Fuck Off IKEA

 IKEA send me an email today informing me that after much consideration, they have decided to proceed with other candidates for the Interior Designer position I had applied for

....in 2020!

Seriously, fuck off! When I saw the email initially, I was all excited thinking IKEA was reaching out to arrange for an interview because they saw my resume, but then it turns out it was a rejection for a position I had applied for over 2 years ago. 

The timing of the rejection email is greatly appreciated. 

That being said, I am interested in getting a new Office Chair from them because my Secret Lab is really quite shit, it was underwhelming when I first got it and now that I have owned it for such a long time and started developing lower back ache, I guess I have given it enough time to justify tossing it for a cheaper and hopefully less back-ache inducing alternative. 

-Update 27/03/23-

I just realized I had applied for the position in August last year, so IKEA didn't blueball me as long as I thought they did, that being said, to be officially rejected 7 months after I applied for the position is a bit redundant. 

The last application was my third of fourth application with IKEA, I am not going to attempt another time because it is clearly a waste of their time and my effort to keep applying, so goodbye forever to even thinking of being part of IKEA, but hello to more IKEA furniture in my home because I really do need a new chair soon. 

Burden

When my officious colleague resigned from the company earlier this year, he had a few sales orders that required following up and prior to those sales orders being handover to the rest of the sales team,  I had told my Manager and that colleague of mine not to allocate any of his pending orders to me because I had a bad experience handling another ex-colleague's order in the past and didn't want to relive that experience, throw in the fact that I am now focusing more on the "Visual Merchandising" side of things and less on the "Sales", this is really not part of my jobscope.

But my Manager threw a project of his to me anyways and told me because it's a big project, the customer will probably need my help to arrange the furniture in the space when it finally arrives. It was a completely invalid reason because the customer bought office chairs, there is nothing to arrange, you literally just push the different chairs to their respective office tables, that's it. 

I took over the project very begrudgingly and that officious colleague of mine looped me into an email with the customer to officially introduce me as the new person-in-charge. After which, he forwarded all the email correspondences he has had with the customer prior and when I opened that email, there was literally nothing but 16 attachments...

... he didn't even bother to do a summary of the exchange he had with the customer so I can get a better understanding, not even a simple greeting, and from what I heard from my Manager, my colleague originally had no plans to send me this email, or had he any plans to inform the customer about his departure, he had expected me to take over the project completely blind and introduce myself to the customer on my own. So the fact that he has looped me in the email and bothered to send me this particular email is him already "doing me a favor".

Anyways, I open every single attachment to read through the email exchanges between him and his customer and I was already very upset about the whole situation of being assigned to one of his sales, but then I realize my dumbass colleague over-promised the customer the delivery period and that just pissed me off even more. 

Instead of informing the customer that the items will arrive 5 to 6 months after the order has been confirmed, he tells the customer the order will arrive in end April 2023, this was back in Nov before the customer even placed the order.

The customer ended up placing the order in late Dec and my colleague didn't bother to update him about the delivery period, when the customer stated that he is expecting to get the chairs in April, my colleague didn't bother to manage his expectations and inform him that due to him placing the order in late Dec, his chairs will only arrive between end May to early June.

This customer spend the entirety of the next 2 months before this project was handed over to me thinking he will get the chairs in April because my fucking colleague just couldn't be fucked. 

He knew beforehand that he will be leaving the company in February, so all these orders that will have issues, he just didn't bother cleaning up the mess until I called him out for it and told him that he had better sort this mess out before he left and handed this fucking shit to me. Initially he was hesitant and told me...

"Don't worry Tim, the customer is aware of the waiting period."

... yeah, the customer is aware that there is a waiting period, so he is expecting to wait till April,  not till end May - early June, which is when he will actually get his fucking chairs. 

It was so infuriating, so I told him once again to rectify the issue because based on the email, never once did my colleague update the customer about the actual shipment arrival date, the latest email that the client send to my colleague is this...

