Argument Reduction*

Living a life is sometimes, if not most of the time, complicated. Each person thinks, does, and lives her/his life in a different way. No complaint. No doubt. Nobody would be the same, even twins, who have been together for almost 9 months before born.

What we say, think, and do will impact others in a way, more or less, and perhaps the reflect of that impact will revert to us as fast as a thunder at the end.

However, nobody would be able to say, think or do something to please everybody in all aspects. One has her/his own perspectives, and the others have theirs.

This makes the argument comes into play. Very few people live their lives without arguing with others. And it is strange that, to me, most arguments are with those in my family, with those that I am close to. The closer, the more.. somehow. We even argue with ourselves!

What causes those arguments? Varied.

Misunderstanding, discussing (some people call it this way instead of arguing though it looks like the latter), (just) talking out loud, (just) speaking our minds, being frank, having a ‘minus’ attitude towards somebody, stereotyping in a negative way, pretending to be able to read others’ minds, assuming, mis-interpreting, etc.

Countless!

Solutions?

Think thoroughly about anything we are going to do and say before we really make it happen.

Act discretely until we are certain of what we are doing. Do not even let our eyes readable by others.

Shut our mouths if we have not carefully considered what we are to say. Silence can heal sometimes.

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I am telling myself..

Receptionist*

Again, a receptionist is resigning. She has not completed a year with this company yet.

Not only at my company, my friend’s company also has the same problem, that is, receptionists cannot work for a long time.

I do not expect them to work for five years, but two years would be enough before they continue their jobs with better positions somewhere else. I fully understand the career paths that everybody is looking forward to. However, one single year is unacceptable. 

I am exhausted in getting and training new people every single year.

“Do we really need a receptionist?”

“Yes, we do.”

The answer from my boss made me even sicker and almost bang my head on my desk at that time. (I am not joking!)

Are there any statistics or researches about why receptionists cannot work for long?

Understand that..

• The tasks of a receptionist are boring.
• Documentation is something a receptionist should be able to handle as well, and it is totally boring (for me).
• A receptionist in a company possibly has no career path. Nobody wants to be a receptionist forever!
• I also assign more administrative tasks to a receptionist, so that she learns more and is able to use the experiences for the next career path. (I actually expected the resigning one to be promoted to a staff in our Support Team if her English skills had been improved a bit more.)
• Maybe, I should look for someone who is studying or plans to study another degree, so that s/he (preferrably she) will stay with us longer, at least until she finishes her study.
• So and so..

Don’t understand that..

• Why does a 40-people company need a receptionist?
• Why can’t everyone pick up their own phone calls?
• Why can’t everone let others know their extension numbers?
• Why does somebody not pick up a phone call at their desks while the phone is ringing?
• So and so..

This fast changing starts to be like a (weather) season of a year that happens at one time in a year.

And.. it makes me sick!~~

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P.S. Perhaps, I should go back home and review my handouts about Employee Selection. I might be able to come up with better criteria for choosing a new receptionist. I got S* (highly satisfactory) for this class when I studied the Innovation Management programme ;p

Stuck*

Refusing the translation job I got last year with Siemens might be a wrong decision. I started to regret.

Although the salary was not as much as the current job (they did offer OT wage when needed), the people and atmosphere there seemed to be nice. I could feel that when I walked into their office for a translation test and an interview.

But at the time the decision of leaving the current company was not that I was bored of the current responsibilities (unlike these days). Instead, I was sick of colleagues and internal politics.

Thus, after having talked with my boss, I decided to stay at the same old place. I was offerred higher salary increase, and promised more challenging responsibilities and tasks.

So far, only the salary is true; while I have not seen any challenges.

And now, because I graduated, I am even keener to move on, especially to the job field(s) I studied.

I am stuck now, I can feel..

Eat One a Week*

Reading this, I am urged to start my reading again. I have more than 5 books unfinished. I started a few and have not completed one of them. I bought some as a collection, e.g. The Chronicles of Narnia, and I have just finished one of the 7 books.. (Oh, so now I have more than 10 books unread, I think).

To my feeling, I may like reading a non-fiction one more than a fiction, but The Chronicles of Narnia and Pricess Diary are exceptions. How many exceptions will I have!?!?

OK.. Got urged.. and now I will just have to TRY HARDER to learn how to EAT books.

:p

Too Careless*

Bad, worse, worst..

Yesterday, I was careless and didn’t notice that there was a typo on the former owner’s lastname of the condo room at Rayong. Then, I had to take one more day leave to go back there on a normal working day.

Today, I just knew that I had proposed wrong pricing to a customer, and he had paid. I could not get him to pay the difference.

All seems to go wrong during this time.

Sigh..

 

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Edited: Forgot that I used English in this blog. So, I came back and changed the content to English.

DBD*

Finally, I got the change of the affidavit done at the DBD. Phew…

I should have done since last week if I did not put the wrong description on the Power of Attorney (POA).. I was careless again. I read it before I asked my British boss (who came to Thailand only on 25th Feb) to sign, but I did not notice that I missed something.

And.. yea, I had missed something and my application of the change was rejected by a DBD officer.

And that is unacceptable for me who had done this kind of processes before.. Boo!

