Yesterday, we had a birthday celebration in office. It’s a usual practice to have cake for those who are celebrating their birthdays at the end of the month. While waiting for other colleagues to gather around the conference room, a colleague said to me,
C1: Mr XXX is not here anymore.
Me: Why ah? His birthday this month?
C1: No… usually, his lady boss will ask him to save her a piece of cake.
Me: She is not in office now?
C1: No, she went out for a meeting.
Me: Will she be back later? Now it’s already almost end of working day.
C1: No… she will still ask him to save a piece of cake for him.
Me: But we won’t be back to work till Monday!
C1 : Exactly… she said, she will eat it when she got back to office, 3 days from now.
Me: Wah lao.. she’s a manager lah. No money to buy a piece of cake meh? Need to save cake till next week to eat??? No longer fresh lo!
C1: Cheapo lah!
I shook my head in disbelief. Imagine, a manager, probably earning almost 5 figure salaries, asking her subordinate to save a cake for her? So, this reminds me of another incident, also concerning cake. I remember a few years back, she was on maternity. When her baby is almost a month old, she decided not to have a full moon party but will still have to return some gestures since most colleagues chipped in to buy her full moon presents. Ms Cheapo called my sister (who was also a colleague, now ex colleague) to help her.
Cheapo: Please help me to buy a few walnut cakes from the bakery and get the tea lady to help distribute the cakes.
Sis: How many cakes you need? One cake each person kah? Rm6 per cake.
Cheapo: No! No! I think buy 4 cakes enough. You get the tea lady to cut them into small, small pieces and distribute.
Sis: Okay……
Cheapo: Remember! I will give you a list. Those who didn’t buy me a present, don’t bother to give them the cake.
Sis:….. I also didn’t give you any angpow or gifts, so I am not entitled to eat the cake?
Cheapo: You didn’t???
Sis: No, I did not give you angpow or gift.
Cheapo: Never mind. Just do what I say.
LOL! I think that was super hilarious. I told my sis, eventhough I have not given birth, I think when this cheapo comes to office after her maternity leave, I will go buy a big huge cheese cake from Secret Recipe and just treat colleagues without any favors or expecting anything in return.
I didn’t want to spend the last few days of 2012 bitching about people but I simply can’t help it. I think I need a vacation!
