Half of The Company is Gone!!!

Now is still the first week of May, but can you guess how many people have resigned from our company this year?

8.

Yeppp a lot huh? You can say that the other department is pretty much restructured now :l I really feel sorry to the most senior girl there now, she's only got less than 1 year experience, but they will demand A LOT from her in the future just because she's the longest there now.

3 of them are from our IT department. I think i've written about Creamer right? He's still in our company actually, but only as a contractor. The other 2 were actually Barbie's bf replacement. 1 wasn't great and due to personal reason he left. Honestly, Little Missy and me were a bit relieved when he left. It was so hard to teach him as he kept forgetting things. His replacement was great, but he was smart and escaped as soon as he could LOL

Anyway, what I wanna tell you is, Birdie was 1 of those who quit. She's dedicated, deligent and smart. But sometimes working with her becomes SO complicated and stressful! She wants everything perfect! (Even when it's not really worth it). Can't really blame her, afterall she was taught by Prick and works with him all this time. 应该的。

She's been saying she wants to quit since a million years ago. Seriously. Even when I mentioned "Birdie says she's quitting this week", my sister replied, "Again? Will she really quit??". At least I never said when I will quit :P the reasons behind her quitting are quite a few, from the low pay, long working hours, too far from home, overexcited-overtalkative-overmicromanaging boss, Prick, and so on. But when she quit, the bosses (overexcited) believed (and still believe) that Prick WAS the main reason of her quitting.

Combined with the complaint that Crown Prince made on behalf of all the other employees against Prick, the bosses called Prick into a meeting and basically told him that everyone hates him and please stop being a prick. That is okay, he was really a prick. I fought with him so many times, ignores him so many times and provoked him so many times. I did have plans brewing in my mind on how to get back at him (which I never carried, unfortunately). He is a bossy, lazy, anxious manager who likes to take his time working on 1 thing, and then dump the other work to his minions. Then, when the due date passed, he chases the minion and gets angry if the work is not done. Even though.. sometimes he doesnt even tell the minions when the due dates are *rolling eyes*. He did that to me too. So when that happens, what I said was always, "Well I did that 2 weeks ago and you didnt give any feedback. Why did you only come today when the due date was yesterday? I didn't even know the due date was yesterday!". I did complain about him during my reviews too, but nothing happened.

He's the reason Birdie becomes very on edge, detailed, stressed and always tries to pick the smallest mistakes on our project. I tell you what, a couple of times I come over to Water Tap's desk and notice a little too much or too little spacing, and tell him to fix it. He refuses and days, "Noooo I put it there, just so Birdie, Prick or superexcited can pick up a mistake! So they are happy to pick up something and not come up with something more difficult to change!". Do you get what I mean now? Apples don't fall far from the tree.

But really, Prick WASN'T the only reason. But since superexcited thinks he is THE reason, superexcited becomes very rude and sensitive towards ANYTHING Prick says. I was in a meeting with those 2, and I could see, on every suggestions that Prick made, overexcited either brushed him off, told him off, and just being rude. Even when all Prick just wanted to do was to explain what a paragraph meant! After the meeting, I told him that I understood what he wanted to say. He was right. Superexcited was wrong.

Then, there was another issue between him and the bosses, before the bosses made a role specifically for him. That role will enable him to work with minimal interaction with the colleagues. Not long after, Prick handed in his resignation.

I have a feeling... Superexcited might not be too unhappy about it... Prick and him are actually quite similar, so they usually argue their point a lot. That's why their programs are usually very complicated. Because they stand their ground and force us to do what they want! So maybe with Prick gone, superexcited can have all he wants now.

Pre-Christmas Drama

So, Christmas is in 2 days time. But this year's Christmas is filled with drama in the week leading to it. Let me tell you what happened this week.

Last Monday, Strawberry Cheesecake resigned. We, the girls, were so worried for her. As my readers would have known, my boss who shall not be named, has never ever ever ever ever handled resignation well. But surprisingly, he actually handled her resignation so well and even very supportive! The girls who saw her entering his office was confused as 1. the meeting didn't take long. And 2, where's the yelling???

Even Strawberry Cheesecake herself was confused. She said she couldn't remember much of the meeting as she was thinking "why he's not angry? Why he's taking it so well???" during the talk.

So it was good for her, and we're so happy for her.

Mon arvo, Prick came and talked to Creamer and Lao-er. Straight after, he dashed out angrily and went home. Creamer then asked me about the status of a task, to which I replied, I was working on it. He then said "It's due today". As typical of prick, always comes the minute it's due and angry coz its not done. Anyway we tried to do it, but it was too complex to finish in 1 hour so we left it.

Tue morning, just when we finished the stage 1 of yesterday's task, Taizi Fei came and told us that a bunch of emails to the new audience were sent out that morning. Shit. Creamer and I looked at each other and wondered how it could have happened. We went live with something yesterday yes, but we've gone Live 2 weeks ago with the same thing and all was fine.

The problem was, the client specifically requested NOT to send those emails to this new audience. We can't send ANY emails to them as we haven't officially launched it to them.

I straight away checked the code that sent out those emails, and I found that the code was correct. However, the placement of those codes was WRONG! Those emails should not be sent at that point in time!! I showed it to my Creamer, his face turned grave and said "This is bad, Purple Lady..." I said, "I know, but at least we now know how it happened". What I didn't know was, that it was going to be THIS bad.

You know who was extremely upset when he heard it. He was blaming everyone on how could the wrong code could go into the Live site. The person who coded it was Barbie's boyfriend. Not sure if I've mentioned it before, but he quitted some time ago. I can't believe how lucky he is.

However, the people who could have gone live with it were me, Water Tap and Creamer. But honestly, and this was confirmed by the 2 of them too, no matter whoever goes live with it, he/she won't notice this issue. As we only code review the changes, not the original code.

Creamer had to run around explaining to the one who shall not be named, and Lao-er. And who knows if superexcited actually got what the problem was. After all he's not an IT guy. Just an old man who thinks he's very knowledgeable. *sigh...

Anyway you know who was very angry. And he wanted to have a meeting with the whole IT department re this issue. The meeting didn't happen on Wed, not Thu either. Honestly, me and Little Missy were feeling safe when it didn't happen on Thu. But who knows Fri just b4 lunch, we were all called for a meeting *sigh

It turned out better than I thought. Superexcited seemed to listen to our issues and suggestions. Yes he still ranted about the incident. But it was way better than me and Little Missy expected. So we thought all is fine.

However that night, Creamer said to me, "I know you like to talk to everyone. And I know you can't keep a secret(WTH????). But you have to keep this one. You cant tell anyone" I said, "O.. Kay..? ". He then said, "I've just resigned". First thing I said was, "No... "

He then said that he's been thinking about it for a while. And he's been trying to talk to Lao-er for a month, but Lao-er was so busy and couldn't talk with him. He said this week's issue wasn't the only reason, but it was the deciding factor. He said he's doing 5 ppl's work and felt not appreciated. Everytime someone's PC breaks, he's called. When someone only has 1 monitor, he's to blamed. When Crown Prince's personal laptop breaks, 5 times, who did they call? Him! He's a manager, but doing web developing and IT support as well.

He said he's so fed up with everything. He said, during today's meeting, this was what annoyed him the most.
Super excited: "New guy, do you know why we're here? Do you know the problem? "
New guy: *turned to Creamer*
Superexcited: "don't look at Creamer. He doesn't know the answer. Look at Water Tap, he might know the answer. Look at Little Missy, he might know the answer".

He's had enough. He doesn't think superexcited understands what the issue was. How it could happen to anyone who went live with it. How there is no bug free software. He just doesn't understand.

He said sorry to me, for leaving me behind with the websites that are still not 100% done. And he's sorry for all the time he dumped stuffs to me without properly explaining. He said he wanted to explain, but he didn't have the time. And he knew I would figure it out in the end. He also regretted, not supporting Water Tap's idea that much before.

If it wasn't because of the one who shall not be named, he'd have stayed on.

I don't know how many times I've heard that now. So many good employees have said that when they left. The best people we've ever had.

I think about things a lot. I was down a whole day yesterday thinking about this. There's nothing I can do, but I just can't help thinking.

I hope I can still have peace this Christmas.

Random Blabbering of the Day

Nowadays people are so into their mobile phones and don't care about other people and courtesy anymore. I think I liked it better when apple was only a fruit.

I got off a bus just then. I got off from the front of the bus, and tried to walk to the station. Because it was at the front, there were people queueing to get on the bus. However, they were standing next to the side divider of the bus stop, so there's really only enough space for 1 person to walk.

Then, right at the side of that divider, there was this one guy standing not really in line with the other people. So he was taking half of the space of us who got off the bus. He was (of course) looking at his mobile phone with no care in the world that he was taking the space for the people getting off. Us, me included, had our bags bumped to him as we walked past him. He, didn't budge at all. I actually bumped my bag to him purposely. Hopefully I hit him.

