Communication Breakdown

I'm in the office working when I am typing this.

I really shouldn’t be typing this now but I really am in the mood of typing something while waiting for the next call to come in. Yeah that’s life in a call center on a Friday servicing ANZ market in the afternoon. Had a little chat with a friend during lunch about a little problem that she had with the boyfriend yesterday. It seemed quite serious before she talked about it. However when she told me about it seems like such a minor thing for
me. Maybe that’s because I’m an outsider so I can look at it quite calmly about it, while of course her who is caught right within is a little lost. 

The story is fairly simple. Her sister is sick and needs to be hospitalized. So somehow she sent a text message to the boyfriend telling him where she is and she has to take care of the sister’s kid and that’s causing her a headache. Now, there’s obviously something isn’t right here because when you try to text your boyfriend with your hands full carrying a baby having a headache and tried to text your boyfriend while you are already poor with putting things into words, things could go horribly wrong.

 And it did.


The meaning from the text message the boyfriend managed to decipher from that messed up text message was:

“I am having a headache and it’s so serious that I am now in hospital.”
 
Oops.
 
This boyfriend is a sweet guy that cares.
 
Oops.
 
He cares soooo much.
 
Oops.
 
And then he panicked.
 
Big OOOPS.
 
The poor fella tried to clarify before he pressed the panic button but obviously our dear friend didn’t realized it at that time she has replied a couple more text messages without clarifying. So the boyfriend really pressed
the panic button and decided to rush to the hospital to check on the beloved girlfriend.

Anyway, the situation finally got clarified when he was in his car on the way rushing to the hospital. No surprise that he got quite upset about it after he found out it was a false alarm. Which is fair.


So there was a whole lot of drama going on after that and my friend seems to be having a problem calming down this love beast of hers. So this morning she requested for help. Which subsequently ended up with me having lunch with her to hear her story.


I am no love doctor, so what I did was to offer some solutions from  what I understand in a logical way.


The boyfriend is upset because he cares and he thinks she toyed with her feelings. Which also means that he’s upset because he kinda thinks she is not taking him as seriously. From a guy’s perspective I also think that he got upset part of it is because he found himself so cares so much about this girl that he’s only been dating for a month.

So, the problem is, he is upset because he does not feel important.


Tadaa, problem identified. So what’s the solution?


I said: make him feel important.


Wow, sounds easy.


So she asked how. I had to scratch my head because I have no idea, because I’m not the one dating this guy. So I thought, tell him he’s important. Communicate the message. The trick is, to communicate that message effectively.

So what I suggested was really simple, get him to somewhere that nothing can possibly distract him, preferably somewhere that will have not hot babes walking by, and somewhere without a bed. Who knows what distracts an angry guy. First get his full attention, then tell him she's sorry, then tell him how she feels, then tell him how she cares about him as well. Be frank.

Then I told her. You're on your own. Cant help anymore.

The reason I’m telling the story is not because I want to saw how over reacting the boyfriend was or how insensitive the girlfriend was. What I am trying to say is that from this story we can see how important communication is for a 2 person in a relationship. I know I’m not even in a position to offer these kinda advises to be frank because I cant even get myself a date. Probably part of the reason is I can communicate easily to a girl that I like her and so she'd be scared away but that's besides the point.

I always like to bring up a fact that in a relationship the looks are always just temporary, they are for you to get each others attention when you first met. Then for the rest of your life it's the talking that allows you to communicate your souls. Be honest to your partners and discuss matters openly. When your partner did something that you are not happy about, tell him/her that you are not happy and then work out a solution that works for you both. Sulking is the most childish thing you can ever do. We are no psychics, none of us are.

So ladies and gentlemen, there's no excuse for you to be not good in communication, especially in a relationship. If you cant speak well, learn. If you cant write well, learn. Learn to communicate assertively. For you can't blame anyone when your relationship failed because you said the wrong things or same the right things in the wrong ways.

For the friend that I tried to help, good luck with your little chat with your boyfriend.

For other friends that are already communicating well with your other half, congrats and I believe you guys are going to have a happy relationship, and wish you live happily ever after.

No I don't have a girlfriend, just to answer someone's question. Girls I like tend to run away from me when I told them I like them. Shrugs

Signing off.

