Today marks my company's official closure for CNY and my boss had arranged for all of us to have a buffet lunch at Concorde Hotel to commemorate the day. It was still half day work, so I went to the office as per usual in the morning to do whatever I could, and by about 11.30am, everyone who was going for the buffet finally arrived, and when I say everyone, I mean only 4 of us, including my boss, because our company is really really small and one of out PM had recently resigned.
Before we headed out, my boss sat all of us down at the meeting table and hands out our red packets, it was a really really thick red packet, but I didn't think too much of it, I thanked my boss and kept it away, after which, he also informed us that he had already bank transferred our bonuses, which I was very surprised by because I thought the red packet was more than sufficient.
The last time I got a bonus was when I was still working at the furniture store, they had only given me a 1 week salary bonus, which I have heard from a few people that it is considered quite a stingy amount, especially because I had worked at the furniture store for over a year and that was the first time they ever gave us any sort of bonus, so my expectations for bonuses in general were not very high just due to that sole experience.
Anyways, after that, we were made to draw lots and each of us were entitled to 1 out of the 8 hampers that the different suppliers had given to us, I got a medium sized one, but since I didn't have a car, I really had no plans to actually bring it home and just left it at the office. It was a Hamper from Eu Yan Sang, so there were abalones, white fungus, bird nest etc, it was a healthy hamper, but alas, too big for me to be lugging around via public transport.
By 12.10pm, we headed out in our boss's car for our lunch, the trip over took slightly longer than expected because my boss took a wrong turn at the Expressway, and then missed also the hotel car park entrance.
We finally reached at about 12.35pm.
As we entered into the buffet restaurant, I immediately noticed how crowded the place was, the tables were pretty much all filled up and there was already a huge crowd of people encircling around the buffet spread. We were ushered to our seats by the waiter and proceeded to join the crowd to get our food..
Buffets are a waste of money on me because of how small my appetite is, I was pretty much full after I finished my first plate of food, but to be fair, I did take a bit of almost every dish that was being offered. so I did have a sample size of almost every dish there.
We were there for about 1.5 hours total, it was about an hour of eating and than 30 minutes of talking, mainly them and not so much me, I just kinda sat there and listened to them chit chat about their own stuff. Honestly got a bit bored and wanted to leave quickly because the PM started talking about himself for quite a bit there, but he of the older generation so they do tendency to be a bit more longwinded.
Total bill came up to about $170, fully paid for by my boss because that is how he is. I may have my issues with the way he works sometimes, but I cannot deny that he is one of the most generous boss I have ever worked under, excluding my Dad of course.
Right after the lunch, we split up and headed towards our own direction, I decided to visit Haji Lane because my ex-Manager from the furniture store was having a pop up event at the area, I didn't tell her beforehand that I was going to pop by because I didn't really want to commit incase I felt lazy and suddenly didn't feel like going, so it was pretty much a surprise visit.
As I was waiting for the bus, I decided to check the thick Ang Bao my boss had given me at the start of the day, I was honestly expecting a bunch of $2 notes and $10 notes just stacked together and at most get like $188, which I would have been very happy with because he had already given me a 1 month bonus, but when I took a peek at the inside, I was fucking shock, it was a huge stack of blues, and I mean a huge stack, it's not like 3 or 4 pieces that I could easily identity at one look, there was so much it looked like it was meant to be split into at least a dozen different red packets.
Just as a reference.
My boss at ID4 gave all of his workers a $50 Ang Bao every CNY.
My boss at the furniture store gave everyone a $10 Ang Bao every CNY
I didn't actually count how many notes there were inside the red packet because I was at a bus stop, it would be a bit weird for me to just pull out a bunch of notes and started flicking through them, so I quickly zipped up my bag and waited for the bus to arrive, the entire time I was in the bus, I kept trying to guesstimate how much would be in there, the thought that maybe my boss had given me the wrong packet by mistake did cross my mind, but then everyone else also had an equally thick stack so it couldn't be.
The ride to the pop up event took about 20 minutes, so it wasn't as near as I had initially thought, and the walk to the pop up event took maybe 5 minutes, I got a little lost because I don't go there often, but when I finally reached the place and saw my ex-Manager, she was shocked.