This morning we had a high school student doing 1 week work experience in our office. He's probably in year 10, very young. Poker Face took the boy to our IT area and introduced me and Creamer to him.

Little Missy and Drug were away sick this morming, and Water Tap working hours is later than us. Poker Face said, "Where are the others? They are all having a sleep in today I guess".

He said it lightly, making it like a joke. Then Creamer said, "Drug is sick today. Little Missy is having his surgery right now. And Water Tap comes in at 10 as usual. "

Seriously, what was he trying to say??? Both of them were legitimately having medical reason. And Little Missy was having surgery! SO inappropriate!!

Dunno if he saw it, but my look and Creamer's look clearly showed that we weren't happy about it.

Then later on, Poker Face was trying to make a joke with the boy. I guess maybe because the boy was looking awkward. Well what can you expect? He's young and in unfamiliar place. Anyway, this was what happened.

Poker Face: I heard from your dad that you're some kind of computer whiz. He said you might be able to help in the IT dept. So what languages are you familiar with?

The boy: English.

Poker Face: ...

Me: *trying to hold my giggles 😂

The Weirdest Compliments I Had

Just happened last Friday after I got changed into a dress for our office Xmas party.
A male colleague:
"You're thinner this year! You wouldn't have fit into that dress last year, would you? "
Me: *Jaw dropped to the ground, speechless* "Err.. I don't know... I think I'm the same, or even heavier this year... "

When I was in Junior High School:
School Girlfriends: "Woahhh, from your back you look like a beautiful girl!!"
Me: "Err.. -_-"

A male friend during Junior High School,
"You know, except that you're smart, there's nothing good about you"
Me: 😐

Tapwater: "A girl can only be either smart or pretty".
Tapwater: "You're smart".
Me: *speechless* "I don't know if I should be happy or not."

Really, what's inside my head at those moments was, "Maksud loe???? "

Easy Resignations

Lately I don't have much appetite to write something, which is a shame because I like writing. But there's no topic I'm so passionate to write about. Superexcited is still playing up, but I don't really care about him anymore much, so it doesn't give me that much kick to write. But this post is still about him haha!

2 people have resigned from my company. Last Friday was Dudul's last day, THANK GOD! I admit I am not a nice person and doesn't like a lot of people, Dudul so far is 1 out of 3 people I truly hate for all my years in this company. I can't really rank if dudul was the most annoying one, but dudul was certainly the dumbest/rockheaded one IMO. But even then, I still put money in to buy dudul's farewell gift and also still showed up to the farewell lunch. I sat at the other end of the table though haha! Even on dudul's last week there, he still managed to get scolded by me *sigh

After all those stories about resignation in our company, you probably are eager to listen and are prepared for an awesome story. But, tell you what, this resignation was pretty easy. Last year the Spice Girls actually laughed about dudul's resignation plan. Dudul said dudul wanted to quit in January this year, and would hand in the resignation in Jan and go for holiday for a month, so it's 2 months notice but 1 month is actually dudul's holiday. We laughed back then and thought you-know-who won't ever let dudul go easily. But fast forward to now, dudul gave his resignation 2 weeks before the planned holiday, giving 2 months notice, but the last day was actually a day before dudul's holiday started! So dudul really only gave 2 weeks notice! I can't believe his luck!

It was easy, but dudul did get a scolding from you-know-who too. Superexcited said dudul wasn't professional by just giving out resignation letter. In superexcited's opinion, professional means by the time dudul had the idea or thought of leaving the company, Dudul should have come to superexcited and discussed.... Really? Dudul wasn't going to marry your daughter mannnnnnn! Dudul was resigning! What dudul did was professional, what superexcited wanted was not professional, that's family thingy! Weird -_- of course I told my friends this story and as usual they all had a speechless and flabbergasted look on them @__@

The other one who resigned was Winnie the Pooh. That one was real easy. Pooh actually got a new job, but because Pooh was so scared of telling superexcited for a reason all of us here know about, Pooh said to him it's due to personal reasons. Superexcited asked her point blank, "Did you get a new job? ". Pooh didn't give away anything, whatever superexcited asked, Pooh said, "Sorry, personal reasons". As the results, superexcited couldn't get anything out. I kinda had a feeling he didn't dare to press on, maybe he's worried that someone is dying or something. He had some family issues, too, few months back, so maybe? Either way, it's good for Pooh 🐻

Pooh gave 1 month notice, but since Pooh had 2 weeks leave not used yet, Pooh really only gave 2 weeks notice. I am still speechless to this day, how could it be that easy @_@ but I'm happy for Pooh. I'm just sad coz I won't have anyone who actually stands up to superexcited instead of just saying yes to everything he says :(

First Office Incident in 2017

Don't you miss superexcited?

So, the other day we had our daily catch-up. This time, Creamer closed the door of the room we had the catch-up in. He usually never closes the door. I was like hmm is there anything happening? But then he picked up the phone and started calling water tap, so I thought oh okay, maybe it's just so it's not too loud for the people outside.

Then he said, "Hello, water tap, how's your morning going? It should be better than my morning". 😮

So apparently you know who went off at him that morning. It was so bad that Creamer warned us, "I've seen him angry before many times. I saw him getting angry on project X, I've seen him angry on project Y, but I've never seen him THIS angry. So, be careful today guys. You've been warned". Oh dear god...

What happened was (according to what I heard, since everything is always hush hush in this company), 1. Creamer went live with a pop up without showing it beforehand to super excited, and 2. Dudul sent a wrong link to the client.

The story goes like this... Creamer went live with a pop up that day. I'm not sure if the other department told him to do it or not, but neither he nor anybody else showed super excited that pop up before going Live. However, on Creamer's defence, the day before he went live, you know who was upset because that pop up couldn't go Live that day! So in Creamer's mind, that pop up has to go Live ASAP. In addition, the text within that pop up was dictated directly by super excited! In super excited mind? He felt everybody went around his back. Talk about being sensitive *rolling my eyes*

Second one was about an email. Apparently an email was sent to the client (by dudul), containing a link to go to Testing site instead of Live site. That email was going to be forwarded by the client to his subordinates. Superexcited was FURIOUS!

You know who: "Who gave Dudul that link? Did you give that to Dudul?".
Creamer: "No, I only gave him the code".
You know who: "Why did you not provide the link to Dudul???? "
Creamer: ???

The thing is, that website has been tested by Dudul and his team. How would they test it if they didn't know the URL? Why should we give them the link again??? The issue was just he didn't think while he did that and putting the Testing site rather than Live site!

The other department had a full half hour eavesdropping (not really, since everyone within 10 meter distance from superexcited's office would have heard it anyway) superexcited's yapping to the other senior people about the incident. Dudul didn't come earlier the next morning, so he was only listening to the last 10 minutes probably.

Our department on the other hand, heard him going off at Creamer and our boss. It was hush hush, but I could still hear bits and pieces of it and still got the full picture. He was saying things like, "If you guys think you can run this place better than I do, then I'm done here. I'm done! ". My 👀 lit up, inside I said, "Do it! Do it!!!" 😆😆

Oh I haven't told you this. That email was sent by Dudul yes. However, prior to sending that email, Dudul and youknowwho sat together reviewing the email!!! So yeppp... You know what I mean right? *wink wink*

As the result of this incident, there's a new rule in the office in regards to sending email containing links to client. IT has to provide the link to the other department to be sent to the client. Not everything, just new development that bla bla bla... I wasn't really listening, they will ask me anyway when they need it later 😗

Oh, and a little birdie told me Dudul has resigned. Not sure if it's true though. But I bet the most of IT Dept would be relieved to hear that news. I know I'm a bad person.

OMG 37 degree today!! Now is not even 8 AM yet, but it's already 34 degree!! And I forgot my lunch. Damn.

What Business Are We In By The Way??

Kadang aku heran ya, katanya kita in Motivation Business -> why the hell am I using caps there??? Can't believe I'm typing using bawel's typing style ughhhhhhhhhh... anyway, katanya kita in motivation business, mbok ya konsisten gitu lho and motivate your own employee gitu, bukannya demotivating us????

Contoh ya, inget kan soal kontrak 3 bulan lalu yg mereka suru semua pegawai sign, buat bikin kita2 kasi notice kl mau quit 1 bulan kalo kita uda kerja 1 taon, 2 bulan kalo uda kerja 2 taon, or 3 bulan kalo uda kerja 3 taon ke atas? Setelah kurang lebih 3 bulanan mereka lupa, kayanya si bawel ingetin bosku n 1 bos laen lagi deh. Jadinya, one day....

Si Red Head br performance review, feedbacknya positive banget and katanya bakalan naek gaji. Tp 1-2 minggu kemudian, si Poker Face tau2 nyamperin si Red Head.

