1st Job Interview of the year....

I attended a job interview yesterday and I am not sure how I feel about it.

This job opening wasn't one that I had applied for, but one that I was shortlisted by the company for. Initially my plan was just to go there to listen to what they had to offer because it is for an Interior Designer position, but it was a full salaried job and based on the call, didn't require me to do project management if I didn't want to. 

I was doing my Reservist when the company called me up about the job opening, and as most people around me are aware, I am getting tired of my current company, not because the job is boring but because upper management is just a mess, so I figured, since a lot of boxes are being ticked and I am in fact constantly looking for a new job at the moment, why not just go take a look.

The day arrives and I head over to the office, the travelling was really long, located all the way in Tai Seng, travelling took me close to an hour, and when I stepped into the office, I am immediately turned off by the office's design, you can tell just based on the choices of laminates and detailing work that design is not the company's forte, but since I was already there, I can't just walk off, so I stayed on and notice there were maybe 4 - 5 employees working I went ahead and started to fill up the application form, and as I was filling the form up, I could hear a baby crying and the employees were talking to each other with this impatience in their tone that was more akin to how a typical Singapore family would converse with one another.

For some reason, after making the connection that this is a family owned and run business, I was suddenly reminded of one of my ex-colleagues' past  job experience that she had shared with me wherein she used to work in a family business, and that there was always a lot of biasness involved because of the familial relationship in the professional setting, it was really quite toxic to work in because the family members would get into arguments and bring personal issues into the professional setting. 

I was immediately worried that this could potentially have the same environment, so as I was filling up the final part of the form, I had already made up my mind that I wasn't going to be part of the company. 

Once the form was done, the employee who had contacted me for the interview brought me over and introduced me to the big boss and he is your typical Uncle, very friendly and talkative, seemed to have a good temper as well, so I sat down and we started talking and sharing our experiences in the industry. 

I will admit, the boss was very likeable, and so was his employee (whom I assume is probably his son-in-law) , but there were a few red flags about the position that worried me...

1. This is a 5.5 day work week job. 

I am not interested in working more than 5 days a week, I have done 5.5 days at ID1, it sucked, I have done 6 days at the bakery, that sucked even more. Whether you put it as 5.5 days or 6 days, to me, it will still be 6 days because you are still disturbing one of my weekends whether you require me to come in for 4 hours or 8 hours.  

So I expressed my disdain at the 5.5 day work week and they tell me that it's an additional 0.5 days because clients may want to meet on the weekend, so they need me to be available, I then countered and say if that is the case, then why not you just make me work 5 days, but have me clock all the required hours within that 5 days, since this is a salaried job, I also understand that you are paying me for the hours I work.

They did not want to do that and the boss's concern with that is that I might end up getting really calculative with my hours, which honestly I don't see the problem with because that is my rights as a salaried employee, but to him, I guess he doesn't really want to have to keep track because it's too much of a hassle.

His son-in-law then chimes in and tells me that if I listen carefully to what the boss is saying, what he means is that the 0.5 days is not fixed and that I am only required to come in should a client request to meet on the weekend. They are only putting the 0.5 days down in paper, and that he usually only comes in 5 days a week instead of 5.5 days as most clients are very understanding.

I'm a bit unsure about this, there is too many grey areas in this part of the job requirement for me to be comfortable with.

Also, based on my personal experience, clients will always prefer to meet on a weekend or weekday evening, so that weekday 9am-6pm is definitely not going to be a realistic working hours.

2. You are required to do everything, but it will be a team effort. 

All projects will be handled by at least 3 people, what I had initially thought was that meant 1 person will be the designer, 2 person will be the project manager.

Nope, that's not the case.

Everyone in the team will share the role of designer and project manager, so everyone will wear the same hat. I really cannot see how having multiple designer in a project is going to be smooth sailing. Design is subjective, everyone has their own style, I don't want to come into a project with a design proposal that is going to be tainted by another designer, and based on how their office looks, it will very likely get tainted.

