4th D&D is the charm....

The Company's Annual Dinner & Dance has once again come and gone and after my first year, I have sort of been looking forward to all the Dinner & Dance because of the prizes I could potentially get from the sure win lucky draw and also the fact that none of the ones I attend from now on will be as painful and awkward as the first one.





Like always, there was a theme to the dinner and I really didn't bother to dress up, went in my best "not even trying" look and a few of my colleagues were not impressed by how unbothered I was about my get up. A few others also really didn't dress up so I wasn't the only lazy one present that day.




Once again like last year, there was a long wait before we were actually allowed to enter the Hall, so there was a lot of chit chat going on, people were drinking soft drinks and alcohol as we waited, I just sat in one of the armchair and stayed in that chair for almost an entire hour because that's how early we were expected to arrive.




Sub-Contractors started streaming into the venue, most of them I have never worked with so I also didn't really bother to get up and greet most of them, once a while I would talk to some of my colleagues who were hovering around my area, but otherwise, I was either on my phone looking at Facebook or just staring into space.





When we were finally only allowed to enter the Hall, which was 15 minutes after the stipulated timing, everyone went to their seats and unfortunately this time around, I was seated with a bunch of my colleagues that I don't really speak to, I thought since I will be seated with a bunch of sub-cons that I use often, we could have something to talk about, but that was a bust as well because I didn't feel very chatty trying to compete with the speaker that was constantly pumping really loud music, every time I tried to talk to my sub-con or one of my colleague, I will always have to repeat myself multiple times, so eventually I just gave up completely. My sub-con who was seated beside me probably had something to eat earlier, so he wasn't hungry and spend half the time on his phone surfing Facebook.





Oh, and during the dinner, there was a belly dancing act, there was one during my first Dinner 3 years back that I felt was a little weird, the feeling is still the same after all these years, it's still really really odd to have belly dancers for such a proper event. I didn't really care too much about it and didn't watch much of it because my back was facing the stage and it was too troublesome to keep my back turned to watch a few ladies gyrate.





So after a few dishes and games, the lucky draw finally starts and like the last time, it was a roulette system, everyone's name is one the screen and the computer will spin the wheel and when it stops on the person's name, the person will get the prize.



When the host announced what the first few prizes were, I honestly was hoping I wouldn't get them because they were spa vouchers and flight vouchers that I would never use. I would have preferred to get the consolation prize over those items. Luckily for me, my name was never selected and I got to escape the vouchers.



The lucky draw is split into two sections, the first part is where all the mid tier prizes are being given out, I thought those were the lousy prizes and it could only get better from there, but as the dinner was coming to an end and we started the second portion did I realize that only 4 names would be picked and the rest would be consolation prizes, the 4 names will be winners of the big prizes, which were just straight up cash that were $388, $588, $1288 and $1888 being the grand prize.




The host begins the lucky draw and gets his guy to hit the roulette button, it spins and it lands on someone I don't really know.



*clap* *clap* *clap*


The winner gets up, takes a pic, grabs the angbao and leaves.


The host then gets his guy to hit the roulette button again and it lands on one of my colleague who was seated at the table in front of me.


*clap* *clap* *clap*

She gets up, people at her table were cheering for her, takes a pic, grabs the angbao and leaves.


There were now only 2 big prizes left and everyone was getting really excited, the roulette button gets hit again and this time, it lands on my colleague who was seated right next to me, that expression she had on her face when she realized she had won $1288 was one of utter disbelief, she had her hands covering her mouth as she stood up and made her way to the stage.


*clap* *clap* *clap*


She gets up, takes a pic, grabs the angbao and leaves.


When she came back to the table again, I asked her what was in the red packer and she takes out a piece of paper and shows me what was written on it,  there wasn't any cash in the angbao, but instructions on how to claim the money, which makes sense because it is a pretty large amount. Anyways, as I was talking to her, the host was already starting to roll the roulette, I really didn't think too much at this point, this was the grand prize we are talking about, chances of winning is pretty slim, so I decided that instead of focusing on the roulette, I will just eat my dessert.





And then the roulette lands on a name and everyone starts clapping, I looked up at one of my colleague who was seated at another table and I see him clapping his hands and then slowly turning his body towards me, I was still shoveling the mango desert in my mouth when the host shouts out my name and when I looked at the screen, I was shocked!



The same thing happened last year as well, my name got selected when I wasn't looking at the screen and when I was also shoveling food in my mouth, except then, it was because I really didn't want that particular prize because I had no use for it, but I digress.




So I quickly slurped up whatever mango desert I had on the spoon and made my way up, the host then makes a joke about me focusing on the desert more than the lucky draw and when he was congratulating me as I was walking towards the stage, I almost wanted to like dance a bit but decided to maintain my integrity and just head straight for the stage, my boss then tells me how lucky I was, we shake hands and smiled for the camera, I was still shaking at this point, I am sure my smile on the photo is going to look super awkward and uncomfortable, people were cheering from the crowd and then I made my way back to the table with one person at the table congratulating me because almost everyone else had left my table at that point.





When the dinner ended, a lot of people came up to congratulate me and it is kinda weird because I don't really know what to say aside from "Thanks", it just feels a little awkward to have people come up and congratulate me for being lucky. A few of my colleagues jokingly tease me about winning the top prize and started rubbing me for luck and what I was really thinking to myself then was...

