Of grooming course

I feeling-feeling that I am under-utilized.

On my short-stint here at dotdotdots.

Maybe I am not proactive enough, that’s why i have this under-utilized feelings. Instead of waiting for people to call me or invite me to meetings/ discussion/ programmes blablabla… I should’ve dengan tak malunya invite myself. Buat je sibuk-sibuk kat rumah orang, biar orang menyampah, nanti orang halau ko balik rumah sendiri. Haha.

Yesterday I was back to home-office (home sweet home? home-office sweet home-office? got it?) to attend a one-day grooming course. Very interesting. Among the things learnt:

• tie-pin is pokcik-pokcikkk
• wearing cuff-links can elevate a person to the highest in the ranking of power dressing
• the ideal width of the belt must not be more that the length of the thumb’s distal  phalanx  (ruas pertama ibu jari)
• the length of the pants must cover until the tumit kasut only, advice: when buying formal pants, bring along your formal shoes
• the tie’s lebar must be around 3-4 inches, less or more than that is considered kureng professional already

Note that the above only apply to men’s power dressing. According to the consultant, we ladies can almost wear anything because we have so many options out there compared to the men. But still, take stock of your working environment before jumping on the adventurous-fashion-train. Check your organization’s dress codes and ethics. Normally any organization will have a chapter on it in the employee’s handbook given to us on our first working day. Or you can always ask the HR people. Or the old-timers at the office.

Last but not least, use your common sense. If the working environment is a professional, dealing with power people-the ministers kind, dress professionally. Safe bet, wear three-piece-suit. I only knew yesterday that skirt ranks higher than the pants for the ladies. Especially long skirt. No wonder the gomen dress-code does not allow pants for the ladies, all this while i was like… ala, tak professional sungguh tak bagi pakai pants, rupanya akak yang kurang professional. Haha. It seems that for the ladies, the more skin you show, the less professional you become. Ha… sebab tu la kena tutup aurat, see what this rule implies? Sedondon betul dengan tanggungjawab kita sebagai muslimah disuruh menutup aurat, supaya kita tidak diambil mudah & murah dan dihormati. Kan kan kan?

Satu akak nak komen (dah lama simpan ni), konpius betul dgn orang2 pi opis pakai tudung belit melampau-lampau sampai jadi serabut serabai pening kepala akak menengoknya. Buat akak tertanya-tanya jugak, ko tak pening kepala ke belit2 gitu sekali. Tu tak masuk lagi bunga/ reben tiga empat bijik me-mahkotai kepala tu, tambah lak kerongsang liplap berjurai-jurai macam ala-ala waterfall gittew, tanglung la, blablabla. Saranan humble akak, save that style only for outings, weddings and occasions, but not to the office please. I myself will not take this kind of dressing (the people) seriously if I am meeting them for the first time. Like what the consultant said yesterday, the first impression matters the most. My say, very true. Once your professionalism has been established, maybe then people will look past your appearance. Masa ni pakai apa pun takpa, org dah kenal. Keje dah dapat, haha. Tapi, masih la kan. You are what you wear. Dress seriously and appropriately, people will take you seriously.

Di tengah-tengah middle

Being the middle one is always hard. Anak tengah, orang tengah, middle management (pengurusan tengah?). Having anak-anak buah and at the same time being an anak buah, can sometimes be exasperating. Sebab dah pernah berada di bawah, aku kadang-kadang terlampau memihak kepada orang bawahan. Tapi sekarang bila menjadi orang ‘tengahan’ (?), berpeluang mendekati, mendengar dan terlibat sekali dengan perbincangan, buah fikiran dan pendapat orang atasan, aku juga mula faham kenapa sesuatu tindakan itu diambil oleh orang atasan walaupun kadang-kadang pada orang bawahan nampak tidak masuk akal. Orang atasan look at things as a whole, orang bawahan pula only see one or two parts of that whole and orang tengahan might have access to at least 1/3 of that whole.

Kesimpulannya, orang tengahlah susah sikit, sebab nak sampaikan dan jalankan action plans orang atasan dengan cara yang sesuai dengan sikap/ masalah/ strengths/ weaknesses orang bawahan yang kadang-kadang memeningkan/ menyakit-jiwakan.

Bosssssss………………………. tambah gaji mungkin?

Inadequate?

Ever feel like this?

Maybe PMS, or maybe there are good reasons to feel this.

Last week started out with me having a ‘strong discussion’ (read: argument) with my immediate superior (IS). It was a petty issue actually, the big boss wanted to have a makan-makan for the department, sponsored by him, as I was told by his PA. So, we arranged for the food and the cake since one of our colleague is also going to celebrate her birthday the next day. Arrangement settled, without any issue since both of us are very efficient and tak banyak cerita (ayat puji diri sendiri mesti ada, simply because this is my blog… huhuh). Mind you, the big boss loved the lauk-pauk that we ordered very much! Heheh! And thinking that the big boss already sponsored the lunch, I decided to sponsor a homemade fruit pudding, but I didn’t inform anyone because if I was not able to make it, then nobody will be hurt. Chewah… karat je. Puding je pun. Anyway, I was able to make it. Ok. Settled.