"Dun blog about work" They said.

I opened a notepad because I have something to write about and wanted to make a new post but before I could start, all of a sudden all sorts of things started to happen. Usual things that usually do not happen at the same time and they just did. I didn’t even have time to type the first letter until more than an hour later.


That’s office life in a call center. Things are always happening real time, you always know how much you have at hand but you never know how much time you will need to complete them, and you will have no idea how much shit is going to come on top to stop you from finishing the pile that you started with. Welcome to working life. The success of your career is probably measured by how much money you can earn before you retire, get fired, or die.

Ahaha… actually it’s not that bad.

Anyway, there were some concerns raised by some of my colleagues about me blogging about my work. It seems that the company has some sort of policy that I should not be explicitly express myself in an explicit way that I think my boss can do better. Since I hate blogging anonymously because that obviously defeats the whole point of blogging about my life and working is such a large part of anyone’s life, I will just continue to blog and will continue to dislike what I dislike but less explicitly. If that made sense to any of you.

I know it didn’t. It sounded as if I couldn’t care less.

I dunno. Maybe that’s how I actually feel.

Signing off.

Signs of strength

Sometimes I think tears are not a sign of weakness. It can often represent the sign of strength. The strength of emotion, the strength of resolution or even the strength of faith.




There are no tears when you do not care. There are no tears when you do not feel. There are no tears when you do not believe. With that, I believe that tears are not signs of weakness.



A friend’s (referred as Girl from here on) family is going through a lot lately. Quoting another friend’s words, her situation is “the plate is more than full”. There are so many things at home to worry about that nothing else has a higher priority at the moment. Daddy had a little health attack and was paralyzed 3 months ago. She was a little crushed at that time but fortunately the father was one tough guy, not only that he woke up, he has been recovering well. In 3 months he managed the impossible and recovered and is still recovering as we speak.

I really admire this uncle from what I hear from Girl’s description. What an enthusiastic uncle he is. With all these pain and suffering he maintained a high spirit and here he is from completely paralyzed, he’s walking with his head high again. Miracles do happen, without you realizing it. I said a couple of times to her “one of these days I gotta get to know your dad, he sounds so awesome.” He’s got a will of steel no kidding.

Just when things were getting better, Girl’s grandmother was admitted to hospital.

Another emotional blow I guess.

I’ve been where she was when my grandpa was around. Maybe the situation is not entirely the same but the anxiety couldn’t be much different. You have other things to do, other things to worry about but yet the person you care is just the biggest issue that hogs your mind the whole time. Why is this why is that why is why and why is this happening.

Even the smallest thing could tip you off.

But hey, like I said, if her dad is such an awesome guy, the mother must be an even greater person isn’t it? There’s nothing she could not defeat, even sickness. If it’s really something she couldn’t defeat, then it’s fate, all we can do is to gladly accept what’s coming, and make her as happy as possible before facing the inevitable.

I’m not trying to sound cruel. I’m trying to say miracle happens, when you least expect it.

As long as you look at things positively.

For now, I’m just hoping that granny recovers, so that there’s no shadows behind her smiley. I also hope daddy recovers, and she’d laugh like a mad woman again.

Good luck ;)

Signing off.

Happy Thaipusam~~

I was having this little chat with my colleague about what’s the holiday about because today is a public holiday here in Malaysia due to Thaipusam. Malaysia is a country with 3 main races and Thaipusam happens to be a major festival for Indians. I kinda fell ashamed all of a sudden (not sure why I never felt sorry in the last 27 years) that I kinda have very little knowledge about what Thaipusam’s about. So my principle is, when in doubt, ask.


Here’s the little conversation I had with my colleague over the chat:

====================

7:18 AM Me

Bro
morning
can shout good morning from over there ar?
Ekekeke

7:19 AM Colleague
bole
hehe
everyone thaipusam mood


7:22 AM Me
oh yeah happy thaipusam btw
relay that message to everyone~


7:22 AM Colleague
hahaha 3where got happy thaipusam one lol
\thx tho


7:23 AM Me
actually, what's thaipusam about ah?
got story one ar?
light defeated darkness?


