Hey.. hey.. Here I am again.. practicing my English. Not much to tell though. Well, maybe I’ll just share some of my ‘interesting’ experiences in my present job at food service line. Actually, there are always a lot of “interesting” patrons and incidents exist in restaurant atmosphere. But I’m not focusing my blog on this area.. ain’t like the professional waiter rant which never failed to amaze me with his wonderful story about those “fascinating” customers. However, he handed in his apron, he’s taken his last order in the middle of July 2008, and became a professional writer after that. So, if you’re interested to read his entries about how ‘awesome’ a restaurant life can be.. just read his posts before he stopped being a service person.

Anyway, I’m not here now to advertise that waiter rant. Time flew so fast and I’d been working for around 6 months in one outlet, before I was transferred to our youngest outlet on November 17. Yea.. newest, higher class, but very quiet, haha. Well.. I’ll write the “best” stories in my previous outlet that I can recall. Won’t be too many.. Won’t be too long.. Only some short scenes or even short sentences from my “lovely” customers that left a deep invisible mark in my mind and always made me smile when I was thinking about it sometimes…..

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Guest : I want to use these two dessert vouchers.
Me : Sorry, you can only use one voucher in one visit.
Guest : How about if after I use one voucher, I’ll go out and come in again to use the other voucher?
Me : Er.. that’s another story. It will already be your other visit then.
Guest : So what’s the different if I use it now? You can just split the bill.
Me : But sorry, Sir.. The term and condition is written behind that voucher, no split bill is allowed.
Guest : *(Pass one voucher to his son)* Those kids are not my children. I don’t know them at all. Kids… you go to another table and order you dessert.
Boy : *(Move to another table across their parents)* Excuse me, I want to order one mudpie.. and I want to use this voucher.
Me : *(Feel that it will be totally useless to talk more)* Ya.. sure.

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The restaurant was full house. We had to walk around to ensure all the customers got our attention and all their needs was served promptly. One guest near the corner waved at me.
Guest : Excuse me..
Me : Yes.. how may I help you?
Guest : Can you do me a favor and don’t walk through this area too many times?
Me : Uh? Sorry.. I’m just doing my job and make sure that everything is okay.
Guest : I know you are doing you job. But I feel that it’s annoying everytime you walk through in front of my table.
Me : Well… *(speechless)*
*(Complains usually came because customers didn’t get enough attention from the service staff and they had to wave several times before one server approached them. But.. I got this complain because I gave too much attention? Well.. Well..)*

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I was “alone” on the floor. My colleagues were not on duty yet. Some tables were already occupied at that time and I saw a couple were waiting to be seated.
Me : Hi, table for two?
Guy : Yea.
Me : Ok.. this way please.. *(Escort them to one table near the entrance)*
Guy : *(Point to one table in other section)* Can we sit there at the corner?
Me : Sorry Sir, that section is temporary closed.
Guy : It’s still early and you closed it already?
Me : *(Yea.. it’s still VERY early.. We are just open. It’s not that I closed it ALREADY.. it’s I didn’t open it YET)* We don’t have enough man power to cover all the area at this moment, so.. that section is closed to maximize our service.
Girl : *(Asking to the guy)* Why don’t we sit over there? *(Point the table at the corner)*
Guy : It’s closed because they don’t have staff. What a stupid reason!
*(Hey.. I heard that.. And I knew he purposely said that loudly for me to hear)*
Girl : *(To me now)* Can you give us another table a bit inside please?
Me : *(Nah! Sorry.. I’m stupid. I don’t understand English. Well.. I just put the menu on top of the table that I gave them since the first time.. and pull out one chair)* Please have a seat. Our soup of the day is cream of mushroom.. *(Smile.. and leave..)*

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Guest : Hi, table for four please.
Me : Sure, this way please.
Guest : *(Point to one table with reserved sign on top of it)* Can I sit there at that RESERVED table?
Me : Er.. that table is.. RESERVED??
Guest : Oh.. okay..

