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After reading the previous post, by my Dar Dar, i tink you guys might find my post boring... why? cos.... haha we are in a somewhat similiar situation...
As u guys know.. i used to work with Runying in the events sector in the membership department.. after she left (Again...I miss u!! :P) After Runying, there was a replacement, a guy who didn't last long... after that came a young girl... 19 or 20 yrs old.. called Julia
looks like an innocent child.. those really green, just got out of JC students...
Runying, Martin said she looks jus like Clariz when Clariz jus joined the organisation.. n i agree look abit nerd nerd, damn skinny looks so frail as if wind could blow her away...even skinner than Clariz.. everyone was saying oh finally someone to help me with the workload..
After briefing her abt wat the job entails... i went on study & exam leave..
This girl has no initiative at all, the first day she came, i was briefing her and showing her wat to do for events registration at the seminar room and was pushing this box to another place But she just stood there lookin at me push..normally, ppl would ve offered to help as it's quite obvious that the box was super heavy.. nvm... there was actually another box that needed to be moved but she didn't help also..shesh... and she does things super slowly (u guys say i'm slow rite? u should look at her speed and u guys will know how fast i actually m, haha) it got to a point where another colleague was always shouting at her, screaming at her, etc... She is really those kind of ppl whereby u ve to push then she will move a little tiny bit forward...
When i came back from my leave... i brief her again on the job duties... which includes answering of phone calls cos my colleagues had complained to me that she refuses to answer calls...
Even my mgrs, had to repeatedly ask her to ans the calls, but it wasn't of much use.. I had to behave as if i'm asking my sister to ans the phone at home... by calling out "Julia, can u ans the phone?!" then will she pick up the call.. which is really ridiculous cos when i call out to her it's when i'm away from my desk and i had to call out from some distance away from our desks to her who is jus next to the phone to pick up the call...
We also begun to realise that she is very good at pushing blames and also responsibilities to others... always asking temp staff to help with her work.. until a mgr had specifically told her that she is not to get any temp to help her... if she so wishes to, she will need to get permission from the mgr first... after tat, the mgr found out she was still getting temp staff to help with her work and confronted her but she jus blantantly denied it... even with all the "ren zheng & wu zheng" infront of us..
Not only that, she also lied to the mgr that her time-table is not fixed, that she will only know her schedule at the beginning of every week. (she is also taking a course at MDIS) telling us that her classes start at 6pm and sometimes at 6.30pm.. how could it be possible for a part-time course (catered for working adults) be starting at such an early hr.. some companies don't even knock off at 6pm.. best of all... myself and another colleague are also taking a course at MDIS too.. how can it be that we start at 7pm and she start her classes so early?
To cut a long story short, yup there's actually alot more to tell abt the things she has done during the short period of less than 3months at our organisation, she was given a ultimatum by our boss... to increase the ringing volume of her phone (cos she repeatedly decrease her ringing volume to such a soft vol that it was virtually silent, even after my various bosses & I had adjusted the vol & asked her not to adjust again )such that my big boss can hear her phone ringing from our big boss's desk or our big boss will log in the calls that she ans and she is expected to answer 200 calls (it was to scare her into answering calls, i tink)...
But haha the irony is though she has increased the ringing vol and is supposed to be the first to answer calls, she still seldom ans the calls... end up it was another colleague and myself who would pick up first cos we couldn't take the loud (noisy) volume..
You would think that all those things she did would only brand her irritating and irresponsible, she had sth else up her sleeve...
She actually forged her MC!!! she called in sick on 9th & 16th Jan n my snr mgr had to asked her repeatedly for her MC.. last friday morning, my snr mgr came to her and asked her for her MC yet again... And she finally gave a... photocopied of her MC!! with the reason that she sent the original to her insurance agent for claims... and it was a chinese physician.. not a western doctor..
Den my snr mgr asked her why the MC indicates both dates 9th & 16th.. If she knew that she was going back for for a follow-up visit then she should have informed us earlier instead of notifying us on the morning of 16th itself when she asked to come in early to finish some work
and also to prepare some stuff for an event happening on that day itself. Her excuse? She forgot to get the MC from the sinseh on the 9th so when she went again on the 16th she asked the sinseh to write both dates on the single MC..