Design is subjective and I have a certain style that I am strong, so if I am expected to work with another designer who has a completely different style, we will definitely clash because too many hands in the pot will spoil the sauce. I have never liked doing Group Project in Poly when it came to design related assignments, and I sure as hell won't enjoy it at work.

Also, so much for not having to do Project Management. I asked the son-in-law over the phone if I could avoid doing Project Management and he said this was something that could be discussed, but during the interview, it was presented as part of the many job scopes I will have to undertake, which brings me to my next point...

3. Full salaried job

I am all for a full salaried job, I enjoy the stability it offers. But having been in the Industry working on a commission system, I know how much a single project can get me and I know that in this line of work, if you are expect to do everything from design work to project management, you are much better of on a commission scheme because the earnings will be higher.

For this position, I put my expected salary only slightly higher than what I am getting paid now because I was under the assumption that it was going to be a design only position, but after being told that I also have to do project management, that salary just feels grossly underpaid. The boss even ask me if the price I have stated is non-negotiable and I told him it was what I was roughly getting now, so I was not going to go any lower, in fact, I would actually like to increase it after hearing the full job scope.

Also, because this is a full salaried job, expecting me to be "flexible" with my timing for the 5.5 day work scheme is honestly not something I am comfortable with, this could just potentially lead to a lot of unpaid OT. 

I have to admit, after the interview yesterday, the idea of quitting my current company almost blinded me to those red flags that were flapping in my face. But ultimately, I still don't think it is a right choice to quit my current one just because I can see the potential of the new company becoming a lot worst, just in a different way.

The search for a new job continues, although I would prefer to only continue it after May once I have returned from my solo Taipei trip. 

9th Cycle - Complete

 And with that, I have officially completed all my Guard Duties for the 9th Cycle. I didn't particularly enjoy the driving experience this time around, it was no doubt very convenient and definitely a need for me for my upcoming cycle in September, but it felt so exhausting having to drive from the West to the East and back to the West again on an almost daily basis for the past 2 weeks.

After my 2nd last duty yesterday, I decided to just take a hyper lapse video of the drive home from camp, it took me almost 50 minutes because it was evening peak hour and there was slow traffic along the expressway....

 .....but this is how the trip is like in general, and I had to do this 24 times. 

I also realized how shit the rental car really is after sitting in my Dad's car when we were sending my sister off to the airport, it was just so much smoother and so much quieter, I couldn't feel any bumps, when he was driving at 80km/h, it was silent whereas with the Kia Picanto, driving at the speed already sounds like I am pushing the car to it's limit and anything beyond will mean the whole car just completely breaking apart. That being said, I will probably still rent it in September, just because it's cheaper and gets the job done. 

Anyways, the last few duties were alright, my last third one was pretty good, it was on Sunday evening, so there was very little activity that night, I spend most of the time just chatting with the xin jiao, I got him a box of Oreos because he had requested for it, we listen to podcast and watched some Youtube videos, out of all the Guard Duties I have done throughout my ICT journey, that was probably one of the more memorable ones.

Nothing really significant happened after that, it was just the same ole same ole, reported for duty, did my duty, end my duty, come home and then repeat. I did chauffer 2 of the actives out of camp today though because they were leaving early, dropped one guy off at the main bus stop outside the camp and then another near my place because he wanted to take a direct bus from that bus stop, he asked me if the bus he wanted to take was available and I told him that that bus will come through thee bus stop I was going to drop him off at, I later went to google once I got home and realized that bus had changed it's route since 2018, which means that guy probably had to do a few transfers. Didn't have his number so I couldn't message him to apologize about the miscommunication.

All that's left now is my Out-Pro, which will be happening tomorrow at SAFRA Tampines, where we will be forced to play a few rounds of bowling and catered lunch. I'm sure a lot of us will be having a lot of negative feedback regarding this cycle's duty arraignments tomorrow.