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Guest : Can I have a Picasso pizza? *(Pizza with topping of own choice)*
Me : Which topping do you like to add on it?
Guest : Mushroom.. and onion.
Me : Ok, one pizza with mushroom and onion?
Guest : Yes! Is that something wrong with that!?
Me : Um.. No.. I’m just repeating the order.
Guest : Wait.. I think I’ll have the pineapple too.
Me : Sure. So you’ll have the pizza with mushroom, onion, and pineapple?
Guest : Yes! Yes! Do you really think there is something strange with my choice!?! *(Sounds very angry)*
Me : Er.. I’m so sorry. I just want to make sure that I won’t take a wrong order.
Guest : And a lemonade for me, a cup of cappuccino for my husband.
Me : Ok. I’ll send the order. *(Have no courage anymore to repeat the order one more time)*
*(I left the table to send the order.)*
Me : *(To my co-worker near the counter)* Could you please help me ask the guest at that table whether he wants his cappuccino to be served now or later after the meal? *(Don’t even have courage at all to ask anything anymore to that guest.. Feel that my english intonation is very bad.. is it?)*

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Server : Can you go to table 3? The customer complains that his mudpie tastes so ORDINARY.
Me : Uh? Is it supposed to taste EXTRAORDINARY?
Server : I don’t know. Just go to the table. They want to speak with manager.
Me : *(Sigh, and walk to the table)* Hi, how may I help you?
Guest : This mudpie tastes so ORDINARY.
Me : May I know how do you expect it to taste like?
Guest : I don’t know. I just can’t taste the Irish Cream.
Me : Ooh. Well, I will check for you whether they follow the standard recipe when making this mudpie.
*(Aha! Now I know that the taste of Irish Cream is EXTRAORDINARY! What a ‘deep’ english he has..)*

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Nine tables were joined together became a long table. It’s reserved for 18 pax. Two customers were standing at the entrance and one of them showed two of his finger.
Me : Hi, table for two.. this way please.
Guest : *(Look around and point to the long table)* Can we sit there?
Me : *(Amazed)* Um.. that table is quite long for two people I guess… It’s reserved for 18 person.
Guest : *(Not happy face)* . . . . .

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Guest : This ‘one for one set lunch’ promotion.. Is it applicable if I only order dessert?
Me : Well.. This is one for one SET lunch promo.
Guest : Ya.. set lunch.. So, is it applicable if I want to order the dessert only?
Me : Sorry, it’s not applicable. *(And I thought I was the one with bad understanding of english compared with that fluent english speaking Singaporean?)*

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Okay, enough stories. Conclusion? If you want to survive in service industry, forget awhile that you are a human.. Be a professional serving machine! I absorbed this advice also from the awesome ‘waiter rant’, I forget from which entry. But there’s one post from him which I bookmarked.. in my mind though, and recalled it over and over again whenever I felt like I was going to explode on a customer. One good story.. Thanx waiter, for writing it. Yes.. A professional serving machine.. I am.. now. Wish me luck.

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After half a year of working in my present job, I “finally” received my first complain letter from my “lovely” customer. Well.. predictable. I knew that sooner or later this day would come. Service industry.. No matter how hard you try, complains will always come to you.. somehow. So, I’ll just always face it with smile. Here is the letter, sent to our feedback site, was read by all of the higher management and owner.

Good afternoon.

I would like to share my dining experience on Oct. 23rd at X X X branch. I was with my friend and I ordered X X X sandwich. I started to eat my french fries first and then move on to salad. After one bit of salad, I found short curly hair inside the dressing. My hair is long and straight and I tied my hair at back at that time, so it is not mine.

I called waitress immediately and asked for exchange to new one. Then, about 5 minutes later, waitress brought my dinner back. To my surprise, they just changed to new plate and put SAME SANDWICH with salad. It was no fries, so it was not NEW set they served. I supposed to have a great time to catch up one of my best friend at that night, so I did not make noise to the waitress anymore. But by writing this feedback, if this is happens again (I hope not), can you have a policy to change to NEW set??? It is just not feel good/right to eat the with hair-in-salad and PAY for it.

