Own Time Own Target

It has been a challenging 2 months on the work front.

An accounts assistant with almost 3 years left. He was smart and quick, but I couldnt keep him. But little did I know that this was the opening of flood gates of the great exodus.

A group accountant with 14 years in the company left with just 1 month's notice.

A senior secretary with 12 years left 2 weeks after.

I sacked a sales administrator who took too many unscheduled leave and MC and too many smoking breaks.

Managed to find a new sales administrator quite quickly, but she was a no-show on the start date, and acute appendicitis c/w operation was the reason. Pleaded with us to keep the position open for her, only to be again a no-show on the new start date, 2 weeks later. ARGH!

Interviewed these 4 positions till I almost could not bring myself to shake another hand and ask about another's job experience. Not counting those who made appointment and did not show up, or had found positions before showing up for the first position, I must have seen at least 30+ people.

Some you know to be unsuitable the moment they offer you a limp handshake and needed you to repeated the question, preferably in simpler English.

The others you think have potential, but HOW MUCH potential to be trained before they leave?

Then the others who are perfect but asking for the moon and star and that red car for the remuneration package.

Between balancing the needs of the company, the budget I have to work with, the experience and character of the candidate, I finally did find an account assistant and a sales administrator who have started, a junior secretary (for me, not to replace the senior secretary) starting next week, and an accountant to start 1 Jan.

The pieces are now all laid out.

I could finally get back to my work, while shouldering some of the accountant's work and some functions that the senior secretary had taken on. i.e. 2.5 jobs on my 1 salary.

I am going to have to step up and work beyond my capacity for a while. But I am getting numb.

Hopefully my secretary will turn out as smart as I believe her to be, and save me from burning out too quickly.

Labels: to Despair, to Work

Worked almost 2 weeks to prepare material for budget and forecast presentation to the president

And only after all had been printed, made into presentation files, and ppt presentation, that the most school girl of all errors showed up on the screen.

instead of total of subtotals and % against each budgets, i had total % of sub-total %. not once, but for all the countries.

H O R R O R S

The MD and other directors were aghast, but know me enough that this is totally out of character for me, and highly atypical of my work, and quickly agreed with me that it is a minor error in the formula when cutting and pasting into the presentation slide.

The President simply nodded. (I was almost grateful that I work for the very understated Japanese instead of the more vocal Americans or Europeans, surely i would have been roasted on the pits)

I gritted my teeth and went through the presentation was given a chance to do a quick change during lunch break.


Now that the dust had settled... i wonder if the error (or the miss in picking it up earlier) was indeed just an error, or an indication of something deeper?

Perhaps i've lost the respect for the endless meetings which goes in circle and back to square 1?


Damage control is the easy part,

Soul searching is way harder.


how did an error in the formula become so complicated?

Labels: to Work

The most depressing work trip so far.

Day 1
Second flight out on Monday morn (only becos we couldnt get confirmed seats on the first flight)
Airplane meal
straight to office
meeting
work
tarpao lunch
work
tarpao dinner
1030pm, checkin to hotel

Day 2
Breakfast in hotel
office
work
tarpao lunch
work
tarpao dinner
10pm left office

Day 3
Breakfast in hotel
office
work
tarpao lunch
work
Dinner at seafood place near office - finally something decent and ONLY becos BOSS is finally in town:
- fried squid coated in salted egg yolk;
- pre-peeled crabs with just enough shell for holding onto the piece, including the legs
- oyster egg
- very spicy tom yam soup (both the clear version and more traditional version with coconut milk)
- Otah in square banana-leaf containers
- very crispy deep fried local fish
- very fresh coconut juice
back to office for work (ah... the price we pay for not tarpao'ing dinner)
1130pm back to hotel

Day 4
Breakfast in hotel complete with meeting with BOSS
Meeting with Sales Dept
Lunch at MK Gold (the more upscale version of MK the steamboat place) Esplanade (the newest shopping center near office)
More Meeting
Dinner at Ping Sharksfin Restaurant, my first!
- Sharksfin in claypot (so-so, perhaps because we ordered the smallest and cheapest at THB500 per pax)
- VERY GOOD fried fish maw with prawn, HEAVENLY
- GOOD goose web with kway teow
- VERY GOOD Abalone rice (half a piece of braised abalone on rice)
- FANTASTIC coconut jelly (made with coconut juice) in coconut fruit
- GOOD sesame dumpling in ginger tea
I suppose this dinner is worth allllll the disappointment of the tarpao food we had over the last 3 days. The meal for 6 pp came up to THB10,000 before VIP 10% discount. VERY expensive in BKK standards
Heavy drinking session at KTV... 'nuff said.