Update : Out-Pro-ed

Just got back from the Cohesion for our Out Pro, did not bother to take part in the bowling at all, just read a sample of Dune Messiah on the Kindle to decide if I actually want to get the book and the answer is no. 

As much as I would like to get immersed into the story of Dune, it's just not really my cup of tea, I was actually quite bored most of the time when I am reading it in camp because of how slow pace it was, and I was looking forward to completing it just for the sake of completing it and not because I wanted to know what happens next in the story,  the pacing was only at an acceptable pace for me towards the end, but if the second books' pacing is going to similar to the first, whereby it's so slow for the first 90% and then catches up at the last 10%, then I don't really see myself being able to enjoy the 2nd book or any other books after that. Also now that my Reservist is over, I will probably not be in a reading mood again until September when I have to go back for my final cycle.

Anyways, everyone else did take part in the bowling, but within 20 minutes all of them just stopped playing and when back to either chit chatting or playing with their phones, I played a bit of Mobile Legend once I decided Dune Messiah was not for me anymore. 

Our encik also visited us and had a de-briefing with everyone, none of the higher ups came because they were probably all hiding in their office, afraid of the backlash that they will no doubt be getting from us for not doing anything about our complaints we had brought up to them if they appear.

We also had lunch catered for us, but the caterers went to the wrong SAFRA at Yishun, so they ended up coming about an hour late, I was quite hungry by the time they arrive, so I did take quite a healthy portion of food, but then as I was 70% through with my food, my friend who was seated across form me ended up choking on his dessert and coughed out his grass jelly onto my plate, so I didn't end up finishing it because it was gross. 

Once the meal was done, we were finally released and so I drove my last proper drive home in my rental car. The next time I will be driving it again will be to send it back to the shop for return tomorrow. Will most likely see it again in September if I decide not to splurge a bit more, the last time I decided to splurge a bit more, I ended up getting Covid and wasting all that money, so now I am a bit wary of that.

Song(s) of the Moment - 

The Great War - Taylor Swift

Generation - tripleS

Rising - tripleS

9th Cycle - Half Way There

So I have just found out that ICT MC did not use Night Blindness as an excuse for his medical condition, all he did was tell our Commanders that he has sensitive eyes, so the natural Sunlight that shines into the sentry emplacement in the daytime and the spotlight that are turned on at night are too strong for his eyes. 

Before my duty started this morning, I notice he was in the pantry having his breakfast, so I greeted him and as I was filling up my water bottle, just casually asked him how his eye was, out of curiosity and also just to jab him a little to see if it was a lie. He claimed he had an operation before the start of his ICT, thus the sensitivity, then apologize for causing us to get the short-end of the stick because of it, telling me he had no intention of actually making things difficult for his fellow ICTs.  

Did I believe him about his eye sensitivity issue? Not completely, maybe is was sensitive to the spot light at night because the lights that the camp uses is extremely bright if you were to stare directly at it, but for it to be sensitive even in natural sunlight is a bit of a stretch. 

Did I believe him about not wanting to make things difficult for the ICTs? I did. I guess he had assumed the active soldiers will fill his role because that was what we were told before we started doing duties, that if we were to get MC, our duties for that MC period will be covered by the active soldiers. Unfortunately for us, his wasn't an MC, his was an excuse to completely forgo all his sentry duties at the main gate, the active soldiers can only cover his duties to a certain extent, I am sure the active commander also wasn't going to just let this slide and allow their own guys to be "taken advantage" of by this turn of events, so they made us pay by swapping emplacements internally between the ICTs as well and have the rest of us pay for ICT MC's shortcomings.

So I experienced the short-change this morning, ICT MC went to do the aircon emplacement and I did his main gate emplacement, thankfully the weather this morning was relatively cooling, there was a constant breeze so I didn't feel as bitter as I thought I would be about the whole situation. However, I will have to experience this short-change again for my very last duty as well, so I hope the weather then will also be as good as today to minimize the bitter taste in my mouth. 