Hope management will look into this matter and there is no more future cases. THANK YOU and have a great day.

Hmh.. so angry, wasn’t she? Well.. Well.. Next? Usual routine procedure after receiving a complain letter is.. making an incident report to be submitted to the higher management. And here is my report. A very ’systematic’ one.

Report of incident - October 23, 2008.

Two ladies sat at table 15/16. They’re both having sandwich for dinner. After some times, one lady called me and told me that she found hair in her side salad. I apologized and offered her to change it.

Hotsiders in charge at that time were X X X, X X X, and X X X. I’m sure that three of them always wear hairnet properly while on duty. So I honestly had no idea whose hair it could be in that salad.

I handed the plate to hotside to show them the hair in the salad and ordered them to make a new one. That was my mistake, I never said specifically that I wanted them to make the complete new set of sandwich. After less than 3 minutes, the food was ready. But then I realized, it was no french fries on the plate. When I asked to the hotsiders, they explained that no french fries returned from the guest, the guest had finished eating the french fries. They misunderstood my order because I handed them the sandwich plate, so they only made a new side salad on a new plate and transferred the same sandwich.

I looked at the customer’s table and I saw that the other lady’s food was half way finish. It was my mistake again that in the end, I decided to order hotside to just add on the salad to bigger portion instead of making a new sandwich and frying the new french fries. I took that decision because I considered that the lady wouldn’t be happy to wait longer for the replacement and eating alone when her friend had finished her meal. I wished that she would at least be satisfied with the bigger portion of salad since she had finished her french fries anyway. So I just sent that plate with the old sandwich, new bigger portion of salad, and no french fries to the lady and apologized one more time.

I know that it’s not an excuse to let our customer in an unpleasant incident like this. And as a person in charge at managerial level, I should think further and take a proper action to satisfy the guest. I do apologize for this trouble and I promise to make a better decision on any problems in the future.

Yeah, apology.. and confession.. That’s what exactly the higher management wanted to read from a report of incident. After that? Of course a ‘very good’ response letter to the customer. So, I did the draft for the response, sent it to higher management to be “polished” here and there so it would be a wonderful response letter. Higher management would be the one who sent that response letter to the customer, to let the customer feel so much appreciated. And.. here it is..

Dear X X X,

Thank you for taking the time to communicate to us about our service.

Firstly, I apologise for the inconvenience caused by this incident. We take great care to ensure that important matters such as food hygiene is properly implemented, so on this occasion an acceptable standard has clearly not met our expectation.

Secondly, I apologise for the unsatisfying action taken towards this incident. We do have a policy to change any food items or beverages that do not meet our service standards. I have clarified with my staff and they did prepare a new portion of salad for your changed dish. But in trying to rush the new order for you, we only thought of giving fast replacement and service, we missed to give you the whole new set of the dish with fries at that time.

We will further ensure that we will prevent this problem from occurring again in the future. Please accept our sincerest apology for the trouble or inconvenience we have caused you. Again, we highly appreciate your feedback as it will assist us in becoming better at what we do. As with any business like ours, the greatest thing we can have is word of mouth from a satisfied customer. It is our goal to retain you as a satisfied customer and we hope to serve you again in the future.

Perfect. Wonderful letter.. But.. did it come from the bottom of our heart? Did I really mean whatever stated on my report or draft of response? Fat hope! Well, I do try to always think as a customer. Okay.. If I was a customer, I ordered a sandwich with french fries and salad as side dishes, and I found a hair in my salad.. what would I do? Hm.. easy question! I experienced thing similar with that before. What did I do? Simply took out the part of food which contained the hair in it, put it on a napkin and folded it so I wouldn’t see it, put it aside on the table, and.. continued to eat the rest of my food. That’s all.. as simple as it was. I didn’t even bother to try to call any of the service staff to demand for anything. Hmh… maybe it’s because I’m so sure that a single hair won’t kill me. Maybe I’m just so lucky that I have a great health and I’m ‘immune’ to a.. um.. hair? That lady must be very weak. ‘Contamination’ from a tiny curly hair could probably send her to death even though it was only in the other part of her food that had already been removed and replaced. Yeah.. probably.. I’m so sorry, princess. I’m so glad that you’re so lucky and still alive after eating it and had a chance to write us a feedback. What the X X X !?!?

