Monday, March 30, 2009
Superiors' day out, our day in!
It's Monday again -- the worst day of any week. Hence, people came up with the term 'monday blues'. That'd turn out to be true on other weeks but...not today!
Apparently, one of our supervisors will be leaving us tomorrow and the higher-ups had already been planning on throwing her a farewell party since last week, tasking my senior with getting them a reservation for high tea. Of course, my senior didn't like it cause basically, we're not a concierge. We have our jobs to do and making reservations for high tea at hotels definitely isn't one of them. Jeezers...come to think of it, they even had them script out their jobscopes to better remind them of what they're supposed to do.
Anyway, my senior went along with it and, last week, scheduled them for high tea at 3.30pm today. Happily, we went to work, looking forward to the moment when we'll claim the office for ourselves. However, we didn't even have to wait till noon for the fun to begin. Most of the superiors in our office didn't come in today! 'Auntiesaurus' included! We breezed past for most of the day but we're still eagerly waiting for the remaining few to vacate the building. We initially thought they'd leave at 2.45 but they were still there. Then, we thought 3.00pm and again, wrong guess. By 3.15pm, everyone was sitting on their edge, wondering if there had been a change in their plans because the 'focus' of the event...was still in the office! Yeah, people were throwing her a farewell party and she didn't even bother if she was late!? Gosh, is she vapid, thickheaded or what? Finally came 3.30 and most of us were frustrated with why they're still in the office. A little more time flew by and hurrah! After half a day of waiting, the superiors are finally out!! Everyone immediately dropped their work and moved to their respective social groups, either to chat or fool around. From there on, it was a downhill slide till we knock off at 5.30pm.
*Exhales*, I guess today wasn't really all that bad for a Monday. In fact, it wasn't bad at all except for the moments of doubt we had in between regarding the farewell party. I guess from tomorrow on, it's one less superior to look out for. Other words, their loss, our gain!
Last Updated @ 6:03 AM
Signed: Whoever was here...
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Tables, chairs and slack...
Another quick update before the blog is left to wilt again.
Today was an exceptionally enjoyable and exciting day, mostly because today was way different than most other days. You could say that the train somehow veered off its tracks.
First abnormal instance, which came pretty much as a surprise to about everyone else, my senior who almost NEVER has breakfast...actually offered to treat me to one. It was like, 'Hey, let's go get some breakfast.' and I went 'Huh? For real?' while everyone else was saying 'Oh my god. D-day must be round the corner.' Initially, I declined his goodwill but since it was freezing in the office, I finally crumbled and gave in. Went to the canteen and had nothing but a cup of tea since I didn't have the appetite for anything else.
Then, during lunchtime, our group actually decided to skip lunch! One thing I can assure you people is that these guys would never forego their meals for work. They'd take adavantage of every break they get to the fullest extent. Well, of course, that determination didn't last very long 'cause halfway through lunchtime, we dropped all work and the five of us swarmed to the canteen. Since we came out at a later time, we planned to stay out a bit longer, past the designated lunch period. That turned out to be a pretty wise move when a supervisor-of-sorts in our office came to ask for our assistance. She was in urgent need of extra help to set up some tables and chairs for an event. Reason being, she was heavily understaffed. Had only one person under her section to expend since the other guy called in sick. I know, it's a really small section that consists of only two people. So, since we're already out of the office, why not?
We proceeded to the 'VIP Room', ready to set up some chairs and tables. Had a rather easy time since they were still fumbling over how the tables should be placed and what should go where. Next, we found out that we were short of ten chairs. Called up a shuttle bus from the transport division and the five of us happily rode down to the auditorium for some 'chair stealing'. Once inside, we had two different chairs to pick from. Of course, we knew which ones we were supposed to pick but since the supervisor-of-sorts didn't mention the specific kind, we decided to go with the wrong kind of chair so that we could spend more time out of the office. Once back at the room, the supervisor-of-sorts was like 'oh my god, why did you pick these chairs?'
Personally, I just don't understand why they have to go through all these big hoo-ha over something so minor. I mean, they were just throwing a buffet for the VIPs, not auctioning off the chairs and tables. Do they really think that the VIPs are gonna mind that the chairs are not the same? Of course not, they just wanna eat for crying out loud.
In the end, she still settled for the chairs we picked and sadly, our plans were crashed. It's still good though cause we continued to linger inside the VIP room, constantly shifting the chairs into position to her satisfaction.
After all's done, we decided to explore this room, called the 'Enforcers' Lodge', that was meant for us workers but has never once been utilized. Told the supervisor-of-sorts that we're gonna go test out the air-cons there. Honestly, in my opinion, it was nothing much. It was quite a big room but there were just armchairs after armchairs. You could say it bears quite a resemblance to the waiting room at a hospital. Next thing you know, the guys were flipping through the channels on TV before settling for 'Survivor: Tocantins'. Spent like 10 to 15 min in there before the supervisor-of-sorts came over. Normally, you'd expect her to shout at us but no, she just told us that we turned on the lights outside by accident. After that, since she was returning to the office, we told her to inform our supervisor, 'Auntiesaurus', that we're still helping out in the VIP room whereas in fact, we're slacking off in the 'Enforcers' Lodge'. You'd think she'll say no but she agreed without any hesitation. No strings attached either. After we've experienced our fill of the room, we obediently headed back to the office.