I am now done with 5 duties, now to have a long break ( a full day) before having to go back again at the end of the week to complete the next 5. Hopefully I can complete my Dune novel by then so I can fully enjoy the movie when I finally watch it.

9th Cycle - Night Blindness?

My Guard Duty with the next platoon has come and gone and I am vey happy to report that the active Commander is thankfully not a big dickhead like I was led to believe that I had based from the conversation my Reservist Commander had with him.

This way this other platoon work right now is they will send the newbies along with an active spec or active "lao jiao" to do 3 hour rotations, the spec and "lao jiao" will stay for an hour before leaving the newbies alone and I only really got into the mood of initiating conversation with the newbies after the other 2 guys left.

I had my own entertainment in the form of my Kindle, so conversating to kill time isn't my top choice, I will only actively start one if I see the newbies suffering from boredom because they themselves still cannot bring along their phones to the emplacement yet and all they are really able to do if I don't talk to them is either walk around the emplacement or stare into space.

The 6 hours didn't feel too long, I was reading my Kindle 60% of the time, the Dune novel is finally starting to get interesting because the first 30% of it was just a lot of political build up. 

Anyways, after my duty, I was supposed to be replaced by another ICT, my cycle this time round included a local celeb and that local celeb was supposed to my replacement, but for some reason, an active solider replaced me instead. I didn't think too much of it and assumed he had maybe gotten an MC, so I returned my rifled and headed home. 

Had to stop by the petrol station to top up some gas on the way, and once I was done with the top up and was making my way out of the station, I almost got into an accident with a motorcycle. 

The road outside the Petrol Station has 4 lanes, when I was on my way out, I was checking to see if my lane was empty, I noticed that there was a bunch of headlights and they all seemed to be quite far away, figured based on the distant of all the lights, I could turn out before they arrive just in time, so I did, but I failed to notice that there was a single motorcycle coming towards the lane I was turning out to, the cyclist starts honking when he sees my car popping out, I jam break as this motorcyclist drives past me, I can see him just lifting one hand in the air very angrily. 

It was a really close call, I drove really slowly afterwards and was waiting for him to make a turn before I sped up again to a regular driving speed because I really didn't want to drive pass him for him to get a good look at me or to potentially get confronted by him. I really need to clean the car's side mirrors.

Reached home, went to sleep pretty quickly after that and at about 6am just now, I got a text from one of the ICT and he told me another ICT whom I shall refer to as MC has apparently gotten a Doctor Memo that is preventing him from doing night duty due to some medical condition, I assume it's night blindness, so now MC is doing the same duty timing as him.

Just a bit of background with our emplacements, after our Reservist Commander went to negotiate with the Active Commanders, they made a small compromise and gave us a slightly better emplacement to cover in the morning, this means our main emplacement will be covered by their active soldiers instead. Both emplacements are still Sentry, but one is in an air-conditioned room and the other is out in the open. 

That air-conditioned emplacement is like the one duty that we can really just relax a little, but because MC went to report of his "night blindness" shit, he claims he cannot do any night duties, so now, all his night duties will be done by the active soldiers and he will cover all their morning duty, but instead of covering their morning schedule in the non-airconditioned emplacement, he will instead take over our duty in that air-conditioned emplacement whilst the rest of us have to do the non air-conditioned emplacement. 

What's so infuriating about his shit is not just the fact that he denied the rest of us our air-con emplacement, he was also the very first one to decide which duty timings he wanted, and despite having this night blindness condition, he still went ahead and chose the one with the most midnight duties before we officially started our Guard Duty. The other ICT that is doing the duty with him now is essentially complaining about him to me.

My 2 morning duties in the coming days are now going to be affected because of this fucker, this guy has essentially given himself the easy way out and indirectly sabotaged the rest of us. He doesn't even have an official Medical Letter, all he has to show was the appointment schedule he made with the clinic.

