Customers Are Right?

"Customers are always right". The infamous phrase a buyer would always abuse to assert their imaginary "rights". Surely for those who have been on the working field for some time would able to relate it to their nightmare experience so quick, they can list down a couple of scenarios before you can finish saying that stupid phrase.

Take my case. I have been working in the services field for some time; it is my job to solve our clients' problems. A mundane Tuesday will just be mundane without this strange caller needed answers why her system doesn't work the way it always does. I had some history with this client and know damn well of their hopelessness when it comes to computers. Quickly, I pointed out to the client the instructions to configure the system to make it work.

It was a good, user-friendly instruction. Matter of fact, I was providing them a guide to configure a system which we don't provide support to begin with. I was expecting at least a "thank you for your help" from them, but I got an email with the shortest reply I ever saw: "cannot." Are they implying that my instructions didn't work, or that my instructions didn't work and now want me to face full responsibility in fixing their crop up shit which we're not suppose to?

Imagine you're operating a shop selling jeans, and this faggot came into your shop with a torn shirt and asking you to fix it. You would kindly direct him to the nearest tailor; You might even give him some tips of the sewing skills, but all give back to you is "doesn't work... now you need to fix my shirt and I expect it to be done as soon as possible.". That is how the story is.

Obviously I had a nice conversation with them on the things we can help them, and the things they should seek someone else's help. They start to whine on why I don't want to offer help even though they're our clients... bla bla bla and then the "customer is always right" phrase comes in to play. To cut the story short, I had to sacrifice my time to search for a solution to fix their problem, and when everything is complete, I STILL didn't get a "thank you".

Seriously, whomever use this phrase again should shove the "always right" statement back up their ass. In this world there is no such thing as "Customers are always right". This whole controversial shit resolves down to a single element. Money. So to them, it may be "Customers are always right, and deserves whatever they fancy.", but to us, it is "Customer always have the MONEY". We only did it because it pays us, so stop acting like spoilt prick and expect us to perform miracles.

..and learn to say "thank you".

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X vs Y

During one of my holidays, I manager to get together with one of my college mate and friend from KL to have a drink at OverTime. As usual for a graduate, the hot topics we would talk about was our working life. He told me a story that the department he works at has a manager who always checks out of the office late at night, even when the working hours is from 9 to 6. When someone decides to leave the office at 7:30pm, the manager will remark "Going home early today, eh?"

So in the working life, when your contract stated the working hours is 9 to 6, it means you have to work from 9 to 10?

It is quite often you hear your parents telling you the nightmares of the working life, how much stress they have to cope in the office and etc. For us, the young and fresh generation, we walk into the working life hoping to meet a bunch of lively people, (of course sexy OL girls), people whom we can communicate and connect, a place we can call our 2nd home. The last one sounds exaggerated, but what would you call a desk/cubicle where you hide there for 1/3 of your day, and hide your personal stuff under the drawers there.

What we thought of the office people would be...

..Alas, we got greet by bunch of aunties at their grumpy, complaining age. (obviously not sexy, not worth a second glance), maybe a few seniors who thought they know everything. But your worst nightmare has yet to come if you haven't had a manager who is old-school, believes micro-managing is the only way to gain productivity... (just to name a few traits)

What (most) actual office would be...

After listening to many of my friends' stories of their working life, can't disagree that in any office, there will always be someone from the Generation X who thinks work is always the higher priority than personal lives, conservative, works for loyalty, always believes that he/she makes the correct decisions and no one else can defy him... How often do you hear people say "You think that work is stressful? Wait till you get into <insert job here>", "Of course I'm right, because I'm working longer than you do." ...and the all-time favorite: "..That's working life. Suck it up."

So what happens if we don't "suck it up" every damn thing in work? People ain't fools; we know when we first step into the office, we are bound to hardship and countless challenge which we'll struggle to overcome, but we ain't so dumb to treat everything as part of the challenge, forcefully and blindly swallowing it down.

This is why people do job-hopping. We don't leave the company because our main objective to do the usual 9 to 5 is for the paycheck. If there is another opportunity that provides more $$$, we are cocksure to take it. When we decide to leave the company, we often hear "Young people are always like that, job hopping around. You think you can get very far doing that?", "You young people are not even loyal to the company, what makes you think other employers would hire you?". Trust me. There are still people being so conservative to say that. (Thankfully, my current company isn't like that.)