Poker Face: I was just chasing Lao-Er about your raise, and he mentioned that you haven't signed the contract yet... I'd love to give you a raise, I'm on your side. I just want this to be sorted... bla bla bla bla.... ya intinya loe belon naek gaji soalnya loe belon sign contract.
Red Head: I don't think it's fair for someone junior like me to give 2++ months notice to quit.
Poker Face: Please think about it and get back to me and Lao Er.
Red Head: Lao Er mentioned that I don't have to give the full notice period if I've already got a job, but that isn't in the contract.
Poker Face: I understand.... but if it's in there then it would make the new contract the same as the old one...

See? Demotivating kan? Tiap hari berkoar2 soal success of a company depends on the employees, kita musti motivate employees supaya mrk kerjanya jg makin ok and bikin company makin sukses. Kenyataannya? Yah itu buat company org donk, kl buat sendiri mah laen cerita. Kl buat sendiri mah, ikettttt selama kita masi butuh, kalo bisa suru tanda tangan buat kerja seumur idup, tp kalo uda ga butuh, tiap hari bikin bete aja smp akhirnya keluar sendiri. Sorry deh, aku sendiri Asian, tp serasa kerja sama Asians man...

The funny thing was, pas sehari sesudahnya, si Red Head sakit, beneran sakit, bukannya bolos, dia emang ternyata agak2 penyakitan, jd normal buat dia tau2 sakit. Bosku kepikiran lolllll dia nanya ke temen si Red Head, dia beneran sakit ato ada alesan laen? HUHAUAHHAHUAHAHAAHAHAA sukurinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn XD And the next day wkt Red Head masuk kantor, si Poker Face lgs samperin dia, dia bilang dia bakalan tetep naek gaji regardless of the contract issue, Dia bilang, "I didn't want you to think that we were pressuring you". Hell right you weren't, wong dia pretty much bilang we'd love to give you a raise, but yeah you haven't signed the contract, so please sign so we can give you a raise. Gitu kan kasarnya?? Ampun dah. Dia pikir org2 bego apa -__-

Uda gitu ya, yg aku lagi sebel, kantor kita tuh tiap 3 bulan ada penghargaan buat pegawai teladan gituan lahhhhh periode terakhir kmrn br diumumin and aku gak dapet. Gendek sih, secara aku uda kerja keras 3 bulan terakhir. Honestly, aku uda rada nyerah sih dr brp taon lalu. Abis gimana coba, masa aku ga dpt2 lagi dari maybe 4 taon lalu, terus abis 2 taon baru dpt 1, itu juga bukannya pas period aku ngerasa kerja keras. Aku inget pas aku dpt dl, aku mikirnya cuma, "About time." Abis dr sana, smp skg aku ga pernah dpt lagi. Brp kl taon lalu aku pikir bakalan dapet, eh ga dapet juga, to the point aku uda mikir, udalah, uda diblacklist ga bakal dpt lg, so don't bother trying next time. I stayed true to that the period before last, bodo amat deh, ga ada kerja keras kerja keras apaan juga, krj biasa aja lah, enjoy ur time.

Tp 3 bulan terakhir tuh i had no choice man. Si manager pegi pacaran ke London, terus kmrn itu mudik ke bombay juga tunangan, kita jg baru launch 1 website yg oh my godddddd brief tuh ya either almost non-existent, or bisa ada berapa dokumen and gak jelas musti ikutin yg mana. Kl ikutin yg ini, aku diomelin dibilang pake dokumen onoooooo jangan iniiiii, tar laen kali aku cuekin dokumen ini, and pake dokumen ono, diomelin lageeeeeeeeeeeeeeee dibilang knp ikutin dokumen ini???? kl aku bilang lah kan wkt itu dibilang yg dokumen ini ngaco, jgn diikutin, aku diomelin lagi, dibilang beda kasus ya beda beda lahhhhhhhhhhh WOOOOOOOOIIIIIIII how do i know??????? dia jg ga bilang2???? and emang aku apaan bisa inget kl sales pake dokumen ini, kalo marketing pake ono, kl advertising pake ini, dll dll, kenapa ga update aja itu dokumen, apus2in yg gak bener???????????? Belon lagi itu project managernya yg nggak banget deh management skillnya, super micro management and super fucking annoying mannnnn, bingung deh bisa ada org kaya begituan -_- Uda 3 bawahan dia at least yg minta pindah duduk dr depan meja dia soalnya gak tahan being watched like a hawk. Not my word. His own word in the email yg gak sengaja kekirim ke bawahan dia instead of ke boss (dia mau ngadu ceritanya).

Anyway long story short, it wasn't my choice to work hard last qtr, but I still did my best and I still maintained my quality of code ya. Gak cuma asal copy paste biar cepet aje. Kemaren itu aku liat code si little missy, ya ampun nengggggggg, coding bok ya jangan copy paste 5 kali and cm ganti where ajaaaaaa.... gpp deh kl itu table cm 100 records or 1000 juga gpp dehhhhh, wong ini millions of records gitu lho, gak heran lama bener itu page ngeload -_- yg beresin sopo? ME! Belon lagi aku musti baca codenya sendiri n figure out itu code ngapain sebenernya (managers sibuk, ga sempet jelasin isi itu code ngapain).

And where's the appreciation? 0 besar.

Kemaren itu aku ada bilang si manager pas dia ngeledek soal aku cancel lunch rame2 buat ditraktir little missy (i'm honest ya, so what i say in here is the truth and only the truth, aku lagi sakit leher kmrn itu, and uda janji makan di pub sebelah, which u know lah makanana pub gorengan semua, bisa jadi apa tenggorokanku ntar?? jd ya aku cancel lah. Eh pas si little missy menang itu penghargaan, and seperti biasa, aku dgn ga tau malunya malak traktir lunch. Bodo. Aku uda sebel ga dapet, at least aku dpt makan gratis wekkk plus aku berani jamin si little missy dpt itu penghargaan, dikit banyak aku jg ada andil di situ pasti). Anyway si manager intinya ambil kesimpulan kalo aku cancel gara2 mau traktiran. So aku bales, just drop it, I'm still dissapointed aku ga dpt itu penghargaan, so don't rub it in. Dia bales, iya, gw uda perkirain you'd feel that way. I wanted to give you a heads up yesterday, I know you've been trying and working hard, you're almost there, I appreciate your effort bla bla bla... Again, aku itu jujur orgnya, so I said yes I'm disappointed, I did a lot this qtr. Terus dia bales bilang, "Don't be too disappointed, I remember I worked really hard one quarter and I didn't get it, I was really disappointed. But then another qtr I got it even when I had annual leave". Now, hold it there.

Kita itu kerja di bisnis apa ya anak2?? Motivation Business buuuuuuu. Terus, supaya pegawai bisa motivated, musti kapan ya good worknya direcognise?? Right there and then buuuu. Kenapa ya?? Soalnya kalo uda kelamaan uda basi buuuu, gak ngefek lagiii...bisa backfire malah. See? and really aku uda kelamaan di sini man, aku kerja di IT, tp kenapa bisa tau segala macem ginian instead of angular, mvc, nodeJS etc etc????? Remember what I said was in my mind wkt aku dpt itu penghargaan 1.5 years ago? "About time". I wasn't ecstatic. "About time" was exactly how I felt. I should have got that sooner. Robin Hood had same experience. 1 period dia kerja setengah mati and gak dapet, next period dia gak gitu kerja gimana and dia dpt, you know what she said? "When I got it, I was furious! You didn't give it to me when I worked so hard, why are you giving it to me now???" In my case now, aku mustinya uda dpt 2x at least in the last 1.5 years -__-

Also, si manager blg Almost there? aku uda kerja segitu keras masi dibilang almost there??? When you want to motivate people, you set them targets. Reasonable targets. Not too low, not too high, it has to be reachable so people don't get put off and just give up from the beginning. Honestly aku ngerasa targetku uda not reachable anymore and i should just not give a damn about it. Lebih repot kl itu target ga diannounce. Hmm.... remind me again kenapa kita taro targets and results di clients websites, bolak balik kirim email suru pegawai mereka login, buat apa ya coba??

What business are we in again? Why is it different for your own employees??? Tell me why.

What a sucky sucky day!

Superexcited played up today. He complained to Lao er and my manager saying that he had to turn down a demo to a potential client because we haven't got the demo site ready. I honestly don't know the way he complained, but that made Lao er and water tap turned panicky and cranky. And when they superexcited puts so much pressure on them, they turn... Simply annoying!

Superexcited said that IT is not proactive enough. We need to be chased, if not then we don't give them updates. For example on the page he asked little missy to work on. He said he hasn't heard anything from him, but the truth is, little missy had shown him last Friday but superexcited didn't like it, so little missy needs to rework it. Today is Tuesday. He complained this morning.

