The week after Labour Day was crazy, all thanks to H1N1 virus. My boss was in panic mode on 4th May, making us print out & put up advisory notes on it all around and she sent out emails after emails about temperature taking etc. My ex-colleague who was looking forward to laze her remaining 1 week left in the company was stretched to the fullest as she was arrowed to handle the temperature taking exercise.
A duty roster was quickly drawn up and activated staff had to put on mask & gloves and stationed at the guard house to take temperature of visitors, staff & students. On Day 1 (5th May), we were instructed to wear the yellow surgical looking coats, put on N95 mask & wear gloves. I was unlucky enough to be the 1st group on duty in the morning. Had to report to work at 7.15am and stood out there taking temperature of people for 2 hours at the humid non-aircon walkway in the full gear. 2-3 hours later as some of the activated staff couldn't make it, my dept of 4 took turns to cover them. Luckily by then full gear wasn't required. We only needed to put on mask & gloves. In the evening I stayed till almost 8pm for the duty as well. Thank goodness this lasted 2 days only otherwise I think I'll become a zombie. The last 2 days of the week was spent catching up on work :(
Last week was craziness as well. Boss was in another panic mode, shortlisting almost every other candidate and wanted us to interview at least 5 a day. Plus I was rushing out a new project and preparing a payroll report. The week past in a flash and I don't really remember what kept me so busy with OT almost every other day. Worse still, my precious Saturday was burnt all due to a company event which I was activated for usher duty. Another early day at work (7.15am) on my off Sat! Very sianz... this company has too many "ECAs" that eats into my rest days and takes up my work time. Often or not we find ourselves doing things totally related to our job scope. While it's a good learning opportunity, I'd prefer to focus on my area of specialization and excel in it than do many other unrelated stuff.
This week seems like another roller-coaster ride again. I was busy the whole of today, worked through lunch and OT till 7pm. And I think tomorrow's probably the same. I can't remember what I did today except interviews & checking report. Everything else's a blur. Haiz....
Monday, May 18, 2009
Saturday, May 02, 2009
Activity-filled Labour Day
We had planned to eat buffet breakfast at Delifrance in the morning but we woke up at 9.30am. Rushed down to Compass Point at 10am only to be told we can't join in the buffet coz it ends at 10.30am. Disappointed, we went to McDonalds but it was crowded, mainly families with young kids. Very noisy and like a playground sometimes. Burger King was equally crowded.
At McD, we stood near a table where the family was almost done. Before the last member of the family stood up, a rude & sweaty looking woman in her early 30s holding a tray of food immed sat right next to that person at the table. That family member & us looked at her in surprise, not knowing how to react. And that bitch looked at us with a blur look then quickly focused on her food. Ugly Singaporean!
Fed up with the crowd, we decided to pamper ourselves with a nicer environment at Swensens. It wasn't too crowded but the staff were slow in bringing us to our table, resulting in a queue outside. And they took forever to take our orders and serve us our food. Poor service! But we enjoyed the food and ate till 11.30am. Took a walk around then left for Toa Payoh.
Sometime ago we had prayed to Yue Lao Deity at Toa Payoh's Shuanglin Temple to let our relationship progress smoothly. It's developing quite smoothly now and we felt it's time to thank the gods. After praying we went to kaypoh at "The Peak", the HDB-Condo at Toa Payoh. Nice design but crazy pricing. It's still just a HDB flat leh! In case you are wondering, we are just killing time and do not have any intention of buying a home yet :)
Next we went to AMK Hub to catch a movie. Missed the 1.30pm show so ended up shopping around. I was so happy to get a cute A4 sized bag for my files. We went for our show "252: Signal of Life" from 4 - 6pm, each munching a small box of pop-corn coz there was a promotion "Free combo popcorn+drink with each full-priced ticket". The show wasn't fantastic but it didn't feel like 2 hours so I'll still rate it as ok. It was just too dramatic and unbelievable but nevermind, got a good looking male lead can liao! haha ;p
252: Signal of Life trailer
Done with the movie, we rushed home coz I had to attend a friend's birthday cum Hen's night at 7.30pm at Clarke Quay. Poor dardar was my driver, dropped me off at venue then went home to eat dinner alone. Then at 11pm came to fetch me to attend my sister's birthday celebration at Punggol Park cafe. Finally home at 12.30am, took a quick shower and off to bed coz next day have to go to work. SIANZ...
