Friday, August 28, 2009

New Job Training - Day 10

There. Another week has passed. 10th day since joining the new company. The surroundings are ok, but the traffic after work over the pass week has been dampened my mood for the rest of the day. Due to the fact that it is the fasting month for all of our Muslims herein this country, they’re given the privilege to leave early [about an hour] throughout the entire month so that they can prepare themselves for break fast time which is around 7.30 depending which zone are they located in our country. Seriously, since they’re able to leave so early, why on earth is the jam is goddamn serious than before? I was able to reach home around 6 before the whole ‘fasting saga’. Now during the fasting month, I can only reach home at least 630 irregardless which route I took. Why-oh-mother-of-$@%^#!@% it has to be like that??? I ain’t condemning anyone here but I’m just clueless, absolutely out of sort here.

Anyway, enough about that jam babbling for now. Let’s get to what have I learnt todate, the 10th day of my training days.

I was talking about the 1st assessment that we have this week. And yes, we had it on Tuesday. It’s an open-book assessment, so it’s pretty much pressure-less. Even though I was in this company for some times back, but this very department that I’m gonna be in, I have not touched the system, the processes at all during my previous tenure in here. Everyone seems to having the impression that I will for sure score perfect on this assessment. Well, to be honest, I did score perfect. C’mon, it’s an open book assessment. Just as long as we are able the understand the rational behind, why we’re doing it, which system that we are suppose to go in, and you’ll be alrite. Another thing is that, MAKE NOTES while training. if it’s just by listening to trainer without making notes, we can only absorb it during training, right after training, everything that the trainer said will be gone the moment we stepped outta training room. As for the notes, make it easy to understand for yourself. After all, it’s your own notes. You can whatever that you want, just as long as you are able to locate it the moment you’re stuck. That’s my own opinion. But then again, different people would have different style. So, suits yourself whatever way that is convenient to yourself.

I ain’t boasting on anything. I’m just merely sharing it with y’all. I don’t feel a slight bit of proud in me right after the result came out. Yea, maybe a wee-bit of excitement, but few seconds after that, ‘twas all back to normal. No celebration or stuff. It’s nothing to feel proud about. Things that we excelled inside of training room ie. assessments, it might not be applicable when we’re at the call floor. It might helps us in knowing what/which screen to go to on a speedy rate.

On a sidenote, the weather has been wet for the whole goddamn week. ‘twas all good in the morning when on my way to work. But the pain-in-the-ass moment is when going back home. It has been raining right after the clock hits 5.30 in the evening, for the past 4 consecutive days. In addition to that, the fasting month that I mentioned previously doesn’t help much as well. As of time of post, ‘twas raining this morning. It’s really damn ‘painful’ to wake up in the morning, only to find that the rain was pouring down like nobody business. OMG!! I feel like calling in for MC for a moment. But, my body clock has changed since last week. Yea. ‘twas unbelievable to me as well. It took me just a farking week to change from a non-morning-person to a normal-office hour person. I’m finally able to wake up in the morning, automatically, of course with the “assistance” of my ever-trustable-life-saviour alarm clock (I’ll upload the picture of the clock later on, as I’m posting this from office. Yea. My current new company do not restrict blog page. That’s a relief.)

There. My first post, live from office. You must wondering why on earth can I post this, at this point time while I’m suppose to be in training room. Well, all I can say is that:

My trainer is the BEST OF ALL thus far that I’ve encounter. So, yea.

That’s all for now. My co-trainees & trainer are complaining that I’m typing too much now. Hahaha.

Be back for more. I’m gonna have another badminton friendly game tomorrow. My body is not aching anymore. Woohoo!!!

Monday, August 24, 2009

New Job Training - Day 6

Damnit!!! My whole body is still suffering from the muscle pain after that badminton friendly game that I had on Saturday. Every single part of my body’s muscle is killing me!!! Every single movement in office to me is painful!! Even at time of post! Owh well, it’s been more 2 and a half year since I touched any sports. Just suck it all up then.

As usual, the first day of the week, starts another week of training on my new job. My trainer has already informed us on last Friday that it’s gonna be an ‘interesting’ topic for today, Monday. Even that, all of us newbies would never thought that today’s lesson it’s gonna be so goddamn ‘interesting’.