Second one which makes him really really angry was the fact that he had to turn down the demo request. He said it's been weeks and IT hasn't finished it. When Lao-er told us about it, Barbie girl said that we've only discussed it on Friday and we've just got the mock up yesterday morning. Lao er, exactly his wordings, "I don't care about any excuses, but this is a hundred thousand potential client, so it needs to be done. And when the director wants something done, you do it!". Woah woah.. what the....

The thing is, the directors knew we're gonna be asked for demo this week. And all along, superexcited has been checking the progress. Barbie girl has been working with him all these time and been given grief as his requirements keep changing all the time! Superexcited knows the progress, so why suddenly gets aggravated?? You know everything and had reviewed it last Friday! He reminds me of the boss in My Stupid Boss. Amnesia akut!

And then water tap. Because of all these proactive stuffs, he got me to fwd the notification emails that get sent when I update a task to the people within the campaign. But, the words he said to me was, "for the next 3 weeks, everytime you update a task, fwd that email to everyone in the campaign. Because people don't read those notification emails". Hearing that, what I thought was, those notifications emails get sent to notify you any updates. It's everyone's jobs to read it, why don't you fix the people who don't do it instead of spoonfeeding it to their mouth??? But I only said yes.

Then, when I updated the task, I forwarded the email to everyone within the task. Then came all these questions, Broken water tap: "Why did you send it to Slitherin? Why did you send it to Crown Prince? Why did you send to so many people??".

Purple Lady: "??? You said to send it to everyone within the project??! Slitherin is in the notification list, crown prince is in the project, all those people are in the notification list!".

Broken Water Tap: "you don't understand what I mean! Don't send to everyone! Just send to people who need to know!"

Purple Lady: (saying to myself how do I know what u mean? You only said send to everyone in the campaign!!) Well they are all in the project, shouldn't they all need to know?? You said they don't read those notifications.

Broken water tap: not everyone doesn't read those. Only me, creamer, Lao er, prick and poker face!

Purple Lady: how do I know who doesn't read those emails????

Broken water tap: I told you I didn't read those emails!

Purple Lady: yeah but how do I know who else doesn't???

Leaking water tap: me, prick, Lao er get so many emails so we don't check them. You have to think!

Purple Lady: ok, so I just send it to those 5?

Rusty broken water tap: "Don't take it per condition like that, every case is different! Send only if they are in the campaign!"

Purple Lady: YEAHHH I mean if any of those 5 are in the project!!! (duh?? You said not to take it as condition like that, while u didn't specify exactly what you want. Now when I said those 5, but with pre conditions they are in the project, you yell at me because I didnt specify!! JERKKKKKKK *throwing a big rock at him*)

Damn water tap: "I'll send the emails next time, you don't understand"

Purple Lady: (I'm gonna swallow you whole alive) !?@%#&+#++@??!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!

Get the idea??? Those 2 are ughhhhhhh when superexcited pressures them. Can't believe Lao-er said "i don't care about excuses"! Barbie girl didn't even give excuses, he was just stating facts! And damn water tapppppppppp this is the second time he turns annoying like this. And after that in the arvo he acts like nothing happened! I still wanna eat youuuuuuuuu -_-!!!!!!

We Don't Own YouTube....

Water tap told this story last night.

Our company created a video about our company. Superexcited then wants to put it up on YouTube. So Water tap set up a YouTube channel to put it up. This is how he told me last night in our VIP group:

Miss Green: Hey, I saw the company video last night. Did you guys make it or outsourced it?

Water Tap: We made it...

Little Miss Nice: I saw the video as well.. Poker Face posted it the other day.
They started working on it last year yeah? Lol Is superexcited happy with it

Purple Lady: I haven't seen it XD

Miss Green: Surprised they haven't shown it in your meeting :-p

Water Tap: They did. Purple Lady must be sleeping in the meeting ;P nah... She was away when they did.

Water Tap: I set up the YouTube channel. I spent literally one whole day with you-know-who adding copy.

He wanted everything centered ... And it was really hard to explain him that we don't own YouTube ...

Little Miss Nice (and everyone in the group I'm sure): LMAO!

Little Miss Nice: Not laughing at you. Just at you-know-who. He just really doesn't get somethings ay lol I can only imagine how annoyed you would have been

Purple Lady: Nahhh he was looking very happy all day. I don't know if it was genuinely happy or hopeless happy hahahahaha

Water Tap: ha ha

Purple Lady: I like that quote, "hard to explain to him that we don't own YouTube" lol

Water Tap: He wanted to stop the next videos playing after our company video...
I was like ...

Purple Lady: *rolling on the floor laughing* hhahahhaahhahahahaha XD

How 2016 is So Unpredictable, So Far.

What 2016 has so far taught me is how quick things could happen. 1 minute everything is fine, next minute my colleague has just resigned. 1 minute life is good, the next minute that damn email telling us to sign that contract arrives in our mailbox and causing headaches to all of us. One night I didn't have job application sent, the next day I've got an interview scheduled. You really never know what could happen.

The other day I booked my tickets for the next holiday. The dates overlap with tap water's holiday, but I have lodged this holiday from long ago so I shouldn't be the one to freak out. But I did. I was so worried of what ifs and I thought I would just push the dates a week earlier just to save me headache and nervous breakdowns.

He was surprised. He said I didn't have to, but it would be great if I could. So he doesn't have to leave his job. Remember this point. So he doesn't have to leave his job to have holiday. I have paid, but the tickets haven't been issued, so I told the agent to hold the booking, called everyone who's going and asked if the could change and then contacted the travel agent. Took me 2 hours at work to sort all this out. And you know what, even my mobile phone credit ran out in the middle of a phone call dammittt! I had to call up again and repeat everything again. Finally it's sorted out.

But then after that, little missy said to me, "Ni wan dan le!". Turned out that he and his wife wanted to go to Europe in that month too! By me changing my dates, the dates became overlap with his dates! Oh God, so much drama. His wife insisted on going on the planned dates because she wanted to have her birthday overseas! Little missy was so pissed off and went on seek looking for jobs -_- I did tell you before, our IT dept has become so small that it is impossible for 2 people to take leave at the same time.

I tried to fix an issue and it caused even worse problem. That day I thought little missy was mad at me, but luckily it turned out that he was mad at his wife for being stubborn.

The next day he came happily again. They moved the dates a week early too. However he said to me, if he can't take 3 weeks off, he will find another job. He also asked me if I was thinking to find new job? He said he wants to try. I'm not sure if that's only if he can't take holiday or not.

But now, can you see the pattern? Honestly I thought the same thing too when my leave overlapped with water tap. I thought if I couldn't take it, I'd just leave my job. Water tap did too. And now little missy too. I didn't tell him about my plan at all, but he has same idea as me and water tap. Nobody is attached to this company and doesn't mind if he/she has to quit. It's so fragile, don't you think?

Anyway that night I fell asleep by 10:30. Too much stress on that day, my energy was completely drained -_- wasn't a good sleep though, waking up during the night and woke up at 5:30 in the morning.

But at least, little missy won't leave the company because of me. So hard pleasing everyone eh? Tried to make things better for me and water tap, but ended up making it hard for little missy -.- but yeah little missy hasn't even lodged the annual leave yet, how would I know??!! Water tap told me not to feel bad as it wasn't my fault, but I still felt bad. If there is medicine I can take to make me a little bit more ignorant, please let me know. I need plenty of that!

Not my fault, but why do I feel bad??

Sometimes I wished I don't get to feel bad easily. People who are ignorant are really blessed.

I've booked our tickets for our next holiday. But after I booked it, I remember that my friend did say to let her know if we're going, so I told her. Once I told her, she said she wants to go, but apparently she might not be able to take leave on the dates we've already decided. Now, I feel bad because I can't change the dates.

Last week was the same too. Water tap booked his holiday without checking if someone else already booked annual leave, and it clashes with me! He asked if I could change the date, which I can't, as my sisters can only go on those days. He said no worries, he should have checked anyway, but I still felt really bad.

Back to the friend who wants to join us for holiday. She can join the Hong Kong part, which is 5 days in total flying in and out. Only around 3.5 days full time free though. I also feel sorry coz I feel it's not enough time for her for holiday. I've suggested that she stays longer or come ahead of us so she has more time to enjoy, but she doesn't want to be alone :l

This all reminds me of what I said to Robin Hood last week. She felt bad that her desk was moved, her manager apologized to her (Mr Prick had treated her like slave for the whole project and thought that she's his. He complained she's slow while giving her all the work with no clear briefing whatsoever. He doesn't want her to do any other work except his work, eventhough he knows she has other work to do. Such a dickhead) and huge meeting was held after she complained about 1 of our projects that's super overbudget. She said, she felt sorry coz they did all those for her. To which I replied, why do you feel sorry that he had treated you so badly??? It's clearly not her fault that he was being super bossy and all, but she felt bad when he apologized.

And now I'm kinda the same. How can I be more ignorant? :/

Tired tired tired...

