Same Old Series of Unfortunate Events Part II

Continuation from previous post...

Given my strong willpower and endurance, I battled valiantly on in the company. Even when she rail at me everyday I just ignore the mad dog’s barks. The spark that ignited my resignation was when my group got invited to Chicago for a film festival that we had submitted our final year project documentary. I had to take leave last minute for 9-11 days to go to Chicago. When I informed her, she was alright with giving me the leave, and DIDN’T mention ANYTHING about the leave being no pay leave. So happily I spent a great 9 days in Chicago’s snowy and windy city. When I came back on Sunday evening, I felt terribly tired, after 24 hours of flight from US is not funny. I sms-ed one of my fellow colleagues to inform her that I’ll go back to work one day later, cos I was too tired from the flight. And I didn’t want to sms her and argue with her, so I sms-ed another person instead. So for the next day I rested at home.

The next day I went home, she ignored me totally. Not knowing what’s her problem, I just kept away from her. But then days went by and she still didn’t give me any work directly, if she had to give me work, she asked the intern to inform me. So naturally with the drop in workload I was very leisurely at work. Only after 1 week did she asked me to go to her office and confronted me about not informing her that I was taking another day off. I told her I called back to the office and she wasn’t around, so I left a message with someone else, who happened to be that colleague of mine. She said she was pissed with not being informed. So I said alright, next time I’ll make sure I talk to you personally. And I asked if there’s anything else. Then she said no, then I said can I leave now to go back to my work. Then she said fine.

When my cheque came, the sum was as usual. So I dropped the cheque into cheque deposit on that same day. And so the money was transferred the very next day. And a few days later the bank sent me a notice that my cheque was stopped. So I called the bank and they said it was stopped by the person giving it. So I confronted her the very next day. She had the audacity to say that for the number of days that I had been gone she had to deduct money from my pay! I was furious, but at the point in time, I saw no point arguing with her, so I just said fine, just deduct if you want to. Then she asked how many days I had taken leave. So I said 9 days. Then she said she’ll give me another cheque. But she didn’t give it to me immediately.

So the next morning, as usual I had nothing to do. But there wasn’t anyone in the office when I arrived and she arrived shortly after. Then when she came she walked over to me and said that my attitude is very bad, she don’t think that the company can afford to keep me anymore… and at that point in time the rest of the staff came into the office, and she walked into her office…

I was left there confused and wondering what she wanted. I mean if she wanted to sack me then fine. Just give me my pay and I’ll leave. Cos I don’t think I had been behaving badly towards my work at all. I’ve been working overtime like nobody’s business with no extra pay; and cracking my brains and sacrificing my weekends to help her solve the shit that she got herself into for not clarifying details with her clients; and there she’s going on about my bad work attitude???!!! What a B***H!!!

So I told the other girls what she had told me just now and asked if I should go in and confront her if she’s serious about asking me to leave. Cos I saw no point in wasting my time there since she’s not coming out even after 30mins! So I went into her room and confronted her. I asked her if she’s asking me to leave. She said she finds my work attitude is bad. So I said if that’s the case then give me my money and one month’s severance pay, and I’ll leave now. Then she said there’s no such thing as severance pay! Then I said fine, then it’s me quitting, not you asking me to leave. Then I said can you settle my pay now. She said she can’t she’s too busy. Please note that she actually owed me the previous month’s pay also, cos of the stopped cheque. So I asked when can I come to collect my pay then. Then she said next week. So I said I’ll be back next week to collect it then.

In the end, not only did she NOT prepare my cheque. She left the office just before the scheduled time for me to come and collect the cheque. I was furious, as I had called my colleagues to check that she’s in the office and had fixed a time to come. They told me she just suddenly said that she had an appointment on and escaped.

I fixed another time, at the weekend. This time, my furious mum also went down with me. And again she escaped from the office. And the cheque did NOT include my CPF. I called her and she said that she’ll include it in the cheque, but she didn’t. So I called CPF to enquire about this matter, as I realised that she had not been submitting in CPF for me and she owed me a considerable sum of CPF money. They advised me to get the pay slips as proof of my employment status with her, as she did not make us sign any contract when we entered the company and she didn’t give us any pay slips.

In the end, she still didn’t pay me my CPF, this was already the third time I went down, and she only paid me my claims. So I called CPF again. They advised me to send an email to her and cc CPF regarding the CPF payment, and indeed she responded that she’ll submit the CPF for me. But that was only 1 week later that I saw that the amount was entered into my CPF, but still it was short. As she had also deducted CPF for the days that I was on leave in Chicago!

Firstly she forcefully deducted my pay, even though it should have been leave; then she deducts my CPF too!!! I was furious! But that B***H had the upper hand cos due to her lack of HR skills, she HR were in a mess, and all our pay slips were missing, and we had no proof that we worked for her. So it was a battle that I could never win.


To be continued...

Same Old Series of Unfortunate Events Part I

I think I need a walk round the wheel of luck...

I need a change of luck...

If ANYONE complains that they've been unlucky OR unhappy in their jobs and job-hopped a million times... pls see my situation before u complain next time...