Oat Milk Addiction and 9th Cycle Updates.

Lately, I have started really getting into Oat Milk in my coffee and I can finally understand what the hype is all about. It eliminates the bitterness in my coffee and gives it this nutty taste, which is really nice, so there goes my plan of trying to eliminate coffee from my diet, at least until I get bored of the Oat Milk, which might happen quite quickly at the rate I am drinking it.

Also, report from my 2nd round of Guard Duty last afternoon, it was very uneventful, we had the new guys join for the first 3 hours of the shift, I did not interact with the first active soldier who was doing the emplacement with me at all because he was busy talking to the new guys, so I started reading my Kindle and I was planning to start conversing with him when the new guys leave, but before that could happen, he got swapped out and another person took over, that person is most likely a senior "lao jiao" and the new guys started chatting with him for the next hour.

One way to tell if someone is a "lao jiao" is in the way they are dress, their uniform always looks very loose and messy, the way they walk when they have to open the main gate for vehicles to enter lacks any sort of urgency and the very obvious sign that someone is a "lao jiao" is in the way they choose to entertain themselves during their duty, which is through the blatant use of their phone. 

There were times I wanted to approach him to try and initiate a conversation, but because of how long it had already been, attempting to start one 4 hours into my duty just feels forced, he himself also didn't seem very receptive to starting one and he also didn't make any attempts to start one, so we both just did our own thing, I read my Kindle, he used his phone, at least we both had something to keep us entertained. 

But this sort of awkward quietness is the reason why I actually prefer working with newbies "xin jiao", because they are always much friendlier, they still haven't develop that bitterness that "lao jiaos" usually develop after months of doing the exact same shit, so they are much friendlier and sociable to having conversations, which in turn makes them more proactive in starting one, like what happen with the first guy I did my duty with. He was actively conversing with me, and so I reciprocated by also having conversations with him, also because the newbies are still very regimented from BMT, they will use their phone very sparingly, which means their main source of entertainment will be talking to whomever is doing duty with them. 

Anyways, my next duty will start at 6pm, so I have quite some time to rest before needing to report back to camp again, this time it will be with a different shift, I am not sure how strict their active commander will be, I am under the assumption that he could potentially be a dickhead based on the experience my Reservist Commander had with him when it came to discussing our schedule.

Fingers crossed he will actually not try and find trouble with the ICTs because I would very much like to continue reading my Dune novel and attempt to finish it by the end of this cycle. The active commanders from my past cycle don't touch the ICTs at all unless we did something out of line, like maybe sleeping during our duty or smoking in the emplacement in full view of the CCTVs, but smaller acts like eating whilst on duty or sitting down when we are suppose to stand up is something they tend to ignore, so hopefully, this active commander will do the same and just leave us be. 

9th Cycle - Duty Starts

 My guard duties have officially started and this is the first time I am doing duty with 7 other active soldiers in the emplacement, it's so weird how inefficient the entire system is because even though only we have 7 guys, only 1 is actually doing the duty with me whilst the other 6 are shadowing him to learn the ropes, (they came in 2 groups of 3, each group on a 3 hour rotation), which means they have 6 active soldiers available that they are choosing not to deploy.

If they are "learning the ropes", they can do it whilst being deployed as a Sentry Guard because the Sentry literally has to do nothing but stand there with a gun, that's it, you could have killed 3 birds with 1 stone by giving them the Sentry Duty, you can acclimatize them to the 6 hour duty rotation, they can also learn the ropes from their seniors about how to properly allow people into the camp for a full duty, and most importantly for me and my ICT group, alleviate our workload, 3 birds you can kill, but they are only killing 1 bird with 1 stone. The level of inflexibility they are showcasing here is just mind-blowing.  