"There goes all the good luck I will have for 2020."

... but hey, at least now I am $1,888 richer, which is more money that I will be getting from J&J's project.

New Potential Client & New Year's Resolution

One of my current client recently introduced one of his friend, who was looking for an Interior Designer to me and initially I was really happy with the referral because so far, everyone who was introduced by referral from that particular "client tree" were amazing to work with, they were really easy-going and friendly and I always complete their project feeling like I have made new friends.




When I first met this new client, he actually reminded me of my very first client because they had similar facial features and so I felt immediately comfortable talking to him.




During the consultation, he was relatively easy to talk to, his wife was also present and they shared all their requirements with me and honestly everything went pretty well, and then they told me that their apartment was located in Punggol and that was when I felt like this project suddenly wasn't worth my time anymore.



But I decided to not turn it down so quickly and attempt to give it a shot, I can handle having a project at an inconvenient location once in a while, it is fine. I did up a space planning proposal, prepared a quotation and emailed him the quotation a few days later, he responds almost immediately and thanks me for the quote but not before asking me to send him some mock ups because if it was just the quotation, he couldn't really base it off anything, I then told him I would be able to let him see a rough 3D in person, but I wasn't going to be able to actually send him any softcopy to refer to because I am not going to just let a non-paying customer get copies of my 3D drawings so they can just take my work and have a contractor do it for a cheaper fee. He was still pretty insistent on having something to see, so I begrudgingly agreed to sent him a copy of the space planning proposal.





About 2 hours later, he creates a group chat with his wife and adds me into it, which I thought was great because it is not a very common occurrence for a client to immediately open a group chat to discuss, normally this only happens when a client is interested to engage me for my services, but right after the initial...

"Hi Tim..."

... he just started criticizing my initial space planning proposal, telling me how bad the layout was, how he didn't like the way the bed was place, how the kitchen felt strange because it looked really empty and of course the complaint about the price being on the higher side.




I was immediately turned off because I felt like he was very tactless with the way he was phrasing his words, the main feedback I got from that wall of text he send over was that I did a poor job with the space planning and then after criticizing that, he finishes off by requesting a new proposal by Monday.



The only reason why the layout was badly done was because I was following the request he had shared with me during our consultation.




The bed in the main bedroom was faced a certain way because he didn't have any empty walls left, the other walls were either had doors, windows or wardrobe, the last item he had requested a lot of in that very small room, so I didn't really have much room to play around with.



Another bed in another room was also compromised because it literally didn't have enough space for the bed to fit anywhere else, he wanted to fit a queen size bed in a room that barely had space for it and he tells me it was positioned badly.



The kitchen is empty because he had requested to do minimal cabinetry, he literally told me he didn't want both walls to have cabinets because he was afraid it was going to be too cramp, and then now he tells me my proposal looks strange to only have one wall of cabinets.





The problem I have when clients talk to me via text messages is my inability to recognize the tone they are using, with this particular client, when he shared all his comments with me, it just felt like he was being a prick about it and then the final demand request to have the new proposal be done on Monday was just the cherry on top of the rotten cake.




My impression of him just plummeted after the text messages and I have no interest working with someone who is nice in person but a complete prick via messages, had a couple who was also like this for one of my past projects, really nice people in person, able to have great conversations with them, but absolutely hated working for them because of how nit-picky and difficult they both were. Well, this current one will only get his keys in June, so he isn't in a rush, I, on the other hand, am contemplating to leave and look for a new job in the middle of the year, maybe after going for one more company trip in June. If I for some reason end up taking on his project, then it will only be a repeat of what happened during my last attempt to leave, companies being unwilling to hire me because my notice period is too long, so now it's really a matter of making him turn me down.





I spoke to my insurance agent a few days ago and he was also surprised to see me still working in the same place because I have told him multiple times over the past 2 years that I am planning to leave the company soon to find a much more stable job. I am not financially struggling, but I am also not saving anything with my current state of income, everything that I earn, every big cheque that I get every 3 to 4 months is only able to cover what I spend over the last few months and it is very worrying considering the fact that I do plan to get an apartment when I hit 35, that is my long term goal.






When I gave up looking for a new job and stayed in this career path, I told myself that it was possible to make this work, to not be so picky with my clients and just try and get as many projects as possible, but then I meet clients like the one I just talked about and the one I blogged about previously and it just doesn't feel like a very viable option because I know working for those clients, especially Mr & Mrs Tee, will induce an unprecedented level of stress that I will not be able to handle.





I enjoy the creative aspect of my job a lot, that's why I have been working for as long as I have in this line even though it isn't working out for me financially, but I don't think I can waste anymore time lingering around now that I will be hitting 30 in a few months. I am slowly passing my peak period of companies willing to hire me because I am "still young and have potential to grow".






A few days ago, I also met some of my ex-colleagues from bakery for a get together and one of the first things my friend ask me was...

"Are you getting enough sleep? Your dark circles look quite bad."

