I Got The Job!

After 3 days of interviews with 4 different people, and an email to say why I wanted the job, I had better get the job!

They called me yesterday at about 3.40pm, just as I was about to step out of the house to pick my little rascal for her swimming classes.  They had wanted me to rush down to sign the Letter of Appointment immediately!  I think they were afraid that I would change my mind or either not able to make it on other days as I am still working!  Rush I did! I reached the office in less than an hour!

Well, I’m pleased to say that I have been offered a great job with fantastic benefits!  I have never seen such a long Letter of Appointment.  Those I have seen were just a page long, cos the companies I worked for were smaller and lesser established compared to his company.  The letter was about 4 to 5 pages long with an attachment of the benefits!

They have offered me what I never recieved in my other companies!  I had the 13th Month bonus, performance bonuses (every 6 months), $500 medical, which if I do not use all of it, can be used for dental, buying new spectacles, having meals at hotels with my colleagues…. Of course also including the basic annual leave, compassionate leave, maternity leave, childcare leave, etc… the list goes on…

Now the only problem is, HOW AM I GOING TO WAKE UP SO EARLY IN THE MORNING TO START WORK AT 9AM???  I think I need few alarm clocks!  I’ve already got 2 alarms from my 2 mobile phones!  I think I need more!  Would anyone like to wake me up every day at about 7am?

I’ll be starting my first day of work on Tuesday, 20th March 2007.  So my alarm clocks can start ringing from then!

What an Interview!

I didn’t know going for an interview would be so strenuous!  I had already gone for 2 interviews with 3 different people, and now I have to email them, telling them why I want to work for them?  And then still go for another interivew with the founder?  Well, here’s what I emailed them! =>

I have always believed that one should either work for a company where one knows she will love and enjoy working for or if one has a hobby, find a job which has similar interests.  I have found both of that in At Sunrice, as being in the kitchen is my hobby, and yet, I have always enjoyed the educational line of work.  Many could say that this would be a dream job for me!  Just by stepping into At Sunrice, I felt very warm and welcome with the environment, the atmosphere, the company and its people.  Knowing that it is a proper organisation with an excellent system in place makes me feel at ease. I feel confident that I will be well taken care of, as a guest or staff member. 

I may just be a home baker but I’ve always been enchanted with the culinary world.  It never ceases to amaze me however on how chefs are able to transform a simple dish into something so exquisite and wonderful! 

I have met with Sandra, PA to Chef Megel, and she has explained the requirements of the job.  It may be slightly overwhelming for now as I have yet to understand the ‘running’ of the company.  However, I found it very challenging, knowing that I will always have to work under pressure.  Sandra has showed me that I had to arrange appointments for Chef Megel, and had encouraged me to have a written schedule, one on the computer and also manually key into Chef’s computer as it is a Macintosh interface, which is different from the normal PC interface.  She has also informed me that the PA-to-be will be in charge of stationary inventory, the phone system, inventory and purchasing of books for sale, scheduling of staff, managing projects, arranging and organising the SCA (Singapore Chef’s Association) outings and much, much more. 

Being able to work with Chef Megel would be a great privilege to me, as he is a World Renowned Chef, with a book under his belt, or in his case, apron.  After meeting up with Chef, I found him to be a straight-forward person with a great deal of integrity.  He wants to be able to trust his PA, and I would want to be able to trust my boss, and I do think that is a pre-requisite to build a solid working relationship.

Earth Quake Tremors

What a day it has been for me!  First was the dreadful meeting with the boss, then as meeting ended, I wondered why I was feeling giddy!  At first, I thought that I had heard too much from this boss of mine that I was fuming with anger and that caused my giddiness.  Then, it struck me that it could be an earth quake!  Then, just as I thought about it, my boss’s maid rushed into the room saying, ‘Earth Quake!’.  I walked out the room unsteadily, left my stuff on my desk, and walked outside the office.  I saw few people from the next office walking out too, to see the commotion!