Very early in the morning, kerusi pun tak sempat panas, I’ve been called to my IS’s office. Out of nowhere, she told me that it was disccused between her and the big boss somewhere around last week that the makan2 is actually to be sponsored by the management. Meaning: me included. Ok. The catering was quite pricey because the food quality was guaranteed. Memang telah disahkan oleh SIRIM. According to the big boss’s PA, it was his wish to organize a mkn2 for the dept., and he wanted to invite several people from the company’s sports club too since he is the chairman of the club. Kesimpulannya, dia la yang nak belanja. IS aku ni, bila dgr bos nak belanja, she wants to contribute too. Ok, fine. But, she told me that the big boss wanted everyone (the mgmt) to contribute. My guess was maybe she was thinking that the ‘cake’ will be smaller if more people is going to share it.

Anyway, when the big boss called me up last week to discuss abt this mkn2 thing, we discussed the menu, price, the small details, and he never once brought up the part where I have to contribute too. So, I got confused. I told her that. And I asked her to check with the PA, since the PA told me a different story from hers. And I suggested maybe she misunderstood what the big boss said to her. That pissed her off I think. I was told in the face that next time, when she told me something, I better believe her. And don’t I dare to suggest to her to check back her story whatsoever. Huh?

I’ve no intention to be rude or whatever. She was known for her forgetfulness. And also she has this habit of using the boss’s name if she wants us to believe what she wants to say. So, I don’t really trust anything that she says. I will normally check with others or the big boss’s himself. And in this mkn2 case, I’ve dealt directly with the big boss, therefore I should have trusted my source of info. la kan, which is myself? But then again, I’m just an ikan bilis (read: kuli). As I was told by my IS many times before, the boss is always right. Me as ikan bilis has no right whatsoever to question the boss. And this came up only because of the makan2 issue.

I don’t know how it is in the government’s organization. Hmmm… But from where I came from, anyone’s opinion is sought out and appreciated. Ke aku yang inadequate to work in gov.’s org.? Sometimes I wonder…

 

“Your staff will walk over miles of razorblades in their bare feet if they know they are appreciated and they enjoy the people they work with.” –Mike Moore

Working on Saturday part 2

For 2 weeks in a row. But today, I am not alone. Brought Damia along. Nasib baik ada Damia, takut wo dok ofis sorang-sorang!

Above photos, from left: Asleep after watching her new Elmo CD for the fourth time, wearing my pashmina- pretending that she has long hair, “Farhana (how she calls herself) rambut panjang, cantik tak?”

I’m delegating…

Delegation. By delegating:

• I’ll be able to go home early to my kids
• I can share the stress with other people instead of suffering alone. Huhu…

I am still trying to get the hang of it as previous job experience didn’t really acquire this skill. Delegation. I have to remind myself everyday to delegate. I am so used to doing stuffs on my own during my previous job. Until one day, I realized that my work keeps piling up and never seems to finish. I went home everyday with a headache. I even dreamt about all the unfinished work! I dreaded going to work. I have dark circle around my eyes. I am tired the whole time. Until the Chief in Grey’s Anatomy mentioned DELEGATION. He said if he wanted to win back his wife, he had to delegate. I am delegating now. I have less stress. I’m able to go home early. I can even watch the latest season of Grey’s Anatomy at work. Yeay!

Working on Saturday

It’s Saturday, 2.16 pm, and I am alone in the office, ‘working’ . Huhu…

Yes, am working because I’ve promised my boss that I am going to submit the assignment that she gave me about a month ago (or was it 2 months ago?), which I haven’t finished though she has given me a month (or 2 months?) to complete, this Monday. Lusa. And I still don’t have any idea on how to complete it. And how to present it. Been in the office for one hour, I’ve already:

• blog-hopped
• finished my Grande Mocha
• cleared up the unused/ old files in my PC
• approved 4 out of 40++ applications for pensioners’ refund from JPA (ha… this is work-related!)
• watched desperate housewives season 4 episode 7
• and about to publish this post that I am currently composing

So many that has been accomplished in an hour, but none related to the purpose of me coming to work today.

Ok la. Am going to stop now. Am going to start on that assignment. Silap2 kena tido ofis lak kang. Been very busy this past few weeks, sampai nak bernyawa pun rasa macam tak sempat. Mintak nyawa… mintak nyawa… (macam A. Nisfu dalam 3 Abdul). 🙂

English Placement Test

Went for EPT this morning. All officers were required to sit for the test organised by British Council in order to gauge our English profiency. Grammar, writing and speaking test. Its been so long since I had to sit for a test, the last one was during an interview with my previous employer, SSSCKL, about 4 years back. Hmm… blur gila masa nak start buat essay tadi, had to be around 200-300 words.. tapi rasanya buat tak sampai 200 kot.. hehe.. writing skills dah berkarat. :p

The results will determine whether we have to go for English classes or not. I don’t mind going to the classes.. walau mcm mana terer pun kita (chewah… mcm perasan la pulak :D), there are always new stuffs to learn.

There’s still a lot to do, and it is already Thursday. Huhu…