Day 5
Breakfast at hotel
BOSS down with food poisoning, left to hold the fort in meeting
tarpao lunch
check out
rush to airport
used the diplomatic lane for immigration with my TLM silver card and saved at least 20min
rushed for a 45min shoulder massage which was half pien-jiat by the therapist. But no fish prawn also good.
Made it just in time for the flight
Airplane meal
Reached home 11pm.

Labels: to Travel, to Work

Possibly one of my longest posting in recent years if things dot move much faster from here...

Tasked to get all the reports out, and to physically do it FOR THEM if they cant, and THEN to stay and ensure all the banking, legal, and whatnots are executed before I can go back is just DUH.

It is going to take easily a week (and my poor accountant who is with me shall have to spend her birthday having tom-yam soup instead of cake with her family), and likely to stretch till 2 weeks where i'll have to put my foot down and go home regardless, i mean such is the pace of life here...

Let me not waste my time longer than necessary... I promise I will come back in another 2-3 weeks to make sure that things are done by then, ok?

....................................

p/s. just received an email that VVIP from principal will be in Singapore for meeting on 11-July, meaning the latest i will return must surely be 10-July night? i mean, they cant have their meeing without me, can they?

Labels: to Travel, to Work

all the happiness of fitting into a size 24 waist jeans has evaporated in the face of an emergency...

i've just found out that the staff that i'm covering for had made an error in the formula of payroll calculation since Jan 07, and upon further checking since Jan 06 too...

ALL because she had not used (+CELL*12)/(5*52*8) but had used (number*12)/(5*52*8)

AND THEN copy and pasting the that (number*12)/(5*52*8) for other staff. Since the number for each staff is different, the resulting amount is gonna be wrong.

IF it was copying and pasting (+CELL*12)/(5*52*8) to other staff, there would have not been any problem since +CELL would have pointing to the right number.

worst still, the worksheet was used for all subsequent months, and the formula copied and pasted to all new staff.

Since i was the one who found out,

i'd be the one to have to
- comb all entries in 2007 and recalculate the correct amounts
- rectify
- issue memo
- explain to all affected
- apologise

but only for 2007's

SHE will have to comb every entry for every staff for every month of 2006 when she comes back. maybe 2005 too.

Labels: to Despair, to Work

Labels: to Shop Buy, to Work

It is the Monday Blues...

2 bombs dropped on me with deadline due last week and the first i'm hearing these requirements is TODAY, and it is ALREADY my fault that these are not out yet.

my boss's favorite phrase "EVERYBODY'S WAITING FOR YOU"

with already TWO staff away (1 stiiiillllll on maternity leave and intending to take extended leave, and another for a holiday to USA for almost 2 weeks)

i'm dying.

Managed to fire-fight and clear those 2 bombs, but that meant no time to do the real work that has been piling up on my in-tray. literally, the in-tray has papers 17cm thick.

dont even have time to go to the pantry for a refill of coffee/ tea (i'm living on caffeine now) which is just as well, since i also dont have time to go to the loo

ARGH.

I so need a break.

A REAL break, not just a weekend or a public holiday.

I need to go AWAY and conveniently leave my phone behind.

Labels: to Despair, to Work

i cant stand it.



another 56 days

36 working days

before boss's secretary returns from maternity leave.

2.5 persons job crammed into each 24-hr day. (Her job plus my currently 1.5 men workscope inch'ing towards 2 men scope)

but with each day stretching from morn to 9-10 in the evening, each day feels like an eternity.

IS an eternity.

with 10,919 things to do, do, do, do, do.

i'm tired just LISTING the things i need to do

all due yesterday, last week, last month.



oh God give me the strength.

Just to do

each

ONE by ONE.

Labels: to Despair, to Work

My name is YoJanJan and I am a Perfectionist

My last transgression was today when a staff came to me saying that we needed to print new namecards, but the bureu's ISO logo had changed from a squarish to long rectangle one. A simple replacement cant work as the new logo will be too small in that design.

She showed me her suggested artwork and printer's suggested artwork but all CMI IMHO.

So I spent over an HOUR to redesign the whole damn thing, AND THEN i double checked the brand/ products listing at back of namecard, found that it needed updating and HENCE reworded and redesign THAT whole damn thing too

I could have minded my own business, let things slide and saved myself 2 HOURS but my pride and perfectionalism couldnt accept a job that is less than perfect

I will try less next time.

Labels: to Work

what i threw in 1 day of cleaning

I've taken the last 2 1/2 days of the last week to throw out old docs, clean out my KIV/ Filing/ Out tray, Pending files and folders.

Some stuff had already been actioned upon

Some i managed to save and filed in the right files

Thrown a lot away (2.5 times the pic above)

- some mailers that i had missed the first time they landed on my in tray

- those that were dead in the planning stage and never got off

- those interesting bits that i thought i might take a closer look when i can find some time, but it turned out i never did.

