Work, work and more work!

I've been putting off blogging lately mainly because I've been working so much. It even feels like I never left the office to go on leave at all. I don't understand why my fuckin dumbass managers can't utilize more of my annual leave and give me more time off instead of making me work like a dog and leave my annual leave just sitting there when we're supposed to clear it before the end of June. Instead, my schedule has been frenetic, with singular off days sandwiched between 2-3 days of continuous 14-15 hour work days.

In addition, we've been so bloody busy in the office lately there's no time for trivial pursuits during working hours. It's just work work work work and more work from the moment we turn on our computers to the time we can finally clock off for the day. And even then, all of us have been staying back an extra 1-2 hours a day just to finish our assigned tasks.

It's not that the caseload has increased exponentially, it's more like the number of difficult cases that we currently open have suddenly decided to converge and hit us all at once. I've been going to work tired coming home wiped beyond exhaustion for the last week.

A spot of good news, however. My darling Nic has finally gotten a new job after dozens of lame interviews and several near misses in the last four(?) months since her bitch of a boss crossed the line between being  merely unreasonable to deserving to have a telephone pole shoved up her arse *cough cough* painful retribution beyond anything she's ever felt before.

The best part? It seems to be a great job with an awesome multi-national corporation located in KLCC. I'm so proud of her. She never gave up on herself and got depressed like most people would have after so many disappointments and tribulations in the last half year with money, illness, finding housemates, and heck, even a damn ghost in the house.

On the other hand, I'm so used to having her at home all the time, now that she's working again I'm kinda at a loss at what to do with myself when I'm home and she's not.

Computer games and various other computer-related-thingies, here I come!

De-steaming.

Been busy like hell at work over the last couple of days what with the volcano eruption in Iceland causing tens of thousands of travelers to be stranded and have their travel plans disrupted in every conceivable city and country in the world (not just in the UK or Europe).

Everything has been so insane that my tongue is tripping over itself saying the same things and re-reading the same policy wordings for the 50th time. I've had hardly enough time to follow up on my existing caseload, much less blog or surf the web or any of the other crap I do when I've got loads of free time on night shift. 

I've had weird calls all night ranging from frantic tour leaders struggling to pay for accommodation for their entire tour group to stupid people calling to ask if they can claim for stuff like going to Disneyland and museums and various shit like that. 

I mean like, fuckin' hell, dude, you're on a fuckin' extended vacation in a fuckin' foreign country. Your fuckin' accommodation is reimbursable, your fuckin' meals are reimbursable, and now you even want us to reimburse you for your fuckin' trip to Disneyland too? Why not just ask us to reimburse you for your fuckin' firstborn child as well, you bloody fuckin' idiot!

I think I've been watching too much Gordon Ramsey.

Anyways this is just a short post to release some of the stress I've been building up over the past 2 nights before I fuck off to bed to collapse. Night nights peepz.

Things have been...

...hectic and tiring recently. Over the last 2 weeks my schedule has been absolutely fucked because some of my managers haven't the faintest care in the world about their staffs well being (except when they take MCs, and even then it's only because they're sooooooooooo concerned about how often the staffmember takes a sick day).

On top of that, Nic and I have been working on our relationship issues, which involve lots of screaming, shouting, hurt feelings and bewilderment (on my part, anyway). On the bright side though, things are getting better (I think), and we're preparing to take our first trip together to Penang next week.

After such a hectic period, I want nothing more than to kick back and chill for the 3 days and 2 nights that we'll be there...however I have been otherwise informed that she wants to do stuff like...'tar siu yan' (Hitting little people? That sounds politically incorrect) and visit the Kek Lok Si (stairs! Stairs! STAIRS! *gurgle*). I'm not too opposed to either, because I've never done the former before and it should be entertaining to watch, and I haven't done the latter for several years already. It'll be fun to see the turtles sunning themselves and clambering on top of one another with their s-l-ooooooo-w motion movements, as well as to see what new crap the vendors along the way will be selling. That'll at least make the stairs a little more bearable. However, I have no idea what other tortu-*cough cough*-I mean adventures, Nic will have in store for me.

I do know we'll be going around eating though. I plan on checking out a few interesting looking restaurants I've found on the web. I'm also looking forward to driving in the crazy traffic again.