You literally have the manpower to lessen the workload of the ICT, but you are choosing not to do it because according to the higher ups, it's "the new norm" and we should get used to it. Like fuck off, what fucking bullshit is this, "the new norm" is not a valid excuse to suddenly increase our workload and make us do duties at full capacity when all the past cycles, we have never been required to do this, let's just call a spade a spade, they just have extremely poor resource management.

Anyways, my first duty was quite smooth sailing, the weather was nice and cooling, I did like that the emplacement was a bit livelier than it would usually be because of all the new guys being there, (although I would prefer they just take on some sentry duties for us ICTs instead doing shadowing like the way they are doing now), so the 6 hours didn't feel too much like an eternity, but this is only the first, I still have 9 more to go and I am under the assumption that the current shift I am with has a much nicer Active Platoon Commander than the other shift, not really sure how much of a dick the other Active Platoon Commander will be because he is the one that our own Reservist Commanders were trying to negotiate with for our duties and the one who didn't want to give in.

I also brought my Kindle along during my last duty, just to start reading again, so we'll see how much of the novel Dune I can finish reading during this cycle. 

9th Cycle - Day 2

 Day 2 of Reservist.

Today was a short day, reported to camp at 8.45 am (actual reporting time is 9.00 am) and I was surprisingly the 4th person to arrive, our commander was one of the 3 who had arrived earlier than me and they were essentially talking about the negotiation that happened last evening, I wasn't actively participating in that conversation so I was just eavesdropping until my friend arrive, then I asked him how the negotiation went because I saw him talking to the other Reservist Commander on my way out yesterday evening.

As expected, the Active Commanders did not want to give in and still expects us to work at maximum capacity, bringing this issue up to the next person in the command chain was also useless because that guy just said there is nothing he can do about it, which makes me wonder if he really cannot do anything or if he just cannot be bothered to. 

There is clearly an imbalance happening and the ICTs are being taken advantage of by the active soldiers, when my Reservist commanders requested to see the schedule of the Active Soldiers, the schedule reflects that they are also working at maximum capacity, but when one of our ICTs went to ask the active soldier who is doing his duty how many shift they are doing, it does not tally at all because they are doing only half of what is reported in the duty sheet. 

Nobody is happy with the arrangement, apparently ICTs from the previous batch who also had to take on the same number of duties as us went to complaint to Mindef, and from the looks of it, no action was taken to rectify this issue because we are now currently in the same situation.

 Anyways, today was focused on doing Rifle Training, it was quick and brief, we completed the whole thing in less than 20 minutes, I went to  use the toilet in the middle of the training and was wondering why the toilet was so small and there were no urinals around, realized I had use the female toilet, that's why it also smelled so clean and fresh.

After our rifle training, we went back to the training room and pretty much just stayed there until our commanders came back with our duty schedule, no change, all of us are clearly being taken advantage of by the active soldiers. We really couldn't do much except complaint to our commanders about how ridiculous this whole situation is and the fact that none of the higher ups are bothering to do anything despite everyones' complaint really just goes to show how much fuck is being given, no action is being taken despite them also being aware of the complaints from previous batch before us, complaints that were send to Mindef and forwarded to them.

At this point, I don't really think we have any other options but to just suck it up, it seems like our welfare as ICTs just keeps worsening every cycle.

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Early Cycles - Always doing Sentry Duty, but it's evenly spread out across different locations, so certain locations are better because it's more secluded and we can  usually be in a much more relaxed state. The ICT Commander then was also a lot better at trying to fight for our welfare, so things were much better. 

We were doing an average of 6 - 7 Duties per cycle, the active soldiers were doing 10 Duties per cycle.  

Mid Cycles - Always doing Sentry, but we are not only doing the Sentry Duty at the main gate whilst the Active gets all the one in the more secluded zones. 

We were doing an average of 6 - 7 Duties per cycle, the active soldiers were doing roughly the same as us per cycle if not slightly more.  

