WORK ATTITUDE

One of my colleagues asked if I have considered getting another staff to help to cope with the workload. What I really need is not an extra hand but more competent and committed staff.

Today I was so pissed with one of my subordinates. After receiving some feedback from fellow workers, I counselled her yesterday. Yet today, I was handed some envelopes with address labels crookedly pasted by her (mind you, labels were very crookedly pasted). Could tell that she had no qualms sending out those mailers as she even had the postage franked on them. She also had problems meeting deadlines for simple tasks, so much so that my co-worker didn’t dare to delegate jobs to her. So to me, it is as good as not having this headcount. One good staff will be able to cover the jobs of many such staff. Good work attitude is what matters!

SERVICE CULTURE – PART II

My boss went to Las Vegas 2 weeks ago. He gave the cabby US$2 for tips and asked for receipt for his cab fare so that he could claim from the company. Upon getting the receipt he put it in his pocket and alighted from the cab. After he settled into his hotel room, he started to sort out what’s in his pocket and saw this message on the receipt:

This receipt is for cheapscape asshole who does not tip and still has the fxxxxxx cheek to ask for a receipt.

According to my boss, the cabby actually bothered to pretend to write the cab fare on the receipt.

So, this is America’s brand of service…$$$ not enough…

SINGAPORE’S BRAND OF SERVICE CULTURE

Boarded bus service 193 this afternoon to the train station for my class. This particular bus driver..or rather…bus captain (nowadays everyone has nice title) was extremely polite and welcoming. He would greet everyone who came on board and remind passengers to tap their ezlink card properly if they did not do so and thanked them if they did juz that. As you have it, Singaporeans are a shy lot. Most were dumb-founded when they were greeted by this cheerful captain and few responded. From the body language of some passengers, they might have thought that the captain was a bit xiao; it seemed that they rather have the usual grouchy captain.

Every now and then, Singaporeans gripe about poor service, so much so that we have to think of acronym like GST (Greet, Smile and Thank) to remind ourselves. The same happens at Taka. Their staff will line up to greet shoppers when the store opens/closes daily. Most shoppers will juz walk past without acknowledging them. Guess Singapore will take a long while to inculcate good service culture if its people does not learn to reciprocate.

中国顺口溜

Alternative vocab…

游山玩水称“考察”
乱吃乱拿称“检察”
公费读书称“投资”
乱带乌纱称“提拔”
造成损失称“学费”
易地为官称“处罚”

For Man (can be for woman too…)

上午说官话
中午说酒话
下午说梦话
晚上说情话
回家说谎话

老婆是家， 情人是花
工资给家， 奖金送花
病了回家， 好了看花
常回家看看， 别忘了浇花

For all….

一头肥猪大又长
猪身横跨太平洋
猪背可以降飞机
耳朵成了飞机场

身体越来越胖， 心胸越来越小
娱乐越来越多， 快乐越来越少
发言越来越多， 真话越来越少
活动越来越多， 运动越来越少
钞票越来越多， 亲情越来越少
权势越来越高， 威望越来越小

翻开杂志美人多，扭开电视广告多
拿起报纸套话多，看篇文章署名多
买本新书错字多, 出门办事收费多
领导视察小车多，饭店吃饭公款多
下海经商骗子多，年头年尾检查多

吃动物怕激素
吃植物怕毒素
喝饮料怕色素
能吃什么
心里没数

TREASURE YOUR LOVED ONES….

Came across this article in Wan Bao about a 24-year old using blog to communicate with her mother who passed away in a recent accident. She regretted not spending time with her mom when she was alive and now she’s using the blog as a way to communicate and remember her mom. Quite sad isn’t it? It’s usually the case, things are taken for granted when it comes too easily.

Visited the blog, very clean look and touching records, but entries are in mandarin. http://blog.yam.com/imissmama.

My colleague who was diagnosed with stage 4 liver cancer in mid January came back this afternoon to submit some papers for insurance claim. His diagnosis came as a shock as there were no symptoms, he was fit and never went on MC. He has been away for almost 2 weeks for an intensive chemo. So depressing to see his current state, thin, yellowish and thinning hair…and from a seemingly healthy soul to so sickly over a span of 1 month. He’s so young, 34.

