Emailing in BM

Dear xxxxx,

I believe you already have 1 of your lightning-snared PC replaced. As for printer, you will have to wait for the next financial year as we budget for the replacement. As for another PC that you’ve requested, we will arrange for a used PC to be sent to your place – if we can find one.
Could you reveal your location to us? Many thanks.

Regards

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Dear En.Tan

Tank you sir but I think to long wait new printer why not repair it because very importen to do some work if you can sir
Tank u sir

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2 weeks later - replied late because was busy +___+ and obviously taken aback by the kind of reply I receive.. certainly fall below what I expect.. I take nothing away from his initiative and courage though.. at least he tried to reply in English for me. But to make things easier, I decided to reply in BM.. painfully to my brain, cracking my SPM memory writing pure formal and correct BM.

Dear xxxxxx,

Mohon maaf terlambat membalas. Emel ini bertujuan untuk memberi kepastian kepada Encik bahawanya situasi Encik masih dalam perhatian saya. Saya berjanji untuk mencari langkah seterusnya dalam usaha membantu menyelesaikan masalah Encik ini selambat-lambatnya minggu hadapan.
Thank you for your kind consideration.

Kind Regards

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Dear En. Tan

Kerjasama Tuan sangatlah dihargaai. terima kaseh dan sekian


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Dear xxxxxx,

Sila maklumkan lokasi kerja anda untuk tindakan saya yang selanjutnya.

Sekiranya semua bergerak lancar, akan saya minta staff iPerintis ke lokasi encik untuk memeriksa ataupun sekaligus menjalankan kerja baikpulih.

Regards

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So yeah.. because the language was so bad, I decided to reply in BM and although it may look as if I've never left my BM writing days 6 years ago, I assure you it was excruciatingly difficult - as if trying to squeeze out some leftover strands or pebbles of shit from the food that you've eaten 3 weeks ago.. No one will have any idea how long I took to draft out a single reply in BM to that email. I even asked my friends how to accomplish so. When I read back, it does look as though they were effortlessly written, but yeah, unfortunately, because I need to make people understand, I'll have to make do of whatever knowledge/skills I have in me... regardless of how long ago those memory resided in my mind!

Still, I think my BM in the email is overly 'baku' if you know what I mean.. I wonder what the person at the end will think of me after reading a BM that's so formal! :)

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Business Information System

I recently got a comment frm this person who's identity I couldn't determine called Urules and I went to see his blog.. apparently he's a UTP grad too.. came across this particular paragraph that i find interesting:

if u ever go to UTP; i tell you this, your goal should be because you want to make lotsa friends.. not studying. lol! well.. might as well study too.. i heard the lecturers are better nowadays, save for just finger- counted when i was there. in my time, people looked down to Information System students.. but as of now.. IS students are more successful than other students. not IT.. not Engineering features.. in term of careers, that is. do not under estimate the power of analyst. we were taught how to create, how to manipulate data. you’d be surprised how far we can govern resources. be it simple as you can see.

I have to admit that I agree with this fella. From what I observe, Business Information System students especially graduates from UTP are now highly sought after and very marketable. I'm not quite sure but I think it has to be our ability to do a wide range of fields from obvious business, commerce, marketing, finance, to technology fields in IT not to mention many management areas like KM and Proj Mgt and Dev - most importantly, to command all of these in good english! I remember coming in not knowing what this course is about and no clue what field I am about to venture into. What the hell is this Sistem Maklumat Perniagaan? Gosh, it sounds so low when the offer letter came and written in BM +__+ I took it up and have no regrets at all!~ :D

And yeah, I have to admit that there are many engineering students who deliberately or perhaps doing it unconsciously.. look down on us BIS students - perhaps the joining criteria is a little lower compared to their engineering courses. No problemo though, many of us turned out good now :) To be fair, IT grads are doing well too.. as long as they're willing to venture into non-IT areas and compete with us BIS students in the said fields, they can do well too. I'm sure amongst IT students in UTP, many aren't really have interest in pure IT and are really in fact, management people. Don't worry, there's life for you guys outside.. I've seen it! hehe~

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Turning 22 and Job Enlightenment

Reunion Picture 14 Nov 2009

Saying that my birthday this year was excellent is an understatement. I was already unconsciously prepared for yet another low key day, and even had to go work for the first 7 hours of my birthday. On the eve however, John asked to meet me at KLCC's Chilis, then surprised me by having each one of our uni buddies, the Muggles groupie turning up! We had a really good time catching up.. then, we headed to Ampang Point - oh the view was absolutely fabulous overlooking the KL City. We had cakes and I've got presents :) They're really sweet people to be able to come up with such heartwarming ideas~ Our reunion, despite some awkward moments, ended warmly and I'm really proud of my friends here for putting aside some differences.

One tiny dot of ink doesn't make the sheet all black.

Though some of us may be far apart, deep inside, I hope that we'll always stick together for I know there are many who look for their entire life for this friendship that we have and not everyone is as lucky. I wouldn't give this away for anything, definitely!