 When all realise that it must be an earth quake, we all rushed back into the office to grab out stuff to leave!  I even told boss to leave, just in case!  In fact, I was considering, should I grab my stuff, or just leave it there?  Well, I said, must take my handphone, very impt, and ended up grabbing my bag and diary as well! :p

 It was a hard walk down for me as there were people in front of me and I was still feeling giddy, walking not so steadily down the stairs.  Thank goodness everyone was calm and collected, there was no rushing, shoving or pushing.  The tremor lasted more than 5 minutes, maybe even close to 10 minutes.

I stood far away from the building, looking at the people just in front of the building… thinking to myself, IF the building collapse, would these people have time to run away from the building?  I spoke to mum and she immediately switched on the TV to find out more!  That was about 12.20pm.  Since hubby happened to arrive, I decided to have lunch and went back to office after lunch.

Not long later, while talking to boss, I SAW and felt another tremor!  This time,  I was sitting next to my belongings, so I grabbed everything and rushed out of the office, hardly thinking about boss!  It was about 2pm!

 I ended up seeing the same people on the way down the stairs, and quickly called up mum to tell her, once again, that there was another round of the earth quake.  She was telling me that the quake measured 6.6 on the Ritcher Scale!  I was joking with mum that its about time I did some exercise, and I overheard a girl in front of me saying, but this is too much exercise for a day! Haha…  Well, she had a choice, to walk down or to walk up the stairs! I think walking down would be an easier exercise!

Boss ended up closing the office for the day!  She was not going back up and thank goodness she said that I need not go up too!  Just had to collect the letters for posting and do the banking!  Totally fine with me!  I guess it has been quite a shocking experience for me.  I felt giddy for the next hour or so… Damn! Its 11.30pm and I thought I felt my head getting giddy again!  Am I feeling paranoid or is there another quake?  Better check news now!

A Job Disappointment

I guess I have tried to be as understanding as I can towards my boss.  She’s 79 yrs of age, and still going quite strong.  However, it is unfair to say that I should consider that since she is much elderly that I have to close an eye to her misgivings.  She has been blaming me for things which I have not done or things which I have told her.  At first, I put the blame on myself for not doing it, or forgetting to tell her things, then I realise that it is not that I haven’t done or reminded her of certain issues, SHE FORGOT about them!  And all those times, I felt so bad about certain issues.  It affected me so badly that I couldn’t sleep at night at times, or I may call up friends to find out if I did any wrong!

Just today, we had a meeting.  She brought out an A4 piece of paper and said that there are some ‘issues’ that she would like to bring up.  Covering the paper, she read out one after another a list of things which I did not do, should not do, have not done,  etc… and what surprised me was, she was saying things out of context!

My working hours are usually 10.30 am to 6.30pm on most days except for Tuesday and Saturday, where I start at 9am.  Yes, she did mention that I have improved on my punctuality.  I was usually late for my 9am working days!  But then, she had to add in by asking what time have I been coming in on my other days as she doesn’t come in til earliest noon time on the other days!  Then she went on saying that she called a few times around 11 am and my colleague picks up the calls, saying that I have just stepped out to buy breakfast or have not stepped into the office!  I said, I don’t think so, get your information right! I have been at work latest by 10.30am.  In fact, usually in slightly earlier then that!  I later found out from my colleague that he only received those calls no more than twice!  And I really did just stepped out for awhile!

Next, she asked why was it that I went to work late on 21 Feb 07, a Wednesday.  And when she called, I said I was cleaning my place!  In fact, she was so sarcastic to say, I thought most people cleaned their house on the first day of Chinese New Year, why do you clean your house on the fourth day instead?  I was totally shocked cos I told her that I would be having a party on Tuesday night and I may be late as I would have to clean the flat, and she was ok with it!  She even said to take my time as there were no classes in the morning, just be in time for my colleague’s class at 3.30pm!  And now, here she is saying that I didn’t tell her!!  So I was so pissed off and told her that I did inform her, and she kept saying that I didn’t.  In the end,  I waved my hand away and said, then forget it, if you say I didn’t tell you, then fine, I didn’t!