Previous Cycle - All Sentry duty, only at the main gate

We were doing an average of 8 - 9 Duties, I believe only the newbies were doing the same amount or more, the senior ones are only averaging at 3 - 4. 

Current Cycle - All Sentry duty, only at the Main Gate.  

We are doing the maximum of 10 Duties, I believe only the newbies are doing the same amount, the senior ones are only averaging at 3 - 4. 

------

There was always compromises being made during the early cycles, but right now, no compromise is being made, the active commanders are adamant about us taking on the duties despite our lack of manpower, the higher ups are claiming they cannot do anything about it. 

Ummm, that's not true, you can do something about it, you can use your status to get the active commanders to assign the active soldiers to support our lack of manpower, that's what you can do, but you are choosing not to do anything about it because you cannot be bothered. You are being complicit in the abuse of power that is happening. 

I don't believe ICTs should be doing more than the Full Time NSMen, why should we? This is their full time job, not ours, we have already done our part 10 years ago, so why are we now also doing their part for them 10 years later?

The active soldiers might be enjoying this abuse right now, but they forget that they will eventually become ICTs in the future, and their situation could become a lot worst than ours right now if this goes on. 

We were really just complaining to the wind at this point because our own commanders really can't do much if  the higher ups are not willing to step in and assist.

By around 11.15am, we were all dismissed to prepare for our upcoming duty for the next 10 days. 

The only upside to this schedule is that all my duties are during regular-ish hours, so I don't have to worry about having to readjust my body clock, treating it like going to work everyday for 6 hours might make the whole ordeal maybe a little more bearable.

One guy was complaining about how unfair this system was yesterday, brought up how he is expected to do more than he is getting paid for (because we are expected to come to came every single day for the next 10 days and he was expecting to get at least 4 days off in lieu of his weekends) so he went to talk to the higher up and he just went missing today. 

Update :

That ICT who spoke to the higher up has returned in the group chat and apparently the higher up told him that once again, there is nothing he can do about the situation and everyone should just suck it up and accept this as the new normal. 

And you can prepare to suck on the multiple complaints that Mindef will be receiving from us about the way this is being handled.

I am loving how vocal that guy is right now in the group chat, this is exactly the kind of person that we need to make change happen, although I am afraid that by the time any change is made, we would have already been taken advantage of and completed our cycle fulfilling the ridiculous amount of duty they have thrown to us. 

9th Cycle - Make Up Training Day 1

My 9th Cycle officially started today and as per usual, I was one of the first few to reach the airbase, on the way there, I also almost rear ended into a car on the highway, not really sure why I almost got into that accident, either because the car in front suddenly brake or I was also driving a little too fast or a combination of both, but it was very close.

Since this was the first time where I know my Reservist buddy won't actually be with me, I wasn't feeling particularly optimistic about this particular cycle, as I was doing my in-pro, I started scanning through the list of guys coming in, saw a few familiar names, but didn't really look very closely to see the full list. I then went to the training room to wait for everyone else, then about 15 minutes after I had settled down, two guys that I did my Sixth Cycle with, one of my favorite cycle if I were to completely ignore the work related stress that came along with it, walked in one after the other, I knew one of them was coming based on the list, but I didn't know the other would be here as well, so the one I didn't know would be joining us immediately said Hi to me and we started chatting away, not too long later the other one came and I was very happy that the 2 people I know were from my Sixth Cycle group.

The day by went as per usual with every other Reservist cycle, we started at 9.30am, by that point, almost everyone had arrived except maybe 2 to 3 guys, so the encik started to give us a quick briefing of what to expect, what his discipline standards are, then we were just made to watch videos after videos till we could be released, it was really fucking boring as per usual. We broke for lunch at 11.45am and because there wasn't any utensils provided, my friends and I had to use my fingers to eat my lunch and because we weren't used to it, we looked like babies playing with our food. 

After lunch, we had more videos to watch, and then near to the end, our Reservist Commanders shared with us the plans the Active Commanders have for us regarding our Guard Duty plans, and the main gist of it is that they are taking advantage of us ICTs.

