I was pretty happy when my office is FINALLY going paperless for meetings. However, today, I received an e-mail on the deadline for all reports to be submitted. It said:-
Please submit to us the reports and other relevant papers (black & white – double-sided with page numbering) in PDF Format on or before [date].
Some people just want to watch the world burn.
Have a good weekend!
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!
Recently, there were a few interns reporting to office. A particular one stood out.
She drafted a letter and decided to capitalize the name of the company and address of the addressee..
MR SO AND SO
ABC COMPANY
123, JALAN 456A
TAMAN GEMBIRA
50450 KUALA LUMPUR
So, her boss told her not to use caps on a letter, looked kinda rude.
She ended retyping this way.
mr so and so
abc company
123, jalan 456a
taman gembira
50450 kuala lumpur
Problem?
LOL!
I cannot tolerate fake accent! Especially, coming from fellow Malaysians. Please lah. I am comfortable using lahs and mahs. It’s not that we are speaking to the King and Queen of England.
I received a call today which irked the shit out of me. Let me run through the conversation again.
Caller: Hi! I am calling from XXX Group. This is our last call to you forPower Training for blah blah blah for global network ….. Now, we offer you USD450 for early bird signing up… blah blah blah blah the original price is USD890….blah blah blah blah….. (I suspect he’s reading from a card in a super annoying, fake English accent)
Me: Excuse me? Who are you looking for?
Caller: He he! You don’t understand what I am saying is it? (*Aduh mah! I no speeeekkk Engrissshhhhh)
Me: No. Maybe you got the wrong person. Who are you looking for actually?
Caller: I want to speak to Mr Clear River’s personal assistant.
Me: Alright, Ms Gina here speaking.
Caller: I am calling from XXX Group. This is our last call to you for Power Training for Personal Assistants.. blah blah blah… global network….. blah blah… Now, we offer you U-S-D450 for early bird signing up… blah blah blah blah the original price is U-S-D890….blah blah blah blah…..now left only 2 more place to sign up.. so if you can sign up now, we give you a discount of U-S-D…. (He stressed U-S-D. It’s actually damn funny!)
Me: Sorry. I am not interested. (Stern)
Caller: But….
Me: NO! (Firm)
Caller: Ok.. bye.
First of all, he never called me before. So, what’s with the “last call”? I never received any e-mails or faxes whatsoever on this course. This is his first and last call. That is why I was confused. Then, why can’t he simply speak normal English? I find his fake English accent too off putting. “You don’t understand what I WAS saying?”- Wah, this is too much lah. Insulting me no speaking Engrisssh is it???Your grammar suck BIG TIME ok!And I wonder how on earth he got my boss’ name right?Must be those people looking up directory and calling for who-and-whose secretary.Anyway, end of rant. I saja cannot tahan those fake accent.
Recently, there is one person who called my office a few times but failed to get hold of my boss. Well, my boss is a busy fella, what can I say? Since he had called a few times, I offered to call him back once my boss is in the office or when he’s not busy. This person left his contact number and his company’s name. So, I asked him what does his company do? He mentioned to me, PSC and stuffs. I was confused so I asked again, “May I know what does PSC stands for?” as politely as I could. He gave me a snooty remark – “Pre-stressed concrete lah! Like this also you don’t know??”
Fulamak!!!! I was pissed to the max!
Then he had the cheek to tell me, he and my boss knew each other, blah blah blah..and all the jazz.. well.. if you know him personally, then you should have his handphone number right? I didn’t give his number to him because he’s such a pain in the ass.
So, I cut the conversation short and told him that I would get my boss to call him back as soon as he’s in the office.
Many of you would think – Ah! Secretaries are bitches. You have to work around them and try not to step on their tails, otherwise, you will never get things done. Yes, you are absolutely right.
However, I maintained my professionalism, even if Mr Snooty decides to treat me like I don’t matter, I did informed my boss to return his call. He has no freaking idea who this person is! So meaning, this fella lied lah! In normal circumstances – if he didn’t snap at me like that, I would have bugged my boss to call him on his handphone if he has no time in office to talk. I did – I gave my boss his number on a piece of paper on his way out from office but he waved it aside and said, he will call tomorrow. Tomorrow came and went, and he didn’t. I tried to slot the phone call in between his meetings and signing of documents, but somehow, just didn’t manage (not on purpose!).
Mr Snooty did call a few times after that and somehow, the odds worked towards my favor and he didn’t even get to speak to my boss he was really not around.. and this week, boss is on a week’s leave. Hahahahahah!
Moral of the story is – if you want to ask for favors, please don’t be an asshole.