... and I didn't realize I had dark circles until she brought it up to me and that was when I realize that work has really been getting too stressful for me. Even though I am not required to be in the office 70% of the time, I am still constantly in work mode, even as I am writing this post, I am anticipating a text from my clients or sub-contractor, there really isn't any down time for me except during the holidays when clients would also have the decency to leave me alone and let me breathe a little or when I do not have any projects to run, which then makes me feel like I am not doing anything productive and am wasting my time because no projects equates to no income.




I do have to make actual career changes before it is too late and it has to happen this year,  I don't do New Year's Resolution, but I will make this year an exception, my New Year's Resolution for 2020 is to finally leave my current company and look for a career that offers financial stability.

The Two Brick Walls

Had an appointment with a brand new client today who had actually requested for me specifically when he called the company to schedule an appointment.




When I first received the call from the client, I was in the toilet taking a dump, which has got to be some sort of sign of how shitty this whole project will be. He requested to meet the next day, and I was agreeable to it, I also asked him which of my previous customer had referred me to him, and he told me he came across one of my customer's testimonial through one of the renovation portal online.




The last time someone found me through that means, I ended up having to reject the client because of how incredibly stubborn she was, it was impossible to work with her.




Well, this new client is EXACTLY the same and I'll be damned if I actually take on the project.




So prior to the meeting, I had already arranged with my colleague that I will cover the morning shift and he will take the afternoon shift because I had Christmas dinner at home to attend to at around 6.30pm. The appointment with this client, whom I shall refer to Mr Tee, was scheduled at 3.30pm, I was expecting the consultation to last maybe an hour tops and I would be on my way.



3.30pm comes, and he is nowhere to be seen, so at 3.45pm, I send him a text, but he doesn't respond, and after 30 minutes of waiting, as I was planning to give him a call to let him know that I wasn't going to be available anymore because I already have plans, he struts into the showroom accompanied with his wife, who looked a little displease.




Mr Tee then starts lamenting to me about how difficult it was to find parking near my office and his wife was visibly annoyed as he was complaining about having to park so far away just to see me, which just brought me back to the time I met Jenny and Jonny, except then, it was Jonny, the husband, who was the one was who very upset about being unable to find parking.





Making the connection between them and J&J was a horrible start.



So the consultation starts, I get a copy of Mr Tee's floorplan and we started running through the space planning and as we were talking, I could sense a great deal of hostility coming from Mrs Tee, who was obviously still very annoyed by the fact that she had to walk such a great distance earlier. She was very impatient during first part of the consultation, every time I tried to explain certain things and she did not understand my advice, she would just stare at me with this very annoyed look on her face, and I would have to explain it to her again until she finally gets it and moves on to the next thing to get upset about.




This went on for about 5 minutes until I finally had enough of her attitude and became really annoyed with her when she couldn't understand what I was saying, I would just look at her after I have explained myself and give her this incredulous look, an expression of...

"HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT YOU ARE SO FUCKING DENSE?"

.... and she slowly backed down a bit because bitch I am not here for you to be annoyed at, you guys were half an hour late, so don't give me a fucking attitude just because you didn't know where to find a space to park.





When I first saw her giving me the attitude at the start, I had already made up my mind that I was not going to allow them to engage me because I have zero interest to run their project for them. First impression is extremely important to me, if you show your cunt-ness even before we have introduced ourselves, you are out!





But anyways, after Mrs Tee finally put her attitude in check, we were able to have a proper consultation session that lasted way too long for a project I didn't want to take on.



Aside from the attitude problem I was receiving from Mrs Tee, another factor that just made me shirk away from the idea of running this project is the fact that Mr & Mrs Tee are both insanely stubborn individuals who did not think the advice I was sharing with them as an Interior Designer, who has been working in this industry for 3 years, meant anything.



I told them some of the works they were requesting were not possible because it was either not safe or just straight up impossible to be done, such attempting to switch the toilet bowl position with the sink, but they were do insistent on doing it, telling me...

"It can be done!"

... based on what? It can be done because you, a layman who has no expertise in the construction field, said it can be done even though I, the professional, am constantly telling you it can't be done? I was so close to telling them to fuck off and find someone else to do their project if they were so insistent to do things their way, but was able to control the urge, and then when they asked me how much certain items were, and I shared the prices with them, the husband just stares at me, rest his arm on the table, leans in and goes...

"Why is it so expensive? The space I have is very small and we need this to be done, but you are charging me so much for it!"

.... in an almost confrontational tone and I was so pissed off I just told him straight to his face...

"I am simply sharing the price with you! You asked me how much it cost and I am telling you how much it cost! I am not forcing you to do any of these works, you are the one who is requesting for it, if you think it is too expensive, then don't do it!"

... and Mr Tee slowly takes his arms off the table and leans back into his chair.

Mrs Tee then offered alternative suggestions that weren't feasible and I was so bloody frustrated trying to explain why her way wouldn't work, but she kept insisting it could be done, and after a while, she also does the same thing as Mr Tee, telling me...

"But my space is already so small and you are telling me that it can't be done, then you tell me what to do? Where to put all my accessories in the toilet? You tell me! "

.... I wanted to punch her in the fucking throat! It's not my fault the developer decided to give you a badly design toilet, why the fuck are you taking it out on me? So I told her in a very exasperated tone...