... and his response to that was this...

... he knows it takes 5 to 6 months for the items to be delivered, he knows the chairs won't reach in April, right now the customer is asking if the chairs can arrive sooner, isn't this the perfect time to manage the client's expectation and advise him that April is not possible, much less anytime earlier than that?

Well, he didn't, because he is that irresponsible. 

So I then told him a second time to get all this sorted out because the ETA he has shared with the customer is clearly impossible, and then he replies...

"If the item gets delayed, just tell them I had miscalculated." 

.... and then what? 

You think the customer will accept that and move on? Fuck no! He will take his frustration out on the person who is giving him that information, which will be me.  

I have already highlighted this issue to you and you are now aware that you have miscalculated, so speak up and actually clear up this mess before it gets handed over me!  I had to essentially guilt trip him about this whole shit before he finally dropped the customer a text, and this idiot just told the customer that there will "likely be a shipping delay".

When I told my Manager about this issue she got frustrated as well. 

You are already leaving the company, just tell the customer straight up that you had miscalculated, be the bearer of bad news, let them be frustrated at you, get fucked upside down by them because it's your mistake. You have no fucking reason to have to save face for yourself by lying to them and telling them that there will "likely" be a shipping delay because you are giving them hope that the delay might not happen and that the items will still arrive in April. 

A few days after my colleague send him that message, the customer emails me and ask if he can get his chairs delivered in March.

Like are you two idiots (my colleague and his client) sharing the same fucking braincell? Literally just told you to expect a delay, and you email back asking if it can be delivered earlier! 

I had to send a screenshot of the WhatsApp message my colleague had forwarded to me, and told the client that he has been made aware of the delay, so he should only be expecting his chair in late May as per the message, the client then replies and request for temporary chairs to be loaned to him due to the delay and my Manager stepped in to reply on my behalf because I was actually on reservist during this fiasco.  She told him that the chairs will reach early May after she checked with the Purchasing team, and then that was pretty much the end of the exchange. 

I had sort of tucked this whole issue at the back of my mind since then but the reason why I am typing this out right now is because the customer emailed in today asking if his chairs can be collected as per what my idiot colleague had promised him before he made the purchase, which is in April, but this time, instead of end April, he is asking if he can collect it by 14th April.

I honestly had no mood to reply to the email, I just screenshot it and send it to my Manager and told her that this idiot ex-colleague of ours really left us with a bunch of shit to clean up, which she can relate because my Manager also had to deal with one of that idiot ex-colleague orders.

For her case, he had essentially sold a very large dining table to the client without confirming if it could actually fit their condo lift, and it was only 2 months after the order had been placed did he finally decide to go down to the condo to measure with the delivery team, since the delivery team wasn't aware that this idiot had already sold the table and promised the customer if could fit, they advised him against the order, apparently he got really bossy and told them he had already ordered, then claims that it could fit because the lift measures exactly 2.55mm. 

The full length of the table is 2.5m so there is space, what he failed to take into account is that the table is not just going to go in straight, it has to go in at an angle, that means you will need a lot more than  a 2.55m clearance to fit the table in.

When the table arrived about a month after he left the company, the delivery team did eventually manage to get the table up, it took them hours because they had to unpack the table and then wrap it again with padding so it can barely fit the lift, they also ended up damaging the lift in the process and where was my idiot ex-colleague during this? In the comforts of his own home, none the wiser about the issue, just letting other people clean up the mess he created. The whole delivery itself also had it's own set of problems because of how difficult the customer is and this is just one of those sales that would have been better to have given up then continue because right now, my Manager is stressing the fuck out with all the touch up fees the company will have to potentially fork out for a lot of different issues that occurred during the delivery itself.

