Friday, May 14, 2021

Inconvenient convenience

In the pursuit of offering convenience to the public, it has brought upon a great inconvenience to the public servant.

In my opinion, the "no wrong door" policy is flawed.

Imagine you're hungry. You then enter a bank, walk towards the bank teller and ask for a plate of fried kway teow. The teller cannot tell you, "Sir, this is a bank. We don't sell fried kway teow.".

Note to reader: Scenario given is an absurd exaggeration. I know it is ridiculous. But that's how I make sense of the policy.

Let me give you another scenario.

A man walks into an MP's office and tells him he has bags full of books to donate. MP says to the man, "We do not accept book donations. But you can donate them to the library.". Hey! No wrong door policy, remember? He should be able to just leave those books in the MP's office anyway.

But I guess that's not what "no wrong door" policy means.

Fine. Let's move on then...

The same man then proceeds to the library and tries to drop off bags full of books. A staff notices, approaches the man and tells him not to do so as the library that he went to couldn't accept donations. Man defiantly objects and says he already spoke to the MP who said he can donate them to a library. Staff gets frustrated and tells man to stop feeding books into the bookdrop slot. Staff then approaches branch manager, branch manager approaches man and accepts the books anyway to calm the situation. Few days later, staff gets a complaint and manager gets a compliment.

What the flying fuck.

It was during this time that staff got schooled about the "no wrong door" policy. First time I ever heard such a thing, to be honest. And that's when I read up on it.

Here's my issue. If there is a "no wrong door" policy at play, then stop telling us to tell visitors we do not accept donations. Donate whatever the fuck you want. We'll take it! You hate your wife? Heck. We'll take her too! *does joyful chicken dance*

TL;DR: The government encourages the use of a policy they do not observe. Shoves the idea down the throats of other organizations who are forced to comply (despite telling their staff they do not accept donations). You people have no idea how much trouble you put us into.

Thankless job

Almost nobody cares enough to write you a compliment when you give good service. It's too much trouble, they say. But when they're dissatisfied, they'll write in a complaint in the blink of an eye.

I hate people. 

Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Lockdown extended.

So our prime minister announced an extension to the country's lockdown from what was supposed to end on May 4th to now the 1st of June 2020.

So now a majority of us will be based at home. My daughter will be on home-based learning, my wife will work from home and myself, since the library will be closed, will not have any work at all. I'll still get paid but with a small percentage of pay cut.

I had initially volunteered to help out as an SDA (social distancing ambassador) but the timing for where I'm designated to work makes it impossible for me to get there in time. Was supposed to be based in wet markets to handle the crowd but I was deployed to one that was quite a distance from home and I couldn't make it there in time even if I tried. On top of that, I think I screwed up with a snarky remark to my superior when asked to come in at 6am the next morning. Stupid me. What's new?

Moving on, I still have much to do whether I still have that job or not. I'm hoping I still have the job though. I chose to do it for a much nobler reason, not so much for the money my company is paying. I am doing this because I want to help in this time of crisis. I feel no sense of purpose to just stay home and still get paid. If I can go out there and contribute in any way I can, then I'd rather do that (even without salary).

There may be some risks involved but I've given it enough thought to sacrifice. If I do my part and the condition gets better here, at least I know I didn't just sit my ass at home and do nothing. As introverted and grumpy of a person that I am, deep down there is a garden in my heart. *withered flower pose*