"THIS IS THE WAY YOUR TOILET IS BUILT! I have no control over how your developer decided to design your toilet"

... but she was still very stubborn, so in order to move the conversation along because I was already late for my Christmas dinner, I told them I will ask my contractor if what she requested can be done, which honestly I don't think I would because I already know the answer from them is going to be, and even if by some Christmas Miracle, they tell me it can be done, I will still tell Mrs Tee it can't be done because I am not about to make my services more attractive for them to consider engaging me.

I was planning to leave the office at 5.00pm the latest, but I ended up leaving at 6.30pm because I spend so much time talking to 2 brick walls. I told them I will prepare a quotation for them within a week, but I don't really want to bother, it just feels so pointless. I will most likely just charge them an exuberant amount for a lot of items to scare them off and that is it.





Right now the calculated figure is at $80,000, which is honestly insanely high for the works they want to do, but that's really the whole point so fingers crossed that they will get scared off by the price and go elsewhere, bypass all the price negotiations with me and be like that last customer who wasted my time. 

Wasting time again....

Another day, another client who doesn't know how to respond to messages.



I met a couple a few days ago and they were requesting to renovation their new condo apartment, we had a very good chat and I thought we hit it off really well, but I was not interested in the project in the slightest because it is located all the way in Punggol and I have told myself I will never touch a Punggol project again.



I told the clients I will prepare a quotation and send it to them 3 days later, but I really didn't want to so I just left it alone and did not bother with it, that and also because I was pretty busy with my current on-going projects so I did not have time to really sit down and calculate all the cost for them.



So the third day comes and it was around evening when the wife messaged me asking if I had already send the quotation her way, I didn't even prepare one so I told her I will send it to her the next day as I had been pretty busy, which was the truth, so she was agreeable to it and I got down to preparing the quote the very next day and send it her way, which probably only took me 20 minutes to prepare. It's not about the quotation taking a long time to do, it's about getting in the mood to actually do the math for it.




She responded back very quickly, informing me that she had gotten the quote, asking me if I could send her some designs because she wanted to know what I was proposing, I never ever send out my proposals to non-paying clients, especially not to clients I have only met once because it's my design proposal, I am not about to let you take my proposal and pass it off to someone else to do. I do get this request a lot and it is just really frustrating to have to constantly repeat myself to different people.



I told her I won't be giving her a design proposal but I can prepare one for her to see in person if she was interested, then I told her I could prepare a 3D draft and she was agreeable to it, soon after that, she starts to ask me about the quote and goes....

"I notice that the cabinets are quite expensive."

.... and I will admit, I did charge her a little higher than normal because her project is located all the way in Punggol, if I am not earning a decent amount of profit from it to cover the inconvenience of me having to travel all the way there on an almost daily basis once the renovation starts, there is no way I am going to be taking this project, but the particular item that she pointed out was not something that I had charged an exuberant amount of money for. I tried to explain to her why it was priced the way it was, wrote out this entire chunk of text, send it her way and she just stops responding after that.





Now I am not sure if she still wants to meet up or not and this is what is really irritating about being placed in a situation like this by the customers.



I propose to prepare a proposal for us to run through in person.

You express your interest in such an arrangement

I take that interest as confirmation to prepare said proposal

You bring up an issue with the price and suddenly stop responding

I take that unresponsiveness as a lost in interest

So does this lost in interest overwrite the confirmation to meet again to run through the design proposal?




I will still do the SketchUp because I like doing SketchUp, it keeps me distracted from my ongoing projects and also gives me something to do at the office, if she and her husband decides to confirm the appointment with me later in the week to meet up then great, if not, then I will just add her to the list of time-wasting clients I have met.




Speaking of time wasting client, I also had another one a few weeks back, writing in to request for a quotation, sharing with me that they are on a budget and needed to stick to that budget, but then requesting a plethora of works that were clearly out of their budget. Even after advising them that it was impossible, they still insisted to keep to their budget and requested a quotation, asking me to list out different options for them,




It is extremely frustrating when a client who cannot afford the my services request for me to list out options for them in the quotation because that means more calculations for me to do, more time for me to have to put into preparing their quotation, all for what? So that once they see the quote, they will stop replying, because that is exactly what this time waster did.




You don't give us your unrealistic requirements and expect us to work your requirements around your unrealistic budget, you either do less to stick to the budget, or you pay more to stick to the requirements, you don't pay less and expect to do more, it makes no fucking sense because the last time I check in the mirror, all I saw was a face full of zits, not a pink fucking elephant who goes by the name of Sharity.

Loco Crazy

So the clients for that particular commercial project that I was blogging about a few days ago has submitted a pretty scathing review of their renovation experience and instead of targeting my colleague who had the unfortunate pleasure of being in-charge of the project,their review actually targeted the entire company, which was essentially carpet bombing EVERY designer in my company.



Needless to say, my boss isn't taking this review very well and has plans to send a cease and desist letter to them because their review is pretty much libel at this point. They wrote the review in point form, listing out all the issues they faced during the renovation and as I was looking through them, I can't help but feel like my colleague was painted in this horrible light and being completely maligned by them.




