… of trying to plan leave in advance but the person who is supposed to approve your leave is not willing to accept your leave plan just coz there MIGHT be a lot of work during that time? I mean, so are we now not allowed to take leave at all during a project?

And it’s not like I’m planning to take a whole week off! Just a couple of miserable days!

Gah!

Annoyed to the max! Hmph.

Update

Ahah!!!! I found the culprit!! Or rather, the culprit owned up. It was one of the BOYS. Naturally, I gave him a piece of my mind. He better not do it again. Hmph!

~~~~~

Some people just don’t understand the concept of open workstations.

One thing I detest to see when I get in to work first thing in the morning is that my workstation has been visibly utilized. Of course, I have no problems with people using my workstation (although it’s an open concept, I currently have my permanent space… for now). But isn’t it common sense that when you use someone else’s or a public space, you should return it to its original condition? I.e. table cleared of your cup and crumbs of food, and chair returned to its place under the table.

I always make sure that when I’m done using a workstation, it will be spotless by the time I leave.

Why can’t some people adhere to this rule of thumb and be considerate?? They think others are there to pick up after their messes, is it???

BAH!

…of a good holiday! Hmph!

Trust me to catch the flu bug on the week of Raya. Sleep, sleep, and more sleep was all I got during the past 5 days.

Sigh… I hate being sick

~~~~~

Being back in the office has dumped me right smack in the middle of all these colleagues whom I’ve never met before.

So the other day, while I was minding my own business and doing my work at my workstation, I heard a loud voice floating out of the room near where I was sitting.

“How could she… She’s just covering her @$$…”
“I didn’t have the heart to yell at her then but…”
“She better not let me catch her getting in after 9 and leaving before 5…”

This went on for like, hours, it seemed to me. And it was so distracting coz the office is normally quiet and you can’t help overhearing coz heck, it was l.o.u.d!

From what I could gather, one of the higher-uppers had some issue with one of the consultants and was ranting to a colleague.

This same person repeated the same rant to another higher-upper the very next day at the pantry, which also happened to be near my workstation.

ok, everyone rants. That’s fine. But if you want to rant about someone, please do so in private because I happen to think that it is very rude to talk such things about someone in the presence of others who have no business hearing it even though names were not mentioned. And not to mention distracting when we are trying to work.

And this business about yelling? If there’s one thing I detest in my first job and my current job is that I’ve seen and heard of cases where people get yelled at for the work that they do due to whatever reasons. I mean, c’mon! Regardless of the work done, we are all working professionals and should maintain that professionalism in the way we treat our staff and colleagues. If we can treat our clients like kings and queens, why should we treat our own staff, the people who are doing the actual hard work, like shit? And then we wonder why the attrition rate is so high! Sheeesh…

Gawd help me not to ever be assigned to this person’s project! PLEASE!

