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!

i-don't need that-Phone 14 Pro

I just got myself an iPhone 14 Pro.

I do not need an iPhone 14 Pro.

It was a pretty good deal, the iPhone 14 Pro usually cost $1,664.40 on Apple's official website, I was able to get mine for $1,450.00 from a shop at Far East Plaza, it's one of the few phone shops I used to frequent in the past when changing a phone every year was a norm for me. 

I was able to get off work earlier today because I had to report to work about 1.5 hours earlier to open the store for air-con maintenance work, I enjoy going to the store that early because the mall is pretty much dead at that timing, there are no shoppers around yet and everything is just very zen and quiet. But having to wake up at 7.00am so I can report to the store at 8.30am felt super early, and the train was also packed, I was wobbling a lot on the MRT trying not to fall because there were no seats and I was not standing near any of the poles or handles to be able to grab them and stabilize myself on the moving train.

It sucks to have to experience the morning peak-hour crowd once today, I cannot imagine having to do that everyday had I accepted the job offer.  

So for the entire day, one of the thought that ran through my mind was the idea of going to Far East Plaza to get the iPhone 14 Pro, I have checked the prices on the store's website and I knew the available stocks, they had it in black, which was a colour I didn't mind, honestly all the colours of the Pro series are alright, I wasn't really drawn to any single colour, I was however drawn to the Starlight colour, but that's only available for the regular iPhone 14, so I mulled over the idea. 

 

Work ended and I honestly wasn't sure if I was going to head over to Far East Plaza or not, I was just going to let my body take over and auto pilot in whichever direction it will head towards.

It headed over the Far East Plaza, at that point, I knew I was going to be going home with an iPhone in hand. 

The store was empty that day and after about 30 seconds of looking at the display, a sales lady came out and assisted me, I asked her a bunch of questions I already had answers to, like what colour she has, the prices of the different models and also the payment modes. I was going to pay by installment so it won't take such a huge toll on my bank account.

The installment method has an additional 7% surcharge, which amounted to about $50, I was willing to pay for it because with that combined, it was still much cheaper than getting it direct from Apple. I knew I didn't want to use the iPhone immediately because part of the joy of getting a new product is in the anticipation of actually using that new product, and since my current phone is still working mighty fine, I only did a quick physical check in the store, made the payment and left, didn't get any screen protector or phone case as well, decided I wanted to get it from Shopee and wait until it's delivered before I start setting up the phone.

I did that with my iPad as well, the iPad wasn't switched on until maybe 4 - 5 days after it got delivered to my place because I was waiting for the screen protector and case to arrive from Shopee. It literally sat in it's package, on my table unopened for 4 to 5 days. When I did eventually open it, all the excitement sort of vanished, so I am trying to maintain that excitement I have for this iPhone as long as possible, which is why the screen protector and phone case are from a brand in Korea that will require overseas shipping.

I'm fucking weird. 

Hopefully it will prove to be as useful of a purchase as my iPad when I do get around to using it sometime next week.

Here are all the tech stuff I have gotten for myself starting late Oct of last year.

$3,000 worth of tech that aren't actually needs, just wants because I wanted to spend money. Throw in my upcoming Taiwan trip and I will have spend about $6,00.00 in total (excluding the money I will be spending during the trip)

I would have not been this generous with myself if I was still in ID4. 

Rejected

After much deliberation, I have decided to turn down the new job offer and my biggest reason is in the fact that I don't think the pay I have asked for is high enough.

Even though I have requested for a higher salary than my current job, it really isn't enough to warrant the kind of stress I will eventually experience again as an Interior Designer. The opportunity to learn from the company is definitely there and that was really what made me consider joining the company during the second interview, just the fact that I could be mentored along the way and really learn how to handle big landed and commercial projects, but a $300 increment to have to go through all that anxiety of being a Project Manager again is just not an increment that I feel is worth it.

The stress I got from my phone buzzing due to messages, and then seeing the notifications...

" Photo"

"Photo"

"Photo"

"Photo"

"Photo"

... as the phone just continues buzzing and buzzing because the clients are sending in a billion photos of a thousand defects they have spotted that requires your immediate attention for rectification works. I just cannot.

And then when you forward those issues to the sub-cons, they tell you it's normal and not considered a defect, so you inform your customer that the sub-con doesn't deem those as defects, but then the customer get suspicious and angrily informs you that they feel like the sub-con is denying responsibility, that they need to fix it because the results are disappointing and they can't accept those "defects", and the sub-con tells you nothing can be done because even if they redo it again, it will end up the same, so since you are stuck in the middle and you are such a people pleaser, you agree with the sub-con and then tell the customer you will give them a discount because of that "defect", the customer ends up calling you to complaint about it, you end up having a chat with them and they finally agree to it begrudgingly, so you end up losing a few hundred dollars from your commission.

To go through that kind of stress is going to have to be more than a $300.00 monthly increment from my current salary range. If I have to go through that kind of shit, I should be asking at least $4,000.00 per month to justify the anxiety I will be putting myself through again, and this is just for the work related stress, this doesn't include the travelling I will have to do, the longer working hours, and the additional 0.5 day that I have to work in a week even though it's deemed as optional.

This ringtone is trauma inducing. When I hear it at work now because some of our delivery movers have this as their ringtone for their Samsung phone, it triggers my fight or flight response. 

So of course, another reason is the 5.5 days work week, after working a 6 day work week at the bakery back in 2014, I now strictly adhere to a 5 day only work week policy whenever I look for a new job, anything that is more than 5 days, even if the additional day is considered optional, is way too much. An additional 0.5 days is still considered 6 days to me because you are already ruining my off day by requiring me to report to work, whether it's only for 4 hours or for the full 9 hours.

And then the weekly grind of having to report to work from Monday - Friday, 8.30am - 6pm, and Saturday from whatever half day timing to whatever half day timing, I don't think I can revert back to that kind of work schedule, all that build up towards your day off, and then it's back to work again the next 6 days. 

Plus having an 8.30am - 6pm working hours feels a bit long for an office job, that is the same working hours as my current job, but at least I don't have to go through 5 days straight of work before I get to enjoy my off day. 

The other con to this position is the location, which is located all the way at Tai Seng, which is pretty much considered East side, to commute daily from the West to the East, if I had a car, it wouldn't be so painful, but to have to take public transport during the peak hour rush in the morning and then to have to go through that again in the evening every weekday, to be fighting for a squeeze in the train, that's something I haven't done that in a very long time and it's an experience I don't plan to do again anytime soon. 

This is the second proper job offer I have turned down since working at my current company, third if I also include this ID firm but I don't really consider this full commission based job as a proper job offer because literally anyone can join them. 

As much issues as I have with my current job, there is still a certain level of comfort that I enjoy from it because it is less stressful than my previous positions, and that is very difficult for me to simply let go of. That is why I was hoping during the my weekend shift that something will trigger me and piss me off enough to leave the company, but nothing did, everything went as smoothly as weekend shifts can go and I even made a $10,000 sales on Saturday.

At this rate, I feel like I am probably going to be stuck here for a while longer. 

.

.

.

.

.

fuck.

For now, I will just focus on doing my current job properly and also look forward to my solo Taiwan trip in May, just slightly more than a month left! 

Looking for a new job will probably commence at the end of the year or beginning of next year after my final Reservist cycle is over because that was something that concerned me as well, the final cycle is going to be 3 weeks along and I really do not want to relive that 3 weeks worth of anxiety inducing moment again! To be stuck in camp, unable to do anything while shit is going on at my project site, no thanks.

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.