And by the 3rd day, my cake count total reaches 5! Gosh.. Never before I've gotten more than 1. Getting a lil' sick of cakes already for sure - although yes, some of the cakes were really beautiful. They did help in making me feel better about eating them despite the amount of cakes I've downed thus far :P However, these are sincere thoughts and I take nothing away them - so thanks everyone for the warm wishes :) Special thanks to my siblings, 1st klcc lunchgang, and pipers!

On the working side, I've felt much better about myself now. Yes, people who've been reading the past few posts can fairly accuse me of being too image-centered and egoistic about how I'd want people to look at me but sorry, that's just how I am. I feel satisfied only when I'm happy with the significance and respect that my work commands in people's as well as my own eyes. That's my exact criteria for personal job satisfaction - not everyone will have the same criteria, mind you. Few knew of the emotional turmoil that I went through on the inside, my thoughts on people's opinion on myself and my job, a bunch of other non-job-related stuff, and its unfortunate but inevitable stereotyped association with security.

After being placed in such working environment, I definitely see it differently now.. and even recognize the importance of it. Such crucial the role of security in the company's business to the extend that for all the billions that the other sectors bring in, one simple act of security failure would flush down each and every single cent of those billions down the toilet! Understanding what I do is the key to feeling better about my job - and I now know that I've been blooded in for something fresh. I'm after all, the first ever Chinese staff in the division, the first capable emcee that they have, the first recruit from a rival company, and many more B)

I will be heavily involved in project management, the deployment side of it (sounds familiar huh, Shell?), then the maintenance and operational side. So yes, I manage and coordinate projects, specializing in building security systems. It's a shame, I don't get to change my skillgroup (some HR personal development thingy) to number 19 - Project Management. Nevertheless, the key milestone is that I am well now.. and how am I not when I have such quality friends around me :)

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The Office Bully

There's this guy in my office, non-executive, 50+ of age, let's call him M, and he seems to be picking on me. I don't what his problem is but he definitely has something on me. Here are the 2 incidents that I've had with him for the past 5 days.

Incident 1:
I was at the waiting area for the lift to go up to my office floor one morning after arriving from the LRT. I saw M there, made eye contact, smiled, and respectfully greeted him. When the lift came, we went in together with many other people. While waiting for my floor to come, I took a peek at the headlines of the free newspaper that I took from the LRT.

Here comes the trouble: When my floor arrived, I stepped out and he trailed.. as we entered the office, he slurred at me "Kalau paper tu dibeli, takpe pon.. ni paper free, ambek dari LRT.. nak berlagak sombong baca dalam lift" and just walked off leaving me highly confused at what just happened.

Incident 2:
I had just very successfully emceed a divisional event and received fantastic reviews from everyone. The GM, Managers, and the big shots were there and this will surely do my reputation well. Apparently, they haven't got one capable emcee probably in their whole history and I just changed that - not that I was brilliant, but I could say I didn't stammer, mumble my words, or monotonous, which are good enough. Although I did purposely mix speaking English together with Malay for the benefit of those whom I know didn't understand English well.

Here comes the trouble: As I was leaving the office 30mins after the event ended, M called out loud at me from his cubicle in front of everyone, "TAANN!!! haaa~ Lu mari sini!!~". Definitely not pleased at being called by my surname, I went to him. He continued, "Lain kali, cakap la bahasa melayu, kasi campur skali ke.. ni kan 1Malaysia.. yang cakap bahasa orang putih apasal~ banyak orang tak faham maaa~".

1st of all, I DID mixed my speech with Malay language - if he tells me that, this only means that he wasn't listening.
2nd, I HATE people who mockingly speak the stereotyped Chinese slang - which is totally unnecessary.
3rd, what's with "banyak orang tak faham"? I've got nothing but great feedbacks from the management.. if he doesn't understand English, then man up and tell me "saya tak faham English.. MAAA!".
4th, why must he bring 1Malaysia up?? Not like I was speaking Mandarin in the first place... or in expense of Malay. I was only speaking ENGLISH, a universal language and I mixed with Malay too! This is a multinational global company and who's he to tell me that.

I nodded respectfully, smile at him, said "OK" and walked away. I've got nothing to say to such person. I don't have to impress anyone as insignificant like him. If the GM and Managers are satisfied with my work, I'm all more than good!

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Boring Boring Chelsea

Okay, that's the chant opposing fans used on Chelsea a few years back for their negative approach under coaches, Jose Mourinho and Claudio Ranieri. I'm now relating that to how my job's making me boring as a person. Not only that I can't be myself in the office but even outside as well (within the towers area) in case one of my many (I seriously don't know how many) subordinates saw me acting 'inappropriately' like i normally do when with my clicks, I'd lose the respect that I require for my job.

And because I feel I'm turning plan black and white Charles, I'm trying to be more attentive to my topics of discussion these days with everyone. My results? Here it is - I just noticed a few things that support my idea as well.