This day seemed more busy and tiring than a normal working day but we enjoyed it anyway : )
At McD, we stood near a table where the family was almost done. Before the last member of the family stood up, a rude & sweaty looking woman in her early 30s holding a tray of food immed sat right next to that person at the table. That family member & us looked at her in surprise, not knowing how to react. And that bitch looked at us with a blur look then quickly focused on her food. Ugly Singaporean!
Fed up with the crowd, we decided to pamper ourselves with a nicer environment at Swensens. It wasn't too crowded but the staff were slow in bringing us to our table, resulting in a queue outside. And they took forever to take our orders and serve us our food. Poor service! But we enjoyed the food and ate till 11.30am. Took a walk around then left for Toa Payoh.
Sometime ago we had prayed to Yue Lao Deity at Toa Payoh's Shuanglin Temple to let our relationship progress smoothly. It's developing quite smoothly now and we felt it's time to thank the gods. After praying we went to kaypoh at "The Peak", the HDB-Condo at Toa Payoh. Nice design but crazy pricing. It's still just a HDB flat leh! In case you are wondering, we are just killing time and do not have any intention of buying a home yet :)
Next we went to AMK Hub to catch a movie. Missed the 1.30pm show so ended up shopping around. I was so happy to get a cute A4 sized bag for my files. We went for our show "252: Signal of Life" from 4 - 6pm, each munching a small box of pop-corn coz there was a promotion "Free combo popcorn+drink with each full-priced ticket". The show wasn't fantastic but it didn't feel like 2 hours so I'll still rate it as ok. It was just too dramatic and unbelievable but nevermind, got a good looking male lead can liao! haha ;p
252: Signal of Life trailer
Done with the movie, we rushed home coz I had to attend a friend's birthday cum Hen's night at 7.30pm at Clarke Quay. Poor dardar was my driver, dropped me off at venue then went home to eat dinner alone. Then at 11pm came to fetch me to attend my sister's birthday celebration at Punggol Park cafe. Finally home at 12.30am, took a quick shower and off to bed coz next day have to go to work. SIANZ...
This day seemed more busy and tiring than a normal working day but we enjoyed it anyway : )
Definitely not Employer of Choice!
Coming from a background of MNCs where rules are relaxed and people are judged by their work performance, it was a total culture shock to me when I learnt of the practices of this particular organization.
1) What happens if some people are perpetually late for work? Do you deduct their salary by the minutes of lateness or deduct a portion of their bonus? Or motivate them to be punctual by rewarding them when they aren't late for a period of time? This organization chose to punish latecomers.
2) We are not machines and we do fall sick sometimes. Some are strong enough to report for work despite running a temperature whereas most of us are probably half-dead at home. That's the reason why we are entitled to 14 days of Medical Leave a year. However over at this organization, people are penalized for taking more than 5 days of Medical Leave a year.
Give 14 days entitlement but penalize for taking more than 5 days? What a joke! Might as well say give 5 days of Medical Leave entitlement. While I understand it's a way to discourage abuse of MCs, I prefer the rewards system of giving an incentive for staying MC free for a year.
3) Saturday is an alternate week, half work day of 4.5 hours. If someone wants to take leave that day, it is considered a full day leave of 8 hours. Is this fair? Why are employees being punished for taking Saturday off?
4) All thanks to point 3, when a Public Holiday falls on a Saturday, we don't have to work. If it happens to be the Sat we were supposed to be off, we gain 1 day Annual Leave in lieu. Is this fair to those poor fellows who didn't have to work 4.5hrs on that Saturday yet their colleagues don't have to work 8 hours just because it happened to be their non-working Saturday?