Money pays. Loyalty doesn't. Nobody would pick a candidate just because they have big loyalty to offer on their resume. It is the skills that pays us, not loyalty. If I was given a choice, I would rather find a way to channel a stable income to my bank account (legally), and not work at all. Only conservative, "frog-in-the-well" people would say that is impossible. It's Generation Y world now; we do what pleases us. If that is working out for you, then sorry to say this: "This is working life. Suck it up" 

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Arsenal FAIL again (not surprisingly)

17th September. Blackburn 4 - 3 Arsenal.

Seems like Arsenal has finally found their goal-scoring frenzy mood again; out of 5 goals, 2 goes into our own net. That's 3 own goals in the last 3 games, and 14 goals conceded for the last 5 games. If I'm not being a harsh judge, I would say that my team would still have long ways before they can even consider themselves a real contender of the silverware.

I was having my usual dinner in the food court and they're airing the match. Too bad I didn't bring my glasses with me, else I would get to see what was going on in the 1st half rather than staring blankly, waiting for some noise from the crowd to alert me that a goal was scored.

Would die to know how they fared against Blackburn on the first half, because the second was total nightmare when I watch it at home (after dinner). Other than the 2 own goals nightmare, the whole team looks lost during the last 45 minutes. No direction, and lack of will. (especially 1-2 young players in the team).

Initially I thought we're pretty good with the new signings (Mertersacker, Arteta, Santos, Benayoun) and at least witness some solid defending from our team, but I learnt yesterday that even if you have a promising team, it still takes one or two players to fuck up the entire game.

Mistakes are mistakes, but how would you feel during the press conference when your team manager just shrug to the match results and answer "shit happens.".. Shit happens all the time in our lives, but what makes the difference between professionals and losers is we don't put all our the responsibilities of our mistakes on the "shit happens" excuse. I know you didn't say that during the conference, but how long are we gonna continue see this sort of shit from our team?

At least the Tottemham - Liverpool match today provides a little comfort for me.

Anyone who wants the match highlights can get it here. Source by Arsenalist. Next week, time to write something about work.

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Office Ladies II

I'm finally back in my hometown, and will start going back to the office life after just a few more hours of rest. Having all those nasty thoughts and the nightmares streaming though my mind really kills the mood of a quiet Sunday night. So, how do you keep yourself in the mood for the Monday blues? The answer is... office ladies. 

Here are more collection of how we dream of having someone like them in our office. Enjoy, but keep your thoughts to yourself (and whatever horny little fantasies you wanna have...)

Also note, this pictures don't belong to me. I merely upload it from another source, which is also stated in some of the pictures.

I like the full black outfit (black is always my favorite color), and the glasses will definitely hit the weak spot for some guys. I don't always fancy the glasses but it does look cute, especially for this model.

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September KL Trip

Today is actually gonna be my last day in KL; was here since Wednesday as a holiday trip to meet up some old friends here. All the while I have been missing my life in KL and often reminiscent about it, so it's time that I get some rest and do some travelling alone.

Initially I thought I could crash at my friends house, but they were all on college holidays and back when September ends. However I manage to contact someone I knew and got the keys, so now I have the entire house all to myself. :D

From Wednesday till today, I have been going out non-stop. Midvalley, Sg. Wang (twice), Lowyat, only coming back home for 6 hours sleeps, at the same time meeting friends of old and new. I don't really brag it as a hardcore outing but I'm seriously tired each time I'm back home, still it was worth it.

I see what you did there, Nandos. ;)

As a summary, the outings made me realize how much the things I missed doing back in college; back to the time where there is no responsibilities for a mere college student. Just 3 years of fun. Living alone in a small house gave me the taste of careless bachelor as well. I can do whatever I want, whenever I want and nobody is there to say 'NO' to me.

Another interesting part was the people I'm exposed are all musicians. WTF?! Yet another feeling of guilt which reminded me why I quit holding a guitar over a year ago. Why are you doing this to me, GOD? Why do you eagerly giving me hints to pick up guitar skills again?

Squier Stagemaster. Recommended by Vince.

So after this trip. Am I mentally relaxed from all the stress I accumulated in the hells of office life? Have I re-ignite my new born passion for music again? That all really depends. If only the skills of holding a guitar would  assert myself banging a hot chick. But this trip did assert me on one thing: there is so many things I can do with myself, so why do I tie myself down with working life only?