7:23 AM Colleague
got many story one
most popular or standard story is one dude
a king actually by the name of idumban was a devotee of lord muruga
so one day he asked a boon (dunno wat he ask la maybe 500 wives) and made a promise to do anything the lord asked for it
so he was told to move a mountain
he split the mountain in two and carried it on his shoulder as a penance (dun ask how he split it la)
those days the ppl all very strong
hehe


7:26 AM Me
what's a boon ar?


7:27 AM Colleague
like a wish
confirm granted one but nowdays all the gods very busy so nobody gets any
plus got inflation la etc


7:30 AM Me
so what does that have to do with thaiposam?


7:34 AM Colleague
it was on this day he carried the mountain


7:42 AM Me
oohhh
is this the official story?


7:43 AM Colleague
yup this is the standard one


7:44 AM Me
got a bit more non-standard one ah? that one was boring


7:44 AM Colleague
got different ones la but this is the most standard one


7:44 AM Me
without knowing what his wish for, that story is kinda dumb


7:44 AM Colleague
today is auspicious as the start " poosam" first appears in the hindu month of "thai" - hence thaipoosam
it is the day when lord muruga got married to his second wife
who was his secret lover
and opposed by his parents


7:45 AM Me
so he moved a mountain and got married to another woman besides his wife on the same day
he damn free right?


7:46 AM Colleague
LOL
his second wife was his gf
his 1st wife was arranged marriage


7:46 AM Me
nutsing batta to dooo (nothing better to do)



7:46 AM Colleague
nopez
no astro ma


=============================

I LOLed a little at what he said. The conversation stopped because the work volume picked up, so it had to end. Seems that it’s a fun day as long as I learn something new. Haha.

Ok. Lunch’s over, back to work~~



Signing off.

Back to Gym

It’s a public holiday and my team and I are all in the office, minus our team leader and his dog, plus our dear SME. It’s so relaxing, none of us feels like working but the ANZ market that we are service is operating BAU, so there’s no helping it. Work remains efficiently done. Ok that’s a lie. We’re working but not exactly 100% efficient. Else you won’t even be seeing this blog that I’m writing.


Just so that you know, someone just commented “this is the noisiest department ever”. It’s someone in our same department so we should take that as a compliment.

Let’s start with yesterday.

It feels good to be back to gym, just as it feels good to return to blogging. Working the muscles always feels good but it seems that it’s never enough for it to be effective for me to lose weight. The last gym I went to I even spent 3 months time with a personal trainer. He was boasting about how effective his weight lost routine is and how effective it can be if I can keep up with it. With all that said and he had to refund me after 3 months because it was proven all bullshit. He said his last trainee lost 8KG in a month. And I didn’t even lose 8 grams in 3 months. Plus when the training was ongoing he kept complimenting about how well I was keeping up and all that shit. Speaking of bluffs.

Anyway, I came to a gym again because of my colleagues. Some girls in the department has been going to gym and for one of them it seems to be mighty effective. I appreciate the spirit of sharing because that’s the cutest attribute in any human being but yet I’m still skeptical about all this hype about going to gym. I still think playing basketball is the best way to keep myself in shape. Sad thing is that there are not many chances nowadays. Let’s hope I get to play some this Sunday, I simply love playing the game.

The gym looked good, less crowded than the last one I’ve been to, the equipments seem newer and all. The only set back was there were some stupid sales people that almost got me to decide that I won’t ever want to come again. Look I’m not being mean or something, I was from sales line too. Doing sales is easy, you listen to what people want, create a need for them, and let them decide if they want to satisfy their need, and then close the deal. You gotta improvise. The sales manager that approached me last night was a disaster, I have no idea how he got the title manager and I am already thinking that he’s the reason that the gym is not too crowded. So that’s both a good and bad. I already told him I have a commitment with another gym at the moment but I am already planning to switch.

So I just want to first take up the free trial that’s available and then sign up with this gym as soon as my membership with another gym expires. I made that clear the moment I walked into the gym. When the so called sales manager approached me, I reiterated it just so that he understands it. Somehow in this world there are some sales people that are so stone head that they dunno how to do negotiation, all the known is to offer whatever they can offer and then force the clients to sign on the papers. I already told him “I WILL BE JOINING SOON, ONCE MY MEMBERSHIP EXPIRES” and all he cared about is “SIGN THIS SO THAT WE CAN CHARGE YOU NOW!” NOW NOW NOW!!