So, it all boils down to the training. What I’m doing is a department whereby all calls made by our merchants in oversea will be handle by our team based here. All inquiries from accounts to disputes simple thing as easy as stationeries orders are all under our job descriptions.

Just when we thought the training on which/what system to use for normal payment/account inquiries are tough, WE’RE OWH-SO-WRONG!!!!!!!!

“First, for this market that you’re servicing, you will need to go to this system, whereby...............”

“If it is an urgent request from them, then you will need to go to another system, and then you will need forward an email to the relevant department so that they can action on it ASAP.............”

“For this other market, there’ll be another system, which will be slightly simpler compared to the previous one..................”

“For this type of stationery, depending on the urgency of the request. If it is urgent but it’s to be sent to mailing address, then...............”

Those are the exact words that came out from my trainer’s mouth, word-by-word, piece-by-piece. But of course, the above are just a couple of examples that I’m giving you lads. Yes, “a couple”. There’re MORE!!!!!! The whole class were jaw-dropped, looked at the trainer with bulging red-veined eyes. Who could’ve thought that a simple request like placing stationery order for the merchant would involve sooooooooo many steps, systems, forms?!?!?!? It took almost 4 hours to complete the whole stationery order for us whilst other markets only requires 15minutes for the trainer to complete the whole same stuff. Talk about different luck on different market served.

Enough about this. Hopefully everything will fall into place once we’re familiarize with it. But it will take time, I can bet on that. How long?? I don’t know. 3 months? 6 months? 1 year? I have no BLOODY IDEA!!!

There’s gonna be an open-book “assessment” tomorrow. Gonna doze off right now. I know it’s waay to early for me, but......... stationery..........

fffffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucccccccccccccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkeeeeeeeddddd............

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Interesting Proposition

So, it’s a Sunday. My whole body is bloody aching because of the friendly badminton game yesterday for 2 hours. The last time I played badminton, ‘twas waaaaaaaaaaaaay back in year 2007 already. Hence the body aching part, from top to bottom. Damn! But I heard from the lads that it’s gonna be a weekly ‘affair’ for them to play badminton on Saturday. Hmmm, perhaps I might need to get myself a pair of sport shoes suitable for that as well.

Had lunch with one of my mates earlier. He told me about a very interesting proposition. I ain’t sure about this myself, so here goes. Don’t quote me on this, you do your own judgment.

My friend works in a company that deals with lotsa things, from legal to accounting to new company set-up and stuff like that. He asked if I have friends that are currently still in the midst of paying off their property mortgage. Of course there are! In fact most of my mates are having that at the back of their shoulder, which is quite a burden to ‘em.

Great! This is where the ‘interesting’ stuff gets in.

Apparently early this year, our ‘beloved’ government has somehow approved a policy whereby all property owners will have the option to reduce the rates of their repayment periods. The only thing is that those owners will have to proceed directly to the financial institutions where the owners got their mortgage approved previously and make such request. But then again, please keep this in mind: “Will they be so goddamn stupid to reduce something that they worked so hard to gain?”

Absolutely NOT!!!!

Hence, this company that my mate is working in, acts as an intermediary between the owner and the financial institution. He will collect all the documents from the property owners, and submit it to the involved financial institution for their reviews. If you have no financial complications, the whole process will take about 1-3 months top to conclude.

But of course, all these come with a price. There will be a “administration”/”processing” fee involves during the whole process. The property owner will have to pay around 2000 to 3000 for it. Don’t worry, it’s a one-off fee.

Yes. It might sound costly for something that is not certain that the we will win the case for sure. But what if it really got approved by the government? You will end up saving hundreds of thousands depending on your mortgage figures! In addition to that, you might be starting paying the principal of the said mortgage, ‘cos the interest rates have been strike off [case to case basis].

Well, it’s all up to individual. This is a legal stuff. It’s not being published/announced by all the financial institutions locally ‘cos if they do, that would’ve dented their ‘business growth’ altogether. Hence this kinda ‘opportunity’ has fallen into my mate’s company.

That’s just what I’m going to share with you lots today. I might have try on this if only I possessed my own property. But sadly, no. Sigggggghhhhhhh….