Update

I’m such a dork!! I get POINTS, not cash!!! Duh! Which I can redeem for products

Oooooooo… I see a 2GB Ipod Shuffle, Sony MP3 Walkman…. *drool*

~~~~~

I got an award I got an award!!!!!!!!!!

My boss gave me a Celebrating Performance Monetary Award for my work on one of the items in my last project!!!!!!!!!

I wonder how many ringgits I will be getting… hhhhmmm…

The firm’s retreat was quite enjoyable. We were sufficiently occupied, not overly. So it was quite relaxing for me.

Had a great time bonding with the team, though not all of them were there. I think I spoiled the market a bit for the two boys, since we were literally inseparable! LOL! What to do… people mostly hung out with their team members, the firm being so big and all.

Some notable things :

• I got my first Zang Toi apparel!!!! I dunno thru whose contacts it was achieved but I got my first (and most likely, only) Zang Toi polo Tee!!!!!
• I discovered that when some people get high on alcohol, the tone of their voices change, hehe… somebody got quite high on alcohol on Night 2
• Archery is quite fun! And I have my battle scar to prove it!

Here’s to hoping next year’s BUM will be better than this year’s!

I have not laughed as hard as I did last night in a long, long time.
I was literally in tears!

See, I had some problems with my mobile line yesterday. Not sure if it was a crossline problem or something but I was told that the recipient of my calls heard someone else on the phone while on my side, it seemed to me like the person I was calling couldn’t hear me (when this happens, I hang up and call again).

So I called SC yesterday. The first time I called, he heard some pissed off guy on the other end of the phone. I hung up coz I thought he couldn’t hear me. The second time I called, he heard some mat salleh guy on the phone, asking for a “Mr. Bau Han” or something like that. And SC was telling the person that there’s no such person but I guess the mat salleh guy couldn’t hear him either coz SC heard the guy telling someone else “He can’t hear me!”. While I was still on the line, trying to figure out who SC was talking to coz he wasn’t answering my questions! So there was like, a 3-way conversation going on but no one was able to hear anyone else!

I hung up again and texted SC to give me his fixed line no. The following was what happened thereafter, as related by Sam and Zhern.

Now, the phone at the client’s site can’t call mobile numbers. So we have to call the operator first and get them to call the mobile no. and connect us. Apparently, SC dialed ’9′ (for external numbers), followed by my mobile no — 016….. Then he started talking. After a moment, he realized that he was talking to the operator, not me! (The phone must’ve registered only the ’0′ in my mobile no) The others around him heard his entire conversation and burst out laughing. Sam was like “I was telling myself, ‘dun laugh, dun laugh’ but I couldn’t help it!” You had to be there to hear the stories. I was laughing myself to tears!

Weekends don’t count unless you spend them doing something completely pointless. ~Calvin (Hobbes’ buddy)~

I guess I can kiss my weekends goodbye soon, if the things that I’ve heard are true. Work till you get the work done, is the motto at this place. Not that it’s a bad motto but then, you need to set your boundaries and priorities and know where work ends and your own life starts. Unfortunately, at this place, work IS life. Well, my workload hasn’t gotten that bad yet but I’m sure it will come sooner or later.

Why am I getting myself into this situation again? Those are reasons which I will keep to myself for now. I just hope (and pray) I’ll be able to endure the kinds of things (more like, horror stories) that may be thrown at me in time to come.

How do some people do it?? Day in, day out… year after year after year… all that type of abuse hurling at them. I really salute them.

I must start thinking about being self-employed. I really cannot imagine myself working in this type of environment or working for an organization for the rest of my life. I need to be self-employed!! Gotta start thinking NOW.

~~~~~

Been using the LRT to get to work these days. One thing really amazing I found out in my recent LRT experience is that Malaysians actually QUEUE UP!!!!! And very orderly too! No pushing or rushing even though it’s rush hour and ppl are trying to get to work on time! It’s just so freaking amazing, compared to 5 years ago, when I used to use the LRT. Back then, ppl couldn’t bothered to queue.

But apparently, this amazing phenomenon only happens at the Putra LRT stations. According to my colleague, ppl don’t queue at other public transportation lines.

Other than that, the traffic is getting more horrendous every day. It seems like the earlier I leave for work, the more futile an attempt it is to try to beat the morning traffic. And the Putra LRT service really does not have the capacity to cater to the peak hour crowd coz the trains are just too small! Imagine, on Thursday, I had to wait for ELEVEN trains to pass before I managed to get on!! They were soooo packed that ppl had their faces literally smooshed onto the doors!!

Some serious re-work needs to be done with our public transportation system. But from the looks of it, I doubt that will happen because we will always have ppl who are more concerned about pocketing public funds for their own selfish use rather than for the good of the country. Malaysia boleh, ma! Bleh…

So that’s the story of my life right now. It’s a Saturday night and I’ve got to start preparing for work on Monday.

Yay, how exciting… (can’t you just feel my enthusiasm)

Update

Sometimes, I think I’m the most ungrateful person I’ve ever known.

I got called back from No. 2 below for the final interview. And the first thing I said to myself when I put down the phone? Oh shites!

Why? Because I thought I blew the 2nd interview but mainly because my frame of mind since then is to work towards something non-corporate.

I know many people will tell me that there are lots of people who’d kill for this opportunity. For me, it’s just another reason to pull me back into the ruthless and unethical world of corporations.

Oh well, I’m still young (relatively). Slave a few more years and save the money so I can do something on my own later. That is, if I get the job.

That is, if I can convince myself that the money is worth it.