- those that were so long overdue that it didnt matter anymore


I've now reclaimed 1/4 of my table and 1/2 my in-tray (which doubled as my KIV tray)

- more elbow room

- more space to spread out docs for studying

- no more hunting for pens that rolled under piles of papers and files

- no more patting over papers to see where are my phones and keys

in fact, i FOUND some pens and reclaimed lots of plastic folders, metal clips and paper clips.


At the end of it all, i even ran an antiseptic wipe over my keyboard, my desk phone, my calculator and desktop.


cathartic to say the least.

Labels: to Work

I just realised that i've almost ran out of emergency snacks and meals for those bad moments and late nights in the office.

Am down to my last few packs of su-da biscuits and some dried figs, filling but barely fulfilling.

Gotta remember to buy and stock up tomorrow.

Only all the HOT, spicy, salty, and sinful stuff.

tom yom noodle, chili potato chips, curry noodle, cheese balls, chocolates, bee chen hiong gourmet barkwa (which had gone up by $0.20 per 100g)...

lets go see what else they have

i might have to get some drinks too

.
.
.

oh wait, i've already stashed beer in the executive fridge.

Labels: to Eat Drink Party, to Work

oh good grief, i'm working with moronic postboxes who are unable to understand, analyze and come to decisions on uncommon and unpleasant situations, and most sinisterly: afraid of letting people know so.

So instead of trying harder to understand, analyze and come to decisions by thinking, asking questions and generally working harder, they CC mail.

From one to all, and all to all.

So that it would appear that they are working (just postboxing, really) and by cc-ing the WHOLE WORLD, their responsibility is miracurously SHARED!

Because ANY and ALL who were in the CC list SURELY MUST share some of the responsibility, whether by merely reading or even to hope against hope that someone might actually SOLVE WHOLE DAMN THING, no matter they are just by-standers! They are culpable for just being in the CC list. In fact, even the chap who didnt read but binned the email must take some responsibility too for not reading the email and binning it!

In the end the only logical conclusion must be, if you CC enough people enough times, you are going to be FREE!

right.

Labels: to Despair, to Work

* edited to add additional episodes 1, 2 , 3, 4*

had a most exasperating experience this morning.

had sent an invitation for a personalised email address (domain created via yahoo small business) to a staff in another office early this week, and he kept telling me that he "cant get in"

turned out he didnt have yahoo id.

told him to sign up for yahoo id.

after several false starts, he finally did, this morning.

but he said he still cant activate the email

turned out he hasnt activated his yahoo id in his alternate email address

told him to activate by following the link

then he said still cant activate the email via the invitation.

told him to go straight to domain mail site and try.

still cannot.

in exasperation, i asked him for his yahoo id and password (thankfully he is not very security concious and i was too far gone to care for HIS security... i dont know if he even knows how to change password after creating one... HA*)

i tried and can what!

orrr... i still trying to activate from invitation.

told him to go to explorer and straight to the domain mail site.

then he said cannot.

why?

cos computer hang.

ARGH!

p-l-e-a-s-e restart computer and restart browser, enter domain mail site

orrrr....

key in here huh?

where is here? i cant see your screen remember? what site are you at?

er... yahoo small business.

huh? did you enter domain mail site at the browser? (better make sure)

yes.

o-k-a-y, p-l-e-a-s-e enter yahoo id "*******" and your password "*****"

okay already.

good grief.

i now wait with bated breath for him to ask me how to use web mail...
...................................................................................................................................

Episode 1

Eh, how to cut and paste from here to yahoo ah? i dont want to retype the things

Er... cut from where? but nevermind. Just copy as usual and paste using the icon with the clipboard. Cannot right-click in yahoo mail.

What icon?

Those icons in a row on top of the message body?

Whats that?

*deep breaths* the space where you type in your message? beat. you need to click on "compose mail first"

orrr... got icons.

.................................................................................................................................

Episode 2

Eh, i cannot open your emails leh. My computer dont have power point.

Huh? Move it to a place with a power point lor

i mean my computer dont have power point programme.

You dont have Power Point software in your office computers?

My laptop have, but cannot print.
Then the old computer can print but dont have Power Point

*crying inside* ok, i convert the ppt file to tif for you...

.....................................................................................................................................

Episode 3

Eh, we already keyed in 1 application already. but they dont have acknowledgement one ah?

er... dont see them so up. beat. did you save?

no.

... ... ... re-log in and check if there is any records there, if dont have call and ask the admin on the other side to check

dont have telephone number

it is on the contact page which i gave to you

only have name and email

dont have any telephone number?

only the COMPANY telephone number.

*ready to die*

................................................................................................................................

Episode 4

how come i print the web-site already i cannot see ah?

huh?

did you adjust the print resolution?

no, nothing to do with it. i can see the website but when print, cannot see.