My snr mgr told her it's not very convincing cos... normally it would be 2 seperate piece of MC for 2 seperate days not one piece of MC for 2 seperate days that is days apart and also cos it's a photocopied one... In any case, my snr mgr appeared to accept the MC after clarifying which branch did she visit the sinseh...
Den in the noon, she was called to one of the meeting rooms where my boss spoke to her.. we din't know what happened but we heard that our bosses found out that she forged the MC.. adding a date to the MC..so we gathered that the snr mgr mus ve called the branch that she visited and verified with the physician..
One of the mgrs commented... y dun she jus admit her mistake hiaz... really cannot judge a book by its cover... looks so innocent, like those guai guai type end up......
This monday,21 Jan, our big boss told us... Julia is no longer comin to work, she has tendered and get this... the mum told my big boss that Julia is suffering from depression and feels very stressed working here..and wants to quit, so my boss told her if that's the case than ok, she will waive off the notice period and let her leave immediately. And my boss told us now that julia has left it's better for us right? not so stressed... haha...
And it's no loss... cos with her gone.. the rest of us are happier and i dun ve to always check on her work and clear her shit... though i ve to clear the mess she had created while she was ard.. at least there won't be more mess created...
But i really wonder... would someone have done the things she did if she's really down with depression? i'm no doc so i can't tell u if she's really down with depression but i tink we will arrive at the same conclusion... rite? :)
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
It has been a long two months since the last post in our blog. Baby and I have been busy - preparing for exams, taking exams, studies, work etc. I think some of our friends have forgotten about our blog and I don't blame them. It was till I received a email from Long-ge during Christmas (Thanks for the e-card Long-ge!) and he mentioned that I should update my blog so that he, who is thousand miles away from Singapore, could know how I am doing currently.
So very well. I guess the most significant thing that happened over the past two months was I became a proud owner of a Kangoo! I bought a second-hand Renault Kangoo, which is a Eurovan, for $22k in late Nov. Reason why I chose a Kangoo was it is cheap and most importantly, it consumes diesel. So far, all those who had an opportunity to sit in the van says its quite a good catch at $22k. I'm crossing my fingers still, hoping that no major problems would surface for the next one year.
I have to admit that driving a manual car for the first time in perhaps two years did provide a challenge to me. I was literally sweating especially when it comes to steep slopes, where there is a danger of rolling back too much or a "die car" situation arises on the slope. I kind of avoid those roads that may be potentially embarassing for me. But now, with constant driving everyday, I must say my driving skills have improved though still not yet the level of the uncles who can even read newspaper while driving.
Work-wise, it has not been a good few months for me because of my colleague, Jeff. Jeff came to my section in Jun 06, replacing one of my colleagues who left the service. Before he came, my section head asked me what is my opinion of Jeff. I told her that he seems okay and among the shortlisted candidates, he is perhaps the best choice among them. He came in and within a month, Jeff proved that he was more a liability to our section rather than an asset. Joe, my other colleague in the section, and I were trying to go through the job scope and guide Jeff along the way as much as possible. Whenever we asked him if he got any problems, he would give a definite no and appeared confident in the job. However, when his supervisor starts to ask him questions, Jeff would either say "I don't know", "They never teach me" or he would try to bluff his way through, or what we Army guys normally term it as "smoke". Joe and I got fed up with him (we come to a conclusion that it was Jeff's ego problem - he was a SSG and 32 years old at that point of time - that causes this) and when Joe left the service in Sep 06, he said good luck to me. Ya thanks.
Replacing Joe was a guy called Patrick. Patrick was the opposite of Jeff. Patrick was eager to learn the ropes and asked questions whenever he was unsure of the things that Joe and I taught him. With the departure of Joe, I was the most senior specialist in the section (4 years), followed by Jeff and then Patrick. However, Jeff, by virtue of rank, is still the most senior specialist, and therefore was supposed to oversee some of the work that our section does. From the time Joe left till now, almost 90% of the work that Jeff had to oversee became my task. It's either he conveniently forgets or he does such a bad job on the work that I have to clean his shit behind him. At that point, I was damn pissed. I kept thinking how did he attained his SSG rank and can't believe a person older than me by 6 years old could be so irresponsible. Joe's words were beginning to come true.