A lot of the points that were brought up by the clients were issues they brought upon themselves because they did not pay up in time, they did not follow my colleague's schedule, they failed to inform my colleague about changes they decided to make midway through the renovation, they focus so much on the bad things but conveniently left out all the goodwill discount my colleague gave them, the many times she closed one eye when they said they didn't have enough money to pay the installment but begged for the renovation works to proceed anyway, there were SO MANY things that were done as a favor for them during the renovation and this is how they choose repay my colleague.




Near the end of the renovation, my colleague was already starting to get really suspicious of the clients, they were clearly trying to squirm their way out of having the pay the final amount by trying to look for issues, and when they failed to find any that would actually stick, they resorted to the negative review detailing their extremely one sided experience. I was actually already expecting them to leave a bad review, so that did not really come as a huge shock to me, but I was not expecting this issue to potentially lead to a court case.




My company has responded to the review with a generic...

"We would like to apologize for your bad experience with us and will investigate into this matter."

... to which the clients actually wrote back with...

"Thanks for responding to our review, we hope you will investigate this matter and update us with your findings ASAP."

....this is probably what they are feeling like right now, all gleeful that their review was received loud and clear from our end, thinking that my company will try and "make things right" by offering them some form of compensation. But we are not and I am really looking forward to their reaction when they realize that my company isn't one to be trifled with.




I actually came across one blogger who also did something similar to the Interior Design company she hired, except hers was worst because she was documenting the entire process on her blog, it was like a series of reviews targeting the company and did not bother to censor the company name because in her head, I guess she thinks she is doing a favor for everyone by trying to warn others to avoid that particular company.




At first, most of her issues were valid, but as the renovation went on, she started to nitpick on every single thing, she would post pictures of her toilet tiles and complaint about them being scratched, but then there wouldn't be a single noticeable scratch found in the pictures, she also posted a picture of her newly installed window and called out the worker for not doing a good job because they did not peel off the protection sheet on the window panels. She could have literally done that herself in less than 10 seconds, but she chose not to and demanded the company to send their workers down to peel it for her.



The last post she shared about her renovation was about how angry she was that the company decided to respond to her myriad of negative post about them by sending her a lawyer letter, I mean what were you expecting? You wrote multiple blog post slandering the company's name and you think they won't bite back? A company's online reputation is extremely important in this day and age, unless they are in the wrong, no way they will just let this matter slide. I am not sure if the lawsuit happened or if she settled everything with the design firm behind the scenes, but she has since censored out the company's name in all her post and instead left a....

"PM me for the company's name."

...PLEASE! The company should be PM-ing everyone in the industry your name instead! If the Interior Designer is at fault, then any reputable company will fire that designer and try and settle the issue with the client privately, the fact that the company, which is a pretty reputable company from my own research, decided to side with their designer and send the client a lawyer's letter just goes to show who is actually the one giving the problem.

Tiler Problems

One of my sub-contractor is giving me so much issue for my project right now, it's really stressing me the fuck out.

This isn't about a job badly done but about how desperate he is trying to push for things to be done, despite me telling him multiple times that we can't proceed until a much later date.

This is like a couple getting ready to birth a new baby without knowing the gender, but then going all out and getting a bunch of girly accessories and clothes, and when friends and families tell them not to rush because they have no idea what the gender of the baby is, the couple's excuse is...

"But if we don't buy it now, then we will be spending the next 8 months being unproductive with the shopping of baby stuff. We know we are having a baby, so why not just buy all these items first?"

... STUPID!

This is what is happening with my site right, I have told the subcontractor multiple times not to proceed with the tiling works for the bedrooms and the living rooms first because I need the electrician in to run the wiring before they can lay their tiles. Every time after that very conversation, he will tell me...

"Okay, no problem, got it."

.... and then the very next morning, he will call me up and tell me...

"Can we just do the living and bedroom right now, since my guys are already there?"

... and when I have to explain to him AGAIN about why he can't, he goes...

"But I already sent all my guys down and they need to do something..."

... twice, I had to relay this to him twice, and he guilt trips me like it is my fucking fault he has selective hearing. I told him to concentrate on just a few areas first and he sends down enough guys to do the whole house, and somehow I am suppose to accommodate him? Fuck! My electrician on the other hand is very accommodating though and told me he will find an alternative to the running of wires, but this is completely ridiculous and I think I might actually have to resort to reprimanding the tiler. if he keeps insisting on doing things his way.

Then earlier today, he told me there wasn't enough tiles, that I had to order more, so I did and it will be delivered tomorrow. Normally when I order extra tiles, his workers are the ones who will go down and bring it up to the apartment and seeing how he has been sending an excessive amount of workers the past few days, probably not going to be an issue getting them to bring those extra tiles up, but then he sends me a voice memo going...

"Contact your other sub-contractor to bring those items up."

.... and I was confused, so I asked him why his workers couldn't do it, seeing how they have been doing it for all my past projects, and he goes...



"My guys don't have a push trolley, so it is not convenient for them to bring all the extra tiles up."



.... I was on site in the evening and I saw a fucking push trolley in the fucking house, luckily for me, I also happen to have taken a picture of the apartment before I left with the push trolley in it, so I send that picture to him, circled the fucking push trolley and just wrote under that picture...

"Isn't this a push trolley?"

... and he doesn't respond for the next 20 minutes, trying to concoct some sort of excuse, until finally, his voice message comes in and he goes....