The topics of discussion amongst your colleague are:

1. Your workload
   
2. Your boss
   
3. Your annual leave
4. Your bonus (if got la~)
5. Your appraisal
6. Your trainings
7. Your office
8. Your company policy
9. Your salary (credited in yet or not)
10. Your claims
11. Your assignments
12. Your career paths

So I've been thinking.. Hmm.. Perhaps I should be creative in this new thing I'm going through. How about introducing these:

1. Fashion (office attire/brands/mega sales)
   
2. Recent happenings (whatever's happening elsewhere)
3. Gossips (scandals/celebrity/rumours)
4. Sports (football/tennis/badminton/F1)
5. Chicks Rating - okaay.. just kidding, am trying so hard to think out of the box!
   
6. HELP NEEDED!!! *brain melted*
   

So yeah, get wut imma treyiner sayh? x__x Siigghh~

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Everyday in the Office

Everyday after lunch from around 2.30pm to 3.30pm.. that's the time of the day when my head just doesn't work and my eyes feel as though someone put glue between my eyelids.. I was caught sleeping once in my first month and I was determined not to have a repeat >.< So this is how I go to the battlefield everyday: cookies and sweets!! :D

And once a while, those same eyes would linger and glue itself at a piece of photo taken not too long ago with some very lovely people. I know I still see some of the people in the photo, but it's different without everyone together.. the atmosphere and feeling of being at PIPE is also very different. I miss the moments everyday. Determined, I'd blink away some feelings that somehow escaped from my new fresh box and continue with my work.

Yes, I'm still missing PIPE :')

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Ridiculous! - I still look the same okay~

Today, twice I met 2 people whom I knew from UTP and TWICE, they had no idea who I was!! wth??

First, at lunchtime, a guy sat in on my table and introduced himself to me.. I stared at him and said, "Hey don't I already know you??" ..and after 2 long seconds with him not making any recognition in knowing me, I pulled out my wallet and showed him my university matrix card. Then only he went "ooh!!! Charlz!!~~ Sorry2 so sorry x kenal.. huhuhu"

Then, later in the afternoon, a guy I knew walked into my office, to my cubicle, held out his hand to introduce himself and asked for information. I shook his hand, gave him his information, and held him back. "Hey you're from UTP~ Don't you recognize me?" ..and again, he showed the same puzzled look without any recognition. Fed up, I took out my wallet again and pulled out my matrix card. Then only he said "Ooohh!!! Charlz.. emcee for IDC, we worked together before! sorry3"

Then I remember myself showing that card to Reen, a friend whom I met in PIPE training and also from UTP but we've never met throughout the 5 years there. She looked at that card, then looked at me a little bewildered.. "No wonder I tak kenal you time dlu, tak sama langsung"

Conclusion? The difference then and now is that I now wear contact lens full time. I guess I can be Clark Kent from Daily Planet and Superman now LOL~ Naaaahh... I dont think I look too different, spectacles or none >.< Either that it's because ever since I joined this company, I'm increasingly beginning to look like the CEO!

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I AM Charles - Period!

Dear Tan,
I am investigating on ########### and would like to request your cooperation in assisting me. Could you provide me with the list of staff’s name who can access ########## from 01/09 to 30/09.
Thank you

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Dear En Azahar
Yes – I will provide you with the necessary information ASAP and cooperate in your investigations in any ways possible.
By the way, I humbly take pride of my name, Charles – which is in my birthcert and IC, thus I would appreciate it if you could refer to me as such in the future.
Thanks and Cheers!

Okay, it might sound like I was overdoing it but I had to make a point. But my name is LEGAL and not something leisurely-given in the middle of my life yada yada~ Grrr~

Yes, I'm Charles Tan, Systems Control Executive, P*tronas Holdings. *shakes hand confidently with a glowing smile*

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Partial Self Recovery

Hi I'm Charles Tan, Systems Executive. I'm from Systems and Control Department, P*tronas Holding Company. Pleasure to meet you.

*shakes hand confidently with a glowing smile*


Note: due to low self-esteem problem, I shall not mention my division name anymore, unless necessary.

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Job Dis-Satisfaction

Despite going through all the character building and self development, it only made it crystal clear to myself - that I am discontent with where I am now. The challenge remains there but this is definitely not where I envisioned myself to be. Yes I have many people reporting to me, they call me boss, I approve their leave applications, I control the whole division's ICT inventory, and earn respectably, how many fresh grads can be where I am now - but to me, all these so what?

Some people remain ambitious and willing to step out just to achieve their dream job despite being paid lesser, while others could be willing to stay and slack around as long as their bank balance make them smile. I feel trapped and at times, lost. I look at that certain person in my PIPE group who's riding her dream job and willing to even forget looking for a partner just to focus on a career that she's always wanted for so long. As much as I rue, I'm envious :)

The company must be cursing themself if that program makes everyone feels this way. I admit, it was good - cleared my mind, sharpen my leadership skills, develop my awareness and harness my potential.. but in doing that, it does many other things to me.. like thinking ahead of what I want in life. I don't know where I'm heading yet. Currently, I am dis-satisfied but will have to persevere like a Bee :)

Thankfully, I have some wonderful people around me out of office at least. Someone please smack me and tell me to be grateful for what I have! (but u know we humans can never get enough) >.<

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