I volunteered to go to the ulu camp, so I will talk about that arrangement...

Originally, the Active Commanders wanted to give us 2 emplacements that we will be guarding completely, this means when 1 Reservist personnel is done with his duty, the one taking over will be another Reservist personnel, none of the active soldiers will be doing that emplacement, and just FYI, the emplacement that we are being assigned to are the worst one because it's sentry duty.

Each duty is 6 hours long, that means per day, there will be a total of 4 duties that we will need to rotate amongst ourselves per emplacement, assigning us 2 emplacement will mean that we will have a total of 8 6-hour duties that we need to fill in a day.

Due to manpower issue on our end, because this time we literally only have a third of the regular platoon strength, we only have 4 guys assigned to the Ulu camp, as compared to the past when we would have up to 16 guys. 4 guys are not going to be able to cover that 8 duties per day requirement, it's actually impossible because that would require us to work beyond the maximum capacity, we will have to report to camp every 6 hours to do a 6 hour shift, just to break down how ridiculous that will be..

Assuming we start our duty at 12 Midnight.

12.00am - 6.00am - Duty

6.00am - 7.00am - Travel to Home

7.00am - 11.00am - 4 hours to sleep and have lunch

11.00am - 12.00noon - Travel to Camp 

12.00noon - 6.00pm - Duty

6.00pm - 7.00pm - Travel to Home

7.00pm - 11.00pm - 4 hours to sleep and have dinner

Repeat for the next 10 days.

It's nuts, so of course the Active Commanders can't force this upon us and they require us to only do a single emplacement instead, but even doing a single emplacement is nuts because we will still be working at maximum capacity. 

When I was doing my Guard Duty during my earlier cycles, we were only given a total of 7 6-hour duties to do for the entire Reservist Cycle, 7 is the maximum number, and this was during a time when the active soldiers had severe manpower issue and they were all working at maximum capacity, even with our help.

During my last cycle, we were also doing 7 6-hour duties, and at that time, I came to find out that not all the active soldiers were working at maximum capacity, in fact, the older batch were doing only half of what the Reservist is doing, which is fucking ridiculous because I personally feel like our maximum duty should be their minimum, so if they have people that are only doing 3 rounds of duties, then the ICTs should be doing the same number or less.

Doing Guard Duty is their full time job, the Reservist personnel have already done their time when we were active soldiers, now, our role should be to help alleviate the workload for the active soldiers, so they can have enough rest between each round, our role should be to help you take on whatever duties you cannot do, not to take over your duties completely. 

This arrangement is also similar with the main camp, naturally none of the Reservist guys were happy about it because we are clearly being taken advantage of. 

When this was brought up to our Reservist Sergeant, his response was …

"The active commanders told us that the batch before you guys were actually made to do significantly more duties, so what you guys are getting is already a better deal."

… just because someone else was offered a hot pile of human shit by Santa Claus doesn't mean I should be grateful that he only gave me a bag of hamster shit, shit is still shit, we are not going to be grateful to you because you decided to treat the other party worst. What fucking logic is this? 

After that, our commanders went back to try and strike a new deal with the active commanders for us, but I am not very optimistic about the outcome because our commanders just don't seem to have a lot of coaxing power compared to the very first commander I had for my earlier cycles. That commander from my earlier cycle was actually really good, he would always negotiate a better deal for us first before telling us about it instead of just accepting whatever the active commanders are requesting.

I have a feeling what this current commander did was went in and ask  the active commander what they wanted us to do, instead of setting a boundary from the very beginning and telling them that we only have a limited number of manpower, so we can only do so much. A boundary should have been in place from the very beginning to prevent this shit from happening.  

Anyways, the commanders took a while, so by the time they were back, I was already on the way out of camp and didn't end up getting any updates. I am very tempted to actually bring this issue up to the higher ups so they can actually do something about it.