"I won't be sending so many guys tomorrow, so I will be low on manpower and will need you to contact the other subcontractor to bring those tiles up for my guys."

... HOW VERY FUCKING CONVENIENT!




On the days I told him to not send so many guys up, he sends up a battalion of them, and on the day I need his manpower, he decides he will only send a few.



It's like he is trying to drown me in his bullshit, I am already desperately trying to tread water in that bullshit, to not drown, and he dumps even more on me.

I have used this tiler ever since I started working in this company and he is the default tiler everyone in my company automatically goes to when they have a new project, and even though his workmanship isn't the best, I can still close one eye and accept it, what drives me to use him continuously despite the declining workmanship is really his responsive, that to me is the most important factor, but lately I am really finding it really hard to close an eye and accept not only his declining workmanship, but also his constant need to find excuses to try and shirk responsibility for his poor workmanship.




When the Sly Fox issue came up, I told myself I wasn't going to give this tiler a chance anymore because his guy FUCKED UP really badly, but then another project came in and I went back to him out of habit and familiarity and I didn't really have any issues with those other projects that came after as well, so I thought of it as a one off thing, and that it was purely bad luck of Sly Fox's part, but with the way this current project is going, it's becoming extremely difficult to accept his standards anymore.




The ones who should be giving me problems and stressing me out are the homeowners, not the subcontractors, the subcontractors are suppose to be helping me alleviate the complaints the homeowners have, to lessen my stress, not add it in and make things worst.




For the next project, I really have to start reaching out to another tiler who has been receiving a lot of praises from my other colleagues who have made the switch. They have zero complaints about him despite him costing more, in fact, they are praising his workmanship and constantly asking me why I haven't switched yet, and well, it really is time to move on. My current one has gotten extremely complacent and needs to be taught a lesson.



I actually wanted to use the other tiler, but unfortunately he was already busy, but for the next project, I will make sure to book him in advance, even if I do end up earning less from the project, I really need to raise my standard for the tiler's workmanship.



UPDATE :


So the additional tiles were ordered today and I had to contact another sub-contractor, my hacker, to uplift those additional tiles.


My tiler told me yesterday he will contact the hacker on my behalf and update him on the uplifting for the additional tiles and since I was already having some trust issues with the tiler, I decided to personally contact the hacker this morning to double check. Lo and behold, he told me he wasn't inform about the uplifting nor was he contacted by my tiler.



The hacker was still very helpful though, despite the last minute request, he just told me to let him know what time the tiles will arrive and he will send his guys down to bring them up. I gave him the timing the tile supplier gave me, which was between 2pm to 3pm, fully expecting the hacker to send his workers down earliest at 4pm to help me bring everything up.



By 3pm, I got a call from the hacker asking me where all the tiles were because his guys were already there and they couldn't find any tiles, getting a bit worried at this point, I quickly called my tiler supplier contact to double check and she is pretty fucking useless, doesn't pick up the phone and didn't bother to reply the text message I send to her, so I directly called her company and they told me it will only arrive at 4pm due to traffic.



I then called my hacker and informs him about it and he told me to update him again when the tiles arrive.



I got to the jobsite at about 3.30pm and waited until about 4pm when I finally got a call from the tiles delivery guy, he told me he was there already, so as I was making my way over to the lobby where he told me he had placed all the tiles, I called my hacker up and told him the tiles were here, that he could send someone over now.




Here is the deal. My current project is a Private Condo, that means any tiles or building materials need to be left at the main gate outside the estate, I had requested for the tile supplier to leave the tiles INSIDE the estate because if I could get them brought up to the apartment on the same day, there won't be any issues and the Condo Management will close one eye.




My hacker was unfortunately not able to rush down in time because the management won't let any construction workers in after 5pm and it was already about 4.15pm when I finally contacted him again. I then told him I had specially requested for the tiles to be brought in because I was expecting him to be able to get everything up by today, he really couldn't make it, so he kept telling me he will come tomorrow instead and to leave the tiles outside the estate instead of inside.




I understand his predicament and also my request being a little too last minute for him, but when I contacted him, it was to inform him that the tiles were already delivered, not that it was in the process of getting delivered, what are you expecting me to do? Carry the tiles outside by myself?




I couldn't be bothered to reply to him and quickly made my way over to the lobby area and THANK GOD the tile supplier was still there, I could do two things at this point, either ask him to put the tiles outside the estate for me and have the hacker drop by tomorrow to uplift them, or I could simply uplift those items myself, there is the push trolley in the apartment and if there tiles aren't too many, I am sure it would be fine. I asked the tile delivery guy how many boxes there were, he told me about 10 and it sounded manageable, so I told him I will be bringing it up myself, he was nice enough to lend me his push trolley, puts all the tiles up and I was fully expecting him to deliver it with me to the apartment, but he leaves me at the lift and tells me that is as far as he will go, that once I was done, to bring the push trolley down.



The lift door opens, he pushes it in for me and I thought, great, this wasn't so difficult, press the level I was headed to and then got really worried because now, there isn't anyone to open the lift door for me when I am at the top, then the lift door opens and that was when the struggle began.