Things are so unpredictable, so do treasure what you have and spend quality time with your loved ones.

LOSING STEAM

Feeling stressed lately, mainly due to the degree programme. 2 modules, 2 nights/week, 5 deadlines and 2 exams all within 12 weeks = having to meet deadline every other week, what’s left of the weekends to enjoy? *sigh*. Some more, need to coach my fei zai in her school work..

Managed to finish the final draft of my Marketing Research Literature Review this evening. This stupid academic exercise is getting on my nerve. Worse still, the local lecturer didn’t help much. Ask him for directions, he said he’s not obliged to go through our draft. We just have to submit our work and learn from mistake. Learn from mistake my foot! only if we know what we are supposed to do in the first place…and this mistake will cost us another S$1500 and another 3 months…and the most depressing thing is that hubby spotted few strands of silver on my head! my heart sank further when fei zai continued counting 8,9, 10…oh no! see what this paper chase has done to me? Boss, you sponsored my degree programme, how about sponsoring my hair treatment course too?

As I was doing my assignment in the office on Friday night, heard few of my colleagues laughing and decided to join in the fun. See, my centre is having March holiday programme and we rented costumes for kids and adults so families can have fun dressing up when they visit the centre. I was forced to put on the bumble bee costume..together with me is cleo and berry (a bit obscene though). The berry and bee costumes are kid size so we only used them to cover our front for the photo shoot. What a way to destress…

EXAM FEVER

When Des told me her Maths paper was veri easy, I was uneasy. She wonders wat kind of response she should give me whenever I ask such questions, cos I get worried whether she feels it’s easy or difficult. Hmmm….me oso don’t know leh….aiya, juz wait for her results.

Des will be having CL2 tomorrow. Guess wat? She’s teaching all her stuffed toys chinese vocab. Imagine her stuffed toys sitting neatly on her bed..hope she’s juz learning in a creative and fun way and not study until xiao liao.

Now lao shi goes toilet…let’s see…heh, brown dog WAKE UP!! Tomorrow u fail yr chinese paper then u will become hot dog!!

"’HORROR"SCOPE

Talked about horoscope during lunch with my colleagues todae, then thought of some combination:

Me (rooster) + ronald (dragon) = 龙凤呈祥 (not bad, close to perfect match)
Dez/ah gong (rats) + ah mah/gong gong (snake) = 蛇鼠一窝

Then it dawned on me that me and my 2 bosses = 鸡飞狗跳, no wonder no peace in this office. *sigh*

HAPPY?? new year

Went for lo-hei lunch with the HODs today. This year, the merry mood is not there, cos out of the 6, 1 was absent as dad wentfor complicated operation, 1 having marital problem, 1 having medical problem, so left with 3 ladies and the boss (so far peng peng an an and hopefully will continue to be so…). The mood for the lunch was not very spontaneous though a few of us tried hard to cheer the rest up. Hopefully, this is what’s left over from the year of dog and will be dispersed as we enter into the pig ear…opps…year, i mean. Quite sad to see all these happening to an otherwise close-knit workgroup..cheer up everybody!!

GONG XI!! GONG XI!!

Gong Xi Gong Xi everybody!! Pig year kuai le!! Here’s Wilbur wishing you wan shi ru yi! (look familar hor).

For those who have not or will not have a chance to visit my house, this is my CNY decor.

and my fa cai creation….this year my hubby sure huat huat

until dunno coming or going!! But hor, I play cheat one leh…

see the before and ……….. after pix of radish…

Guess where the grass come fr?? hehehe….no choice lah, forgot about hao cai tou….so last minute went to Prime Mart and the radishes they sold were all without the tip, so got to improvise lor….and since hubby STILL BUSY with his fish tank (yes, fish tank if you can remember), so thought just be creative a bit and took over his discarded fish tank decor..then ta-da..my new breed of radish. smart leh…so proud of myself.