Did I tell you I've been feeling so tired these days? By the time I walk out of the office, my brain feels like it's been fried crispy. Or like it's been squeezed dry. My work has always been very busy. Since my very first day, it was busy. That's why I've been wondering why the last few weeks have left me feeling so drained. I should be used to it right?

But I should have known anyway. Our IT department is the smallest that's ever be since I joined. 5 full time developers that include the manager, and 1 contractor that works once a week less than 8 hours. To make it worse, we have a lot of developments going on, bugs to fix, and the manager is on holiday. Leaving only 4 full time developers and 1 contractor (7 hours only per week).

I said to little missy yesterday, I feel very tired everyday, my brain is very tired. He replied, "everytime I go home, I only want to sleep". That's the same with me. I still hold the urge to sleep, but by Friday night, I can fall asleep as early as 9:30. Not because I want to, but because I can't stay awake. I asked him, "are we very busy? Why am I so tired??". To tell you the truth, busy is normal for our company. You can notice when it's not busy, but busy is our office nature. You can feel guilty when you have nothing to do for half hour. He then said, "of course we are busy, so many projects and we are 4 people doing 5 people work". I think he actually meant 6 people work. Because even when that manager is here, we're still very busy.

True that. I just never thought about it. It doesn't make it easier too that the other department is full of newbies that can't make our work lighter. Incomplete or incorrect information being supplied, errors that are not really errors... Those cause us to waste so much time coding and investigating just for nothing. Plus I have personal stuffs to think about too.

Everyday after work I furiously play piano tiles 2 on my mobile on the train just to untangle and relax my brain. Weird you might think, but it does relax my strained brain. Criminal minds relaxes my brain quicker though. Unfortunately it's only on once a week :( but yesterday, I really didn't want to concentrate and think to relax, so I went to a book store, went to children section and just read Noddy and His Car.

Damn... Why retirement is still 30++ years away???

Candy Candy's Resignation - Who Misses Superexcited??

To those of you who missed superexcited, I've got a new story for you.

Yesterday, my colleague, Candy Candy, told me that he had resigned. I noticed he hasn't been happy at work, and his creativity has been restricted a lot by superexcited who again and again changes his designs. Well, the end result is not THAT bad, but I can see traces of superexcited in there. The worst would be our Christmas party invitation last year. It was so bad that I was speechless when Candy Candy showed me the invitation. I could only say "Oh!" And then didn't know what to say. Then I asked, "Did superexcited tell you to put those opera house and fireworks?". He said, "He changed everything! My original design wasn't anything like this". I said to him, "Sorry, Candy Candy, but I can make this myself. Just cut opera house and fireworks and dump them there." He said, "Yeah, I know! I showed this to my girlfriend, and she said, you didn't design this, did you??".

He's a very nice guy and I don't know why, he sometimes calls me over and asks my opinion of his designs (FYI, I'm not a designer at all. I think I mentioned it before, but my old boss once told me I have no eyes for colors and should get someone else to choose colors for me). I do give honest opinion and have developed a reputation of being a blunt and hard critic in the office. Part of this is really because I don't care anymore if I get sacked. So I just say whatever I want. But really, I don't say bad things anyway, just honest.

Anyway back to him, I remember seeing his design etc and said it was good or gave suggestions, but when I saw the end result, it was different. When I asked him, he said superexcited changed it -_- last week was one of them. He created a card for water tap anniversary on a white background. The card ended up on a dark background. Water tap's skin is dark, so dark background makes him invisible *slapping my forehead and shaking my head* Obviously someone else has worse eyes for colors than me. Plus the original background shows a coding screen, while the end result eventhough still showing coding screen, on dark background it looks more like stockbroker screen -_-

Candy Candy said he gave his resignation last week and it was rejected by superexcited (as always). They had 1 hour discussion in superexcited's room where he said that Candy Candy was being disrespectful and unprofessional for resigning after working for only less than a year AND for not telling them first before finding a new job. He said during his interview, he already said that he expects people to work at least 3 years. Now he has to train new person etc. The thing with superexcited, he has that skill to manipulate you and to make you doubt yourself. Girls cried during these kind of meetings and he doesn't shut up even when they cry. Candy Candy said he broke down yesterday too (outside, not in front of superexcited thank god) because it was too much stress! So yeah imagine that.

Then this Friday is our company get together event, Candy Candy doesn't know if he should come. He feels that superexcited wouldn't want him to be there. Honestly I think he's right. It would be awkward. So he asked Lao Er if he should come. Lao Er said he'll check with superexcited. Lao Er is also a director, but see his reply? He doesn't have power at all! As much as I love Lao Er, I wished he can stand up more for himself :( honestly, if superexcited says he's not allowed to come, we can really report him to fairwork Australia for discrimination and bullying. If he allows Candy Candy to come, there are 2 options: either superexcited is going to completely ignore him or he's going to give him dead stare etc. Actually, I was surprised Candy Candy wasn't ushered out of the building straight away after he resigned :l

I don't know what is going to happen when it's my turn *sigh...

Changes to Notice of Resignation

I've been having headache since yesterday because of superexcited. We received an email from Lao Er, asking us to sign the new contract as it's been changed a bit.

That bit is on notice of resignation. It says, upon leaving the company, if you've worked for 1 year, you need to give 1 month notice. If you've worked for 2 years, you need to give 2 months notice. And if you've worked for 3 or more years, you need to give 3 months notice.

Tell me, which company will hire you if you say you can only start 3 months later? I don't know if this is even legal. However I did check fairwork australia website and it says 1 week for 1 year employment, 2 weeks for 2 years, 3 for 3 years and 4 weeks max after.

I've spoken to the other ex-colleagues too and they all say not to sign. Eventhough it's not legally binding, knowing how superexcited is, he'll surely throw a tantrum and use the point of "you signed it!" to make us stay 3 months.

They wrote in the contract, it applies for both parties. So when the company wants to end your employment, they will have to give that much too. However, from past history, they will have closed door conversation and then tell us that they have reached a mutual agreement and Mr X has decided to leave and the company gives him 1 month salary. They never gave more than a month. Plus they do say, when there is need for less notice period, it will be case per case bases. I guess, that is the case.

I don't see how that contract will benefit us as employees. They say it's a win win solution that gives company enough time to hire and train new person and for us to find future employment. I can't see the benefit for us though. It only benefits them to find replacement but if we can't find a job, we will still have to go right? In the past they say it can be extended, but one ex-colleague left without new job on hand because he couldn't stand being asked every single day if he's got any offer yet.

I asked people around and most if not all of them said not to sign it. The rest say to sign it but then when it's time to go, just give 1 month and then leave. Basically to sign and not honor it. Some actually wonder why the boss insists to keep someone who already plans to leave to stay for that long. Imagine how unproductive that person would be. That's true though. I got my uni offer before I graduated and final months of my high school scores? Average of 30s lol.

I will just wait and see. I wonder if they will come and ask us personally for that signed contract. Coz as far as I can see, no one signed it yet.

Little Miss Nice Says Goodbye

Yesterday was Little Miss Nice's last day. She resigned a month ago because she couldn't stand to be here anymore. Honestly, everyone in my company would understand her. Except you know who.

She worked very long hours and she lives 2 hours away be it public transport or driving. Driving even can take more than 2 hours. Last week she left home at 6:40 am (i usually still in the process of pushing myself to get out of bed at that time) and arrived at work at 8:50, late. On her lucky day, she would leave work at 6. But usually, 6.30-7.

She's lost so much weight over the past few months, didn't have enough sleep during the weekdays, really nowhere near enough and had to depend on coffee to keep her alert. She still performed well at her work, but having too much things on her palate, she started to forget things too. The bad thing is, she's the only reliable and dependable one in her team.

She has 2 subordinates. 1 has been working here for more than a year and just before Little Miss Nice was announced leaving, that Da Sha Bi was promoted to the same level as Little Miss Nice (Shoot me -_-). He is nowhere near Little Miss Nice in terms of skills, attitudes and knowledge of his campaign. It's that bad so that I never confirm with him in regards to requirements, because I can't trust that it's what the client wants and covered in the document and not just another one of his ideas. It's really that bad so when I inducted a new IT guy, I told him to ALWAYS confirm with the other guys before doing Da Sha Bi's requests. Do not just do it. Same with the other guys in my department. They also don't trust him and labels him stupid.

Another one, Foxy, has been working less than a year. If you want to know about her ability, let me tell you this. It was Da Sha Bi who gave her induction and training, so what can you expect?

