Saturday, April 28, 2012

Colleague from Hell - Tips on how to deal with it!

It's very 'steam' to work with a terrible colleague with attitude problem.
I dun tink the problem comes from my communication skils, all the while i have been maintaining good ties with my ex-col and my current teammates. I dun joke on work, in fact i see these jokes as very unprofessional, as it is not funny at all but only contributes to loosen our trust, thus jeopardizing the working relationship.
It has been numerous times she put up the "flame" on me...it's jst a matter of time when i gonna burst with her working attitude. I have been a high tolerance person, and this evil colleague is taking advantage and trying to manipulate the situation to make her feel like she's the top and no one can challenge her.
Let me depict one situation here:
I was searching high and low for numerous price quotation for a few items and noticed that i had none. Knowing this colleague who did the same task before and possibly have it, i went up to ask from her.
As usual, my polite and nice way of requesting item but somehow being returned by her 'arrogances' and rude reply of telling me that she had actually sent them out to me before. Well, it wasn't the way she replied is rude, but the words and the contents of her word sounds rude and as if challenging me that she is 'right'.
I was very sure that i did not get it coz I have searched for it before i went asking from her.
But again, she insisted that she had sent it to me.
So I was like asking her back on when did she sent it to me.
But she can't answer, keep on stressing that she had indeed sent to me.
so i narrowed down my question, saying, "It's OK that i can search in my inbox, but can u roughly tell me when did u actually sent it? I can't be searching all the mails that she sent out from last year til this year on someting that i dun even have an idea on what the content is all about (or perhaps a keyword that she used on that particular email that she had sent out). Well, indeed i have actually searched every possible keyword (by typing the product name, but none appear). So I was wondering how do i sure whether did she sent out or not? She might be claiming that but mayb she had mistakenly recalled? I can't be wasting time searching for someting that doesn't exist in my inbox?
And worse still, she is like trying to challenge me back by saying that i dun read emails that i received or sort of criticizing that i m ignorance and forgetful on recalling certain things that she had sent out.
How heck can i remember so much stuffs that i received in my inbox?
and guess how she replied?
"so u want anyone who sents someting to u to make an announcement???"
I was like perplexed with this kind of statement that she made.
I stop and thinks for awhile, coz this question is very tricky and it applies differently on different situation.
But again, i sensed that she is diverting my attention towards another topic.Yea, that clearly shows that she wants to manipulate the situation and take control to proof that she is right and i m wrong.
I did not answer that fully coz she interrupted. But again, i need to get my fast thinking in knowing how to defend myself..and i realized that she had actually put me into a situation to argue with her.
She forces the situation to the extend of getting someone to be blamed and placing fault on me.
To me, my intention is to get quotation, not to find fault on others, and i just want to get things done.I was tired of searching, and i asked another question whether did she shared out in our sharepoint (which we usually did). And i point out whether she did share it in the correct folder. She can't answer, coz in fact, she did not. She only said tht she did share out in sharepoint which is according to project names.
And i asked her, "so u want me to recall based on projects? how did i know which projects have it?"
She can't answer, coz logically it is inefficient to search thru all project folders.
She lose.
But...not wanting to lose yet, she said someting as if I accused her of being selfish and not sharing things out.
I have to explain to her that i m not accusing her of being selfish with her information, I jst want to know if she did actually sent out to me that time coz i dun get to have it or even aware of it existence.
Can u see now that she is good in diverting topics!
Well, well, well...it all started with my polite request of asking for someting which I believe she has, but it ended up sort of being in a challenge-response situation.
And later i confronted her in GTalk again, fearing that she still tinks i have the intention of accusing her of being selfish when indeed my intention is to get my things done.
So i explained again to her my purpose, and guess what she replied now?
"No worries, i m just kidding. I was bored and sleepy and wanting to get some adrenaline rush on you"I was like wtf!@#$%^
She thinks it is fun to play on other's feeling???
I was tired too, and i got no mood to kidding with her on job. It is very unprofessional to play tricks during work when people are in serious and tension mode. And she is taking the whole situation as some sort of entertainment to make her happy?
Later then, she tried searching on her outbox jst to find proof to me that she actually sent out to me sometime ago.
But she couldn't find one.
She gave me this lame excuse that she hav the habit of deleting mails after sending out.
And to put off her guilt, she immediately upload those quotation onto the sharepoint, yea, to the exact folder that i pointed earlier.
She is darn clever in covering off her mistakes and guilt!
So now, let me breakdown her wrongdoings. If i m her manager, i m gonna list them down one-by-one just like how my boss did to her:
  1. Not sharing item in the sharepoint. Or, if she did share out (as claimed), then she done it the wrong way of placing the files in the wrong folder.
  2. Not sending a copy to me. Or, if she did sent out earlier (as claimed), she should be able to tell me when was that and not asking me to search the entire history of my emails that was sent out by her.I dun even know whether that email do exist in my inbox or not. It was like searching for someting that doesn't exist. But turn out that she did not send to me coz no record was found on her site.
  3. Lying (after discovering that she did not send it out). Or perhaps giving lame excuses that she have the habit of deleting mails after sending out, this is obviously want to cover off her ass! Come on, just admit it if it's probably her mistake of recalling wrongly. She is so darn kiasu of losing face.
  4. And being high ego, even though she had knew of her mistake, she still can make various unprofessional statement and tried changing topics such as saying that I accuse her of being selfish and not sharing things out.
  5. Making false statement of people being ignorant and not checking emails.Well, u can't expect people to read and remember all your emails, but of course i m not asking u to announce every email that u sent out. This thing is very subjective, depending on the importance of the issue/message that you need to bring across in your email.
  6. Coupled with her loud voice, continous speeches and not letting people a chance to explain, she knows she is good making people feel down and manipulate a verbal conversation to side on her. But she had misuse her ability.
  7. Fooling on people's emotion, and not taking job seriously. Work is meant to be serious, yes, u can play at times but not in this kind of tense situation.
Alrite, tis is only one tiny part of my very controversial working environment. There were many encounters that i had to tolerate with her and sometimes i wish i dun have to tell this out in my blog...but i jst wanna share out to u guys that this colleague from hell had done so much dramas that damages our working relationship. I m gonna share out a few in the future coz i wanna tell u guys what shouldn't be done in working place.
It's good that she has been warned by boss of her attitude. Despite serving her resignation notice, she is still unaware of her wrongdoings and keep on creating nuisance at work. I just hope that she learns it someday or get a feel of what is it like being the opposite site (of being a fooled victim). And sad enuff, i hav lost trust on her and i m not goin to let her stay if she can't find a job out there. After all I hav already given her many chances to be taken advantage-off (till she gets promoted from being my sub to be in the same level as me coupled of months back) and now i m not goin to giv a hell chance to her to step on me again.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Friday Nite post