All of a sudden, Jeff started to talk about leaving our section. He told me that he is getting old and finds it hard to remember some of the things that our officers asked him to. He even said that he is a liability to the branch and leaving the branch ASAP would be better as he does not want to get the branch into trouble. Jeff subsequently talked to my section head, branch head and head of administration department about posting out. I was puzzled and at the same time, curious. I talked to him a few times during our teabreaks and lunch, trying to fish out what is the cause for this sudden decision. Eventually Jeff started to open up to me and told me something that pisses me even more. Jeff said he would be leaving the service in Jun 08 and pointed out that one of our colleagues, Max, who will also be leaving the service in Dec 08, was in a branch that is doing basically nothing. Jeff said why is it so unfair that Max, who is leaving later than him, gets to "rot" and wait for his time in that branch while he got to slog it out in our section. Jeff repeatedly said that our administration department should just post him there to "tuang" with Max and a couple of guys there.
I was furious! So the real reason why Jeff wants to leave is he wants to get his monthly pay of $3k-plus doing nothing in that branch instead of having to work for his pay! So all this talk about he can't remember stuff or he doesn't want to get the section into trouble because of his mistakes were all rubbish! I am planning to leave the service in Mar 08, three months earlier than Jeff, so does that mean I should also look for a posting to that branch? Joe worked all the way to his very last day in the service and I respect him for that. Jeff is just rubbish. Eventually, my branch head refused to let him leave, asking him to "bite the bullet". Hurray! He isn't going to get his way so easily because this aint his father's army. But Jeff proved me wrong in the end, with a price to pay.
Jeff's work improved slightly for the next few months after the I-want-to-post-out incident, though I still have to clear the shit after him. I even chanced upon his business plans when he was printing out the label design for his products and he sounded quite enthusiastic about it. All was fine until last week. Jeff was preparing something with a supervisor and a lot of mistakes were spotted due to the frequent last-minute changes to the work. Jeff showed a black face all day long [It has become his trademark whenever he's stressed with a lot of work (even though to my section, its just a little work but to him, its like a big project is thrown to him. Seems like he can't handle stress too well.)] and started saying things like "Ya la, every mistake also blame me. I'm okay with it because specialists are paid to take the blame." Childish. Nonetheless, I tried to tell him that nobody is blaming him and he just need to rectify the mistakes. That's all. Don't take it so hard man. That didn't work. Jeff remarked that he will expedite his departure from the section and even started clearing his stuff in his cabinet. At that moment, I thought to myself, "Siao". I couldn't believe how accurate can I be.
Jeff arranged for a medical appointment at Institute of Mental Health (IMH) the following week. He was later diagnosed with some anxiety depression disorder or something along that line. It was said that he was stressed by the working pace of our section and it has become so bad that he began to turn violent at home. Jeff again requested to be posted out. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that this time he got what he wanted. He was posted to the branch that would allow him to "rot" and wait for his time, while collecting his $3k-plus pay per month. My branch head believes that Jeff has a serious problem, my section head wants us to believe that Jeff has a serious problem but you know what? Call me cynical, skeptical, cold-blooded or whatever shit that you could think of. Up till now, I still do not believe that he has such a serious problem. My branch head commented that nobody in the right frame of mind would go to IMH and declare himself problematic as it would virtually destroy his future. My branch head is right in a sense but you can never underestimate a desperate man.
To me, Jeff is so desperate to get out of our section that even going to IMH and having a record thereafter wouldn't bother him. I have my reasons to doubt him. My previous conversations with him already indicated his intention to "tuang" in the branch that does nothing and his business plans. If a person is so stressed, got into depression and even becomes violent at home, does he still have the time to plan for his future business? Does he still have the mood to plan? Who could be witness to his outbreaks of violence at home? His wife and his sister were the ones who told the doctor this. Who could certify that what they said is true? In a few years time, all Jeff got to do is to go back to IMH and declare himself "healthy" again. There is a record but how many employers would really check the mental state of an employee? I rest my case.
As such, my workload has increased and so is Patrick's. Both of us have to suffer for one's rubbish. Jeff got what he wanted and I'm certainly not happy. But what can I do? Suck thumb. All I can do is just to complain on this online diary and that's it. I guess I should leave it at that. That's all folks! I'll be back! Soon... I hope...
P.S. - Long-ge, see you in a couple of weeks time!