The only difference between the two shows when they make mistakes. Da Sha Bi gets anxious and panic, he feels guilty and realises he should have known better. Then he pesters IT to fix the issues ASAP ughh..
(if IT can fix it). Foxy on the other hand, when she makes mistakes, she doesn't feel like she should have known not to do it. She feels nothing wrong with not knowing. Eventhough really she should have known. She comes to IT calmly as normal and even laughs when telling us she's made a mistake and needs us to fix it. Got the idea? Bottom line is, both are 11-12. I.e. pretty much the same -_-

The website they work on is a big and complex website. It used to have like 5 people managing it - 1 senior, 2 mid levels and 2 juniors, and now it's only 1 senior with 2 juniors (1 of them thinks he's at least a mid level though, another ugh...). So yeah, imagine the workload. Even the smallest thing, the juniors couldn't handle it properly. To put it simply, previously their department chased IT to do work. Now, IT has to chase them to do their work, whether it's testing, getting further info from client or going live.

So yeah last month, Little Miss Nice resigned. Superexcited didn't accept her resignation. He kept telling her to sleep on it, think about it again. He even went as far as avoiding her everytime she tried to talk to him. Same with Poker Face. He kinda avoided her. On the other hand, Lao Er accepted her resignation immediately. He understood when she said it's been affecting her health, how she's losing a lot of weight etc. He said, at the end of the day Superexcited will have to accept it. But he told her to keep trying talking to him.

She gave her resignation on Tuesday, but it was only finally accepted on Friday COB. You might say, it's a resignation. Nobody can force you to stay, why do you need it accepted?? Well, I don't know why, but our company has this talent to hire mostly decent people who always want to do the right thing.

So there goes the first week of her 4 weeks notice. Then another week flew by before finally we received an email from Superexcited announcing her leave. However, in that email it said, "Little Miss Nice is going on 'sabbatical leave' and will be joining us again in the new financial year". I called her right away and said, "so apparently you're going on sabbatical and gonna come back next financial year eh?" LOL

I read her resignation letter. There's nowhere in that letter indicating her intention to return. She told me, youknowwho told her, "i'm going to write this, is this alright?". Well.. what can she say? Even Lao Er told her to just go along with it just so he can let her go :l

Third week comes and she still couldn't teach someone to take over her responsibility. She previously couldn't do so as it was not announced yet. But now it's because they haven't decided who'll take over her work. Third week man! Forth week went almost the same. She might only explained half or even less of what she knew.

Usually when someone has been working more than 3 years, then collection will go around and directors chip in too to buy something as farewell gift. Little Miss Nice has been working for almost 4 years, so she is eligible (I honestly think more than a year is already eligible. But I'm not the boss). So on that final week, one of us went to youknowwho to ask about the collection. To which he replied, "What for? She's coming back! Do you know something that I don't know?". Man, everybody knows it, only you like to believe otherwise...

Because of that, we had to go around his back to arrange card and gifts for Little Miss Nice. Little Miss Nice is very dedicated, nice, polite, and pleasant, everybody likes her. So everyone naturally wanted to get her something. The other department collected money to get her her favourite bottle. And I collected money from IT and accounting department and went and bought her a pearl bracelet and a pair of pearl earrings (the bracelet is so pretty I even want it for myself T__T). And I asked our graphic designer to design and make a farewell card for her. Even we had to mention to him not to make it too big to make it easier to discreetly distribute it for everyone to sign.

We had to think about the people who we could tell to. Directors were definitely excluded. Then I was tossing if I should tell Creamer, but he worked with her the most and he asked her out too as mentioned in previous story, so I told him about the collection with strict instructions NOT to tell superexcited. I said, "I know you're close to him. So do not tell him". Mr Prick is excluded too coz we can't trust him to shut his mouth.

Even we were worried about when to give the presents. On her last day, we had arranged for lunch, drinks after work and dinner with Little Miss Nice. Giving it during the drinks is a straight no no, directors would be there. Dinner... Crown Prince would be there hmmm.... He would definitely tell superexcited for sure. So lunch time... But then prick might be there :l see? Even just giving it to her we needed to consider so many things! Luckily, Mr prick didn't come that day woohooo ^^ if not, we'd resort to giving the gifts in the name of one of the colleague who's going to leave soon, and she would tell her the truth later on.

So yeah, even on her last day Superexcited still said things like about her coming back in financial year, that he'd call her next week to discuss etc etc. Little Miss Nice talked to Lao Er saying she didn't mention anything about coming back at all! Lao Er replied saying that superexcited started the lie and seemed like now believing it as the truth :l that is really crazy.

Which reminds me, some time ago Lao Er mentioned the story of how they got together and built this company. He said they left the old company because the director was crazy. He said white lies and things to board members that they've done this and that, but they actually haven't! But then later on, he started believing his own lies! Talk about history repeating?

Good Thing Out Of Bad Things

My friend asked me what's the story about being annoyed by someone that led up to me winning a draw. So, let me explain it here :)

2 months ago, one of my colleagues moved house and he was selling off his old furniture and stuffs. He was putting them up on Gumtree and he showed me one of them to ask if the price is alright and jokingly asked if I wanted to buy. It was a TV.

I didn't really need an additional TV, and I don't know much about current prices. So I did a little bit of research. Turned out the price was ok. I thought hmm... I can replace the bulky old TV that doesn't work anymore without topbox in my dining room. We haven't managed to successfully turned it on again after the move. But it was more like a temptation rather than a need, so I said give me few hours and I'll think about it. He said ok. He said he'd sell me the TV with the 3D glasses, and he'll chuck in the table and also the TV brackets too. I then asked, would you deliver?? He said "Yeah yeah, I can deliver, no problem."

So I thought and thought. By 6, he asked me again, coz he's got someone who's interested in it. I said give me half hour, my sis is going to finish work at 6 so I will discuss.

Around 7, I texted him and said I would buy. He called me not long after, "Are you sure? I don't want you to just get excited and buy it and regret it later".

I said to him, "I want it! And you make it sound like the TV doesn't work! Does it work??".

He said, "It works, it works. Well I never really used the 3D, but last time we did, it worked. Are you home? I can deliver it tonight."

Me: "No, I'm outside having dinner. But there's someone at home."

Him: "Oh okay, I will let you know later then. Do you need the table too? I can bring them all together."

Me: "yeah, ok. If it fits in the car."

Him: "Yeah it fits. How much are you going to give me for it?"

Me: (thinking) huh? I thought he said he could chuck them in for free? But I don't really need it anyway, so I let go and asked "I don't know. How much do you want?"

Him: "I put it on gumtree for $80. I can sell it to you for $50"

Me: "I will let you know".

Then we hang up. Later on I said I wasn't taking the table. Honestly I thought it's included so yeah, but if not then I don't really need one.

10 minutes after, he sent me a text message, " Purple Lady, sorry do u have anyone who can pickup?" Wangbadan...

He said, "Ok. I can't deliver it today. It's getting late. Will see for tom. Just checking if you have anyone."

So long story short, I had to ask my friends if any of them could help with this. This is where I realised who are purely your friends and willing to help you and who are just friends for when they feel like it. And for this, I trully was grateful.

So I ended up had to go pick it up with my friends. However, there was baby expo that weekend. Therefore, we went to baby expo first with them. During the expo, almost every single stall had draw where you can scan your ticket to be in it to win whatever prize they are having. Since I wasn't having a baby, that was quite the entertainment for me lol well plus the other non baby related stuffs they sold.

Even that day, that particular colleague was being difficult. Originally he said I could come anytime. Just give him a call half an hour before and he'd come. Then he said he had a party so he wanted me to come before 6. It was still okay, but later on when I reminded him about the 3D glasses and TV brackets, he said, "I will find the 3D glasses. But TV brackets I've already have someone who wants to buy them. I thought you said you didn't need them".

I exploded. My sister too. I did say I didn't really need them. But I didn't say I didn't want them! He said he would chuck in the table, 3D glasses and TV brackets and would deliver. However he asked me to find someone who can pick up. Then he asked me to pay for the TV table, suddenly said he had a party, and then this?? If I didn't remember I would see him again Monday at work,  I would have given him a lecture. My sister grabbed my mobile and typed in a long message of complaint (which I edited a lot due to the reason mentioned before. Plus I consulted with my friend who had clearer head than ours).

At the end, I sent him this, " We need those both. I will get my dad to mount it. If it doesn't come with the brackets and 3D glasses, we'll cancel the tv.  Let me know so me and my friends don't need to waste time going there."

He got the message, " Ohh wow. Getting angry Purple Lady....

3D glasses are coming with it don't worry. My wife packed them up. I will def get it. It's just too many boxes to look them up for today.

I will also get the brackets. Don't worry. I will let the buyer know that it's sold out. I didn't think you wanted it."

So yep we picked up the TV, 3D glasses and half of the TV brackets that day. He couldn't find the rest of them so he would give them the following week. But it turned out that he lost the half of them, probably the builders threw them out and bought me a new set instead. I guess he felt bad to tell me that considering all those drama earlier and just went on to buy them. It kinda put a strain to our relationship at work, I still work well with him, but I didn't offer him tea anymore.

