It's all about her
My boss said she didn't see all of us moving forward as a team.
My boss said she didn't see all of us doing OT to clear the backlog.
My boss said she understood that all of us have our personal lives.
My boss said she didn't expect us to do OT all the time.
What exactly is my boss trying to say?! To do more OT in a single day so as to produce the same number of OT hours without having to stay back in the office for 5 days a week?!
I was bloody pissed off after seeing her reply to my email asking for more resources last night. She blamed me for not pointing out the backlog issue earlier. She refuted my claims about the team being overworked. She scolded (or at least, in a scolding tone) me for not looking into the process and improving it instead of just asking for help.
Hey! Bloody hell! I was there for only a month! Nobody really bothered to teach me anything! Even if they do, they tell me in bits and pieces on separate days which I have to glue it up only to form a half-broken picture! Tell me lah, how to look into the process without knowing the work (which she insisted it could be done)?!
Almost spoilt my dinner! I was wondering how were I to face her the next day when she comes into the office just to solve this issue.
As a background info, my company employs split operations, lest one site falls due to disasters, the other one can continue to handle transactions as per any regular day. I am situated in Dhoby Ghaut, my boss in Chai Chee. Boss only visits DG every Monday & Friday, or half the time just Monday or Friday, or sometimes not even once a week! I have worked barely one month into my new role as site supervisor for a function I have never touched before in my 2 years of service. Somehow I get the feeling that my boss is expecting me to pick up the job on my own, to practice proactive-ness, to seek and ask, to make improvements without really mentoring me. All I get was a few words of notes here and there. What I also hate most was the negative sentiments the rest of the team has. I sensed that they probably wanted me to be their voice, to express their unhappiness of being overworked to Boss. Yet when I did just that, I got shot by BOss!
Infuriating!Boss loves to shoot down people incessantly. Whatever statements or confessions we made, we merely invited more questioning from her: "Why wait till now to report? Why didn't you all sit together and think? Where's the team spirit?" Like that, how is she going to expect us to keep telling her stuffs or suggestions to improve any process?! What the team seeks is a effective, supportive and understanding boss! Not one who keeps thinking that she is effective, supportive and understanding!
Well, thence she returned to the office this morning. Booted up her laptop, sat there for half an hour, and got us all around for a briefing on her quick-fix solution soonafter. Ha! At the end of the day, we realised that her solution did not exactly lower the processing time! But we decided to upgrade her idea without telling her (if she didn't ask), afterall, we probably only get more shootings for shooting her idea down. I had to stay till 9.30pm to help clear the stupid backlog! And I had to bear in mind that today's only the first day! We got 16 days of backlog on top of current load waiting to be cleared!
Oh yea...
My boss is single.
My boss has no kids.
My boss is thirty.
AND today, we just received an email from Boss's BOSS that we are to cut down on OT hours. Laughable.
7 habits of highly effective people
*points upwards* The course that took up my Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday of this week. Time well spent! Better off than checking report after report, signing papers after papers in the office.
Habit 1: Be Proactive
Habit 2: Think With The End In Mind
Habit 3: First Things First
Habit 4: Think Win-Win
Habit 5: Understand, Then Seek To Be UnderstoodHabit 6: Synergy
Habit 7: Sharpen The Saw
"If you want to make minor, incremental changes and improvements, work on practices, behavior or attitude. But if you want to make significant, quantum improvement, work on paradigms."
Sounds pretty simple and inspiring eh? This is not your usual "Yes, you can do it! If I can do it, so can you!" motivational lesson. This is a workshop that aims to shape and tweak the natural 'habits' that already reside, but probably hidden or ignored, in you.
Well, at least after the course, I am acknowledging my continued ignorance of my inability to practice Habit 5. I didn't even think it was a flaw before this workshop! *points below*
I construct a reply before you can even finish speaking.
I construe to argue my point before you can even finish explaining.
I continue to talk before you can even understand my words.
I don't listen empathically.
I don't wait for you to finish convincing me.
I can't wait.
I don't listen.
I just want to win.
So very me... BUT I see this as a modified strain of gene that resonates with the need to be aggressive in order to survive! No no no.. this is not crap..
LISTEN to more. I forgot that the society is evolving too; the population probably uses different 'tools' and tactics these days... even humility and vulnerability could be seen as strengths, thence what's listening? The modern strategy to get things done, the new way to be nice yet scheming at the same time, the easy way to gain trust.. haha.
