Termination, Offer & Mechanical

A few days ago, my Supervisor was informed by the Upper Management that they are terminating him.

It wasn't something that came out of the blue for me because this decision is something Upper Management has discussed with my Manager before and since I am relatively close to my Manager, it is information that had been divulged to me months ago.

At that time, when my Manager shared this information with me, nothing had been set in stone yet, she had just submitted her resignation at that time and  one of the many counter offers Upper Management offered in an attempt to make her stay was to let her decide who she wanted to keep and who she wanted kicked out of the team. She told me that Upper Management threw our Supervisor's name into the hat as an example and that sort of hinted at what Upper Management was thinking. My supervisor has a bit of an attitude problem, so he isn't really someone the company can fully control, and as such, they don't like him, but because he is doing his job, they didn't really have a solid reason to get rid of them, plus he is really needed because he plays quite an important role in keeping the store team functioning and usually plays the bad cop to my manager's good cop. 

Unfortunately, my Supervisor threw a bit of a tantrum due to Upper Management fiddling into one of his sales and pissing his customer off, so he ended up just not attending to a lot of the meetings that he is required to attend, and that ended up giving company a very solid reason to get rid of him, the problem about his termination however is simply in the fact that they didn't think about his function in the team, the role he plays to keep the store running, all they could think about was...

"He fucked up, this is the perfect moment to get rid of him."

.. and I believe that thought really clouded their judgment, and I will say this, Upper Management has a tendency to make pretty bad judgment calls, so they called him for a meeting one day and told him that they are going to be terminate him on the spot.  

I wasn't there, but when my Supervisor told me what had transpired during this meeting, he said he was really calm when that decision was shared with him and that he was able to convince the Upper Management to let him "resign" instead of "getting terminated" to give him a graceful exit on the account that he has been with the company for almost 4 years. So now he is currently serving his 2 months notice period and coming June, he will no longer be part of the company.

This is not a decision I am agreeable with and it is not a decision any of my colleagues are agreeable with because I don't think it is right to just terminate someone without giving them a chance to change first. I was so happy when my Manager decided she was going to stay with the company, but now that they are firing my Supervisor, all that joy has left.

As much as I would like to stay for my Manager's sake, I feel like she is now being made to steer a sinking ship, even my Customer Service colleague is also intending to thrown her letter at the beginning of next month, so with her gone as well, the company is definitely going to become crippled, and I honestly feel bad for my Manager because there is no doubt the company will throw her a bunch to shit to cover while they try and find a replacement, which god knows will take how long. 

Hiring new blood is so difficult because the position is not enticing, you are looking for people to Sales, but then you leave out the main thing that will motivate a sales person to get more sales, a commission, no Sales person one in their right mind will apply for this position. The ones that they have hired so far to do sales, they have all been conned into this position.

The company recently hired another Manager and he made his first appearance in the store yesterday, my current Manager immediately had a disdain towards him because of how uppity he is. Literally on the first day, he is already pointing out issues he has with the store, from the messy front counter, to our dress code, down to the lack of any proper greeting from my Customer Service colleague when he entered the store. My Customer Service colleague was so irritated by that that she texted me to complaint about it. I get that you are at a  Managerial level, so you need to showcase a bit of leadership, but coming across as someone who has a stick stuck right up his ass is not the kind of first impression you want to be making with your colleagues at work. 

If he continues with this kind of approach, I really don't think he can last long because no matter how much you impress Upper Management, the ones who will make your life at work memorable is the colleagues that you are working with directly, not the ones who are tucked away in the office and assuming they know how things work in the store. So many of my colleagues right now are constantly thinking of leaving, and if this new Manager keeps up with this type of attitude, the only thing he will be known for in the company will probably be causing everyone's resignation

Anyways, update on life.

I just went for my 2nd round of interview with the company I had blogged about previously and my goal going into the interview was really to just go for the sake of going because I'm bored. I had zero intention to actually join the company, but the whole idea of actually quitting and being in a different work environment is what is so enticing about this current job offer. They were essentially calling me back to offer me the job.

I told them that I still need some time to think about it, but that I am 90% in, that was my mentality when I was in the office with them, they then asked me what I needed to think about and I just told them I needed time to process the offer.

Just to list out what I like about the job scope...

1. Stable Salary

I am not commission based, so there will be financial stability. The pay is slightly higher than what I am making now, but only by very slightly.

2. Team Work

We will be handling projects together, so that means anything that I am unsure of about the renovation works, there will always be someone else who will be able to come in and immediately understand the issue and rectify the problem for me. This also presents a very good opportunity to learn the ropes, especially when it comes to dealing with landed property projects. 

The problem I had when I was working at ID4 was the fact that I was pretty much always constantly on my own, I had no tutelage, so there were a lot of moments where I would have to hit a wall before I will learn how certain works are done. My manager couldn't offer much assistance in that regard because his renovation knowledge is also severely limited, by the end of my stint there, I daresay I was even more knowledgeable than him about renovation works.

