 virtual meetings already, meeting them in person added a new depth to our relationship. Here are a

Brunei

“Fuel Cheaper Than Water? Things I Learned in Brunei”

When I visited Brunei, I had the pleasure of meeting several kind and thoughtful taxi drivers during my stay. One of them even said yes when I asked if he’d like to grab a coffee together. Over that coffee, he generously shared his perspective on life in Brunei. Listening

Work

Saying Goodbye to Customers (For Now)

Last week, I sat down to call 15 different customers—just to say goodbye. After three rewarding years of working together, it was time to transition these accounts to a new colleague. What I expected to be a simple handover turned out to be something much more emotional. I had

Work

When a Customer Offers to Buy You a Beer

It was 3 PM on a Monday. The week ahead was packed, and I was already feeling the pressure. That’s when a request came in—an urgent, blocking issue from a customer I had never worked with before. Their usual contact was on leave, and I was next in

Work

Reducing Friction, Creating Habits

As a service manager, I wanted to stay closely connected to how our customers were using support—daily. So I built a series of reports, each tailored by customer, and felt great about it. The result? I stopped checking them just days later. Even after setting up daily email digests,

Work

Checking My Mindset When Receiving Feedback

I recently received constructive feedback on a dashboard I built to help colleagues monitor a key campaign: • “I couldn’t find the info I needed easily.” • “There’s too much unnecessary information.” • “The tool names aren’t intuitive.” At first, I was surprised. After all, I had only included what

Work

What I Remind Myself Before Every Presentation

The first time I had to present in a foreign language, I was 8 years old—standing in front of my class at Clyde Hill Elementary, nervously introducing my LEGO treehouse. (It was 10 months after learning my ABCs.. so quite the nerve wrecking experience) I still remember the racing

Work

Little Trophy Moments

Had a small but super rewarding moment last week. A set of docs and course links I’d put together for a customer got shared by someone in a different department. No one asked them to—just saw value and passed it on. I actually paused and took note of

Work

Thanks to a Colleague, I`m Rethinking My Mornings

While scheduling a meeting with a colleague in the U.S., I noticed his first hour to hour and a half was consistently blocked off. Curious, I checked his calendar and found a simple but powerful note: “Hi, this is my focus hour where I get much work done. Please

Japan

Business Card Exchange in Japan

Have you ever watched one of those video guides on how to properly exchange business cards in Japan? Not exactly beginner-friendly, right? Even after five years of working in Japan, I still sometimes wonder if I’ve done everything right when handing over my card. (There was a time I

Work Featured

Emotional Labor is the Work

The moment I saw the internal email—with a subject line that hinted at bad news—I felt that familiar knot in my stomach. “Oh no… the customer’s not going to be happy about this.” It was something they had requested multiple times. We had agreed to make the

Work Featured

Whiplash, and Searching for Flow State

"WHIPLASH" Amazing movie. So today was the second time, and was elated to know that TOHO cinemas brought this movie back on. First time I watched was 10 years ago back in Korea, don't remember who I watched it with(my dear wife sometimes reads my

Work

I am glad I did not send that angry email

I am happy that I did not send that angry email. It was past 10 pm in the office. Something I did in good will turned against me, and I thought this person was being deeply malicious with me. I felt so wronged when I first knew. Poured down the

Work

A rookie’s advantage at work

When I just joined my second company, I had an opportunity to do an implementation of a software customization on customer’s back-office server. I had never done anything close to it. It was only a month or two since I joined the company. Naturally many people raised concerns about

Japan

Realization: Time left with parents only 50 or so trips left

As I live abroad in Japan, meeting my parents is not as easy as it used to be. Since I have relocated to Japan in 2020 Feb I only had 2 to 3 chances to go back each year. More closer to two taking into account that I haven'

Work

Pause before sending an angry email, give it some time

I received a rather angry email from an internal stakeholder. Apparently what I have requested did not make sense at all. However, going through the content I could see that there are some misunderstandings behind the emotional response. Also, it seemed like multiple people made similar requests to the person

Korea

Job hunting in Japan was fun (compared to South Korea) here is why

Looking back, job hunting for me was lots of fun. I would even say one of the most exciting periods of my life. Why? Isn’t job hunting usually quite a stressful period? This is very interesting in that it wasn’t that getting the job part was the only

Korea

I am Korean, but I hate raw kimchi

I am Korean,(from South Korea, this should be the assumption if you wander in to a blog of a Korean person next time since I don't think many North Koreans have internet) but I hate raw kimchi. Now, what I mean 'raw' here is quite

joy of hosting

Joy of serving seasonal fruits for friends

As a foreigner in 20s living in Tokyo, fruits are quite hard to come by. Some of it is due to price, and more often it is just too much work to wait for the right timing (until it is just ripe), wash, peel, cut and clean up. However, it

Art of having a joyful weekend

As I have deligently recorded my mood over the past 12-13 years, having a good, joyful day seems more like a technique rather than a lucky draw. Especially on a weekend when I have more control over how I spend time. What Brings Joy Although it would be quite ambitious

Mental health

Born to compete, looking back on South Korean education

South Korea, Aug 2010 I was in my 3rd year of middle school. More than half the kids in the same class were in prep school mode. We all wanted to get into the so-called 외고(Wego), a foreign language high school. Not particularly that we wanted to study a

Relationship

Present that was hard to send

My cousin just gave birth to a lovely baby boy. Our family history is quite complex. The most memorable thing is that her dad(my uncle) was the only one who really slapped me hard on the face when I was something like 5 or 6. I literally flew for

Work

The joy of being trusted for what you do

First year on the job at a totally different industry to where I used to work, I was to take care of a handful of customers handed over from someone who has close to 3 decades of experience in the company. Can you imagine? I was anxious yes, but I

Work

Work can wait

Your work can wait. Don‘t let other people tell you otherwise. Also, don’t become emotional about it and rash your anger out to the next person who asks you to do something when you are at your limits. Don‘t respond right away. Take a deep breath. Smile

KR

외노자 도쿄 부동산 구입 팁과 후기 - 2024년

들어가기 전 부동산 구입을 준비하며 궁금했던 점들에 대해서, 같은 걸 궁금해 하는 친구 지인이 많기에 글로 정리했다. 왜 구입? * 10년-15년 길게 봤을 때 도쿄 중심부 부동산 가격 상승을 기대했다. * 자녀 계획이 있고, 현재 거주 중인 집은 작았기에 마침 이사를 검토 하는 시점이었다. 부동산의 조건 처음에는 전혀 감이 없다가 부동산 물건