Ahh well, it’s close to midnight already. I’m a normal person with a normal life now. It’s time for bed.

Be back for more!

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Weird Story from New WorkPlace

A week has passed since I joined the new company. Well, it ain’t exactly a new job environment, but it’s a totally new job function, for I’ve worked in this company couple of years back. Left it, and then I’m back in it again. For those who know me well enough, I’m sure they what I’m talking about.

Now then. Back to my whole purpose of writing this post.

First day of training. Well, nothing much to learn. It’s only some basic introductions made between the newbies inside the new training room. There’re altogether 8 of us, which is the biggest newbies’ class eversince our current trainer got his trainer job almost 2 years back. Yea. History’s been created. I’m in the biggest newbies class ever in this division that I’m going to join 3 weeks later.

Right after lunch, all of us newbies were given a building tour. As the name suggested, we ‘travelled’ through the 4 levels that are accessible to us. Yeap. I still bumped into few of ‘em that I’ve worked before during my days here. Those who recognizes me were very, and I mean really surprise to see my face appearing in that building, again, after all these years. It really brings back lotsa memories, be it sweet or sad, crazy or sane. It’s coming back to me now. After the tour, I got to know a very interesting story from my fellow newbie colleague. Here’s how it all started.

So, as usual. This newbie colleague of mine, let’s address him as Mr G, went for the same interview like me. He was still under contract with one of the well-known customer contact centre locally. So, he received a confirmation from our current company that he got the job. Therefore, naturally he should be submitting the ‘ultimate letter’ that every single employer will fears to receive in any time of the year.

Upon hearing that Mr G is gonna leave, they tricked Mr G into signing something which is totally irrelevant in confirming his status of a permanent staff. Even though irrelevant, they used that “signature” to claimed that Mr G has signed, and he’s officially a permanent staff with their company already. In addition to that, they made him sign the ‘document’ when Mr G was on the phone liaising with a customer.

You must be wondering why is that company doing such despicable thing eh? There’s only one thing involves in here, “$” is the one. Technically, Mr G is still their employee. We’re sorta ‘getting’ him over from his then employer. But since that Mr G was still on contract, it means that company will virtually not be getting a single dime from anyone, hence the ‘speed up’ process in confirming my newbie colleague, and get a ‘compensation’ amount outta my current company.

Just when you think this is low? Read on for more ‘exciting’ stuff that makes you think that it’ll only occurred in a tele-drama world, but not in real life.

So, my friend, Mr G went back to his previous employment to settle off some ‘outstanding’ stuff and hope to ends all these complications once and for all.

He was supposed to be reporting into our training class right after lunch time, which is around 1pm. But, ‘twas already 4pm and suddenly we got to know from our trainer that Mr G was somehow ‘locked’ in his previous employer’s building. Yeah. You saw that word. “Locked” is the word. Confined, restrained in a room, that he can’t even get outta that building. He’s stuck there, for at least couple of hours. He was finally able to escape outta that building and reached our training room 30minutes later. He was startled while telling us the story. Of course this went up to the management and they were working very hard in trying to get this “problem” done and dusted ASAP. Of course, due to the above incidents, Mr G is ‘restricted’ by our current employer from dealing with the previous employer ever.

Talk about drama eh?? It’s still unresolved totally as time of post. That, my mates, is one helluva story, comparable to the drama “Prison Break”.

As for myself, nothing much. Everything is quite ‘familiar’ in the sense of the working environment, the people. But system wise, it’ll be entirely different. Something that I’ve not soaked my hands into during my previous tenure here.

Come to think of it, there’s one thing that I still don’t understand. My previous employer’s Human Resource department has removed my name from their database on my last day with them. But when I was about to get my employee access tag from the current company, my name is still somehow attached to the previous employer’s database. Talk about efficiency eh??

5 days of my first week training has passes by easily. Friday after work, ‘twas around 5.30 in the evening. Got a call from a couple of mates working nearby my current employer’s vicinity to have ‘some’ drinks. Hey! Why not?! It’s been awhile since I ‘enjoy’ the “after office hour activities” such as this already, and it dragged on till almost 11pm that we decided to ‘call it a day’. It wasn’t a dead-drunk situation. ‘twas mainly a get-around, tension-releasing session for all of us, after 5 consecutive days of bloody work.