So this is how you should NOT leave a company because no one is going to have a good impression of you after that. What he has done is just extremely irresponsible and I hope he gets to experience a colleague who will do this to him one day, just so he can get a taste of his own medicine. I am glad that he is no longer working in the company because he hasn't really been contributing much aside from a few big sales every once in a while, but if all your big sales keep having all this issue, then sure, to Upper Management, you will look like an asset, but to everyone else under them who has to clean your shit up, you are nothing but a huge burden that is still leaving his mark 2 months after his resignation. 

Only a matter of time...

Now that the new Operations Manager has joined the company for about half a month now, I honestly still have no idea what his job responsibilities are. 

A lot of my colleagues don't have a good impression of him, my Store Manager pretty much despises him at this point but my Supervisor keeps telling me that he thinks the Operations Manager is a good person. Based on my personal interaction with him, he has been quite pleasant but you can sense he puts up a barrier between himself and the staff under him so he doesn't really feel approachable, which is why everyone gets bad vibes from him, especially my Store Manager, and I guess a lot of that has to do with the fact that even though she is suppose to be guiding him, he likes to pull rank and remind her that his position is higher that hers whenever she tries to delegate tasks to him.

The whole point of the company hiring the Operations Manager is so that my Store Manager can have someone step in and take some of the burden off her shoulders, because the full weight of the burden she had to carry was one of the key reason she had to her throw in her resignation letter in the first place, and now that my Supervisor is also currently serving out his 2 months notice and will be gone in May, there will be more responsibilities that will be floating around with no one to take charge of, responsibilities that I think the Operations Manager won't be taking over because "it's not part of his job scope".

Literally one knows what his job scope is because he is pretty much at the back office the entire day on his laptop, doesn't really seem to be doing much, and my Store Manager is now heavily regretting the decision of rescinding her resignation because what was promised to her by Upper Management isn't being delivered and not only is she required to continue doing the same shit she has been doing, now there is someone that is supposedly above her in rank who will be constantly in the store, breathing down her neck and pretty much everyone's neck in the store team whilst not really contributing to really lessen anyone's burden.

He feels like a really useless hire, but I guess Upper Management likes him so much that they are now treating the Store Manager like shit, which really goes to show what kind of company I am working in. When she threw in her letter, you were begging for her to stay, offering her increments and making promises to lessen her work load, telling her the company has learnt from their mistakes and won't commit them again, but then the moment she agrees to stay, you terminate our Supervisor, who has been a very vital player in the store since the day I join, hire an Operations Manager who is doing fuck all at this point, and then proceed to treat the Store Manager worst than before, the only thing that was promised and delivered was the better salary, everything else is still the same, if not worst than before.

My Customer Service colleague has also thrown in her resignation letter last night as well and she has also been a very important key player in the store, extremely reliable and works very well with the Supervisor, I asked her if the Supervisor's termination had anything to do with her decision to leave, she denied it but I believe it definitely played a part, but the bigger reason for her is due to the company's lack of appreciation for her. 

When she had her appraisal done 6 months ago, my boss only spoke to her for barely 10 minutes before he had to end it abruptly because he had another meeting to attend, she was told that he will continue it another time, but then that never happened, and the only reason why her appraisal overlapped with his meeting is because he was late for her appraisal. This is the kind of "appreciation" she gets from the main boss for actually doing a good job, since her appraisal was delayed indefinitely, she didn't get any increment, there was also no bonuses, and I learned from my Store Manager that my Customer Service colleague's pay is actually one of the lowest among everyone in the store, even though she is one of the most capable individual here.  

I had my own appraisal done 6 months ago because my Store Manager really fought for it and I was only given a $200 increment, an increment I should have received at least 4 months prior to that after I got promoted to the Visual Merchandiser. There was no discussion about any back pay during the appraisal, instead, I was told that my performance will be monitored for the next 6 months as if to say they are gonna observe and see if I am worth that $200 increment. 

My customer service colleague is just done with the company, she even told me she felt so much more free after she threw in her notice letter.  