As part of the preparations for my upcoming trip, I serviced my car yesterday. RM200+! *silently screaming*. Despite the horror of yet more money leaking out of my pocket, it really is much more powerful and more responsive now. I got to utilize some of the power last night, when we went for a family dinner in Corus Hotel, KL. Btw, no photos because I really couldn't be bothered.

My mum had asked me to pass something to an aunt of mine who was visiting from Adelaide, AU. Being me, I was late for dinner and as a consequence, we rushed out of the house, got stuck in insane traffic along Federal Road (re: Highway - my dad likes to call it a road because highways aren't supposed to be jammed!), made a detour to Taman Jaya LRT, hopped on and LRT'ed all the way to town.

(And yes baby, I admit you are correct. It really does take only 2 minutes per station. 4 years of riding trains in my youth and I never figured it out. Whoopee.) :P

So we got to the hotel right as the food was being served (I am the master of perfect timing), and were happily gobbling down dinner when suddenly...

"Oh fuck, where's the package we're supposed to bring to pass to Aunty???"

*Flashback to memory of package happily sitting on dining table at home*

@#$%@#$%@#$%@

So after dinner, we LRT'ed back to Taman Jaya (and my motion sickness increasing exponentially as a result), zoomed back home, picked up the package, zoomed back down to Legend Hotel, where my aunt was booked into for the duration of her stay, dropped off the package, then zoomed back home again.

By the time I got to bed it was 1am. Though my alarm rang at 4.45am, I couldn't even drag my butt outta bed until almost an hour later. Thank god my manager didn't say anything when I walked in a half hour late. (As usual) :P

Have you ever...

...had to sit and listen to the same loud, annoying, and incessant voice for what seems like forever, and not been able to do anything about it? For those who work in the customer servicing industry, have u ever had colleagues who's voices just irritate you for no particular reason? To you, the effect of their voices are like nails scratching on a blackboard, or construction workers drilling and hammering in the next door house/apartment while you're trying to sleep. You just want to yell at them to stop...but you can't.

Personally, I have several of these irritating people (voices) in my office. Because they sit in the row opposite me, I am easily 'exposed' to their voices whenever they happen to sit directly in front of me. Naturally, as with all call centres, there are barriers between the desks to prevent sound from travelling too much, but with my cheapo company, the barriers are so low the only thing they're good for is.... .... ....ummm....actually, I can't think of anything.

So for Person A, her voice sounds like any other person's voice. It's not particularly high pitched or off key or scratchy. Its just loud. You must be thinking, what's so bad about it then? Well, when I say loud, I mean like, really, REALLY LOUD. And she doesn't know that she will not die if she doesn't SHUT THE FUCK UP for 2 seconds. She can talk, non-stop, about nothing for her entire shift. Some people talk alot, but at least there's some substance to their chatter. This one...really a tin kosong being kicked around a dirty back alley. She doesn't just make loud noises, she even provides the goddamned echoes for ya. Plus, ladies and gents, she doesn't just talk, she thinks she's a damn good singer too. So I gotta listen to some godawful hee-haws coming from 'across the border' as we call it, everytime she sits opposite me (we have a free/hot seating arrangement). I've tried wearing earphones and blasting the music whenever she starts to grate on my nerves, but it doesn't always work. At times, the sound levels for the music/show that I'm listening to would be so deafening that even my teammates can can hear what I'm listening to...but I could still hear her voice over the racket coming from my earphones.

As for Person B, his voice is also loud, but that's not the bad part. You see, B's voice is also high pitched, wavery, and so very 'hiao' (effeminate) that everytime I heard it I'd get goosebumps and the hair on the back of my neck would stand (he's gay, btw. Not that I have a problem with that). It took me 6 months to figure out that the 'female' voice I was hearing belonged to a (ugly, overly flamboyant, thick skinned) guy. I've worked here for a whole year already and every time I hear his voice I still think he's a woman!

Person C, on the other hand has a voice that would be perfectly alright if it weren't for 1 thing. The fake accent, mateys. Its great if you speak excellent English, and the accent just rolls naturally off your tongue. Seriously, what the hell is up with those people who can't even tell the difference between when to use 'much' and 'many', and thinking that they sound so damn cool with their Australian or British or American accents? If you're making a joke of the accent, or are just using it to say 1 to 2 words, okay fine, whatever. But to use it everytime you open your mouth? You don't want to be Malaysian issit? Go bleach your skin white la, you bloody SPG (Sarong Party Girl).