Been reading and browsing thru lotsa blogs lately, especially of those well-known bloggers such as Xiaxue and Dawn Yang. I was surprised to see a slimmer Xiaxue nowadays. Well, i used to admire her for being a fashionista, although her fashion totally doesn't suite me. Her writing style is still the same with many profane words...I wonder how did she gets popular by that? She is jst another mediocre lady who donned herself pretty with thick make-up (and fake eyelashes, wigs, etc)...then camwhore herself (numerous times) before posting it up to her blog to gain instant fame. Well, any girls out there can do that too, why not? but jst a matter of being discovered.
Lemme do the same here too..after all, this is my personal blog!
Here's one clothe i tried on (which i did not buy). This leopard-print turquoise cheongsam is quite attractive but too glaring for me ;-) which explained the reason i ended up not buying it!
well, besides posting on clothes that she bought (and wore), she also used to share her makeup tips by camwhorin' her pretty 'girlie look' (and applying some photoshop) before posting them on her blog.
Some people might just enjoy doin that, for getting attention and instant fame, while other for the sake of keeping them as diary or sort of reference on what they enjoyed doin...
Let me attempt another one here,
do i look unnatural? haha!
FAILED ATTEMPT!
anyhow, tis is just for fun, so unlike me ;-)
and frankly speakin', all the above pictures are in original state with no photoshop, without makeup and taken with my humble handphone camera...
sounds so emo huh?! no, i ain't that emo in reality, k..
Alrite, i m still sitting in my office @ this hour doin' nothing but browsing thru various websites...while having tasks waiting to complete! I seem like dun care much about my job, and procrastinating my task...wut the heck wrong with my working attitude these days! or mayb it is FLYDAY!
Talking about fly-ing....my boss has sort of giving me another false hope (or mayb isn't) of sending me to Bhutan for the coming project. Heck cares!
I just hoping for a better pay cheque. I mean...increement!
and yes, i jst got my pay cheque today!  with my OT allowances IN! woo-hoo!
but still i need to cut cost in daily expenses.
and also to control my diet plan...
coz i have been spending lots on foods and eat-outs lately.
Sort of hard-to-control, coz many of times, i need to mingle with my colleague and that can only be done thru lunchie outings...Thankfully i did not follow them out today to TGIF coz i gotta know later tht they spent quite a fortune on their meal! That amount might probably surpass my one week's expenses!
Hope they dun see me as "antisocial"

TILL THEN, HAPPY WEEKEND!