I even was close to being speechless!  And I gave a last try by saying, ‘Es, this is not the first time this is happening!  You keep saying that I didn’t tell you when I said I did!  And it is really slowly getting out of hand! Cos I know I did tell you!’  But she is as stubborn as a mule, refusing to apologise for her mistakes and forgetfulness, instead, she said, ‘if I did forget, I would apologise but I know you didn’t tell me’!!  DUH!  What do you want me to say?

 Even the simple Saturday task of picking up my daughter when my mum drops her off at the building, she had to make a fuss of it!  She knew that I pick my daughter up every Saturday for her English class at the school and yet, she told me today, ‘You went down and left the reception area unattended for about 15 minutes’.  The last time, she said it was ok, as it was not a busy time, it was during class time, so no one hangs around, and now? she changes her mind!

So I told her, ‘dun worry, I know what to do, from this Saturday onwards, I shall stop bringing Nicole for classes.’  Then she looked in disbelief and tried to be ‘nice’ by saying, ‘can’t your mum bring her up, cos other parents can’ and I said, ’she can’t as she is not so good in driving and parking in the public car park and going up the slops is something she is not good at’.  Then she said, how about the hubby? I said, not possible as he works and even if he can, he drives a van, means, he can’t go into the car park building too!  So I said, sarcastically, ‘Don’t worry Es, as I said, I understand, I’ll just stop bringing Nicole down for classes’.  She was speechless!  In fact, I think I shall return most of the materials to her too!  I don’t think that I am THAT hard up for a free lesson!

It’s no wonder my colleague flared up few weeks back, throwing his office key on her table, telling her that he is not coming back!  And I had to pacify him and advised him to stay!  From the way things are going, I may be the next one to flare and walk out the door!  It’s also no wonder that last year alone, there were about 4 ot 5 administrators in 6 months!  All must have been unhappy with her!

How can one tolerate bahavior like that?

My Interview

Yes, I am out looking for a job again!  I’ve applied for a few jobs in December and one of the companies called me up for an interview few weeks back!  I was telling myself, no harm going for the interview and finding out more about the company and IF I do get the job, we shall see how from there!

The interview went great but I didn’t hear from them until last week.  They said that they couldn’t pay my asking salary!  Sigh… If only they knew, I would take what they offered me.  It would be great to work in that environment!  It is a school and,… its a CULINARY school, and I love baking!  Well, they invited me down for another interview for another position, PA to the CEO!  Wah! So high class!  So I went, not knowing what to expect, and I realised that the CEO was a 37 Bachelor French Chef! :D  Heard he was the Head Chef of The Ritz, before moving to this school.  He even wrote a book called ‘Asian Tapas’.  It would be a dream to work for him!

I had the chance to speak with his current PA and found that this is not an easy job as she has to not only arrange his appointments, but also be in charge of inventory of books sold, the copier machine, phone system.  She did even say that she doesn’t even have time to MSN at work!!! :o  Well, I think I’d rather be THAT busy than not knowing what to do at work each day!

I have this fear that I may not be able to meet up to this CEO’s expectations as his current PA is fantastic!  She is neat and tidy, no filing left on her desk, her diary planner and Outlook was SO organised!  She is meticulous!  I guess the fear is because I did not know their work system, filing system and how the company is run, so I guess it is all just jitters and excitement.  Thus, I shouldn’t worry so much!

Well, now, my fingers are crossed, hoping that I’ll get that job and leave my current job.  Sigh… work hasn’t been that fantastic of late.  I’m still doing fine, the boss still thanks me for the job that I have done but then, there are other issues which I have not been pleased about.

I think my current job deserves a new article!