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Disappointed.. So disappointed. No reason.. No point. Why? Because. That’s all… because.. . (full stop).. Don’t know what to say. People say love hurts. I’ll say.. friendship hurts.. sometimes.. somehow. I’m avoiding “society”.. Wait.. ok.. wrong sentence.. Correction? I’m fine with society.. but.. I’m not looking for friendship! I’m afraid of new friendship.. afraid of myself become so demanding as I used to be. Someone told me once, “It’s inevitable that we became friends.” Disagree.. should I? When there’s a will, there’s a way, right?? I start become demanding now, that’s why I’m disappointed. Why did I start it?? Why did I let it?? My old friend said I was changed. I said.. yeah.. the old me was dead. That friend guessed.. it’s because of my new life.. the fresh friendship. I moaned inwardly.. it’s not them.. It’s you! You killed the old me. But then.. not you either.. it’s me.. My demanding heart caused that misunderstanding.. killed the old me. Don’t start it ever again? Can I? It’s started a bit.. But I shouldn’t let it. Will I be able to stop that? At least.. stop this demanding heart! Go.. hang out.. enjoy the fun.. but shut my heart off and never open it up again.. Should I? Well.. do me a favor.. If you don’t expect my heart to demand more from you.. Don’t be too nice to me!

No… It’s not me here.. It’s the other side of me who’s blogging now. I never wrote this short.. this unclear.. this random.. this bitter..

Just ignore this post.. Don’t worry.. I’m very fine.

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For the first time in my life, I rejected a higher responsibility. For the first time in my life, I lost my confidence.

X: I’ll give you the chance to run this outlet.
Me: Why me? She’s much more senior than me.
X: She can not commit to company’s demand. She can’t work weekends.
Me: Still.. I know she’s good. Give it to her. I’m not ready yet.

Yeah.. I’m not ready.. totally am not. Coward? Maybe. For some reasons, I became a coward. Hundred miles away from my kingdom across the sea, I’m only a tiny slave here.

Final announcement, three of us was sitting together.
X: Y won’t be here anymore. Starting today, Z will be the first person in charge for this outlet. Prila, you will be the second person in charge. Anyway it won’t be for long. I want you to learn as much as you can from her. Remember, it’s not for long.

The flag was given to her. I smiled. Sorry, Sir. I knew I let you down. But one thing.. I’m very sure now, it was a wise decision. I saw how she dealt with this responsibility. She’s great, I could already feel it, no doubt.

Only a little flashback that made me a bit miserable. Again.. my kingdom across the sea.
My X-Boss: Prila, we’re opening the 2nd outlet. Can you take care of that?
Extinct Me: I’ll try my best.
…….
My X-Boss: Surabaya will need someone during the pre-opening to provide good trainings and make sure everything is up to standard. I’ll send you there to make that happen.
Extinct Me: My pleasure, boss.
…….
My X-Boss: My manager screwed up. The opening was already delayed two times. You.. Take over!
Extinct Me: Give me all the contact numbers. I’ll do my best to catch up.
(After some times action and reaction…)
My X-Team: Miss.. so glad you’re here. Boss was very angry. But with you here, we really hope we can open next week.
Extinct Me: I bet we can. But please, let’s work hard together. Don’t worry, we will open next week.

