Marium is a recent graduate who is hardworking but finds it difficult to adjust to workplace norms while maintaining her passion for helping people. The document provides various ideas for how Marium could approach this problem from different perspectives, including practical solutions, how a child might solve it, solutions with an unlimited budget, creative or "geeky" ideas, and evaluates the best ideas. The most practical solution is to continue working and adjust over time, while organizing self-help groups for employees and employers could result in significant changes to workplace culture. Starting online and offline discussion groups is the assistant's favorite idea to help young workers cope with stress.

1. P R O B L E M S T A T E M E N T :
M A R I U M , A F R E S H G R A D U A T E A N D R E C E N T
E M P L O Y E E W H O I S H A R D W O R K I N G , P R A C T I C A L
A N D W E L L E X P E R I E N C E D , N E E D S A W A Y T O
A D J U S T T O T H E N O R M S O F T H E W O R K P L A C E A N D
M A I N T A I N H E R Z E A L F O R W O R K B E C A U S E S H E
W A N T S T O M A K E A D I F F E R E N C E I N T H E L I V E S O F
P E O P L E W H I L E A L S O W O R K I N G I N A N
E N J O Y A B L E W O R K P L A C E .
Ideation

2. Most Obvious/Practical Solutions
1. Just keep working and you'll get used to it
2. Quit your job
3. Keep looking for the perfect job
4. Learn to ignore the daily hindrances
5. Love your work, don’t love your company
6. Talk to your boss in an attempt to make things
better

3. How would a 5 year old solve it?
1. Cry
2. Run away
3. Run to his/her parents
4. Becomes stubborn or angry
5. Build a fort and work inside it
6. Resort to ice cream and candy for comfort

4. How would you solve the problem with an
unlimited budget?
1. Work at your dream job
2. Start your own NGO/Charity
3. Buy your current workplace and be the boss!
4. Just retire comfortably with los of money
5. Hire someone else to do the ‘tedious’ work
6. With an unlimited budget, help people’s lives
directly instead of working at an office!
7. Work as a philanthropist instead
8. Set up a Fund to help young people achieve their
goals

5. How would you solve the problem with an
unlimited budget?
1. Travel the world and help people along the way
2. Become a ‘philanthropist-hippie’

6. ‘Geeky’ solutions (starting to go out of the box here!)
1. Fast forward stressful times at work
2. Hide with a secret double identity
3. Clone a twin to do your dirty work
4. Imagine your boss to be a Devil-Wears-Prada kind
of mentor: strict and hard, but ultimately good for
your career
5. Invent a process or technology to become a
millionaire and help people at the same time => be
your own boss!

7. ‘Geeky’ solutions (starting to go out of the box here!)
1. Travel to an alternate universe where work is fun
all the time
2. Travel back in time before corporate procedures
became tedious
3. Be the Batman
4. Use your workplace as an anthropological cover for
a study on workplace practices
5. Drown your sorrows in chocolate

8. Creative solutions (Things you can do at or after work to make it more bearable)
1. Train your bosses
2. Create a new work culture
3. Make national laws on workplace environment
standards
4. Talk to mentors
5. Don’t stop dreaming
6. Make a list of goals you want to accomplish
everyday
7. Listen to music at work

9. Creative solutions (Things you can do at or after work to make it more bearable)
1. Cultivate a full life outside of work as well!
2. Organize a self help group for likeminded recent
employees across industries
3. Organize an after-hours discussion group for
bosses as well.
4. Read about how other people cope
5. Start a blog about your experiences
6. Start a tumblr
7. Start a Pinterest

10. Creative solutions (Things you can do at or after work to make it more bearable)
1. Start reddit conversations on workplace issues and
morale
2. Initiate a discussion group on LinkedIn
3. Have a support system in place for particularly
stressful days
4. Create a ‘detox’ room at work
5. Create a ‘time out’ rule at work when things get too
stressful

11. Total Idea Generation
 Total Ideas Generated:
 Practical 06
 5 year old 06
 Unlimited budget 10
 Geeky 10
 Creative 19
 Grand Total: 51

12. Best Ideas
I. Most Practical Idea:
 Just keep working and you’ll get used to it. This idea takes no money
whatsoever, and it a common course of action, as seen through retrospective
lenses of old professionals or retired people. Eventually, everyone’s idealism
fades.
II. Most Disruptive Idea
 Organize self help groups for employers and employees. These have the
potential for huge idea generation, finding a common ground between these
two ‘opposing parties’, and even gaining scale and gaining a worldwide
acceptance and maybe even an encouraged practice.
III. Your Favorite Idea
 My favorite idea is a mixture of the Creative Ideas. Starting an online
conversation (via social media), as well an offline one (via discussion groups)
could help generate local and global better workplace practices at relatively
less cost. Additionally, it will help young people cope with the stresses of a
work environment and prepare many for it before they experience it
themselves.