Fatigued. Again
The below is yesterday's post
Attended a pep talk this morning. SWO Poon talked to all the enlistees of S3 branch. His aim was to tell us that we are to follow and comply with instructions. He also mentioned that we are not to do anything that undermine efforts towards the battalion goal or he will get us for it. Yawn... Boring! Oh yes. He also mentioned that we are to complain via proper channels, that is, up the chain of command.
He mentioned about 'guidelines' and 'instructions'. We must follow instructions at all times but guidelines? It will suffice to be aware of the guideline; compliance to it is of no relevance. He quoted the fish tank example. It was an instruction passed down by some agency that no fish tank are allowed to be in the offices. The only exception was the lounge or rest area. However, since CO flouted this 'instruction' by putting up a fish tank in his office, it has now evolve (or should I say devolve?) to become a 'guideline'. Ops Room has a fish tank, as with at least 2 other offices that I've been to. I bet there are more of such going around.
As for his second point, he didn't want us to cosy up to our immediate superiors and use them for political reasons. Well, I can't help it. My immediate supeior IS a commissioned officer and rank sure get things done quick and nice. However, I have yet done so. It seems that some other guys are doing it and he wanted to put a stop to this. C'mon, if their working relationship are all that rosy, would it have been so easy for outsiders to sow discord and cause a rift? The fault lies not in us but in them. Please examine your own working relationship before assuming that outside forces are at work.
As for the last point, it goes to prove the rumours that SAF is afraid of internal complaints reaching outside. We are always told to go through the proper chain of command when we want to complain anything and not to solicit oustside help. On the surface, it seems like they do not want to wash dirty linen in public. Well, I agree. After all, who wants to expose their faults and mistakes in the local papers?
Then again, I see a more insidious plot. Going through all those chain of command involves a lot of red tape and the whole process can be very lengthy and draggy. I suppose they are hoping that by the time the complaint reaches the proper person, the complainer (I'm not sure if there is such a word) has cooled down, gotten bored by all the lengthy procedure and give up complaining. Going through many different people also means that there are more people to hinder and dissuade the complainer.
The entire session lasted some 45 minutes. Initially, I whipped out by notepad, thinking that he might have something important to convey. When it turns out that he was beating around the bush before coming to the abovementioned 3 points, my interest waned by the second. To make things worse, he was a bad communicator. There was no eye contact to me. Apparently, he was not addressing any issues but addressing a few specific individual. I know I'm not the focus here but please show me some respect, will ya? I noticed that I was the only one who was looking at him talk all the time. The rest fidgeted restlessly.
I pride myself for being a good listener and towards those who possess poor communication skills, I'm somewhat irritated. SWO Poon really irritated me. I wonder how he climbed the ladder. Didn't he attend any communication skill course? At all? I felt that my presence was not justified. No eye contact at all.
On a lighter side, I garnered a total of $24.50 for my suggestions. That is excluding the $25 award I'm going to get for my project. I'm going to make more suggestions and siphon off every single dollar I can. The quota is 9 per work year. But do I care? NO!! Let's see... Hmm... How about 10 suggestions a month? That works out to be roughly to be $15 per month.
Finally bought my porepacks today. It was going at $3.50 per pack, $0.40 less than the original price. I got two. I think they will last me for a while. I wanted to buy some orange/strawberry/lemon flavoured Vicks but it slipped my mind. I sense a sore throat coming and I wanted to be prepared for it. It has been some time since I last fell ill. Currently, I'm substaining on menthol flavoured Vicks. I detest the taste. It makes me feel sick already.
Attended a pep talk this morning. SWO Poon talked to all the enlistees of S3 branch. His aim was to tell us that we are to follow and comply with instructions. He also mentioned that we are not to do anything that undermine efforts towards the battalion goal or he will get us for it. Yawn... Boring! Oh yes. He also mentioned that we are to complain via proper channels, that is, up the chain of command.
He mentioned about 'guidelines' and 'instructions'. We must follow instructions at all times but guidelines? It will suffice to be aware of the guideline; compliance to it is of no relevance. He quoted the fish tank example. It was an instruction passed down by some agency that no fish tank are allowed to be in the offices. The only exception was the lounge or rest area. However, since CO flouted this 'instruction' by putting up a fish tank in his office, it has now evolve (or should I say devolve?) to become a 'guideline'. Ops Room has a fish tank, as with at least 2 other offices that I've been to. I bet there are more of such going around.
As for his second point, he didn't want us to cosy up to our immediate superiors and use them for political reasons. Well, I can't help it. My immediate supeior IS a commissioned officer and rank sure get things done quick and nice. However, I have yet done so. It seems that some other guys are doing it and he wanted to put a stop to this. C'mon, if their working relationship are all that rosy, would it have been so easy for outsiders to sow discord and cause a rift? The fault lies not in us but in them. Please examine your own working relationship before assuming that outside forces are at work.
As for the last point, it goes to prove the rumours that SAF is afraid of internal complaints reaching outside. We are always told to go through the proper chain of command when we want to complain anything and not to solicit oustside help. On the surface, it seems like they do not want to wash dirty linen in public. Well, I agree. After all, who wants to expose their faults and mistakes in the local papers?
Then again, I see a more insidious plot. Going through all those chain of command involves a lot of red tape and the whole process can be very lengthy and draggy. I suppose they are hoping that by the time the complaint reaches the proper person, the complainer (I'm not sure if there is such a word) has cooled down, gotten bored by all the lengthy procedure and give up complaining. Going through many different people also means that there are more people to hinder and dissuade the complainer.
The entire session lasted some 45 minutes. Initially, I whipped out by notepad, thinking that he might have something important to convey. When it turns out that he was beating around the bush before coming to the abovementioned 3 points, my interest waned by the second. To make things worse, he was a bad communicator. There was no eye contact to me. Apparently, he was not addressing any issues but addressing a few specific individual. I know I'm not the focus here but please show me some respect, will ya? I noticed that I was the only one who was looking at him talk all the time. The rest fidgeted restlessly.
I pride myself for being a good listener and towards those who possess poor communication skills, I'm somewhat irritated. SWO Poon really irritated me. I wonder how he climbed the ladder. Didn't he attend any communication skill course? At all? I felt that my presence was not justified. No eye contact at all.
On a lighter side, I garnered a total of $24.50 for my suggestions. That is excluding the $25 award I'm going to get for my project. I'm going to make more suggestions and siphon off every single dollar I can. The quota is 9 per work year. But do I care? NO!! Let's see... Hmm... How about 10 suggestions a month? That works out to be roughly to be $15 per month.
Finally bought my porepacks today. It was going at $3.50 per pack, $0.40 less than the original price. I got two. I think they will last me for a while. I wanted to buy some orange/strawberry/lemon flavoured Vicks but it slipped my mind. I sense a sore throat coming and I wanted to be prepared for it. It has been some time since I last fell ill. Currently, I'm substaining on menthol flavoured Vicks. I detest the taste. It makes me feel sick already.
posted by hg @ 21:29
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home