23 January 2014

I should write more here.

So here I am.

Did I tell you about last Monday when all 3 of my colleagues decided to take an emergency leave and MC at once? That leaves me all alone doing the job of 4 people the entire day. Imagine me scurrying from one class to another up and down a thousand steps every 20 minutes. I understand one of them need to look after his son that was warded the day before. But the other 2, somehow I doubt they had a real valid reason to be absent. That said, I survived the entire day in one piece, managed to solve 70% of all the day's chores and left the office no later than 5:30 PM. I remember something like this happened once before last year when the other 2 of my colleagues and I were supposedly sick and didn't come to work. Then my other colleague had to do almost everything by himself as well. I guess this is payback time. Actually I'm cool with that. If I'm lucky I'll get that extra performance bonus for my dedication and excellent work (really?).

Two weeks into the new year I've actually lost 2 kilos. Wanna know my secret? A healthy diet and regular exercise. Healthy as in very little rice (a fistful to be exact) and sandwiches for lunch. I had sandwiches or bread for at least 3 times a week at work. Sometimes I just got really tired of sandwiches so I had either tom yam, som tam or some noodles at the restaurant opposite the school. Man I think the prices there had gone up considerably this year. I can't see the menu anywhere so I guess it is true. As for exercise, I've been doing the usual run around the neighborhood. My average distance is 4 to 5 kilometers, sometimes 3 if it rains or I got really tired. Having just sandwich for lunch really affects your energy but you know what they say, no pain no gain brother. Right after running, I'll do some body-weight exercise using nothing but my body and a pair of dumbbells. The afterburn from running plus those heavy-lifting does wonders at removing fat from your body. Go look it up.

Ok I think that's enough blogging for a week. I leave you with this lovely song from Iamneeta and Najwa Latif. As you can see, Najwa is visibly fatter or more chubby in this music video. Must be all the good food she had at Unitar. Why Unitar of all place? To be honest, I think Najwa sings a hundred times better than Neeta. But that's just me.

12 January 2014

When my manager picked me to standby at work this Sunday, I was understandably pissed off at first. T remember being the last guy who volunteered to come to work on weekend so why can't she pick another colleague over me? Then I thought my colleagues has in fact been staying back late all through the week and I've been going home on the dot to run and exercise so I'd be quite selfish to let her pick one of them instead. So I just calm down and accept my fate as it is. So I came to work this morning doing what I'm supposed to do. Setting up 3 notebooks for the regional interviews in the office. It involves the very complicated work of turning on the 3 notebooks and plugging them to the power socket. I don't know how'd they do it without me.

But it's not all doom and gloom for me today. For one thing, my wife also had to work today and she's bringing the kids to work the whole day so I shouldn't miss today so much. Then after setting up the notebooks, I had all the free time in the world for myself. So I read some books and browse the Internet while listening to music the entire day. Lunch was also provided and I also get to sample the food provided for the guests. All that and I get paid extra at the end of the day. What's there not to like about working on weekends here?

11 January 2014

When my kids were left back home with their grandparent, I thought they'd be really bored without their usual gadgets. So with heavy heart I decided to leave my beloved Nexus 7 tablet with them. 2 months later I returned to find the tablet with its screen protector off and the tablet itself cannot be turned on at all. Apparently my kids had left them lying around on the floor and my daughter had used it as a skateboard.

Naturally I was furious. It took me a week to get the tablet on again and another 20 bucks to replace the screen protector. The tablet is now scratch and chipped off at the edges. It's even a wonder that we still get to use it right now but it did. Asus quality or just pure luck? Whatever it is I'm wary of leaving my precious gadgets with any kids below schooling age ever again.

3 January 2014

I'ts been a year since I started working here. Time flies? Sometimes it feels that way. Other times it felt like a snail's crawl. New place, learn new things. After reviewing what I wrote on my other blog, I found out that I have more things that I liked about this new place than I don't. I certainly gained a lot of new benefits and perks working here compared to the negative things. It's just that sometimes, all the negative and bad feelings that I remember seemed to leave a stronger impression on me than the good things.

I know we work in a primary school but that doesn't mean that the management should treat us like one. I understand we have to be punctual and most of the time everybody is punctual except for that one guy. If you ever learnt McGregor's theory X and Y, we are sometimes treated according to Theory X - inherently lazy and avoid work if we can. Although we must admit some of us appears to slack sometimes, most of the time we get the job done. I think we are all adults here and a little bit of trust and faith could go a long way.

And then there's this one guy at work. Since I started working here, he's been absent at least twice a week, sometimes more. I understand if your family member is ill but if it's too often one can't help but think otherwise. Surely you're not the only one capable of taking care of the sick? He's been absent for so many times that he basically used up all his annual leaves, medical leave and HR had to pro-rate his wages based on how many days he actually came. Yet for some unknown reason he's still here. Is it possible that he's so indispensable to my managers that they would just look the other way when his disciplinary records are beyond terrible? Whatever it is, he's set a precedence here where no matter how bad your attendance are, the company will not kick you out. Tell me which other company in the world would tolerate this kind of shenanigans?

Apart from that, I can't think of anything else bad about my new place. My work are not exactly difficult but it could be mind-numbingly tedious and boring at times. Imagine taking stock of the same serial numbers and asset tags over and over again. Honestly, it seems that we could never get the numbers right, ever. I'd rather format a laptop or desktop 50 times over than do another asset-checking again. It's that boring.

That said, you have the accept the fact that you're working for a company and they usually have a set of expectations for you. Often times, those expectations are clearly outlined in the job description so like it or not you'll have to suck it up and deal with it.