OMG my whole point is not to be charged now because I do not want to bear the cost of 2 gyms of the same time, while all he says that I’m giving you a good price and I will charge you now since you want to join later any way.

NOW NOW NOW

NOW NOW NOW

NOW NOW NOW

NOW NOW NOW

NOW NOW NOW

NOW NOW NOW

NOW NOW NOW

NOW NOW NOW



OMFG I was so damn pissed I wanted to walk out. And if my colleague didn’t come in the check on what happened and summon the manager’s manager, I would have walked out already. I have no patient to speak with idiots plus I was already nice enough to try to explain to him for 1 hour because I ALREADY AM GOING TO JOIN THE GYM. Talk about screw ups. Meeehhhh.



Anyway, the matter was solved in the end without me being charge and able to take up the trial but so much time was wasted and I was only able to try out the facilities for an hour, which for a gym session it’s only pretty much like a warm up. Gahhh. Idiots. Full of them all over the place.

All in all, I kinda like the gym because of the small crowd. I think I’d like to come back soon and join the membership since some nice friends are coming here after work. Having someone to hang out with is never a bad idea, plus it’s healthy. Lol.



Hhhmmmm back to gym. ok lar.



Signing off.

No boss day + 1

Tomorrow is a public holiday, Thaipusam.
Happy Thaipusam to all my friends that's celebrating!


It’s a public holiday and I need to come back to work.

However I am telling you that I am not depressed at all. First of all my team leader isn’t going to come tomorrow because he’s not on shift and he doesn’t do servicing on the phone so although all of us needs to come back and talk on the phone with the pity merchants while he gets to go off to enjoy his holiday. Well it’s not like I care because I get pay extra and I get to enjoy a working day without an idiot strolling around making weird request and dumb announcements and spamming my email box with all the spam mails. Better yet he’s not gonna return until next Monday.

~~Lucky~~

Gosh, I am looking forward to tomorrow already, surely a very efficient day, and the day after!

Off to gym!

Signing off, with a great spirit!

KWorld M120 1080p-capable Media Player

KWorld M120 1080p-capable Media Player


I saw this media player and it seems pretty good, any one has an idea how much this costs and where i can get it?

Poor management.

I am a little sien right now that I dun even feel like doing anything at work after hanging up my last call. I swear I will curse the next person that gets through my phone line.


Let me explain a little, I’m a person that likes to get things done properly. I dun like accidents, as in, human error. Whenever something might go wrong I’d usually see it coming because that’s how my brain operates. I also like to inform the people around that would be affected by these circumstances so that everyone would be prepared. That’s just how I am. That’s also how I expect from someone in a managerial position to be able to do.

Now now you need to understand that I’m not asking for a lot. I understand that no one is perfect and you simply cant be prepared for everything. You can plan ahead but things will go wrong and you have to improvise or make compromises.

What tips me off is that there isn’t any sort of planning involved, and things just go out of control and everybody has to pick up shits just because someone didn’t manage things properly. That really really really (x 10000) annoys me. That was never short of what my current team leader is doing, he never fails to annoy me with all these little things that he’s not capable of doing.

Now I do not want to just start shooting without any justifications, so let me lay it out for you and you can judge for yourself.

In a call center environment everything runs on a schedule, from a certain time to a certain time, how many people should be logged in to take calls. When members of the team are away on leave there needs to be adjustments being made to the schedule and there should be proper communication within the team so that the rest of the team. Reason is simple because when we are short handed it would be the members that are at work that take the punishments. Same amount of calls are being taken by less members means there would be more calls for everybody to be juggled along with all the work that’s already need done.

So what happens when you feel “what the fuck” a couple of times a day?

There’s a team of 5 for our team.

First of all, 1 member was missing today early in the morning, due to some family issues that she needs to attend to. The managerial person that should know the best knows it but didn’t say a word about it, and I had to ask and find out from a senior that’s close to her. So, 1 member down.

Fine, I’ll let that slide.