That ‘Me’.. is extinct here somehow. To all my x-bosses, x-superiors, x-staffs, x-colleagues, all my teams, and my close friends there in Jakarta.. who always have confidence in me.. I know I am disappointing you all. Forgive me.. pray for me.. I’m trying hard to mend the pieces of my broken strength. I’ll be awake someday, I promise.

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Dear ‘amateur’ readers.. I’m in my mood on writing. Let’s try something a bit much more difficult and make a new category here in my page: ‘Amateur English’. Let’s hope that in the future this entry won’t be “alone” inside it. Well.. feel like blogging in English today.. don’t know why. It might be because I’ve read many blogs in English nowadays. Also some “complains” from new friends saying that they couldn’t understand anything from my posts and said that it was somehow ‘unfair’.

Speaking about that ‘unfair’ thing.. it will be a great idea to talk about it right now, about the ‘Fairness’ itself. Is there such thing as fairness? I don’t think so! I’ve tried many times for at least not so far away from being fair.. and Heaven knows how difficult it could be.. especially at work.

Him: Who plan this stationing? You?
Me: No, not me.. Why?
Him: Why A is always assigned at that station?
Me: Well.. she does best in that station.
Him: But I think it’s unfair for the other staff. Like she always get the chance to always stay at the back and relax.
(Unspoken Me): (Relax?!? Do you really think that job is so relaxing? And the ‘chance’ to always stay at the back.. Hmh.. from what I observed, she always try to finish the duty faster, then try to help people ‘out there’ instead of taking that chance.)
Me: On the very busy hours, we better choose the fittest person for a station.
Him: But B can also do that, and C can do it too.
(Unspoken Me): (Don’t u afraid this B will take that chance to always stay at the back and we will lose ‘one helping hand’ out there? And I think she is needed to be in other station, she’s good on it. How about C ? Sure she can do it, I know I can assign her anywhere, no doubt. But she happens to be the fastest person in the floor that we’ll need so much to be there in the middle of that uncivilized impatient crowd customers.)
Me: Just tell your opinion to the person who plan that. I’m not the one who did it.*Smiling*
(Yeah.. I wasn’t the one who did the stationing plan for night shift. But if it were me, I know I’d make exactly the same arrangement.)

The opinion was obviously outspoken to the planner. Result? Within only less than half an hour, I saw the stationing is changed. A and C were switched over. I smiled in my heart.. wise decision. Equal helping hand, almost the same skill, nothing to lose. It’s only because each of them is slightly better than the other one in their own ’specialized’ station that caused the MOD made the first arrangement. I’m sure he thought the same way with me. We have same star sign, not so difficult for me to understand him. The stationing seemed fair enough now ..and we don’t always assign A in that section (or always assign C in another section, and D in other stressful section, doesn’t anybody realize that?) But are we being unfair to always assign the best (though it’s only slightly better) person in each station in order to make the fastest move to satisfy (again) that impatient crowd customer? And is it fair to us if we are scolded by the customer or higher management level just because we couldn’t make the best planning in order to be ‘fair’ enough? Is it so unfair if we need the most suitable person to fill in that “relaxing” but “risky” station so we can work a bit faster and easier at night after the exhausting “war”?

A week before, with a guilty feeling of being unfair.. I said to D, “I think I have to assign u as host again.” Horrible position to always struggle facing that cruel irritable queue.. She’s the best though, I had no choice. I was expecting rejection or at least a sigh from her. But no! “For you.. sure, no problem. I will.” ..with smile! What an easing answer, made my day. Yeah, think far behind when I was “young”.. I was often positioned at the worst place or situation just because I was so ‘able’ to be there. Did I complain? Nope if the one who asked me to was the one I respect, superior that I like. I’d do it with pleasure from the bottom of my heart. If not? No.. not complaining.. just grumbled inside. Like and dislike? Common occurrence? Tell me who’s being unfair now. Is it the superior who always assign someone most suitable in the most relaxing or in the most horrible situation? Or is it the subordinate who can be happy or unhappy for the same reason depending on who tell them what to do?