5) Most companies I've been to send their employees on training to upgrade their workforce. I was most surprised by this organization's clause on repaying the training fees when one resigns. And we never asked to attend those training in the first place! I've heard of many companies sponsoring their staff to study cert/diploma without any strings attached. This is what I call generosity!
6) There is a practice of making employees sign a 1-5 year employment bond, yet the bond doesn't come with sponsorship of anything. It's basically a contract that doesn't allow one to resign for that period of time. What purpose does it serve? Lower staff turnover? Wake up! It's just delaying the turnover rate while tarnishing the organization's reputation in the job market coz unhappily bonded employees will be spreading negative comments about it.
7) Some employees are bonded for a few years at a fixed salary & position. I seriously do not understand why anyone would take up it up. Where is the motivation to excel at work if there's no salary increment or promotion no matter how hard you work?
8) Apparently some people are hired through the back door and that really puts me off.
9) Whenever someone tries to propose bringing in vendors (without cost) to do roadshows for staff, the Management's reaction is "What do we gain out of it?" and not "How can our staff benefit from it?". Obviously no roadshows were done in the end and staff have to wait forever for the "corporate discount" that will never happen.
This seems like quite a suffocating place to be in but yet people have stayed for 2 - 5 years. Probably they have been through worse company culture and find this ok. But not for me!
1) What happens if some people are perpetually late for work? Do you deduct their salary by the minutes of lateness or deduct a portion of their bonus? Or motivate them to be punctual by rewarding them when they aren't late for a period of time? This organization chose to punish latecomers.
2) We are not machines and we do fall sick sometimes. Some are strong enough to report for work despite running a temperature whereas most of us are probably half-dead at home. That's the reason why we are entitled to 14 days of Medical Leave a year. However over at this organization, people are penalized for taking more than 5 days of Medical Leave a year.
Give 14 days entitlement but penalize for taking more than 5 days? What a joke! Might as well say give 5 days of Medical Leave entitlement. While I understand it's a way to discourage abuse of MCs, I prefer the rewards system of giving an incentive for staying MC free for a year.
3) Saturday is an alternate week, half work day of 4.5 hours. If someone wants to take leave that day, it is considered a full day leave of 8 hours. Is this fair? Why are employees being punished for taking Saturday off?
4) All thanks to point 3, when a Public Holiday falls on a Saturday, we don't have to work. If it happens to be the Sat we were supposed to be off, we gain 1 day Annual Leave in lieu. Is this fair to those poor fellows who didn't have to work 4.5hrs on that Saturday yet their colleagues don't have to work 8 hours just because it happened to be their non-working Saturday?
5) Most companies I've been to send their employees on training to upgrade their workforce. I was most surprised by this organization's clause on repaying the training fees when one resigns. And we never asked to attend those training in the first place! I've heard of many companies sponsoring their staff to study cert/diploma without any strings attached. This is what I call generosity!
6) There is a practice of making employees sign a 1-5 year employment bond, yet the bond doesn't come with sponsorship of anything. It's basically a contract that doesn't allow one to resign for that period of time. What purpose does it serve? Lower staff turnover? Wake up! It's just delaying the turnover rate while tarnishing the organization's reputation in the job market coz unhappily bonded employees will be spreading negative comments about it.
7) Some employees are bonded for a few years at a fixed salary & position. I seriously do not understand why anyone would take up it up. Where is the motivation to excel at work if there's no salary increment or promotion no matter how hard you work?
8) Apparently some people are hired through the back door and that really puts me off.
9) Whenever someone tries to propose bringing in vendors (without cost) to do roadshows for staff, the Management's reaction is "What do we gain out of it?" and not "How can our staff benefit from it?". Obviously no roadshows were done in the end and staff have to wait forever for the "corporate discount" that will never happen.
This seems like quite a suffocating place to be in but yet people have stayed for 2 - 5 years. Probably they have been through worse company culture and find this ok. But not for me!
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