My Store Manager really wishes to leave as well and she is actually hoping to get terminated like my Supervisor because it would look bad if she were to submit her resignation letter not even 2 months after taking it back.

Looking at my colleagues, the key players in the store, leaving one after another, and then have the company hire incompetent individuals to take their place, it just really makes me question like what the actual fuck is Upper Management thinking, it's just bad decisions after bad decisions, they don't think beyond the present and now, the bleak future that they have caused is catching up to everyone. 

I told myself I wanted to stay until after my last ICT cycle is over before I move on, but looking at the way things are progressing, I am not sure if I want to actually stay that long because I have a feeling things are really going to go to shit when I am back from my Taiwan trip in mid-May because that's when all the important players in the store will be gone. 

Fuck You Ken

 I don't usually get a lot of nasty customers at work, that's why I don't really blog so much could complain about them, but once in a while, getting an unpleasant customer or two is inevitable and today, I have the unpleasant opportunity to meet one. 

Today was a relatively busy day in the store, being a weekend and all, there were quite a number of walk-in customers, I no longer have the habit of approaching any of them  actively to offer aid and usually only assist them if they approach me first. 

So about an hour after I started work, a customer came into the store requesting for us to arrange for a worker to go to his place to touch up a TV cabinet he had gotten from us, he had issues with the drawer system and so I brought him to a unit that we had on display in our Showroom to confirm if that was the same model, and he acknowledged that it was.

I then told him I will need to get his contact information as well as his home address so our customer service can arrange a date for him to do the touch up and usually at this point, the customer will leave their name, contact number and address, this is standard procedure and I assume common sense. He then told me he wasn't sure whose name he had used to get the furniture and goes...

"You can contact this guy"

... and shows me the contact information of someone named Aaron...

"He deals with my home stuff."

... I figured since he was already here, even if he couldn't remember whose name he had used to buy the items, he would at least have his own home address, so I asked him if I could at least have his home address, and he actually got annoyed with me and went...

" Just contact this person, he will deal with this for me! Why are you making things so complicated?"

... at this point, I could sense his annoyance and was really confused because I am literally asking you for basic information about yourself. Like what is so complicated about that? I then take down contact information of the person he is asking me to call, and gives me his address begrudgingly, after I had all that, I headed over to the main computer to try look for his information in the database, I had assumed he would just leave the store and wait for an update from our side, but then he walks over to me and goes...

"You call my guy now. You call him now!"

.... and brings his phone over to me, so I turned around and faced him again, the phone in his hand and his thumb was hovering about the "call" button of this Aaron guy. You could tell he was going to call the guy, but then he looks at me and goes...

"You don't have a phone?"

...and I was literally fuming on the inside, but I reached out to my phone anyway and before I could get it, he goes ahead and presses the call button and hands me the phone really impatiently.

I then spoke to the Aaron guy to confirm all the details with him, pass the phone back to the and he slaps me on the shoulder and goes...

"Just help me settle with my guy"

... with a faint smile on his face, so I smiled at him and told him I got all the information I needed, thinking we were good, but the moment I smiled back at him and got polite with him, his smile immediately disappeared and he repeated again in a very annoyed tone...

" You make things so complicated." 

... and I realized this fucker is the type of customer who will get nasty when you are too nice to them. He was probably annoyed at the start, but then felt bad about it the middle, however after seeing that I was all friendly when I retuned him to the phone, felt justified at being annoyed at the start and decided to just continue being a dick. 

Anyways, he was lingering around in the store after I return the phone to him, and I just really couldn't be bothered to deal with him anymore after that. He was loitering at the front of our store for like 2 minutes before he finally came to the counter and thankfully, my supervisor was around, so my supervisor quickly assured him that we had gotten all his information and will be in touch with the Aaron guy.

So that's my bad experience at work today. It's nothing major, I have had to deal with worst, but this exchange definitely soured my mood the entire day enough to warrant a blog post. I manage to find out his name is Ken through the database, so fuck you Ken!