Same day with that ’stationing’ incident, I stayed there after work to do scheduling. It’s not a new thing for me, I did it very very often on my previous job, even more often on the more previous than that previous job. But still, always took me a long time to do that even until now. Difficult? I don’t think so. Piece of cake. Trying hard to be fair, that’s my major problem. Tried not to give too many or too less hours to each of them. Tried to dam the atmosphere that gonna be deluged with jealousy if I gave too many “relaxing” section to one staff. Well done. Result? “I really like it when u do the scheduling. I got so many hours.” No.. It’s not because I wanted it to do so. I really had no choice. Nobody else wanted the hours that I gave to u. But then.. will anyone scrutinize? If even u as the ‘lucky’ person here is thinking that way, I won’t be surprised if others will mumble around about this. And the fact that u are one of my favorite companions will somehow strengthen the hunch. Another result? “Come on! You can not always give me overtime on Sunday! That’s the most unpleasant day to work.” Wow.. I could cancel ur name since the beginning and replaced it with my ‘favorite companion’. But I didn’t. I thought u’d need the extra hours to earn more, and that was the only day I can give to you without “sacrificing” others. Screwed up! I shouldn’t try any effort to be fair on the first place.

That day, I stayed at work until very late. I saw the MOD was pissed off, usual incident.. guest complain. Complaining about one’s attitude.. again.. common. Attitude is somehow a subjective appraisal. The following complicated procedural service recovery is something that annoyed him so bad. I wasn’t so sure what caused the tears dripped from the “victim” ’s eyes. Might be a hard time for her to be the one being blamed. Unfair? It isn’t fair either to the MOD if a complain letter goes to the higher level through feedback site as happened in only a couple weeks ago. Hard time from the higher level.. and again.. complicated procedural service recovery. But then today, I read one’s post, posted on 27 July 2008 4:34AM, sharing about this same day.. same place. How several customers expressed so much gratitude for the good service. Will they write a compliment letter through feedback site? I doubt it. People used to concern more on the bad incident rather than the good one. And if they by any chance write it, I don’t think the higher level will care even a single bit. Yeah, unfair..

Saturday night, still the same day.. I looked up the roster, wondering who’ll be in my team the following day. Sunday lunch will always be very busy and I’ll need a strong team, a solid cooperation. A bit sighs in my heart.. Honestly I was quite worried with the team. Like and dislike? No.. Just an ordinary human feeling. Well, at least there’s one person I can really count on.. except for her ‘habit’ of coming a bit late. I purposely said in front of her, insinuated a bit.. “Hm.. I have to be well prepared. Seems that someone will be late tomorrow.” Hoping that she’ll understand that I really need her to be on time to help me in the “war”. And.. she gave me a good response, “No, I won’t be late. I’ll call u saying that I’m gonna be late, but I’ll be on time.” Big grin on my face and hers. I was relieved.

Sunday morning.. 11.20, an incoming call. Someone picked it up and told me the caller would be late, just awake. Just awake?!? Oh no! I should open the business within 10 minutes time, and I think more than an hour is needed for someone who just awake to reach this place. No, the caller was not her who promised me to be on time, her schedule was 12.30. It’s another person. Customers started coming in.. pouring in. I had to be very tactful, forget a while about the SOP. Seating the guest, give menu, straightway give them all the ice water and set spoons on the table. No need to wait until they order, no need to know what will they order.. just give it, set it, don’t waste my time. Great idea, saved me from a lot of troubles. Yet couldn’t help so much. The customers kept pouring in, all demanding my attention. Finally the first person arrived, 12.20. 60% tables were already occupied at that time. 12.40.. almost full house! I was wondering, where is she?? 10 minutes passed from her schedule. Disappointed.. so disappointed.. I really counted on her. I almost finished my energy ‘running’ around and customers are still very demanding.. always be. 12.45 she came with guilt on her face, apologized. I just smiled and rushed her into the crowd.