HUH?

yeah, when i print, it is like i cannot see the whole screen. Like copying a A3 document and print on a A4 paper.

ohhhh... you mean the page is truncated, on the right side? (educated guess)

yeah yeah yeah. how ah?

What is your explorer version? if you have explorer 7 you change choose a print setting to shrink the web page to suit the paper size.

explorer 6. Cannot upgrade lah. later more trouble.

*i decided to leave it as that*

Then you print in landscape lor

but not nice leh.

you got CHOICE meh?

Labels: to Despair, to Work

On some days, I feel like and work like superwoman. Multi-tasking, planning, delegating, checking, reporting, emailing, filing, scheduling, blogging, surfing, forumming, msning etc... with so much things crammed in my head and fits of productivity bursting forth in various performed! Done! Finito! Thoughts and ideas! Action!

.
.
.

Today is not one of those days.

It just feels like i've marshmallow stuffed in my head.

I could barely string 2 thoughts together, let alone string together the affairs of the 4-5 companies that I'm juggling.

Just managing to send a couple of emails out, scout out 2 business opportunities, prepared some payments, and I'm already nursing a mega headache and bleary eyes.

Either I'm coming down with something, or my weary old bones are dreading the travels that are starting soon (KL tomorrow, BKK next week).

Or both.

ARGH.

Labels: to Despair, to Work

Tough tough tough trip, not so the work, but emotionally tiring.

what does an executioner feel when the checkmate was called on his friend, and he has to execute accordingly?

hopefully it was fast and over before the pain hits.

.......................................................................................

my boss was interviewed by a local TV station, over the new business venture.

thank goodness it was him, and not me.

......................................................................................

arrived a little early for my return flight and went for a massage at the airport after check-in. The head, shoulder and foot massage shop was near the D departure gates, and the traditional massage shop was 1 level below.

They were packed and i was adamnant on getting a traditional massage when i am in Thailand. Had to wait for 20min and settle for a 45min massage instead of the 60min massage. It was competent strong though not entirely satisfying for the short duration. It would have to do.

Had some spare THB, and spent all of them at Boots, getting shampoo (buildup remover! yes!) and makeup :D

Labels: to Eat Drink Party, to Travel, to Work

Okies, all done. The preparation for the BOD meeting in Japan is DONE!

- presentation material - check
- soft copy of presentation - check
- reportssss - check
- copies for directors - check
- air tickets - check
- hotel reservation - check

All that is missing is ME.

i'm not going for the BOD meeting, will be staying in SG to catch up on backlog of work, clear paperwork for various new investments, and strategise action plan.

no freezing in the cold winds of Tokyo... no hectic slave-girl to the BOD... no hard drinking... no missing on zzz... no hangover... no rushing of minutes in the middle of night, ready for the next morning...

then why do i feel so down?

pout*

Labels: to Travel, to Work

gonna do the unthinkable...

i'm gonna leave tons of work, undone, incomplete, unfiled and just up and go,

not even going to close the opened files and tidy up the mess (more like mountain) of paper strewn on my desk

it is just too much.

i dont have the energy or the inclination to deal with it today.

i'm just gonna go.

ok, maybe i'll shut down the computer...

Labels: to Despair, to Work

After the late notice to fly in less than 24 hours, screwing up my schedule for work flow and having to reschedule meetings for the whole week, I got a call late last nite that we shall be flying on next Monday instead.

mad.

mad as in crazy, not in angry.

too tired to get angry.

gotta reschedule all the meetings again...

at least i get to go to the girls nite out session in its entirety from dinner to party this weds.

baring any MORE CHANGES, that is.

help.

Labels: to Work

i had a whiff of it today. it nauseated me. it started with reminiscences and sharing of experiences, but when the talk of eons past is being dissected as if it happened last week, and turned toward why wouldnt pp learn from the wealth of info from the last 20 years? (emmm... becos they had really just joint 3 months back and never got to know?) I am sympathetic, but there really is a better time and place, not to mention a proper target audience. Please please please dont scream at the new pp for the mistakes that an earlier generation had made and not learnt from and continues to err (by gosh, sack them please!). Give the newbies a chance, they are trying, and learning, dont demoralise them and discredit them before they've even started.

me? i know what and how it had happened (although i had only been there midway, but i have long antenaes. ha.) and understands where it came from. but for me, still? that smell of desperation is just sad.

Labels: to Work

overwhelmed with work, almost to the point of paralysis... where to start, which 1 first if they are all on ASAP basis, how SOON is ASAP? Need to sit down and think through a war plan and action schedule, but i keep getting interrupted by other pp with their prob and their ASAPs. argh~*

can't think clearly, need food. I'll save that drink till later. and a massage, if and when, hopefully sooner, not later. And a run this weekend. darn* not that much of a paralysis when it comes to non-work matters... ah~ but can you blame me? ;)

Labels: to Work