And you know what, I do have a bad temper. One day, I lost a small tub of yogurt at work. I had it for a while and still didn't eat it. Then one day when I wanted to have it, it wasn't in the fridge. I thought, ok, maybe I HAVE eaten it and forgot. Though I highly doubt it considering it was a weird flavour combination and I can't recall the taste. Then, I bought 6 tubs and put them in the fridge. Next day, 1 gone. I was furious and went around the office asking people. Turned out this colleague ate it thinking it was from our morning breakfast. It's true he wasn't here on the day we had breakfast, so he didn't know what they were. I exploded and just walked off. I was so angry because he only laughed when he found out about it and didn't even say sorry.

It was silly really. If I think about it again, it is silly. But adding up to the TV experience, it's just like adding oil into a flame. I was really furious seeing him laughing out loud. I emailed him later on asking if he ate the earlier one I lost lol. He said no. We talked about it. He explained how he didn't know what to do as I just stormed off looking pissed off. Which I replied he could apologize after I came back from the kitchen. He apologized and all sorted out.

The week before Christmas, I received a missed call from an unknown number during my lunch time. Lately I've been receiving phone calls from some spamming promotion so I usually ignored unknown and private numbers. Same thing with this number, I saw the missed call and didn't think about it. Then, it called again some time after. I thought well, just pick it up then. That call was from Sydney Medical Services On Call 24 hours telling me I won $200 Toys R Us voucher from the draw I entered in that BABY EXPO!!! If my colleague didn't back out from delivering, we wouldn't have gone to that baby expo in the first place and entered the draw!! ^^

Straight after I'm back at work, I told water tap about it MUAHAHAHAHAHA XD

It Is Going To Be A Nightmare

I didn't plan to have a long post, but I have a feeling this is going to be a long one. So, bear with me please :)

Christmas is coming. Most people are excited about it. But of course not everyone. I remember when I was working in retail, Christmas was a very very busy period. It's cool of course having all Christmas decorations, lollies, songs etc. But what if those Christmas songs are blaring in your ears from morning to night everyday? By the end of day 2 I wanted to vomit when it's on.

Plus, you would think people are nicer because of Christmas. Not really. They are stressed and crankier than normal because the things they wanted to buy have been sold out! True though, most of our Christmas tree decorations were sold out within first week of December. Don't even forget about the long list of people they need to buy presents for. In Australia, people take Christmas presents quite seriously and buy presents for each of their family and friends. And also for people who take care of their kids I.e. my sister :P every Christmas, the bottom of our Christmas tree is always full of presents. Her presents from the children parents :P but no worries, I can always borrow them of her ;-)

Now back to topic. Christmas in our company is a NIGHTMARE. Ridiculously big projects all due for first working day in January. We had an awful Christmas 'break' last year. We worked overtime the whole Christmas to New Year period including Xmas eve and New Year's eve. I shouldn't have used overtime. We weren't paid for overtime. We involuntarily gave them our time as Christmas present. While the directors were on real Christmas break.

This year unfortunately and unsurprisingly is no difference. We have 2 big projects due first day back in January. One is a 100++ hours project and the other one is a complete new website. We knew we were getting it since months before, but only last week or the week before everything was settled to go ahead. I say "settled to go ahead", the other department was still having requirements and layout meetings yesterday. What date is today? 10 December. How many working days we have until Xmas and New Year??

Our team is the smallest it's ever been since I joined the company. IT team is half of what it used to be and the other department is half the size too. At the beginning of December, Superexcited said this line, "We are very busy. That's why we are asking Slitherin to come and help us. He is available and is willing to help. We just need to decide what parts we are going to give to him. It is of course an additional costs for us, but it is a cost that we're willing to incur in order to deliver the projects on time and relieve us off the extra pressure."

The truth? Slitherin only said he might be available. He hasn't even discussed about his hourly rate and stuffs with you know who. He was surprised when I cheerfully messaged him once I heard the news. Nothing was really arranged. And guess what? 2 days ago, Lao Er asked Little Missy to come to work at 7:30am-7:30pm in order to finish the project. "A cost we are willing to incur" MY ASS! A cost you are willing to incur or a cost you are making your employees to incur??? Don't bother asking me if Little Missy got any overwork pay. I doubt he got even dinner paid last night. No, make that I'm sure he didn't get dinner last night.

I told Little Miss Nice about it the other day. Here's the convo:

Little Miss Nice: I wish Superexcited would man up and tell them they briefed us late and that we can't meet the deadline they want.
No overtime pay ay?

Me: No overtime pay. I did ask Little Missy just to confirm, I kinda knew, but well I shouldn't assume :p

Little Miss Nice: Hahah true we shouldn't assume but our assumption are almost 100% right lol
Is Little Missy angry that Little Missy needs to come in early?

Me: Nah, still happy. Unlike us :p

Little Miss Nice: Hahahah ohh I'm glad him for that Little Missy is happy. I'm sure eventually will end up being like us and hating it

See that assumption part of it? It's true. Most of our assumptions are proven true.

About man up and tell client... That's something that our company lacks of. I usually blame the other department for it, but this week I realised it's not them. It's the directors.

1. The 100 hours project timeline says it's due next Friday. Yesterday they were still discussing about the layout. We are in no position to deliver next Friday at all. In meeting with the client, neither the director nor creamer said anything about it. Little Miss Nice who's not a manager at all had to bring it up herself that we are most likely not going to deliver!

2. On Monday a director of a big company we have a website for logged in to the site to do an assessment. He clicked on the link to go to the page, and waited. The page took forever to load and he gave up. Shot an email to us saying it doesn't work. Poker Face went panic and got me and water tap to look at it. We did do something prior week that made it slower, but that was expected. So we took it off, put it back to how it was before and told Poker Face. He logged in, load the page. It took 15 seconds to load and said, "It's not acceptable. You have to fix it". WTF??? That page has always been like that for the past 2 years and now you say it's not acceptable?????? Why didn't you say a year ago when there wasn't urgency to have everyone finish the assessment that day?? I'm sorry to say, but this is a typical behaviour of a store managers when they hear that area manager is going to visit tomorrow. What a joke! Water tap and me took 4 HOURS to try and fix it, and it the end we had to give up the whole reporting page to just have that page loading in 1 second. Originally they wanted all fixed. Which I replied, you have 2 choices: have all working, but that page loads in 15 seconds, or sacrifice the reporting and have the page loads in 1 second. Fixing it will take days. So they sacrificed the reporting page and said to revert the code back the next day. If I didn't say that, I think they are going to force us to fix it.

3. There's an issue within the site. It's only affecting 2 stores, and it's been like that since the beginning of that project. It's going to take 4 hours at least to fix. I don't have time and no one in IT is free, so I said no. Talk to the manager. He went to the manager and guess what? I got an email for that task due in 2 days time. Kill.Me.Now.

There are SOOOO Many of these examples happening. The funny thing is, they always say, don't say yes to the client all the time, manage their expectations, rah rah rah. All the nice talk and little quizzes to test our understanding. In reality? Of course we can do it!!! We have enough people to do it!! Again, my ass.

Apples NEVER EVER fall far from the tree.

When Someone Quits and You Know Who Doesn't Like It - Part 2

Hellooooo, your long awaited story is back! I know you guys have missed a certain someone in my office. Just admit it, someone I know keeps asking about him every Friday morning...MUAHAHAHA :P

So, someone in our company has resigned this week. I was pretty upset when I heard the story. Pavarotti has been working in our company for 6 years. He's one of my 'generation' and we've been working closely together for the past 6 years. We've mucked around and bitched about people in our company, so yeah it was a bit sad. I've eaten his snacks and stolen his teabags too. But it's good for him and I'm very happy for him.

You all know how Superexcited has issues with people quitting. Be it one of his favourite or one that he doesn't like. Tell you the truth, I still don't know which side is better. So when Pavarotti resigned, he gave his famous lecture. The content of that lecture I don't know, but don't expect something as easy as "I'm sad that you're leaving, we will miss you, but we wish you well". Expect something more like, "How dare you to go behind my back finding jobs. You are supposed to give us 3 months notice. I always give and give and give, but people never give anything back to me". Something along that line. Anyways, Pavarotti successfully resigned. Well done.

The next morning, Pavarotti went to Superexcited's office to ask if he could take lunch at 1:30-2:30 instead of his normal 1-2 lunch as he has a baby appointment. Superexcited's reply was, "What? You quit yesterday, and now you're asking me for a favor?". What.A.Jerk.

The rest of the conversation went like this:
Pavarotti: "No, I'm not asking for a favor. I am entitled for 1 hour break". Superexcited: "Yeah, you're asking for a favour! All these 6 years, you always come to my office asking for a favour. You never give anything back to me!".
Pavarotti: "I work my ass off these past 6 years for you!"
Superexcited: "I pay you for it!"

In Little Miss Nice's words, "What a BABY!"