Another phone call.. Another two persons should start at 1 o’clock said that they would be half an hour late.. What a day! Lack of two persons even for only half an hour in busy Sunday lunch is a total mess. My worries the night before were somehow coming true. Well in the end.. I had the complete team. I could finally breathe normally after 2pm. Everybody seemed exhausted, I could really understand what they felt. But could they understand mine? Never mind. I should not feel something unfair. My salary is higher then theirs.. that’s unfair.

16.05.. the next MOD came.. LATE.. 5 minutes only.
Him: Why everybody seems unhappy?
Her: Because all the guest sucks today!
(Unspoken Me): (Sure. Our service sucks today. What do you expect..)
I couldn’t blame the customers. They will not understand that we short of staff or anything. And I don’t think the higher management will understand either. Lack of staff because of indiscipline.. it means that I can’t control my staff. I’m failed as a leader. Yet I don’t wanna scold them. They’re different from my co-worker in Indonesia. These people don’t really need a job, they work for fun. Scolding or threatening could somehow make them worse.

The only thing I can do here is try to win their respect, try to be their friend, hoping that they will help me with pleasure, without pressure. But I think I’m failed. I remember 2 days before, almost the same thing happened. I had to struggle alone in the crowd, waiting for the late companion. But that time was also my mistake, I changed his schedule and missed to inform him about it. So that time I didn’t think so much. But this time, really make me think.. they might be unhappy working with me. Maybe they don’t like me.. and purposely put me in this kind of situation? Well.. hopefully not. Quite like a strike on my shift.. but it might be completely coincidence. All their reasons made sense for me. But yeah.. who knows?

Sometimes ago, I was working as usual with the co-workers. Out of sudden, one person said, “Prila, I’m waiting the time u’ll become an operational manager. I think you have so much potential.” I just replied.. so fast replied.. “Amen. Thank you.” I have so much potential? I was there before.. I’ve been there on that position. This is honestly a step backward for me, my career was downgraded. But I don’t regret it at all. I remember I scolded my staff a lot when I was at that position. Too much pressure and brain working baled out a bit of my patience and calmness. A little mistake could make me somehow explode. Honestly, sometimes I can understand why our operational manager is so irritating. But I believe I wasn’t as irritating as him. When I resigned from that previous job, some people seemed losing their spirit to continue working there. Even one of the supervisor said, “You quit, I quit.” What’s that? A ‘you jump I jump’ Titanic expression? He said that he didn’t like the other superior but still staying because I was there. I just told him to make a wise decision. He did.. looked for another job, found it, one month notification to the company.. and this early July he started his new job. Hopefully he didn’t regret it, because from experience I know.. working everywhere is the same.

Here is a little part of my very long e-mail sent to my operational manager here after I argued badly with him around 2 months ago.

My answer for your sentence “if you are not happy, then the door is open for you to leave” is still the same. Sentences like “I can fire you anytime,” “a lot of people is queuing for this job,” or anything else that in my mind sounds like “I don’t need you.. but you need this job” is the sentence I always avoid to say to any of my staff because I hate that kinds of sentence very much. Well.. I just try to do my best here. And in my opinion, if I’ve done my best but I still have to leave the company.. there are only 2 possibilities: ‘I am not good enough for the company’ or ‘The company is not good enough for me.’ For me, working anywhere is the same.. there always be a clash or different way of thinking with the superior or boss. Who hate who, like and dislike are very very common problem exist in every company. So, I am very fine with that…

Yes, I am really fine. And I do hope that I won’t be like him and forget how it feels to be an inferior. I crawled from the bottom, climbed up bit by bit.. Believe me I really know how it feels. Some people born on the top of a ladder, but I’m not one of them. Well, life is unfair though. But I found one nice story. A little girl told her uncle that she felt something unfair. The uncle replied, “Girl, you are so cute, that’s unfair. Your daddy is so rich, that’s unfair. Your mom loves you so much, that’s unfair. Do you really want everything to be fair?”

Never pray for fairness. You might regret it when it comes to you.