That is, if I can convince myself that a few more years of enduring corporate world crap at the expense of my principles and values is worth it.

o_O

~~~~~

The recent meetings that I’ve had seemed to have turned me off the corporate world even more.

From one, I learned that there’s no such thing as work-life balance. From the way they reacted, it was like they have never heard of the phrase before.
Gosh, no wonder these people walk around looking like zombies and acting like they’re perpetually high on caffeine/sugar (highly likely!).

From another, I learned that they’re totally obsessed with being around smart people.
Don’t they know that (1) smart people can be arrogant a-holes, and (2) smart people can make the stupidest mistakes because they think they are THAT smart and know everything under the sun.

I can accept the criticism that they want to extend to me and my work experience but I do not need to be judged to be unworthy of their company/organization and I certainly do not wish to turn into one of THEM. This recent experience has seriously given me all the more reason to get out of the corporate world and do my own thing.

If I need to slave for a while to do what I want, then so be it. I must, I will, and I CAN!!!!!!!!!!

My new mantra : Need to take risks, need to take risks, need to take risks…

*psychotically biting nails and pulling hair*

Tomorrow is my last day at work (yay!!)

Since late last month, I’ve been thinking a lot about what I’d like to do with my life, in anticipation of the expiry of my contract.

One idea stuck and the initial plan was to learn a new skill part-time, while still working full-time for a corporation.

But since early this month, I’ve been thinking really hard about whether I desire to continue to be in the corporate world because I’m really sick of the politics and especially the unethical behaviour of corporations.

I haven’t been working that long but my experience thus far has left me with total disgust at the way things work in the corporate world. I’m only a small fry in an organization so if the management wants to do things a certain way (however unethical I think it may be), at the end of the day, I still have to do it because they are paying me to do my job.

Some people can just close a blind eye and do what’s expected of them and go to sleep peacefully at night but unfortunately, I’m not one of those people. Those things that I HAVE to do even though I think it is wrong, would haunt me because of the mere fact that it is WRONG! And at the end of the day, I feel like crap for having to do what I did because I feel like I’ve let myself down by conforming to what was expected of me, even though it was wrong.

Which brings me to where I am now : Do I want to stay in the corporate world OR make a complete change once and for all?

THAT is the question I need to answer, and answer soon.

~~~~~

Over teh halia with ChrisW, WPeng, and Foo this evening, I informed them of my current work status and also my dilemma and my potential career change.

They were very supportive and even came up with more ideas on what I could do! They’re significantly older than I am so they’ve got way more “life experience” than I have and are in the position to give me some advice. Foo even has some contacts that he said he’d check with. Sometimes, opportunities just appear out of nowhere! Isn’t that awesome??

How does “AiLiJelly” sound? And I don’t even need to pay someone a huge chunk of money to come up with a company name! Haha! (This one is the side biz, if it ever takes off. I’ve got another idea for the main one.)

I left feeling inspired but definitely more work has to be done for me to give myself the push to make the change that I feel I should make.

Am quite scared actually. It can get quite comfortable, working with a corporation and knowing that you’ll get your monthly salary no matter what. Getting out of that comfort zone takes some getting used to. Hopefully once I’ve got that push, I go full speed ahead.

So today I blasted off an email to The S. Boss, excerpt as follows :

Please confirm if you wish to extend my services beyond the above date, as you had indicated yesterday. If yes, I would appreciate if you can provide me with a formal letter stating [insert company name]‘s intention to extend my services, with the following included in the letter:

1.    Duration of extension (start date and end date)
2.    Computation of my daily rate
3.    Total amount to be paid in lieu of my annual leave
4.    Current benefits would remain status quo throughout the duration of extension (i.e. EPF contributions (employee & employer), tax withholding, outpatient medical, etc.)
5.    Date of payment

As expected, they said dun want to extend la. HAH, they think they can con me the second time? I did payroll before, ok?! I highly doubted that they would want to go thru so much work just to get me to stay a few days. Anyway, I’m not important, only a small fry. But I’m not about to let them take me for a ride the second time, man.

According to auntie-colleague, she and The S. Boss were discussing resources today. And auntie-colleague remarked how come The S. Boss gave me less than a month’s notice regarding the non-renewal of my contract. You know what The S. Boss said?

Haiyah! There are a lot of headhunters ma!

Can you believe the nerve of this other example of an Imbecile Woman?! Whether there’s 1 headhunter or 1 million, I couldn’t care less! It’s a matter of being fair, for crying out loud! Easy for her to say… she being able to afford 2 or more luxury vehicles, to send all her 2/3 of a dozen kids to private school and one heading overseas soon.

I’ve had this bad feeling about her from the day I spoke to her at my interview, and it’s been growing since then. After this incident, I just feeling like b*tch-slapping her each time I see her… and also another person who deserves it too. Haha, yeah, that’s very childish of me but seriously, that’s what I feel like doing!

You want to know why employees don’t remain loyal to their companies? Well, it’s because of cases such as this. If you don’t know how to treat your employees, don’t expect them to be loyal to you. And STOP complaining that employees are not loyal. Examine how you treat your employees before condemning them as disloyal and ungrately turds.