I'm gonna leave this here. Don't have much time to re-edit the stuff as I have to rush to meet another friend again. Next week, back to the hells... gonna get slaughter by my superiors.

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Absolute Fitness: Queensbay Mall

You know you need to start workout when you stared at the bathroom mirror of your half-naked self, and start counting your rib-cage bones. What makes things worst is when you putting on your usual clothing, and it still look like you're wearing +1 size.

can't see shit, captain!

I wasn't born with the average body however I hate to see myself being skinny; which is why I had signup for gym. When I was in college, I shared a one-year contract with a friend (6 months each) at a nearby gym so I could start doing some exercise instead of rotting at home. Initially all I was good at is on the treadmill, but after some time I got exposed to lifting weights and it took about 2 months when I clearly see some body shape.

Now that I'm back in Penang, I'm still serious on signing up for a local gym and continue my routine workout, but greedily want a spacious, fancy gymnasium like the one in KL. Took me quite a while to do some research, but I'm glad I waited long enough to witness the opening of Absolute Fitness in Queensbay Mall, Penang.

Grand Opening was on July 2011 (if not mistaken). I had saw the renovation progress every time I passed by that area, but had no idea how its gonna turn out. How spacious is it? What are the equipment they gonna bring in? Any special facilities? I was concern about all this but when some of my friends had registered for it, I decided to take the opportunity to have a look myself.

Here are some pictures of the interior (quietly took during workout session).

2-storey. hall upstairs, machines downstairs

another shot of the machines available... this time clearer abit.

treadmills and.. um... bicycles. (lol I never know what are these called)... with sea view.

rest and relax here... also sea view.

gents only. sure i wish i got the chance to snap the ladies'

 I'm quite impress with the interior design, but that alone doesn't make it a great gym. Equipment wise, there is sufficient for everyone even on peak hours, but you don't get to be picky on the machines you wanna play with.

The machines are slightly different than the ones I play with back in KL: they're designed with 2 individual handles (left and right) that carries its separate weights, instead of both handles carrying the same weights. At first I struggled with my less dominant left hand but it takes a while to get use to it. Perhaps the good thing about it is you're definitely working with both sides, instead of relying on your dominant side to lift most of the weights.

As for the gents, it still need some finishing touches on the bathroom. Maybe some hooks would help abit instead of hanging my underwear on the bar. There is a steam room (coming soon) as well. Overall, the place is clean, neat, spacious and I'm very satisfied with it. If you feel like wanting to know the place more, the staff would gladly show you around. Quite friendly too.

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Worst Drivers

I have been wondering for some time when people say that Penang drivers are the worst drivers they known. Are we really that bad? From the looks of it, I'm willing to bet that the people say that are people most probably from KL, since there are many from KL often visit the island during the weekends and get a taste of Penang-style drivers.

Still, when we talk about 'worst drivers', there are may factors that contribute depending in each individual's point of view.. was it the quality of driving skills? or was it the driving etiquette? These are two different things in my opinion, and shouldn't be too generalize into one.

For driving skills.. well, you can't deny that there are people in Penang who totally lack of skills when it comes to being behind the wheel. But I think this actually existed everywhere else, and not just Penang alone. You'll be a harsh judge to say that you'll find the most people of poor quality driving skill only in Penang.

On the other hand, driving etiquette is quite influence by how the people are brought up, and there is no straightforward way to 'teach' a driver on etiquette itself; it is more likely to be trained and turn to a habit.

Another thing to consider is the roads layout in Penang is very different comparing to KL. Just to name the simple difference, it is not difficult to get to a random place in Penang, since all the roads are deeply 'connected', it doesn't matter if you miss the first turning as there is always another path ahead, whereas in KL, you're pretty much screwed if you miss a turning.

As a local, there are actually few types of drivers that you may find only in Penang and can really pisses you..

1. Old drivers who have a habit of driving 50-60 kmph on the fast lane. Even old people loves trolling others on the road
2. Motorcyclists who swerve on the road like they own the road... For fuck sake, you just came out from the right junction and you wanna swerve all the way to the left like there's no cars on the road.
3. Cars with number plates that start with 'B' or 'W'. You may be double parking like a boss in KL, but it doesn't work for you here.

The list goes on, but I think the last shows pretty clearly the cause of all these fusses. KL and Penang are different cities with different layouts. Sorry, but bringing our own style here and then telling us we're doing it wrong is going to make you sound retarded.  

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