It's not like these sort of stuff happens everyday and it's kinda fun to have it once in a while. Partially, it's because we have such wonderful supervisors that we can experience a different side of our normal life routine. 'Auntiesaurus' isn't all that bad either. It's just that when she gets a lil' bitchy when she really wants something, it'll get on your nerves. Otherwise, she's harmless. No radioactive blasts from her mouth or lasers shooting from her eyes. To sum it all up, today's a special day filled with tables, chairs and slack. Three cheers for us and the supervisors!
Last Updated @ 7:43 AM
Signed: Whoever was here...
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Neither long nor short
So, I was pondering when the hell I was gonna update this wilting blog of mine and tadah, here I am right now updating it. Kinda felt bad leaving it alone for such an extended period of time.
Anyways~, just a quick update of what I've been up to recently. Over these past few months, I was busy preparing to take on this very frustrating situation that certain people have to go through at some point in time. Basically, it can be summarized in two letters, primarily 'N' and 'S'. Yeah, NS. It really sucks but what can I do? I'm like forced into it before I was even born! It's dictated I tell you. Dictated! Geez.
But, oh well, since it's already begun, what else can I do but to acknowledge the fact that I can't run from it. No use cursing the dark when you've already walked into it. Just have to look on the bright side, like the song that goes like this:
'Always look on the bright side of life, do doo~ do doo do doo do doo~'.
Basically, it all started out with us being 'exiled' to a 'deserted' off-shore island infested with nothing but people in camo for 5 days. For me, I was considered to be lucky cause it was like a stroll down the beach, whereas the norm would be to remain in exile for 3 to 12 weeks of vigorous training. Following that, we returned to 'civilization' and were posted to different units. For me, I was assigned a clerk position. More specifically, an Admin Support Assistant or ASA for short. Till date, it's been only 3 days since I started work as an ASA and I gotta say, it's kinda...boring. I'm just gonna hope that the boring-ness is not gonna stay for long or I'd have to live with it for 2 whole years!
Oh, and speaking about 2 years, every senior that's spoken to us has this to say, 'Two years isn't a short time. But neither is it long.' Hmm...makes perfect sense. I guess it's just nice, eh? Not. What, do we look like toddlers to them? How on earth is that supposed to make us feel better? Or rather, was it even intended to? Well, now that's something to think about...
Back to my life as ASA. Since I'm new and all green, I'm studying under a senior who'd be leaving sometime in June. If things go well, I'll be his replacement...or someone elses. Either way, I'm just there to replace someone who'll be leaving soon. As for the working environment, I can only think of the word 'freezer'. It's like they have the air-con linked to the North Pole or some place cold. It's simply freezing. However, compared to the burning weather outside, I'd prefer to stay in the 'freezer' all day long.
Other than the freezing office, the people working there are a mix of all sorts. Big, fat, short, tall, skinny and small. Besides, we're all around the same age so it's a lot of fun watching them trying to slack through the hours from 8am to 5.30pm or the funny talk they have sometimes. Like for instance, today, one of my colleagues was messing around with the barcode scanner, using it to scan the barcode on his computer while my senior was trying to key in something. Basically, it went like this. My senior was keying in some numbers then *beep* and some random numbers overwrites whatever he keyed in. My senior, Vadi, goes like,
'Hey, I'm trying to find this guy lah...'
and the guy, Mason, was like,
'Oh, I didn't know. Just trying it out.'
My senior continues keying in his stuff when all of a sudden *beep*...then...*beep*, keys in, *beep*, keys in, *beep*, keys in, *beep*...cycle goes on for quite some time. Later that afternoon, the same guy was playing with the scanner again. This time, the lady in charge, better known as 'Auntiesaurus', heard the beeping sound and asked my senior what he was doing with the scanner cause he was the only one with it. In his attempt to cover up for Mason, he told her that he wanted to check if the scanner was working fine cause it blacked out for a moment. Of course, that was a plain white lie. Everyone else who knew what was going on were giggling their guts out, having deceived the 'Auntiesaurus'. The fun doesn't just stop there cause another of the senior clerk knew about it and was asking Mason what he did. Surprisingly, he stuck to my senior's story and threw all the blame on him, like,
'Aiyo, Vadi, you very naughty ah. Keep playing with the scanner. Very fun meh?'
Truth be told, it indeed was very fun. Not the scanner of course but the entire happening. All in all, you'll encounter these sort of events umpteen times per day so I guess it really isn't all THAT boring. For the scanner itself, I'll have a hands-on session next Monday so I'll get to see how fun it really is. Let's hope it doesn't turn out to be a bummer. XD
Last Updated @ 6:36 AM
Signed: Whoever was here...