As I tried to push the trolley out, the lift doors kept closing and opening because I was outside the lift and the trolley was too low for the door sensors to work, and what made things worst was the fact that one of the wheels of the trolley got stuck between the gap of the lift opening, so that means not only was the lift door constantly opening and closing ,  I was also struggling to push the trolley out and also make sure I wasn't going to damage the lift doors. I literally wanted to scream out loud...

"HELP ME!"

... to get the tiler's worker's attention because they were in the apartment still doing their thing, but then decided not to because I didn't want to neighbors coming out, so as I was pushing the trolley out, I was starting to get really really pissed off at the whole situation that I just didn't give a fuck anymore and just really shaking the fucking trolley out with all my might until it finally got loose.




In my head, I was having a mini celebration, that I was able to do this myself, and also cursing at my tiler for being so fucking unhelpful and putting me in this situation because he was too lazy to ask his workers to help me.




I pushed the trolley towards the apartment, open the door and asked the worker who was doing the tiling work to help me get the tiles in, he immediately stopped what he was doing and started bringing them in, and as I was helping him move the tiles from the push trolley into the apartment, I noticed that something was not right, the lift door wasn't closing for some reason.



So I stopped what I was doing and had the worker just carry everything in himself, went into the lift and started pressing the "Close" button and it wouldn't close fully, it just closes 20% and then gets stuck.




FUCK!



Then I remembered one of my own colleague getting into a similar situation before with the lift door suddenly not working, which lead me to exclaim "Shit" out loud because my colleagues' condo management ending up requesting a few thousand dollars for compensation because for his case, the sensors were damaged and had to be completely replaced, luckily for him, he wasn't the one who damaged it, it was one of the sub-contractors who ended up forking out the money, but I am the one who damaged the lift doors, that means if there is any compensation, it will be coming from my commission, which would be horrible because it's fucking expensive and I don't think I am earning much from this project after all the cost absorption I have given to my clients.




I immediately called up my condo management office to report the lift door not closing and my biggest concern, aside from the potential compensation fee eating up my entire commission and then some, was how pissed off all the neighbors would get once they realize that the moron who has been disrupted their tranquility for the past 2 weeks has also damaged the fucking lift, the lady on the phone told me she will send a technician up and since the lift was not working, I ended up carrying the fucking push trolley down 6 flight of stairs to return to the delivery guy, who after realizing what had happened, could only laugh at my bad luck.



A little worried about the lift situation, I then headed to the management office in person and told them about the lift door, the lady then assured me that a technician has already been send down, so I went back to see if the technician was already there or not. I don't really know what happen afterwards because when I went up to my floor using the working lift, the damaged lift door actually got unstuck and closed on it's own, but it wouldn't move, so I ended up taking the flight of stairs down again and then realized that the lift had gone one level up. Not super sure what happened, I am hoping the technician was able to fix it and I don't have to pay any compensation for it, something I won't know until tomorrow I guess.




I blame my tiler for putting me in this situation. Not going to use him for my future projects anymore, he has put me under so much stress and also hugely inconvenience me today. I also found out that one of the worker he had send to do up my current project was the same guy who fucked up Sly Fox's place because of his horrible workmanship. I would very much like to ask my tiler to get someone else in, but then he probably won't listen because he gives zero shit at all, all he cares about is getting things done asap, which is why despite me telling him not to do the tiles for my living area, he has ignored my request and instructed his worker to do the exact opposite of what I told him not to do. I might have to bring this issue up to my boss very soon and have him do something about the tiler because this is honestly just unacceptable.

Soil Ha Ha

A few months ago, a couple walked into my company's showroom requesting for renovation works to be done to their space , at that time, because I was seated in the front of the showroom, I automatically up went to attend to them.



When I was informed that they wanted to renovate a commercial space, I immediately backed out and got my colleague to serve them instead, which she did and after an hour of consultation, my colleague walked them out and then came up to me and ask me if I was interested to come up with a design proposal for that commercial space since design wasn't really her strongest suite and also because she didn't have a lot of time to prepare the proposal. The idea of just coming up with the design and nothing else is pretty much my dream job, I hate the project coordination portion of Interior Design, so I agreed to her request under the condition that I will purely be in charge of the design aspect of it and that is it, she will handle all the nitty gritty renovation stuff.




I came up with a proposal within an hour and then passed it to her, the following week, she meets up with the clients, goes through the design proposal and they were very impress with the design, but they decided not to go forward with my company because they felt that the price was too high for them, so they told my colleague that they will be engaging another designer instead and that was that, the price my colleague prepared for them was pretty much non-negotiable because if you do not want a cookie cutter design, then be prepared to pay the price to achieve that look.




About a week after the rejection, surprise surprise, the clients actually messaged back and decided they wanted to engage my colleague after all, it was really out of the blue because the last time they messaged my colleague, they told her they will be engaging another Interior Designer, and then all of a sudden they are back again? We didn't think too much about it and were just happy that the project was clinched.




They were still a little tight on cash, so my original design was altered to fit their budget by my colleague and I really didn't like the final result because a lot of what made the space looked good in my opinion was removed, like a concrete wall that was meant to give texture to an otherwise flat looking space, and instead of painting all the walls with stripes like I had originally envisioned, only one wall was painted and the others were left stark white, which ended up making the place look half done and really cheap, but the clients didn't really have too much of an issue with it because for them, budget was more important than the overall aesthetics I guess, which also makes me wonder how bland were the designs proposed the other interior designers they visited.