Have been in the workforce for about 2 years plus already.... but in the 2 jobs that I've held so far, I have had the WORST luck anyone can imagine...

cos it's two times in a row... its like the book by Lemoney Snickets... "A Series Of Unfortunate Events"...

my very unfortunate incidents as follows...

My very first was at this small production house located at this a very old and dilapidated office in an industrial building… the very first time I went for the interview, there was this very auntie looking woman who greeted me. (Auntie looking meaning that she looked like she was the office cleaner and coffee lady as she had a rag in her hand when I walked in.) The entire office had 1 PC outside, and 1 Mac outside, and 3 Macs inside this cordoned off area where the AVID editing machines and Final Cut Pro were placed. Further inside, there were 2 rooms at the back of the office, and one of them looked like an office. The auntie told me to wait outside first, cos the person who called me wasn’t around. So I sat down at this plastic desk and chair near the door, there wasn’t exactly a reception area at all. Then the auntie asked me to go into the office to wait. When I waited inside, the lady who called me came back, and she said that she’ll start the interview when the producer is in the room… then guess wat… the AUNTIE came in… I was like… “Oh my gosh, luckily I didn’t call her auntie…” the interview went alright, and she said that she’s actually looking for an editor, not a producer… so I said I can try first I don’t mind, as I’ll just take it as a learning experience… then the interview ended… I left…

A few days later she called and asked if I wanna try being editor… and then she immediately asked me to go that evening and try out some editing with the AVID machine…. Ok fine…. But then she left me there and went to eat dinner!!! Then I actually finished in like 20 mins and I couldn’t find her or the lady that called me… and there was like only 1 guy in the entire office… and seeing that she wasn’t coming back I went to ask the guy where she went… that’s when I knew she went to eat!!! OMG how can any employer do that when you are doing an interview???!!!! After like almost an hour she finally came back… and we discussed terms… and the pay was like peanuts… $1300-1400 ok… I said I’ll consider about it… even though inside my mind I’ve already rejected it cos of the low pay… then another week later she called me again… and I mentioned that I find the pay too low, and I’m more interested in producing than in editing… then another week later she called and asked if I’m interested in a producer job, with starting pay at $1500… since I haven’t been getting any job offers, I thought I’ll just take it and see how…

My very first day was very scary for me… as she didn’t do a great job at introducing me to the staff and there wasn’t really a desk for me so I had to work at the pantry table…. Yes the very first day she gave me a project and asked me to try and conceptualise and write the script for a beverage…

Weeks went by and little by little she started to show her true colours… at first she was very nice… and since I worked with some of her previous media colleagues and contacts before, she likes to gossip about them to me… no doubt trying to make friends… but then as months went by, I noticed that she has some rather bad habits or characteristics:

1. she’s hopeless in managing people or the company…

2. no doubt the company is small, but she has really badly stored and kept equipment, etc that never seem to be serviced or checked for faults… a terrible mistake for a production company that relies so much on your equipment…

3. she likes to PR so much with the clients that sometimes it makes me wanna puke… imagine an auntie trying to flirt with you… that’s the scenario…

4. she has really extreme mood swings that make the entire company’s staff pissed with her when she screams pretty much like a mad dog, and worst still… FOLLOWS u around when she’s “barking” and doesn’t stop even if you walk away!!! Then the next moment she can be asking you if you want lunch and buys everyone in the office lunch… our verdict is that she’s menopausal…

5. she has very terrible hygiene… she doesn’t shave her armpits… she had BO… she has smelly feet… and wat’s worst is that she likes to wear sleeveless, or butterfly sleeves tops that show her plump arms… and the unshaven black forest and smelly armpits… she also likes to walk about bare footed in the office… her room stinks when she removes her shoes…. Once it was so bad it stank as if there was a dead fish or animal in the office… I almost puked when I went in to have meetings with her… even she also smelled it, and tried to blame it on the AC…

6. she likes to take jobs that have so short a turnaround period that it’s almost impossible to finish for us unless we work OT ( OT is not paid here… only can claim transport)… mainly duplication jobs that once made me work on a Sunday from 5am in the morning cos her unserviced Mac was cranky and didn’t wanna output the video onto VCD…

7. ultra cheapo commercials that make you ashamed when you see them on TV…
she doesn’t like people to rebut or speak back to her, or even have an opinion… she likes gentle lambs that will do her EVERY bidding… DEFINITELY NOT ME… so that’s why I’m her eye sore…

8. she likes to try to use food to bribe the staff… but to no avail… she once treated the ENTIRE company’s staff out for steamboat at one of her client’s restaurant… of cos we went… but we just ate and ate and ate… just gave one word answers to her questions to PR with her…. We ALL went shopping after the meal but told her that we were leaving for home…

9. her make-up skills are an eye sore… she puts only foundation, and cos her face is oily… it gathers around her nose, and some parts of the face, and looks patchy…

10. manicures are a waste of money & time for her… since she doesn’t even do proper grooming… nails are just not enough… the rest are much more important…


to be continued….

Pics from JB trip!!!

Here's the LONG-AWAITED pics of TTT with her humongous 3 houses... after our JB trip...


TTT with her 3 houses


Butterstreets, TTT & Alwaysane after our JB shopping trip...

peace out,
same old same old