The not so ugly

I walked into work today pretending nothing happened but I got a real tongue-lashing from the boss' sister, the HR manager, Ilsa the moment she saw me.

She was like, "Waaah... BIG trrrouble man yesterday!"

I was like, "Huh? What happened?" with a smirk on my face.

I know, I know. It's no laughing matter and I do feel sorry for my moment of folly so early into this job but really, my mantra these days is to just chill out. Things will work out if they want to.

I just continued as usual. The tongue-lashing lasted about three minutes coz I didn't let her finish. I grabbed a trolley and pretended to be busy. Ha ha.

But after lunch, the boss himself, Don, called me upstairs.

Not trying to sound macho or anything but I didn't feel anything. I felt numb. I had no expectations. Que sera, sera.

Ilsa was called in too. So it's the three of us.

What happened was both of them, especially Don were just being straight up with me on things in general. They didn't nag at me, talk down to me or even tell me what to do. It's more like a slow tempo buttering and I mostly gave my standard response. Nod, grunt and mumble.

On my performance, they said that I've been good. I don't skive, I have potential, those sort of stuff.

They also acknowledged that I'm slowly picking things up and they understand that despite having much FNB experience that this is my first time in catering so it's natural to feel lost in space. But they also mentioned that I need to pick up my speed.

I've passed the first two weeks despite everything, including the gaffe at the church and now I need to prove my mettle as a leader, coz that's what I'm being hired for.

I accept all that. I know that I've been slow but that's all part of my strategy. I don't wanna walk into the job with all guns a-blazing acting like a hero and all when I know nuts.

My strategy when entering a new job environment has always been to watch, learn and do for the first two weeks at my own pace and then honing what I've learned for the next two and a half months. By the end of three months, I should be good.

Despite everything they said regarding this matter, I'm still sticking to my strategy. Sometimes it's better to act stupid than to act smart. You learn more that way.

About my church gaffe, the standard procedure is for the employees responsible to pay up to make up for the discount given to a customer upon complaint but none of them mentioned about deducting my salary or anything. I hope they wouldn't coz that'd mean all my blood, sweat and tears clocking overtime the past few days would be for nought and that certainly would piss me off. We're talking about $500 odd here!

I was also informed that the reason Phil got sacked was not only because of this issue. Turns out that Don has this little black book going on with all his employees' bad record updated as and when necessary and Phil had chalked up 10.

I now have one of my own. What a way to start! Woo! Ha ha!

In Don's own words, Phil was hopeless and he made sure I heard by repeating himself oh, a few million times.

I know the bosses have high hopes in me but I don't really wanna burden myself with other people's expectations of me anymore. I'm just chill as I go from two weeks ago. Come what may, who cares?

I have my own objectives. I'm actually being paid by the very company that I'm spying on for my own future benefit, which is cool. They have nary a clue. Ho ho ho!

In other news, Max called me earlier to say that SMRT has rejected our application to rent the shop space at Eunos MRT station. Boohoo? Nah!

It's all in God's plan. In God, I trust.