The project finally starts and in my company, we have a very strict payment policy, the renovation itself can only commence once the client has paid 50% of the total renovation fees, this is a policy that is pretty much practiced by any legit Interior Design firms in Singapore, and after the owner has paid up 95% of the entire renovation fee, then we can do proceed to actually complete the entire renovation and really finish up the space. These clients told my colleague that they were tight on cash, so they can't make the 50% payment yet, but requested for the renovation works to start first because they had to make sure the place was done in time for them to operate 2 months later. My colleague took pity on them,so she proceeded to arrange all the renovation works with the contractors without informing our finance side.




At this stage, if the company found out about this, they will have the right to cease all the works and my colleague would have gotten into trouble, but fortunately for her, this wasn't brought to the company's attention until much later on when the client finally paid up, but it wasn't even 50%, they only paid about 30% and claimed that once their other shop closes, they will have the money to pay up.




This dragged on for a while and then when the carpentry was finally done and the clients were suppose to pay up to 95% of the renovation fee, same excuses again, that they still didn't have the money and couldn't pay up the full amount, so they just paid up to 80% and my colleague proceeded with the carpentry installation, once again out of pity and goodwill.




During this period, my colleague would reach out to the clients and ask them to pay up till the 95% because the company had found out about it and was already pressuring her , but the clients would come up with the same excuse, that they didn't have enough cash on hand and requested her to give them a bit more time,  and it was this constant back and forth until finally one day, the clients suddenly had a change of tune and decided to play the "workmanship is unacceptable" card and it is just fucking disgusting the way they were nitpicking on even the smallest issues.




First issue that they brought up to my colleague was about a power trip cause by bad electrical works.


1. Power Trip

According to them, when they turn on one of their mini fridges, it would short-circuit the entire shop, and they blamed it on the bad wiring done by the electricians. The problem is the shop's electrical works has already been approved by the shopping center management, there was zero issue during the inspection so there was no way it was due to bad wiring, all the power outlets were tested prior and it just didn't make any sense. The client even went and told my colleague that they got the "fridge" supplier down to inspect and the supplier told them it was due to the bad electrical works.




I told my colleague that it was pointless for her to solve the issue on her own, and it would be best to ask the clients to arrange a date for the electrician and the fridge supplier to meet, this way, the 2 experts can really determine what was actually causing the short circuit, and she did, but then a few days later, the clients suddenly said the supplier couldn't make it and they had to cancel the appointment with the electrician.


The electrician and the supplier never met, the shop is currently in operations, I am guessing that means the fridge is also working fine in order for the shop to be operational, and so far, there hasn't been any short circuit, the fridge issue has not been brought up since. My colleague and I then came to the conclusion that the "supplier" was completely made up, the clients didn't get anyone down to check their fridge, they were blatantly lying about being told that by the supplier that it was bad wiring.

Liar Liar

2. Bad Carpentry Workmanship.


After unsuccessfully finding fault with the electrical works, they decided to set their sights on finding issue with the carpentry work.



So for their place, what I had proposed in my design was to do suspended shelving that would act as tables, where customers could sit down and place their bags and drinks on, it wasn't meant to be a heavy duty table, and this was reiterated by my colleagues to them multiple times.


Nothing heavy was to be placed on the shelving tables because it is not meant to be used for heavy items. They went to put 2 safe deposit boxes on it.

2 SAFE DEPOSIT BOXES. 

And then they have the audacity to message my colleague and tell her that the shelving are bending due to poor workmanship, and then accuse my colleague that they weren't inform about not putting heavy items on it.


They then requested for the shelving to be removed, which I don't think they meant and was trying to force my colleague to settle with a monetary compensation instead, but then my colleague agreed to it and got the carpenter down to actually dismantle the shelving, so they no longer have the built in shelve cum table, which is great, except for the shameless fact that the client then requested for a refund for that shelving. 




Extremely disgusting individuals.




My colleague has since given up on this project and requested for another colleague to take over because she just couldn't handle the clients anymore and as far as I am aware, that other colleague is also currently going through the same shit as her, with new issues being brought up and the best fucking line the clients said to that other colleague was...

"I don't know what I did to deserve this from you guys, I don't think we have underpaid you for the renovation works."

FUCK YOU! You only paid 80% when you are suppose to have paid 95%! THAT IS UNDERPAYING! And then the earlier sentence about being undeserving of going through their current predicament.

This perfectly describes the current predicament they are going through.




It is just really disgusting how ungrateful these 2 clients are, after all the help my colleague offered them, the discounts she ended up giving, starting the renovation work before they have made the proper payment to ensure they can operate their business in time, this is how they show their gratitude.



2 Fucking Ingrates.

Right now, everyone who is aware of this 2 pieces of shit at work are theorizing that they are stirring up all this shitstorm to void their final 20% payment and also to get even more refund.

GROSS!

Before starting the renovation, I was still joking with my colleague that we should be getting special discounts whenever we get drinks from the shop, but looking at the current state of the working relationship, fuck no am I ever going to support their business.