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

I could be in London, Hanoi or Singapore now

It is the peak season for the team to travel again...I mean, by rite, I should hav now be in London for a meeting with partners over a tender i m working on. But too bad, my boss took over the role and he is now over there meanwhile i m still here in the office supporting him locally:-(  doubly upset...
Since young, i wish to visit at least  an EU country, what more London...with Big Ben, Double Decker, posh taxi...and now is their spring time!
Anyhow, i knw my weakness in dealing with difficult partners tht needs strong negotiation skills, which i m lacking-off..So, mayb next time?
And how about Hanoi?
Been there about 5 months ago, so i dun actually look forward in goin there again. My e-travel application has been approved, but then the sales guy who was so eagerly to have me accompanied him for the meeting been pulling me out last minute. OK, fine!
And supposedly i should fly direct from Hanoi to Singapore to join a 3-day conference cum exhibition...But luck is not on my side, my superior only allow one member in the team to attend and the chance hav been given to a junior colleague! What a way to cut cost! Since joining this company years back, I hav never even been to a seminar once, but this newly joined teammate is so darn lucky!
I could have stand at least a chance of going for a biz trip, but my 3 chances jst slipped by (due to various circumstances).
Such an unlucky of me!
Anyhow, i could only wish (and pray hard) for a better luck next time. Rite now, I could only ask for:
  1. Getting 5% increement this year ;-)
  2. Being sent out for more biz trip so that I could encounter and polish my biz talk and negotiation skills.
Perhaps another promotion (dream-on!) but as I know it, I m yet to reach to that level where i could be a manager yet. Despite that, I kinda feel some accolades and respect from subordinates and others.
And I was quite delighted to hear someone who thought that i m of managerial ranking (who carries green ID in the office)! I dun mind being teased of being a 'blue ID' staff with 'green ID' salary...I would take it as a praise rather than tease (of being overpaid).
Technically, i might be 'there', but one thing lacking of me is confidence and some public speaking...Yea, that is my greatest fear! I just hope that my words dun get tremble whenever i speak to big shots, coz it happens often :-(
As of now my boss is in London, i m the next person in line to look after the team. And i m enjoyin' taking his role of becoming a temporary team leader coz it gives me a chance in testing my leadership skill.
On another hand, it has been quite some time since i last had my holidays, i mean leisure outing/shopping...I truly, madly, deeply wanting to escape from my current place...How great if i could follow my teammate who is now enjoying his trip down SG! I miss that vibrant city...Or perhaps goin down to bump into 'him'? Yea, that 'him' is my dream guy who is now a manager in Singtel...what the heck wrong with my wild wish...wuahahahaha!
till then, adios!

April Feast

Here's what we had during our eat out on last Sunday. Nothing fancy, as my parents prefer chinese dishes rather than anything else.
As usual, we had steamed fish, beancurd, chicken, and veggies
Having been gaining weight recently due to many eat-outs with family and colleagues, not to mention some wedding invitation that is just around the corner...
And today i just had another heavy lunch meal with colleagues and 'chatime' & local snack treat by some kind fella in the department.
If i continue eating like this, i m gonna be overweight soon...nitemare!!!
I seriously need to cut off some lunch outings and tea-time...yea, i mean it SERIOUS...


Thursday, April 19, 2012

Back to Nature?

This is our house curtain bought some time back. I choose the nature leafy design...over the floral pattern.
Does it looks good?

Escapade

When talking about 'escapade' people would simply think of nice sandy beaches, or country hillside greeneries...fresh air, cool breeze...
SO DO I.
But as a city dweller trapped in the office at daytime (and most oftenly till late evening), there is jst no way for me to have a single chance of getting into an escapade...
unless I take leave...
which at the moment is too hard as the team is in short of people
so the nearest escapade (during the day) is the nearby pantry...
haha!
sounds pathetic hor???

