Full Tank
December 30, 2007 by haziamyperspective
My 4th day… I woke up that morning relief that it was already Friday. I was exhausted and was glad to embrace the weekend.
The MD’s secretary called me at 10am - my presentation was brought forward by 1 hour. The MD surprised me. Not only he understood my 40 slides’ re-branding proposal without me having to present it to him, he also spotted a loophole. His first remark was that it focused mainly on external communication. Was I also in charge of internal communication? And what was my background?
I explained briefly, mentioning that I did have the experience and exposure of an excellent internal communication practice when I was with the hotel. It was not my forte, but it was do-able. Was I aware of the high staff turnaround? He interviewed those who had resigned and nailed it down to 2 reasons. Amazingly, from my daily lunch socialising, I ended up with the same conclusion - low salary (to be reviewed) and inability to see the future due to the change in leadership every 2 years.
He said before we could even communicate externally and re-brand the organisation, we need to clean up the house first. People should know why they are there, realise the good deeds they are doing and get their purpose right (niat kena betul/ikhlas). If they believed in what they are doing, salary and change in leadership wouldn’t bother them.
With that, he wanted me to champion the company’s internal communication efforts. This was mainly because I am new and fresh, like him, and wouldn’t even hesitate to step on people’s toes (because I wouldn’t even know where they are). I would be presentating another proposal to him soon - phase 1, the one I did was more like phase 2.
Looks like I’d be under the spotlight, need to have my fuel full tank all the time. So much for wanting to leave it all behind. I won’t be surprised if I end up turning back into my old workaholic self next year.
The HR Manager had just gotten back from a long leave and apologised on the condition of my room. Chee, funny, I didn’t even expect to get a room in the first place. LOL! The Admins Exec dropped by my office after that, telling me that as soon as the one sharing my office leave for good, he would remove his table and I’ll have the space to myself. Not only that, they would replace my table and my phone with a manager’s model. Wow!
The one sharing my office was in the whole day. Someone put a personal fax chasing for payment on his desk, he assumed it was me. So, he was set on calling the bank officer 10 times from morning to evening and had a long conversation to explain that it was a mistake, least I thought he was a bad debter. It would spoil his image. For god sake, as if I care! I was editing a speech and wished that he would just butt off, I could use some peace and quiet.
I heard that his battle with a previous senior executive (seated at my desk) was really heaty. They even smashed the door, to the other staff’s horror. I also found out that he was a fanatic, always preaching religion to the other staff, in a very cynical manner though. He’d email a taskirah every Friday.
He was hardly in the office, he had passed all his responsibilitites to the other 2 staff quite a while back. Someone said he should ask himself whether makan gaji buta is not a sin. LOL!