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The problem is about the regulation that a company has to notify the DBD by 14 days after the meeting of the shareholders of a director’s resignation approval. The date I set was 22nd Feb, and as such, the last day for submitting the notification is today!

That caused me to rush.

Unfortunately, my lady boss was still on her travelling trip to all of branches, and would be back to UK on Friday (which would be too late). Thus, she had not got time to look at my e-mail asking her to re-sign the POA and post it back to me (sent last Friday).

At the end of the day, however, I finally found my way out to get the signature on the amended POA. It took me the whole day today to get that done.

I would have died crying if I could not submit the application to the DBD today successfully.

Yea.. I did successfully complete this task.. eventually.

Very exhausted today, really….

Failure with Rules*

Why I am so careless!?

When going to the Department of Business Developement (DBD), I have never been there once and got things done, but at least, twice. Why so?

Very disappointed, huh?

I do not understand why I have to be such a careless person who could not just get things done at the first time I go there. Why there always is the second time!? Why? Why?

Sigh..

This is the third thing I have to deal with DBD, and I am still unable to do this as smooth as I want to.

I always have a problem working with and under too many rules and regulations, as well as always feel uncomfortable being in a strict environment.

Too many rules can make me bored. I need FLEXIBILITY and ADAPTABILITY ENVIRONMENT!

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I know I would not want to work for any government sector if that is not the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Non-Sense*

When asking for any security deposit back from a company or service provider, would I accept that my credit card has been credited when there is no proof?

No.

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And would Nikki accept that her credit card has been credited when there is no proof?

I do not think so.

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It is not $100, but $1,000! If I were a customer, I would shout at the rep from the provider, and would not leave this office till I had an evidence to prove that my money had been returned to my account.

How come Nikki left me and did not even try to forward me the receipt (which showed that the amount had been refunded)? I even asked her to take a photo of the receipt. She laughed and said the customer would have to wait till tomorrow.

Ha! If you were a customer, would you Nikki? Kid!

Thinking that the money would be automatically transferred to the customer’s credit card right away (and Nikki said so), I just went to talk to the customer and asked him to check with his card provider; while Nikki was leaving for home.

And it turned out that the card provider could not see any credited amount in the customer’s account yet!

D a r n . . . .  

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Wish I could go home now.. Moody!

Lesson-learnts

• Transfers to and from a credit card/ bank might not be done right way. Normally, it takes a daily process. For this case, the transaction would be done through the system around midnight.
• Don’t let Nikki go until the job is successfully done. Otherwise, she will not be contactable at all. No matter how often I call or text, she will just keep quiet without any returning calls.
• I should not allow or favour any customer with the credit card application anymore. Actually, the credit card application is not for Thailand, but Australia. And when it happens in Australia, it is out of my control (I cannot control the machine, as well as people’s minds and behaviours). Unlucky for the coming customers. No more credit card application from me ever!

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P.S. Anyway, this customer is also quite picky and always wants this and that in his way. When he came for renting the phone, it was like he did not read what I had emailed to him.

He came and started asking everything again. I spent over 2 hours with him. And when he came, he said he did not have $1,500 to pay in cash, and if it was possible to use his credit card. I favoured him and tried to get everything in the ways he wanted.. and now.. problem.. ! Duh! 

Next time, I would let all customers now that credit card use is not possible here. Customers have to ensure they have enough cash or can transfer the amount to our bank account.

Hectic Better*

One mistake being annoying me during these several months is that the words ‘and’ in the company’s affivadit that happened because I made a typo.

That would look very simple if I could just change from ‘and’ to ‘or’ right away, or if it did not affect anything in regards to the company’s business.

On the contrary,  the misprint was with the authorised signatory of the company where it should have been that only one person out of all has an authorisation. Instead of having ‘or,’ the affidavit contains the word ‘and’ between two names of the company’s directors.

The impact is that both of them have to sign all documents together, while only either one should have been doing that. That wastes their time, including those who prepare documents.

I am really sorry for that and upset for a long while.

Even more complicatedly, to change the authorised signatory, I need to get one of the CEO’s from UK to sign off the documents submitted to the DBD.  And they do not visit Thailand that often, but normally, twice a year, with 3-4 days each time.

Moreover, since the CEO’s from UK are not working in Thailand and they have no work permit, the signature must be certified by a lawyer who is a member of The Thai Bar that the signature is genuine. Or to be exact, the director has to sign the documents in front of the lawyer, and the lawyer certifies the signature; when the director does not want to go to the DBD to sign the documents in front of an officer.

Not only that, to change the authorised signatory, there should be a meeting held up among shareholders, or what it is technically called AGM or EGM. The minutes of the meeting should include the resolution of change director’s authorised signatory, blah, blah, blah..

Besides, the officer(s) there was so strict with wordings in the documents that sometimes the same person tells different things. For example, last time I went there, the details in the documents were ‘ABCDE,’ and there was no change this time; she asked me to go back and amend! T_T” Lack of standard, somehow.

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Anyways……….. PHewWwwwwWWww! It’s gone!

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After I failed getting this done last time Sandy (a CEO) was here, I successfully completed this task this late afternoon. Very relieved and feel like I have more focuses to something else now. Nothing to worry.

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;)