This is a reason why I have never touched commercial projects or landed property, because there is no one there to guide me through it and messing up those projects could be a very expensive mistake. 

3. The Staff

They are generally quite friendly, I asked the interviewer today if he was related to the main boss and thankfully he told me he isn't, and then went on to explain to me that the reason why there is a baby in the office is because the boss's neighbor is currently undergoing some home renovations, so it is too noisy for the baby to actually get sleep.

I am comfortable talking to them and thankfully, they didn't start talking about their religious stuff today.

Moving on to what I don't like about the job...

1. Team Work

As nice as this whole "team work" idea sounded as the interviewer explained to me the way their company operates, I can also foresee a lot of problems that could potentially happen as a result of having too many hands in the pot, especially when it comes to very subjective matters like design aesthetics. 

 2. 5.5 Days Work Week

I really cannot get around the idea of a 5.5 day work week, it was explained to me that this is just something that is written on paper but not really enforced, so I am not required to come in on Saturdays unless absolutely necessary, but still not great in terms of work life balance.

3. Distance

The office is located in Tai Seng, travelling time takes about 1 hour, as compared to now whereby I can reach the Showroom at Orchard within 40 minutes. Plus it will be a 8.30am -6pm job, that means I will constantly have to deal with the peak hour crowd.

 ... I told them to give me until Monday to think about the offer and they have agreed. It was such an easy "No" a few weeks ago, but now it's such a difficult choice to make. There are good and bad and right now, the good is winning the bad, so I am really really tempted to accept the offer and just try it out.

One reason why it is so difficult for me to say Yes is really because my current role as the store's Visual Merchandiser is not a position that comes very easily, it's one of those positions that is so rare, I may never ever get a chance to be in a similar position ever again if I leave now, but if I keep having that mentality, then it will also bind me to the position and make me never leave the company, which I really want to because being in my current position and having to attend meetings with Upper Management every other week, Upper Management is just filled with individuals who are really very clueless about how things really work in the store, but then think they do and likes to stick their fingers in to fiddle around, which does nothing except make our life more difficult, like unintentionally pissing our customers off. This is the reason why my Supervisor got pissed off and threw a tantrum that ultimately got him terminated.

Another reason why it's difficult to say Yes immediately is because my Manager decided to stay with the company, if she had resigned as she said she would, my decision would have been much easier, but she took back her resignation letter, so I just feel bad to have to leave her alone,  and now the one that is leaving is my Supervisor and very likely my Customer Service colleague as well, she is going to be put in an even more difficult situation because those 2 colleagues of mine plays very huge roles in the company, if all 3 of us leave at the same time, the store is definitely going to be crippled for a while and the one who has to hold up the crumbling walls will be my Manager.

If it comes to that, I can already foresee a lot of my newer colleagues also throwing in their resignation letter because they don't plan to stay long, all of them were hired as designers but then got tricked into doing sales. The job is not hard, but it's also extremely unfulfilling, so if it were to get hard, then there really isn't any reason to stay.

Upper Management did constantly talk about wanting to replace the entire team with new guys, so maybe by having us seniors leaving, we would be doing them a favor to actually start from scratch.  

Anyways.

After my 2nd interview, I headed over to Suntec City because I wanted to get a Mechanical Keyboard from this shop called Mash, but it's not because I needed a new keyboard, I just wanted to spend money on something and figured it would be a good idea to splurge on a keyboard.  I was trying to get a keyboard that makes what is called "creamy" sounds and I think I was able to get one that fulfilled my requirements.

I did do a bit of research before I actually went to the store, so I roughly knew the type of switches I was looking for, I was pretty lucky when I went there and the keyboard with the exact sound I was looking for happened to be one of the first few keyboards I started playing with.

My first impression of the staff there was not great, I was left alone for a good 5 minutes until I eventually had to ask for help and honestly, I cannot complaint too much because this is the kind of service I would render to customers at my workplace as well, whereby I don't approach, I only get approached, as a customer, I have to admit it sucks, especially because I am a serious customer who is there to buy and really needed help, but at the same time, I can also understand their hesitation to approach because after I was assisted (and they were really quite helpful when that help was finally rendered) and was in the midst of building my keyboard, I can see people coming into the store to just play with the keyboards and not actually buy anything, even on an off peak hour at 2.30pm on a weekday.

 

Total damage was $250.00, manage to offset about $100 using my NS Excellence Award, so my own personal damage to my wallet was about $150, which isn't too bad considering I was going to budget about $200 for it.

The keyboard was really heavy though, I was really trying to avoid getting the one I got because it's a metal body, but in order to get the sound I wanted, I really had no choice, the plastic ones just weren't making the same sounds, so I ended up leaving the store with a 2kg worth of goods. I am however very happy with the sound of the keyboard so it was worth the trouble.

Update :

I just found out the the keyboard has RGB lighting, the staff didn't bother to go beyond and fully introduce the keyboard to me, so minus points to their service for that.