2011 now and Good Riddance!

Can't believe I've been away from this blog this long. Typical me. Call it the fluctuation of passion. When the passion is high, I'd make a resolution to post everyday. When the passion runs a bit low, I'd do it weekly. Then, it can be down to monthly but this has been my all-time low with a lapse of a few months.

My 2011 didn't start off well. First of all, I was down with bad fever. Then, the problem at work with my newest subordinate came to its breaking point. The guy left the company and I am utterly relieved.

With this blog starting and quickly turning into my channel to vent out, I think it's time for me to tell my story from the last 3 months that I am so happy to have an ending for. I have mentioned it before that I had this young guy in my Section whom we hired to train to be a Radiation worker, replacing the girl who resigned before.

This guy couldn't speak very well during the interview. But I just figured maybe it's because we had required for them to speak English. I saw the warning sign when I looked at his Application Form and saw that he spelled the word English as Inglish. What the heck? How can you make mistakes like that? An average public schooled person in Malaysia would start learning ENGLISH at age 7 up to age 17. It has always been spelled with an E not an I. So, how did this guy manage to mess that up? That should've been the major red flag based on which, I should have rejected him.

At the same time, I was so desperate to fill in the job vacancy to answer to the SONY people when they found our Section had problem catching up with our workload due to manpower shortage. So, we had to take him as the other interviewers already picked the other candidates. I was left with only this guy. So, he came in and I became an "officephobic" within a week. Sunday night gave me the worst anxiety because I knew I had to face this person and Heaven knew what things he'd do to send me to my boiling point.


These are my reasons for wanting to shout all across the universe with a cosmic megaphone......GOOD RIDDANCE!!!

1.  He was quiet, quiet, quiet. Once, the rest of the team were busy attending to the people from SONY and he was left on his own in front of the PC. He didn't say a word to anyone, not even to the boy who came and sat next to him to use the other PC. For the WHOLE day! Not a single word.

2.  He talked to a total of only THREE people by his own will. One was his former collegemate, one was a fellow interviewee and another was his cousin. That was IT. He talked to me simply because he HAD TO. The only times he'd speak to other people was when I told him to. I even had to tell him what to say and what question to ask to those other people.

3.  He would inform me every time he finished an assignment and then ask what else he was supposed to do. Then he'd stand there waiting for me to give next instruction after another. He'd do this 3 to 4 times a day!

* I can't accept this from any Technician and above. That is OK for the low level employees like the Operators or the Inspectors. Not a Technician! A Technician should have been able to think and analyze at least within his own job scope. If not, you should have been relegated to the lower position and lower salary. A Technician should have asked questions in "Why's" and "How's" and NOT "What's". Certainly NOT in the veins of "What am I supposed to do?" nor "What do I do now?" every day.

4.  He would isolate himself at break times. He'd sit either by himself or with any of those THREE people he knew (Refer No.2) instead of hanging out and socializing with any of our Division member. Let alone our Section member!

5.  He would arrive late on average twice a week. It was normal for him to miss one or both morning meetings every week. This drove me mad because I hold the meetings only TWO times a week so as not to give stress to my subordinates. Daily meetings are useless anyway. Other sections still do it daily. Why couldn't he commit to only TWO mornings per 5-day week?

6.  He jumbled up the XRF parts control system terminology I had painstakingly established with my former boss and colleague several years ago for his own convenience. We had written a manual (which he never tried to read), made visual displays and even roped in the IT members to set up a special Menu for this activity in the MRP system to ensure things were done right. I even carried a one-to-one training for every new member on this. How DARE he changed things around?

7.  I once asked his help to correct the wrong markings I mistakenly did to a drawing. Let me repeat that.....a drawing. Yes, that's ONE drawing! I had specifically pulled out the drawing and showed what corrections to do and where. Moments later, he came to me and asked, "Err...which drawing is it?" I felt like rolling that drawing tight and hit his head with it like a stick.

Could things get any worse? Oh, yes it could!

Here's No.8...............


8.  He didn't like to wear deodorant.


So, how bad did he make me want to resign from my post and flee? So bad that I had actually browsed for jobs in Japan!