I went downstairs for a breather… Needed a break as I was starting to get really irritated from the continuous phone calls from colleagues, bosses and auditors adding more to work. It’s not easy juggling work from the 3 bosses I have who are divisional heads of Legal, Corporate Affairs and Finance (pretty different things). I wished it was men fighting for my time rather then bosses fighting for my time to get their work done.
As I took my break, I thought back of the times when I used to work at the Corporate Office where the employees were all women except the Directors of course. There were only 20 of us based there. You would think having relatively so many women in an office, the level of bitchiness was at its top notch. Yes, it was at times. The funny thing is we would fight over work and when it came to lunch, we would all together have our lunch at our little pantry, shared our food and chit chat about everything except work. The topic would range from politics to entertainment and sometimes sex (trust me, it can get pretty juicy).
I remember at one time, I was looking for a file under my table and one of my colleagues came to my desk and said not very nice things. It pissed me off and as I got up to give her a piece of my mind, I hit my head so hard from underneath the desk, I scrapped the idea. I guess sometimes, things do happen for a reason and in this case, it kind of gave me time to cool down. Next thing, we were having lunch together as always, chit chatting.
Another, was when our Directors informed my department on a Thursday that the company was to have a signing ceremony with our business partner on the coming Monday in the presence of the then Prime Minister Pak Lah, Transport Minister and a bunch of VIPs. Such little time and it was approaching weekend! I remember looking at my boss’ pale face and I think I went pale myself. When there’s a bunch of VIP, it becomes more rigid, more petty and more everything. We had to call every hotel in Putrajaya and beg them for a venue. I remember still being in the office at 11pm, fighting back tears with the amount of work and being down with a fever and flu. In the end of the day, the bunch of us who worked our ass off and had dark circles around our eyes felt privileged to be part of the ceremony but were still pissed with the Directors for putting us through hell.
I miss those times a lot and how the housekeeping lady always asked me if I had my breakfast every morning, without fail. She was so motherly and she genuinely cared if I have filled my stomach. It’s been 6 years + working in the company. A lot has changed especially after we were plagued by an accounting scandal. At one point, we were dubbed as the darling of share markets and then the headlines went to “…… Falls from Grace”. Being in the Corporate Office, I got to witness a lot of things during the scandal and some of my colleagues shed tears over it. I work with people who have served long in the company and even now the company comprises of long serving staff.
It got really depressing at one point but I guess, it is up to us to adapt to changes and to expect it. I’ve learned too and saw that greed can destroy not only one person but a whole company. To build it up back, it’s never easy. It comes back to haunt after years.
I will move on one day, maybe even to a different industry but not just yet. I still love my job, not all the time but most of the time.
Hoping things get better…
As I took my break, I thought back of the times when I used to work at the Corporate Office where the employees were all women except the Directors of course. There were only 20 of us based there. You would think having relatively so many women in an office, the level of bitchiness was at its top notch. Yes, it was at times. The funny thing is we would fight over work and when it came to lunch, we would all together have our lunch at our little pantry, shared our food and chit chat about everything except work. The topic would range from politics to entertainment and sometimes sex (trust me, it can get pretty juicy).
I remember at one time, I was looking for a file under my table and one of my colleagues came to my desk and said not very nice things. It pissed me off and as I got up to give her a piece of my mind, I hit my head so hard from underneath the desk, I scrapped the idea. I guess sometimes, things do happen for a reason and in this case, it kind of gave me time to cool down. Next thing, we were having lunch together as always, chit chatting.
Another, was when our Directors informed my department on a Thursday that the company was to have a signing ceremony with our business partner on the coming Monday in the presence of the then Prime Minister Pak Lah, Transport Minister and a bunch of VIPs. Such little time and it was approaching weekend! I remember looking at my boss’ pale face and I think I went pale myself. When there’s a bunch of VIP, it becomes more rigid, more petty and more everything. We had to call every hotel in Putrajaya and beg them for a venue. I remember still being in the office at 11pm, fighting back tears with the amount of work and being down with a fever and flu. In the end of the day, the bunch of us who worked our ass off and had dark circles around our eyes felt privileged to be part of the ceremony but were still pissed with the Directors for putting us through hell.
I miss those times a lot and how the housekeeping lady always asked me if I had my breakfast every morning, without fail. She was so motherly and she genuinely cared if I have filled my stomach. It’s been 6 years + working in the company. A lot has changed especially after we were plagued by an accounting scandal. At one point, we were dubbed as the darling of share markets and then the headlines went to “…… Falls from Grace”. Being in the Corporate Office, I got to witness a lot of things during the scandal and some of my colleagues shed tears over it. I work with people who have served long in the company and even now the company comprises of long serving staff.
It got really depressing at one point but I guess, it is up to us to adapt to changes and to expect it. I’ve learned too and saw that greed can destroy not only one person but a whole company. To build it up back, it’s never easy. It comes back to haunt after years.
I will move on one day, maybe even to a different industry but not just yet. I still love my job, not all the time but most of the time.
Hoping things get better…
No comments:
Post a Comment