Love is all around and about

Tis the season to be jolly, fa la la la la la la la la...

Tis the season to be giving, fa la la la la la la la la...

Tis the season to be loving, fa la la la la la la la la...

Love is all around.
Love is all around, around.
Love is all around, around, around!!!

Love is all about:

• Love
• Respect
• Care & concern
• Stability
• Communication
• Understanding
• Passion

Love.

New Year Resolutions

It’s nearing Christmas time and then Hari Raya and after that it would soon be Chinese New Year and then I am going on a BKK shopping spree. So nothing gets me down too much nowadays. I am just holding on till Christmas and with all the holidays, time will pass very fast!! Which also means, I can plan for the new year ahead. Actually I am already planning ahead, many New Year resolutions are already forming in my head!

Feel my exuberance. Feel my enthusiasm. Feel my joyfulness!

So what have I thought of for year 2006?

I should be getting baptized.
I should be saving more money (for a rainy day or when the church bells ring)
I should be eating more healthy food and less oily/ carbohydrates (but I love creamy pastas!)
I should start exercising. (Erm, provided I can wake up at 6am)
I wanna play more!! Drink more! (Eski Bar, 1for1 drinks, Club Street, here I come…)

I wanna take up some IT web design courses like Flash & Dreamweaver.
I wanna polish up my guitar skills and rhythm.

I hope to change jobs and do marketing communications.
I hope I do not have to move house. I love my home now.
That’s 2 major events in a year = stress!!

I might take up a "socializing"/ networking course.
I might have to move house/ downgrade. Whatever.
Maybe I should "play the field". Maybe not.

Retail service in Singapore sucks

Service in Singapore is really terrible among retailers and supermarkets. It's a different ball game for those in technology products or business services though.

With regards to that, I wish to say that it's an irony to implement the "GST" campaign in Singapore as I was in Carrefour recently to purchase some products and while I was in queue, I saw that all the cashier counters had this "GST" reminder stuck on their registers. I waited to see if the cashier "greet", "smile" and "thank" the customers in front of me. She did not, not even for any ONE of them. I looked around at other counters, every one of them was oblivious to the reminder in front of them. It's really ironic. Such a big joke!

Another incident happened while I was at M&S Parkway, the cashier did not greet but I do not really care for it. She just had this "black" face and seemed unwillingly to serve us. That aside, I was flabbergasted when she placed all the items i bought (about 5 items, probably weighed at least 800g) into 1 flimsy plastic bag. While I am not finicky, I was quite worried that the plastic bag would tear once I carried it around. I requested for another bag and I was given this look that I was fussy. Even when I go NTUC, if the cashier has no common sense and places 4, 5 cans of condensed milk or canned fruits into 1 bag, I will ask for another as the bag will break!

Now I have done customer service before and I know very well that Singaporeans are difficult at times but at least the basics of good customer service should be there. I have had customers who ask me questions with obvious answers or ask the same questions again and again or cant make up their minds and change stuff many times.

Now that's a real pain.

Do a HR job well

My impression of HR is that people in this line are supposed to be helpful, friendly and concerned for the employee’s welfare. The HR in my new workplace differs greatly from my impression and not many people are satisfied with their service.

Anyway, when I was recruited, NO ONE gave me a call to tell me what time to report to work or if I should go to HR first. So I called the day before I was to report.

Me: Hi, xxx, I am calling because no one has contacted me as to what time I should report to work. So what are the official working hours and who do I go to see tomorrow?
HR: 9-6pm, just go see your boss secretary and later I will come over.
Me: So would there be any induction briefing or orientation?
HR: Induction? No. It’s up to your boss to give you one.
Me: So HR won’t be giving an overview?
HR: No, it’s up to your boss to give you one.

Erm, isn’t HR in the best position to give an overview of all the depts? My boss can give me a micro view. Anyway in the end, I had no induction, no orientation and I was brought round the office and introduced to at least 20 people, each lasting for 10 secs only. What the use for this?? So, imagine, my 1st day I came, was shown to my seat and sat there. My colleague even told me that when she came a year ago, the people in the section did not even know she was coming!

Then, the best thing that happened was HR actually emailed me to ask me if I was settling down and told me to go online to our own website to know more about the company. Hello, HR is just 1 min walk away, do you need to email?!

It’s so different from my previous company which we had induction, then after that orientation for a week, tea session with section heads. While I don’t expect the same treatment, I would expect HR functions such as induction, HR queries to be answered properly and admin HR stuff to be done. Such a big company and no induction briefing. So what if HR here deals with international HR issues? The basics are not even done properly!

If I call HR and ask about issues that I am not clear about or need explaining, they will say, it’s up to your boss but my boss don’t know and won’t do a thing. Or they give you a pissed tone to signal that you are disturbing them with trivial stuff. I don’t know, you, as HR needs to tell me. Right? Dumb.

I feel HR reflects the reputation and environment of a company. So, please, do a HR job well.

What a hooha over lunch?!

I just don’t understand why this admin person at my office is so hung up about lunch hour. Today colleague A who always has to rotate with this admin person B, was on half day AM leave. So since A is coming in at 1pm which is also B’s lunchtime, I do not see the reason why I should have to be dragged into this lunch rotation thing. The basis for this lunch rotation is super dumb too as there must be someone in the office to answer any sales call. Come on, we are NOT a call centre.

Okie, so I refused to rotate lunch and told B that there is no need to, given the reason above. B can tell me what if A is late, A may not come in at 1pm. So what? Is that my business? In the end B said she will lunch at 12pm if I dun want to. I didn’t answer her as I couldn’t be bothered but B just walked off for her lunch.
Why this power play on lunch? Goodness, it’s just LUNCH. I am going crazy cos it has happened like at least 10 over times since I joined 4 months back. This is CRAZY. I am doing her a favour if A is on leave and I rotate with B, so she should keep her tone nice and not order me about. What the H***. I cant stand it.

I already DON'T interact with her 99% of the time. It seems funny she treats her family members so well and other big shots but is so mean to other colleagues or people. Perhaps really nice people are those who treat everyone with respect.

Sometimes I just feel like throwing in the towel. Right now. Maybe it's because I have been a supervisor before so I do not like people ordering me about, except my superiors/ boss. Maybe I should just quit.