What about all those overtime? We don't get paid for overtime and he always comes to the office WAY earlier than the office hours! All of those goes unnoticed, oh sorry, should be forgotten and unappreciated.

The whole conversation happened in his office with the door opened, so one of our colleagues heard the whole thing. He was actually about to turn down a job interview, but upon hearing how bad Pavarotti was treated, he decided to go for the interview. Not sure how it went though. If he got it and is going to leave, everybody is going to laugh. That's really Superexcited's fault.

I wonder how it's going to be in the other department. They only have about 7-8 people. Pavarotti already resigned, another one has resigned too according to my source (eventhough the person still have few months to go), little miss nice is going to start looking for a new job, and if that one person got the job, that would be 4 gone out of 7. Little Miss Nice wondered if Superexcited's going to finally realise. I really don't think so.

The Goodness in Our Company - Importance of Responding to Customers

I might have not mentioned the good things that our company does very often, but as annoying and special Superexcited is, he does have the customers' best interests in his mind and we do deliver very good customer service.

I noticed this many times before. Not just when I'm in Australia, but also in Indonesia. The first thing is the importance of keeping the customer informed of the progress. He always stresses to get back to the customer and tell them that we're onto it, or we still don't know what happens but our IT is looking at it, or it's fixed and they can use it again. He makes a point that it's ok we still don't know or still working on it, but make sure the customer knows we are looking after them.

Few weeks ago I received a letter from my lending bank, telling me the loan interest has increased. I remembered my broker mentioned about it weeks before I received the letter, and she said it shouldn't affect me, but she would check again. She never got back to me, so I thought all was good. So, on Monday I sent her a message asking if the interests really have increased. No response. On Thursday I gave her a call, once she picked up, she straight away said, "Oh, did your interest rate increase? Can you please send me this and that documents to me? I will renegotiate with them". Notice how she knew what I was looking for but didn't bother to respond? I sent her the documents via email on Friday.

I haven't heard anything from her since then. Today is Monday, I sent her those 2 Fridays ago. She didn't acknowledge the receipt of those docs too (she only acknowledged it once throughout our business together).

I remember long time ago Superexcited scolded Miss Nice to the verge of crying because she didn't email the customer that we would look at the issue he/she found within 6 hours of receipt. Honestly, that time I thought it was too much. I thought it was not even a day, and it's not that the issue has been fixed. But now I know, it's more than just being told it's fixed, it's to know that it would be fixed and that our wait doesn't go in vain. Afterall once time flies, it's gone and won't come back. So we know we're not wasting our time waiting.

So for that, I give Superexcited a credit :))

There are other good thing he forces, but I will talk about it later :)

Have a great week ahead guys!

When Someone Quits and Superexcited Doesn't Like It

This story actually happened long time ago when Superexcited lagi kumat a.k.a needed his dose of medicine. Have put off writing it all these time coz everytime I think about it, I feel bad to this ex-colleague.

Once upon a time, there was an employee named Schwarzenegger. He was a great employee, but he wasn't happy in the office for a number of reasons. Please keep in mind that this happen when Superexcited was playing up, so a lot of things were just what the.... So Schwarzenegger didn't like it.

Micromanaging is one of the things he didn't like. At that time, every single day we had morning meeting within IT department and we had to say every single thing we did the previous day and what we needed to do on the day. Plus, have we used up the budgeted hour for that task? If yes, why? Why did you spend that much time for it? Explain.

That time was also the start of our keeping time every day. As it was very new, creamer was very... Annoying. Checking if everyone's done it yesterday, has everyone entered 7.5? If not, why did you only enter 6 hours? Because that day I had diarrhea and been running to the toilet every 5 minutes. All those kinds of things. Basically you were questioned about every minutes you were in the office. Thinking back, I wonder why didn't I escape back then.

Also, trainings. Have I told you about out company 'training'? I don't like putting things in quotes unless it really deserves to be quoted. Our training is not like other companies training where the company hires external company to give training to their employees, and also not sending the employees to some places out there to attend seminars or courses. Nope. Our training is 99% internal training, meaning Superexcited prepares a presentation with some 'lucky' employees about business related topics.

Yes. Business topics. But your department is IT?? Yep. My point exactly. Superexcited always argues that anybody in the company needs to attend because it's 'related' to the work we do. Okay... But what about FBT? What about how to write good electronic direct marketing? Well he wants everyone there, so he gets everyone there. Including the accountants and designers. Do we ever get IT training? Yes, probably 2 out of 100 trainings. And do the non-IT department staff attend it? They only attended 1 and they all put the same look IT people look when we have to attend those 'trainings'. Now you know how it feels. But only once and that's it. Superexcited only attended once too. How unfair.

Those 2 were the main things that made Schwarzenegger left. He couldn't stand to keep track of how many minutes he spent going to the toilet, how long did he go to kitchen to get water and why did he spend 2 hours looking at bugs. He felt trapped and he felt that he was at school. I did too. Everyone in the company would agree too (Again how did I manage to keep on going that time?? I really am tough!). Plus Superexcited talked a LOT that time. Monologues. Did we enjoy it? Nope. Could we not agree with bkn? Do you want to die? I think you get the idea. Everybody really just sat there listening (into one ear, out of the other) and nodded (i didn't if I didn't agree).
Schwarzenegger too wasn't happy had to listen to all that.

But what really pushed him over the edge was the lunch time trainings. We started having trainings during lunch. We could bring our food in, but only sandwiches. No hot food. Come on, most of our lunches are hot food. And, lunchtime trainings mean we don't have lunch break really. They said the trainings are half hours. The one I attended took 45 minutes. Did we get extra break? Nope.

We had a big argument during our morning meeting. Schwarzenegger argued that working 8 hours a day with practically no break is not healthy. We think all day. We need to have an hour break to clear our mind and to be productive. Creamer responded, how many lunchtime trainings did we have? 1. And how many did you attend? 0. And he had a go at him for not attending instead of addressing the real issue.

True it was only the first one, but one would lead to another and by the time there have been a LOT, they will say well nobody complained? Why complain now? Plus, that time we had morning training every 2 weeks!! When I joined, they said it's once every 6 weeks. Not during this bloody period.

Nobody else supported Schwarzenegger's argument except me and Marico. Later on, he thanked me for backing him up in that argument. He was disappointed by the guys in their lunch group, during lunches they all complained about the same thing. But during the argument they didn't say anything. That time I was so fed up that I didn't care even if I was fired. Creamer was also a new manager, so he was really not a good manager. He agreed to anything Superexcited said. Enough said.

So the after that meeting, he resigned. I was very surprised. He was looking for houses and he didn't have a new job yet. But he couldn't stand it anymore and resigned. He gave 1 month notice. He didn't do anything wrong. 1 month is the agreed notice required per the contract. However, well... You know how Superexcited is, don't you? He was so angry about him leaving, about how much we have trained him and he just leaves, about the 1 month notice itself, that he was supposed to tell them first that he was THINKING to leave, that he believed Schwarzenegger's got a new job already, blah blah blah... and he told Creamer to make sure to give A LOT of work this 1 month! IMHO, that's stupid man, what if you give him a LOT of work, and he did it all terribly or made it so complicated? Who's going to cop it? US! It's not against the law to make your code unreadable or unmanageable, you can't sue him for it!

During that 1 month, Superexcited NEVER EVER talked to Schwarzenegger. He told Creamer, to tell Schwarzenegger not to attend the Friday morning meeting again and instead work in the other area. He wasn't allowed to attend the training session too. But tell you what? Pretty much everybody kinda envied him for not needing to attend those anymore XP

Oh, and when we had drinks next door, he wasn't invited. This was how it went:
Slitherin, Schwarzenegger, and Creamer were talking about work in the hallway when Superexcited came to them. Superexcited then came in between Schwarzenegger and the 2 guys, then asked,
Superexcited: "Slitherin, are you coming for a drink?"
Slitherin: "Yeah"
Superexcited: "Creamer, are you coming for the drinks?"
Creamer: "yes"
Superexcited: "Ok! See you soon!"
And he left. He behaved like Schwarzenegger did not exist. Funny eh?

However the worst came on Schwarzenegger's last day. He went to the bosses to say goodbye. Lao San was sad to see him go, but wished him well. Poker Face wished him well and told him to return the book Schwarzenegger's borrowed whenever he's done with it. Schwarzenegger knew Superexcited hated him, but he was being polite, he couldn't just say goodbye to the 2 but not him, so off he went. In Schwarzenegger's words, "It was the worst 30 minutes conversation in my life."

Superexcited said he couldn't wish him well. He was disappointed that he left. He's given him everything and he just left (that's his trademark line. Though usually we don't know exactly what he has given :l) and blah blah blah... Long story short it was AWFUL. Our receptionist was passing by when they had the conversation and she was like, "It's awful. You don't want to hear what he's saying to him. I feel sorry for him".

So that's my friends, what happens when you leave and he doesn't like it.