As for this wonderful Saturday morning? I went for a badminton game with my upcoming seniors/mates in the department. Yeap. You see that right. A badminton friendly game, on a Saturday morning, and ‘twas raining. Those who have read my blog knows that I ain’t a morning person. Surprise eh??

IT’S ALL GONNA BLOODY CHANGE!!!

Monday, August 17, 2009

New Chapter

Yea, I know. It's been awhile. Almost half a month since I update my blog here. Don't worry, I'm still here. I won't abandon my blog just like that. Here I am, sitting in front of my desktop, alone in the dark dark room of mine, listening to some japanese & korean songs with my Ipod, typing this post for all of you ladies & gentlemen out there.

To those who know me well enough, tomorrow will be my first day reporting to a new workplace. Yeap, you guessed that right. I've finally gotten outta that "shithole" that I previously bitched about day & night. I know, I know, it all happened too sudden, heck, even for me. Wanna know the full details of it? I'll try to accommodate your 'request' here. Let's see........hmmm.........

One fine day, a friend of mine was seeking my help if I know anyone out there who are willing to work in his department as his departments and few other departments are really short of people as we speak. He really needs lotsa people. So, I happened to know that the department that I previously spent 6 months in it was somehow closed [well, to be honest, I foresee this to happen, just the matter of time]. Hence, few of 'em are either lost their job or they were being transferred to some other departments that requires them to work like a vampire due to time zone difference of the departments. Being a close friend to them as I am, I started spreading the news about my friend's place who are in need of people and it doesn't requires any 'vampire hour' job.

Couple of weeks pass by. No a single reply from them. Fair enough. At that point of time, I also realized that whenever I'm scheduled to work midnight, I will fall asleep for sure, irregardless what happen. Later on, I remembered a statement made by my very own ex-colleague, before he requested to be transferred to a normal office hour department. He said to me this:

"Hey, you know what? I can't work midnight anymore. My age is catching up, my body couldn't sustain it anymore. That's why I opted to be transferred."

Right after these words, he closed his eyes and continue his sleep. Hahaha. I love you, Zul. Thanks for "reminding" me on that. Really.

Just about 6-9 months earlier, things started to change within myself. I'm no longer the old me that can withstand the nights of not sleeping. I can stay up late, but I can't withstand staying up whole night without sleep/nap.

After much tinkering, I've decided to submit my resume to my friend. Without any intention of getting the job, at all. I thought to myself:

"If I get the job, fair enough. Consider it a change of lifestyle. If I don't get the job, fine as well. I'll continue with what I'm doing as well."

That was what exactly on my mind, even till the day of interview. But of course, if one wanna do one thing, one must go all out to do it, without feeling a single bit of regrets. At least if one fails, one went all out to do it, the rest is up to the ONE up there to decide.

2 weeks after the interview, which happened to be last Tuesday. I got awakened by a short message on my mobile, it reads:

Hi there, we want to buy you over from your current company. Can you find out from your Human Resource division the process for us to proceed? We're looking at a very aggressive time line, hopefully you can join us either coming Monday or Wednesday. Let me know ASAP.

Yeap. That's the exact statements that appeared on my mobile. Got a bloody shock so goddamn early in the morning. Hence, right after I reached office and spoken to my immediate reporting officer about this matter. On the process of the "buy-over". To be honest, this is my first encounter on involving such "buy-over" incident. Less than an hour later, my resignation letter was handed over, my official last day will be the very next day. Reason behind is behind I was scheduled to work midnite on Thursday, which will absolutely disturb my body clock. Hence, it leaves me no choice but to consider it a '24 hour resignation'.

That's basically it. My days in the current company that I've spent 2 years and 4 months has ended. I'm moving, or rather "returning" to where I originated from couple of years back. Yea, I'm going back to a company where I spent the most fabulous 5 years in my entire career path.

To those who adores me, who loves me, who likes me, who supported/backed me in my previous company that I just left, yes, no doubt about it, I LOVE YOU ALL!!! And I'll for sure miss each and every single one of you.

To those who don't like me, who despise me, who hates me, who are offended by my blog posts, lemme say this to your face:

FUCK YOU!!!!!!