In any case, due to different shifts and seating arrangements and such, I'm not always exposed to the horror of having to put up with these 3 walking nightmares. I've managed to avoid C almost completely, except for a greeting every once in awhile. As for B, I cringe whenever I see him, but he doesn't talk that much, so its easy to grit my teeth and ride it out. Sometimes, he does become more of a nuisance, like that time where he was 'sharing' one of his sexual experiences with a squealing gaggle of girls, which included A. That time, not only did I have to put up with his voice painting vivid pictures of how the other guy was terrible in bed and had a small dick, I also had to control myself from going up to him and stabbing him with a ballpoint pen when he began loudly demonstrating what his fake orgasm moans sounded like.

However, my luck usually runs out when it comes to A. She likes to sit at the desk opposite mine, and I encounter her on average of maybe once every week to once every two weeks. I'm fortunate that it doesn't occur more often, else I would have ground my teeth down to useless nubs by now from all the frustration.

Unfortunately, I don't think I'm very lucky today....because not only did A decide to sit in front of me, B decided to join her too. Momma help meeeeeeeeeeeeee......!  T_T

Workwise, things are...

....getting more and more dramatic as the days go by. Sometimes going to work is like watching a drama series on tv. Thursday night at work, I asked a buddy out for a smoke. We don't have a smoking roon inside the office, but we're able to smoke right outside the office door. Since we have bluetooth headsets, my friend stayed logged in since its only about 10 or 20 feet to the office door and there were only 3 of us on duty that night. I had opted to put my status on 'Break', as I wanted to go to the washroom.

While we were outside, one of our managers came and joined us for a chat as we were talking about a recent meeting that was held to discuss team issues which my friend hadn't attended. Shortly after, my manager went in. When we were done with our smokes, we followed suit. Since we had been outside for quite awhile (about 15 - 20 minutes), I decided to go straight back to my desk. As we were walking in, we were suddenly accosted by my senior manager who was shouting at my buddy for not being at her desk while she was logged in.

"What were you doing outside the office? You don't like to work inside this office is it?", he screamed. "Get inside the boss's office! (The head manager) wants to see you!" He then turned around and stormed off into our big boss's office

The both of us stood stock still for a moment, shocked by his attitude. My colleague then quickly scurried off into the boss's office, leaving me standing there trying to figure out what had just occurred. What the fuck just happened? I looked around at the stunned, inquisitive faces of all my other colleagues who were surreptiously watching the goings on. I quickly walked over to to my other teammate's desk and asked what the hell was all that ruckus about. Turns out the head manager had wanted to see my colleague and asked my senior manager where she was as she hadn't been at her desk. He initially assumed she had gone to the washroom, but when he checked her phone status, he freaked when it showed that she had still been logged in the entire time she had been away from her desk.

The 3 of us (my teammate and I, and the manager who had stopped to chat with us while we were outside) were getting incredibly worried when my friend remained inside the big boss's office for about an hour. However, when she and my senior manager finally came out, they were all smiles. At the time, all that worrying we had done seemed rather anticlimatic, but we were still dying to know what had happened. When the senior manager and head manager finally left for the night (around 10pm), we immediately jumped on my friend and asked her what had occurred.

"Oh nothing much, the boss just wanted to brief me about the meeting the other day and wanted my feedback." she said calmly.

That's all? we almost screamed. She nodded. What about all the shouting? we asked.

"Oh I apologized for the error and said I wouldn't do it again. He was all smiles after that." 

We rolled our eyes and wisely chose not to say anything further about the matter.

But seriously, things like this are becoming more and more common in the office. Employees are disciplined at the whim of the manager by being openly embarassed in front of their co-workers. And I do not use those words lightly. This was in fact one of the issues brought up to our head manager in the team meeting.

Her response was, "Some employees can only be disciplined by being embarassed in front of everyone else."

I mean, what the hell? Are we 5 year old kids caught in some minor mischief? Do we not at least deserve to be treated at least with some dignity as adults? Yes, we are your employees, but that does not mean you own us, you fucking power crazy, ugly bitch. No wonder more and more managers are starting to practice this shit, because you condone it! And then you complain because none of us appear to want to speak up during the farce of a meeting you insisted on having. What would be the point? We all know nothing will come of it and the meeting was purely you putting on a show to your bosses to pretend that you tried to resolve the issues among my team, while putting the blame solely on us, while proclaiming yourself and your henchmen to be as white as the driven snow! Do you really think we trust your word anymore? After you clearly covered up for one of your pets when she intentionally took someone else's phone with the intention of stealing it, and got off with what was even less than a slap to the wrist? (Which is a story for another day).