Wow! Well done! I can finish my first English post. A long one though.. very long. Let’s see the effect of writing in English. Generally, on my previous posts I received some comments of those. I’ll wait if I can still get some comments in this language. Anyway.. I’m very glad that life is unfair and He gives me the talent of writing.. and lot of other things.

Wait.. I almost posted this entry yesterday, but I was thinking of doing one last editing today after work. But there’s another thing happened today that I want to share here.
A phone call…
Him: Were u the one who gave the paycheck to that staff?
Me: Ya, I did give it to him.
Him: Why!? U have to wait until month end to give the paycheck if someone still under probation!
Me: *startled* I am sorry, I didn’t know about that.
Him: You didn’t know!?! There was a memo about it! That person acted a bit crazy yesterday. If he never show up working again, you should responsible for that paycheck!
Me: He’s not coming today. I think he won’t come to work anymore.
Him: See?!? Means that his salary should be deducted. Now how?!?
Me: Well.. I am sorry. That’s my mistake. Just deduct it from my salary then.
BAM! Phone is slammed from the other side.

What the …? Yeah.. my mistake, case closed. No need to say that he didn’t give me a chance to read all those old memos. No use to drag other outlet managers in this case by saying that I also always received my paycheck before month end since the beginning, when I was still under probation. Not necessary to bring in the fact that I gave the paycheck to the person as ordered by the manager in charge. Let me be the only fool person here.

Another phone call. No, not for me. For the other higher management. But then after that..
Her: Prila.. He will not deduct ur salary. He will not touch the payment. But then, because that staff should actually work until month end for that full payment… and he still has 3 days to go.. Then 3 days of ur day off or annual leave should be deducted.
Me: Hm.. Ok…
Her: Or.. he said that u can try to call our big boss ask him to call the bank and hold the payment.
Me: I? Call the big boss? I think it won’t be wise if I call him directly by myself. As if I pass through so many higher level than me.
Her: It’s ok.. he said that you may try to call the big boss, he gave you the permission.
(Unspoken Me:) (Gave me permission? If he really intended to help me, he would help me to call the big boss instead of giving me the permission. If he’s so afraid of losing his face by calling him and being ignored or even scolded by bothering a big boss with such a thing.. I didn’t think I should do that silly idea.)
Me: It’s ok. I’d rather give up my day off.

Sigh. Even the manager in charge who told me to give away the paycheck didn’t seem like he’s willing to let me share that days off deduction with him when I told him the story by phone. Unfair? No.. My own decision. I was the one who decided to work here in Singapore. It might be unfair for somebody else that I was so lucky to find this job. The fact that Singaporean superior won’t bother trying to cover or help their subordinate like I always try to do.. is the risk I should face.

Yet another phone call.. same caller..
Him: Who was in charge Sunday morning?
Me: I was in charge.
Him: Why didn’t u tell me about supplier sent the cake sample for me?
Me: That was ur day off. I was waiting for Monday.
Him: Yesterday was Monday, I was there. Why didn’t I receive the sample?!?
Me: I was off yesterday. But I’ve passed the message to cold side staff so he could give it to you.
Him: Nobody tell me anything! I don’t care if u’ve passed the message! I never received the message! Did you put it at comm-log?
Me: No, I didn’t.
Him: Nah! So how?!? That’s ur fault!
Me: I am so sorry, my mistake.
BAM! Phone is slammed (again..) from the other side.

What a day. Ruined all the mood I had to work. Felt like throwing away that red shirt and went home. But fortunately I saw that face. A cheerful face, energetic, full of spirit. A helping hand, eased the pain. My staff.. NO, my friend instead. Lucky you were there. Make me remember that I like the place, I like the working atmosphere, and I have some people like her here… that’s enough. The hell with that inconsiderable superior. I remind myself one more time, working anywhere is the same. Irritating superior or boss like him will always exist. Can be even worse. So why bother? Fairness.. is never exist.

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