Hazia’s Reflections

I’ve been wanting to write this piece for quite sometime already. What better day that today.

I remember when I’ve just joined my present company. My colleague and I rushed for a client meeting in Bukit Jalil, missing lunch, only to be told that it had been cancelled when we arrived.

On an another incidence, we went for a meeting with a client VP. It seemed that she was held up in another meeting and we had to wait for another 2 hours. The venue was in the middle of nowhere so we couldn’t do other things to fill up the time. And to make matters worse, my MD was with us. So, you could just imagine the total number of hours wasted between the 4 of us. A consultant’s time is charged by the hour according to position, and the 3 of us were senior staffs too.

Don’t even get me started on the repeatedly cancelled meeting with the Minister. We went to his office in Putrajaya, waited for a few hours only to be told to come again the next day. This went on for a few more days until he was scheduled to fly off somewhere.

If people do this at work, we call it ‘unprofessional’. It showed lack of respect of people and their time. What about doing the same thing with personal appointments?

I had a friend who kept on cancelling 1 outing after another at the last minute. Bear in mind that our workplaces were less than 10 minutes apart.

Suddenly, 1 fine day, she called and asked me to meet her in Bangsar in 30 minutes. Well, I was having my hair coloured. That would take another 2 hours at least. Guess what she said? She had other plans after that, so it was a goner. That was the last time we were in contact, probably 2 years ago. I gave up on it.

I know I could be a planner, to me time is precious. But I am talking about cancelling on people at the 11th hour and doing it repeatly here, not just a one off unavoidable thing. Top that with the inability to firmly re-schedule after that.

Sometimes, I wonder what message a person is sending you when he/she cancels like 5 or 10 weekend outings in a row at the 11th hour. That plus agreeing and then unable to commit to travel plans made not too far in advance. Lack of respect of people’s time or…of people themselves? It’s like you keep on telling someone that he/she is at the bottom of your priority list. If it’s a man, it is simple. He isn’t interested or into you. But, how does the same rule apply to women? I wonder.

I know some people’s weekend schedules are unpredictable. I have a close friend whose personal and work commitments always tend to overspill into her weekends. But she took charge and overcome it. What she did was to not plan in advance, but to meet up on ad-hoc basis. For example, she just finished her Sunday morning meeting with a contractor in Shah Alam and called me to ask if I could make it in Bangsar later in the afternoon.

Her mother is very old and her father is on a wheelchair due to stroke. She is the youngest child and the only one who is still single, so she has tonnes of commitments. However, we do meet up regularly, on weekends and weekdays. I guess meeting me is important to her which is why she makes sure that it happens, against all odds. It shows how highly she values our friendship.

Something to think about:)