Secondly, while we are 1 member short already which means that we are getting more calls per person as the volume is unchanged. So the priority at the moment was to maintain the service quality so that the members do not get flooded by calls. However, being an idiot as he is, he took one member away to do a call coaching (a minor meeting that talks about call ratings) AT THE PEAK HOURS. Oh geez man, can’t you improvise? Do the right thing at the right time man, that’s why you are hired as a manager, to MANAGE things.

The third thing that tips me off today was when another member gone missing after mid day. I had no idea that he was on half day. As a team leader he did not even have a courtesy to inform the team so that we are prepared for the situation. It’d be worse if he actually does not know about it. Oh god how can a moron like this be even hired to one of the highest profile team in this company?

He cant even analyst the simplest things to come up with a solution. All he does all day ever since he joined is asking “need your kind assistance” “need your expertise” “need your opinion” “what do you think” and yada yada yada. If I were mean enough I’d be guessing that he’s from another planet with an organism that has no central nervous system, called the brain.

I just wanna scream right now.

Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh



Signing off.

"FUCK YOU" and Photo Session

I told myself at work today “gah that's it, I want to post a blog entry today”

So here I am thinking as I type, to see what comes out. Sometimes it's a good way of self talking, without doing it you'll never know what you want. Thinking is good, thinking out loud is even better. Since shouting to yourself could cause you being sent to some mental hospital by your family or friends, the best way to do it seems to be writing.

Been hearing a song for a while and thought it was pretty catchy. I didn't pay much attention to it in the beginning because although I thought it has a catchy tune, it also have some weird lyrics. So one day I read it at BerryPuiyan's blog (Here) and I thought I like it. So I did a little search. This song by Cee Lo Green gave me a little trouble as the song title “Forget You” was quite a challenge to find. There's so little entry on the Internet about let alone any links to download it. So I decided to find it from Cee Lo Green's album list.

Then I found it.

I laughed to myself a little bit when I found out the actual song title to be “Fuck You” instead of the radio version “Forget You”. That explains why I felt the lyrics was a little strange. The song instantly became one of my favourite song and it's been repeating on my MP3 list quite regularly for a while (yet I still cant remember the lyrics) because it's catchy and fun to listen to.

Well that's a good thing, to have something fun to kill time while driving. Haha.

Another thing that happened today was a photo shooting session. The company I work as seems to think putting our team photo on a calender and distribute to us is some kind of reward that would boost morale. Honestly I dunno and I'm not even sure that my team mates want to see my team leader's face for the rest of the year on a calender. That might cause the calender to be kept in drawers instead of being displayed. That deserves a LOL indeed.

Everyone was required to come in their most formal dress today, so I came in a suit and a tie. That almost got me killed. The tie almost suffocates me and the suit was made about 6 years ago and it's already feeling like a tight fit. Damn I gotta loose some pounds. Anyway, I was saying, everyone was SUPPOSED to come in ball gowns and all that but when I arrived, I immediately noticed that half the floor gives a shit about it. Another LOL indeed.

Early morning for some reason my team leader (in probation) was damn excited about it. That reason remains unknown. Anyway, he was shouting and barking and all that and was questioning why I wasn’t in black? He claimed that he gave clear instruction yesterday. I rolled my eyes and I was quite sure I didn’t hear it. I checked with others and some seemed to hear it yesterday. So my conclusion is either he was giving stupid instructions while I was busy on the phone talking to merchants or my brain has selectively blocked out useless information. Too busy to care, and too insignificant to care about. Too bad, that's how important he is to me. I gave him so many opportunities to earn himself some credibility and he didn’t do it, so this is what he gets from me. Anyway, I pointed out the fact that my suit was black although I was wearing a white shirt, and shoved him aside and continued with my daily work.

The photo session went well, many people were looking good including some pretty girls from other departments, of course we have our own cute ladies in our department. I'm not comparing, just in case someone isn’t happy.

It'd be nicer if Mr. Team leader didn’t try to put his arms around my shoulders, I thought my body language clearly showed I didn’t like it but he didn’t it anyway. Well I’ve never expecting him to be smart enough to pick up signs anyway, so he's just being an idiot as he always have been, I’m not complaining any further. I just checked some pictures form my camera and it seems so damn obvious, funny that he actually didn’t notice it. One of a kind, indeed.

Anyway, I think I wanna sort the pictures a little and post them up facebook.

So for now, signing off.