I hadn't seen her since her farewell party at the club that was way to loud and I had actually done an Irish goodbye then because I did not want to go back into the club after I had stepped out to take a break, so I didn't actually had a proper goodbye with her. I was very happy to see her and she happened to be manning the pop up store on her own today.
The walk-in for the event wasn't great because it was a weekday, and we pretty much had an uninterrupted conversation for the entire 1.5 hours I was there, and we also calculated the Ang Bao that my boss gave me together, the both of us were shocked when she helped me count the bills.....
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
... I could hear the crescendo towards the end as she was flipping through the bills because both of us couldn't believe what we were seeing.
There were a total of 30 $50 bills shoved in that Ang Bao....
30!
My boss gave me an Ang Bao worth $1,500!
'
....this is on top of the bonus that I had also received! The last time I got such a big Ang Bao was when I won first price at ID4's D&D back in 2020. That was $1,888.00, and that wasn't guaranteed, this $1,500 Ang Bao is guaranteed because he gave each of us equally thick Ang Baos, maybe the others had more than me, but that still doesn't change the fact that I got a $1,500 Ang Bao from my boss!
It's nuts! I am actually still reeling in from the shock of it all. I immediately starting thinking of what new tech I could buy, couldn't think of anything, but I could definitely get another MFK perfume if I wanted to.
Oh, and I also don't have to go to an ATM to withdraw any money for the Ang Baos I am planning to pack for my parents anymore because my boss has essentially done that for me..... and then some.
So yeah, I shoved that big fat Ang Bao right back in my bag after the counting, my ex-Manager jokingly told me since I now have access to all that money, I should getting something from her pop up store, which I did, then did more catching up with my ex-Manager, and it was really nice to see her again after such a long time. I then decided to drop by Fluff Bakery because it was a walking distance away from the Pop Up Event, so I headed over, got 2 for myself and 2 for my ex-Manager, *cue her shock and gratefulness for getting her cupcakes as well* , then I booked a Grab because I had money to splurge.
It was a pretty good day.
And now I have a full week of break from work to enjoy! I did miss being able to enjoy the CNY Closure when I was working at the furniture store. Working retail hours sucks because retail stores have to be open throughout the public holidays. I had a lot of Off-in Lieu then, but sometimes, I just want to enjoy my holiday on the same day as everyone else without having to specially apply leave for it.
Will be going back to work next Thursday and I am not really sure how that will go. An ex-colleague of mine from the furniture store will officially be joining us on Thursday, she will coming in as a Project Manager. So from ex-colleague to colleague again.
I will be honest, even though I was the one who had recommended her to join, I have told my boss and our accountant not to put too much hope into that colleague of mine committing to the company for long.
She is a very money driven individual and was a Sales Designer in the past like me, the main difference between the both of us is that she exceled in doing Sales, and the furniture store would have been the perfect place for her had it not been for my ex-boss's stinginess when it comes to the commission.
I had originally introduced her come in as Designer, because it's office bound and generally less stressful than Project Management, or at least to me, but she told me she preferred Project Management, so we shall see how long she can last here and if my boss may need to find a new Project Manager soon to replace her when she decides she could do better elsewhere.
The difference between being a successful Sales Designer and being a Project Manager who will be drawing a fixed monthly salary is the income difference. Her earning power as a Sales Designer is much higher, of course it was also a lot more stressful and unstable because of the nature of the commission based job, thus her decision to join the furniture store to take a break from it all, but I do feel like once she finally re-familiarize herself to Project Managing a renovation, she will definitely start to make comparisons and either ask for a salary increment, which my boss may not be agreeable with and I am very concerned that she might make a big fuss about, or resign and return to her Sales Designer roots.
I am predicting that she won't actually last till the end of the year, but who knows, I do hope she proves me wrong and end up becoming a valuable member of the team because my boss will definitely need a bigger team.
I will also have to deal with Terence with 1 R once the CNY break is over and I am not looking forward to messaging that prick again, I really wish we can drop his project, but my accountant told me that Terence is one of the projects that my boss has very high hopes for because of how much spending power he potentially has, it's just unfortunate that he is not going to be a pleasant customer to deal with.
For now, all I will think about is how to spend that bonus and red packet money that I have received from my boss.
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