OK, no more skeptism after the full-stop.
7 habits, I am coming!
California "growers" style
I did a body analysis at California Fitness last night. Whoa.. the results were depressing.
27% of fat in my body! Incredulous! Why then did my scientific oregon electronic scale with body fat analysis reported only 23% fat in that very morning?!
"$3000++ machine leh" TB gawked while maintaining delight at his own 19.6% (not that it's very fit/healthy, just slightly lower than his $30 scale reported). But my SO is almost $300, can! Cheated. Or maybe overtly enthusiastic California Fitness 'tries' to improve customers' motivation by tipping the scale a bit here and there?
That was just one part of the sales presentation. F, the little malay man who 'invited' us down to the centre once again showed us around the facilities with a more hurried, more skeptical fashion than the previous Saturday (our 1st visit following receipt of a 7-day VIP pass from SMRT challenge pack). "Procedures" to gaining a 10-day VIP pass, in coincidence with the centre's 10th year anniversary in SG.
The other section of the sales talk involved a pretty big-sized man who spent nearly 30-45mins trying to establish a very convincing argument.. "
Buy one year get one year free! Additional 6 months free for each couple who signed up together...
$56 per month for All-Clubs access", "10 persons per day are allowed this special offer only..". Yar.. then he topped it off to say, "doesn't mean that each day got 10 vacancies you know? we are also accomodating people who were rejected the previous day..." Ultra contradictory! Still so very special offer or not?!
TB decided to use his usual 'pendulum-style' of planting a check-mate by swinging towards the extremes: "
If you ask me to make a decision today, I will definitely walk away." Ha! Fat fitness consultant got no choice now: "Of course, we definitely respect your choice of assessing the gym facilities and your considerations first. Let me give you a 2-week free pass. We will give you a call again in 2 weeks..."
Time checked. 10pm! Though not at all bought over by Mr Fat and the aggressive-looking fitness centre, glee was still written all over my face. Not exactly time wasted what! I stepped on a $3000 machine for at least 3 mins! Got free body analysis, doubled complimentary membership from 7 days to 14 days, and spent 1.5 hours in a aircon environment which otherwise could be aimless plodding down orchard road.
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Tried out the gym this evening. Hmm.. not bad leh. Thought the treadmill was smoother than those in Planet Fitness. More resistance & weight training machines. So many patterns. And the hairdryer, wah! Big and powerful! But bad thing: gotta bring own padlock, no place to put shoes, dirty lockers since people probably put their shoes inside them when they bathe (just like me). Interesting stuffs: woman security guard stationed inside the changing room; perhaps of the amount of both actual and potential nudity present.
My cheque for Planet Fitness corporate membership is still not yet processed. I wonder when California will be coming up with its $1 per day offer again with my company!
Rating: 7 out of 10.
Body JAMMED!!!
Wah, finally I have decided to attend group exercises after 4 visits to Planet Fitness (thanks to complimentary membership from DBS Cards). It stated on its schedule: Body Jam Clinic 6.15pm - 6.35pm. I read the program description again and again. It is meant to be an introductory lesson to beginners who wish to participate in Body Jam.
Oh! Body Jam is some kind of aerobic classes which incorporate dance moves with mtv dance tracks. [It's really a dance, actually.]
There were less than 5 ladies in the studio when I arrived at 6.15pm. "They usually come in around 6.30pm", commented instructor Amy, a young slim lady with a cherry smile permanently planted on her fair-skinned face. Quite pretty. A lot of vibe.
She highlighted that the lessons will be broken into 2 parts, of which the first consists of pop dance tracks, and the second half focuses on hip hop grooves.
The music began...
Whoa.. some of the aunties are really good and familiar with the moves! I was vigorously trying hard to mimick the slightly chubby auntie-like lady in front of me. Left left, right right, left right, front left.. bish! I just couldn't keep up to the rhythm.. kept missing my steps and nearly knocked into her a few times. I was unconsciously taking up quite a big space with my unsynchronised, messy big steps.
Face it! Arm-Leg coordination work just ain't for me. I gave up after 40minutes. *cough cough*, and I walked out of the room during the short interval between the change of tracks. Thinking back the lady I met before the class, "quite easy.." is really not that easy for me! The Jam Clinic certainly doesn't help at all lor!
How I regret not joining the yoga session instead. I am almost sure that I am able to perform those beautifully weird looking postures to a perfection that could not be achieved in the dance studio.
Be down to earth.. back to the machines...