*Sigh*

Sometimes I wonder why I don't and never did become an ass-kissing sycophant. All the ass-kissing sycophants I know are either in management positions, or well on their way there! Its-not-fairrrr! *whines*

Today I went to work...

...and had the misfortune of being assigned a case that my manager had been working on and totally screwed up. It would have ended in total disaster if not for the client who was nice enough not to scream (yet). I managed to do what I could to save it...but I still foresee a potential complaint. We were supposed to organise a Business Class upgrade on the client's existing flight tickets for medical reasons. There were supposed to be 2 flights. A domestic US flight today, and an international flight on the 10th of Jan for them to return home to Sydney. For some reason, my manager who was working on the case today, royally messed up the flight dates and destinations, then neglected to call in for today's upgrade or to even get me to do it. Instead she asked me to call the client about ticketing the flight back to Sydney today!

So naturally, like any good lil' customer service agent, I called the client and 'buta buta' got fired for no reason. I got so pissed I straightaway alerted my senior manager (who was working till at least 9-10pm...that woman has no life but her work) who basically just smiled at me and threw me to the sharks. The bitch.

Anyway, how do people like this (my manager) actually get hired for a job they are so totally incapable of doing? No, wait. Allow me to rephrase. How do these people manage to keep their bloody jobs in the first place???? This is not screw-up number 1..or 2...or 3...or anything you can count with the fingers and toes on both your hands and feet! I mean, its actually gotten to the point where the whole team (those who aren't kissing her ass) is actually afraid of giving her anything remotely difficult to do just because she might screw up the whole fucking thing and pitch all our hard work into the drain.

Thank god upper management has finally realized what an imbecilic airhead she really is and is transferring her to another department with a much easier job scope.

Why....why....WHY do I get stuck with such idiots as bosses???

Shift-ing...

I haven't had the time to blog recently because I've had to work the last 2 nights. A 13 hour shift can really eat up all your free time. Plus, work was soooooo busy!

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Ok, fine, I admit that I'm lying through the skin of my teeth on that last one! (I wonder who came up with that phrase...teeth don't have skin, do they?) The 1st day of my shift was indeed busy....out of 3 people for the night shift I was the only one who wasn't on MC, so I had a shitload of work to do. I know 1 of my colleagues was really sick...because she came to work anyway and her symptoms persisted till the next day. The other colleague, however.....hmmmm...let's just say she did something most people in the customer service industry do frequently. She seemed totally fine though when she came back to work yesterday. Ate like a horse too.

The 2nd night I was on duty was excellent. Everyone came (to work!) and the number of tasks were distributed equally. However, out of some random stroke of luck, everything I had was meant to be delayed until Monday, except for 1 task. And even for that 1 task, it turned out that all I had to do was send 1 simple email asking for a status update from a client. So between taking a few random enquiry calls, smoke breaks and typing that one miserable email, I was free all night long. Hehehehehehehe....

For the rest of the night, all I did was watch back-to-back episodes of House MD, SouthPark, and CSI.

But seriously, with a 13 hour shift, there really isn't much time to do anything once you get back home. Between work, travelling to and from work, preparing for work,  and of course eating and sleeping, I'd have like maybe 2-3 hours max to do everything else. During the stretches of my shift, its almost impossible to go out with my mate or my friends unless I'm willing to run on maybe 5-6 hours of sleep...or sometimes less. But I guess that's what I need to live with if I want a higher pay.

Oh yeaaaa, and I have my first stalker! *Waves at Mich* I was wondering who that feller with the singaporean based IP address was... :P

So...I was wondering if its true that in every relationship, the first few months of 'getting to know each other' and the 'post moving in together' periods are usually fraught with arguments as 2 people try to adjust to each others habits. I know its true of every relationship I've been in in the past, and its doubly true of my current relationship (as both happened at the same time >.<"). I call it the Trial by Fire. If 2 people aren't gonna work out they will know it in the first 3-5 months of having moved in together....

...oh shit. I forgot my 2nd month anniversary..!!! *Quickly runs over n makes it up to Nic* 

Oopsie. Luv u baby! :P