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Noodles...this time a different flavor!

Well, the title tells it all!
This is not my first post on noodles...
nor the second, third, fourth or fifth...
I guess I hav been posting lotsa noodles pictures onto this blog till the reader started screamin' now...
and nope, this is NOT GONNA BE MY LAST NOODLE POST
coz i just enjoy cooking and decorating it...
and most importantly enjoying the yummieness of the spongy noodles with its flavorful soup base...
This time, it isn't any ordinary 'Maggi Mee'...It is 'Asam Laksa' flavor (sour, fish-based soup).
Fact: Asam Laksa is listed at number 7 on World's 50 most delicious foods complied by CNN Go in 2011
drooling!

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Nephew's Fullmoon

Attended my nephew's fullmoon some 2 months ago. Should i say he is my nephew?
(He is my cousin's son...So what did i call him?)
It was a humble solemn ceremony held in church with relatives, church member and close frens attending.
Not much of hoo-haa...and the baby was asleep throughout the congregation.
 We were then treated a luncheon buffet after the session. My greedy sister took a plate-full of fruits and jellies...all desserts for her!
I dun favor fruits much...so she walloped everyting on this plate!

Misir Cipsi

Misir Cipsi is not a gypsy's name...
Nor it comes from Mesir...
It is just...
a...
humble...
CORN CHIPS!
yeah, it is a Turkish name for corn chips!
how much do u like chips???
I just simply luv them!
I tried different chips from every country I went...
The one above was a big pack bought in some convenient shop in Istanbul. It doesn't cost much and it tastes good and crunchy!

Monday, April 16, 2012

Confessions of a Shopaholic

Few days back, I was watching this late nite movie aired on tv. It was a nice movie, sort of chick flick which sounds too good to be true.
Well, i mean many things being pictured as if a fairy tale in a mundane working world. Take for example, Rebecca can easily gets into a job, and what more working under a kind boss who helps her alot.
Out of luck, Rebecca wrote an article that gets her famous not only regionally but also internationally.
She gets all the recognition of all sudden with just one article!
I was like...wow..how much fame can an article brings to a person??
the whole thing sounds unlogic...but uh well, it is Walt Disney production...so, every fantasy is normal!
And next thing is, Rebecca's kind boss, Luke is some extraordinary charming guy who has the brain, high spirited (to create his own name), humble, and is a son to a rich lady! (that sort of bring us the perception of a modern prince). Coupled with his cute and adorable look, he is jst one heart-melting guy a girl could dream of! Oh yea, that's explained why he is being fancied by Alicia from Alette mag!
With all those accolades and glamor event that Rebecca got to attend, someone might wonder if writing articles in financial magazine is such a glamor job to take...
To tell the truth, I write too, in blogs and technically in my job, but till now, my writings are unrecognisable and unappreciated.
It takes some effort to reach to a level where everyone reads and likes what u wrote. After all, life is not that easy and success dun comes overnite!

Siu Mai

Siu Mai is NOT a person's name...
It is edible...
It is yummy...
It is chewable...
It is made of pork...
and most importantly
It is my favorite dim sum!
oh no, dim sum is not a person's name!

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Customer Feedback

You see a gorgeous girl at a party.
You go up to her and say, "I am very rich. Marry me!"
That's Direct Marketing.

You’re at a party with a bunch of friends and see a gor-geous girl.
One of your friends goes up to her and pointing at you and says, "He's very rich. Marry him."
That's Advertising.
  
You see a gorgeous girl at a party.
You go up to her and get her telephone number.
The next day you call and say, "Hi, I’m very rich. Marry me."
That's Telemarketing.

You're at a party and see a gorgeous girl.
You get up and straighten your tie; you walk up to her and pour her a drink.
You open the door for her; pick up her bag after she drops it, offer her a ride, and then say, "By the way, I'm very rich. Will you marry me?"
That's Public Relations.

You're at a party and see a gorgeous girl.
She walks up to you and says, "You are very rich."
That's Brand Recognition.
 
You see a gorgeous girl at a party.
You go up to her and say, "I'm rich. Marry me"
She gives you a nice hard slap on your face.
That's Customer Feedback!!!!

The Loaf, Nu Sentral

[ Throwback ] This was my lunch sometime ago in early December when the team had meeting with our boss in Nu Sentral. I ordered the chicken ...