__ Opps! it fell.

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

12:49 PM

Dear Mr. Revi Nair,

I have come to a point that I can no longer take it but to take 2 days MC as advised by the doctor. Working in Bird Park is a wonderful experience even though there is a lot of work to do. I have learned a lot of things here and I am sure that my attachment here will be a good one.
Unfortunately, the scolding and all the funny things done by my senior manager really stops me from being a dedicated worker. Seriously speaking, I am willing to work harder for a good and professional boss. A person like her couldn’t consider as professional because she will scold me vulgar languages like FUCK YOU, BIMBO, DUMB, IDOIT; actions like scolding me in front of clients, make me lose faces, make me swear and promise things and threatening words like I WILL KILL YOU IF YOU SPREAD THIS AROUND, I WILL COMPLAIN TO YOUR SCHOOL and I WILL SACK YOU IF YOU DON’T PERFORM.
I believe you can still remember what I told you during the first classroom session. I have been tolerating the things mentioned above for one month plus, until yesterday’s incident happened and I totally broke down. The scenario was:

I remembered very clearly that on Saturday, 9/07/2005, she asks me to come to work on Sunday,10/07/2005, if not, why should I act smart and come to get scolding from her? Then on Sunday, when I was doing my job, there was a client looking for her at around 10.50am. Therefore, I called her up to inform her. But the moment she picked up the phone, she says this in an angry tone:
“Adelene, why are you here? You are not supposed to be here. I have sent you an email saying that I don’t need you to come. Please go home now! I want you to disappear once I’ve reach Bird Park.”
In the end, I didn’t go home straight after we hang up the phone because I am in-charge of the lunch for my department and I need to order and collect the lunch for my department at 11.45am. I did not tell her this on the phone because she said she will be arriving in 10 minutes time. So, I planned to tell her personally.
Lunch at Bird Park
My senior manager put me in-charge of our lunch for the Marketing department. Everyday, we have to collect the lunch at 11.45am. Any cancellation of food orders must be done before 9.30am. There was once a complain made by the F&B staff saying that we didn’t collect our food and we don’t bother to cancel the food on time. That was the time when I was not around and I didn’t want this to happen again on Sunday.
Email
She had sent the email to inform me not to come on Sunday on Saturday’s night through her personal email from her home to my office address. How am I supposed to read the mail?

When she reached the bird park, she asked me why am I still around? And I explained the lunch reason to her. She said:
“Why do you care about the lunch so much? I can pay for it. Don’t worry. You should go home now. Otherwise, you will say you are very tired on Monday and you want to take off-in-lieu. Don’t make it a habit that on every event you have you will take off-in-lieu on the next day.”
Fair enough, if she is going to pay for the lunch, then I have nothing to say. But, about the habit thingy, she had once said that if we have an event on Saturday or Sunday, we can go ahead and take off-in-lieu leave on Monday, provided the following week is not busy. And I have checked that this week is not very busy.
Off-in-lieu
We must fill up the form and get approval from our senior manager. But sometimes I will get approval verbally and let her sign the form on the next day when I come to work and she is fine with it. It is my fault for thinking that she will approve my off-in-lieu on Monday as I was working on Saturday. I am really dying to rest at home on Monday as Sunday is my 7th day of work.

Therefore I was telling her this, which she finds it very rude:
“But Pamela, whether am I here today or not, I am going to take off-in-lieu tomorrow because I was here on Saturday. It is on my contract that I only work for 44 hours and additional hours I will have to take off-in-lieu mah….”

I also told her that my name is in the AI, therefore I need to be there. Otherwise, if anything goes wrong, she will blame me for not coming.
AI (Admin Instructions)
This AI will be issued to everyone who is involved in an event. It explains the job or responsibility one has to take on an event. My name is being put as monitoring the stickers of the visitors coming in on Sunday. This AI is prepared by my colleague, Jane, and was sent to my senior manager to scan through. But my senior manager said that she has no time to check and asked me to send to everyone anyway. Although she doesn’t want me to come on Sunday, my name is still there. Its my responsibility to report to work. It is her problem that she did not check through. I am not wrong by coming down to work.

And there goes again the usual scolding…
She said: “Go ahead and take leave tomorrow! I wouldn’t approve!”

On Saturday 9/7/05, she told me to come for work at 7am as the Singapore Idol is shooting a film and I must take care of them. I forced myself to wake up at 5am that morning. I remembered I said this to her: “Wah…7am very early hoh?…”
She said: “Ya but no choice, it is our job” And I agreed. BUT in the end, she overslept!!!!!!!! What is this all about? Professional? Is she a person to respect about?

Things that you must be careful when talking to my senior manager:
1) She will say why is Adelene don’t bother to apologize
I did that before but she will say DON’T BOTHER TO SAY SORRY IF YOU ARE NOT SINCERE. If she is always suspecting my sincerity, then what for apologizing?

2) On Adelene’s first few days of working, she approved a FAM group to come into bird park without consulting me.
I have did this mistake because of insufficient guidance from my previous colleague and my senior manager. I have already apologized to her and she said: “Its ok you have made this first mistake but don’t do this in the future.” Until now, I have not repeated the same mistake. But she keep picking this up on me.

3) Adelene is rude for not greeting me when she saw me in the morning.
Yes it is true that I did not greet her at first but now I have practicing doing it already. Sometimes, I will forget because I want to tell her something urgently. But still, I wouldn’t deny that I have done this mistake.

4) Adelene is always influenced by her colleague, Jane.
She always accused that Jane influences me in a bad way. She claims that Jane teaches me to talk back at her and that when Jane is around, I am just like a monster. First, I am a person who have my own thinking and the reason why I will talk back at her gradually is because I am already seasoned by her scolding and I must stand up for myself if I find something that is unfair to me. Second, the problem with the people in the office is that they do not like cliques in the office. The moment they see one group or two people talking, they will feel offended. My senior manager always says that when we are working alone, without each other, we tend to perform better. Please, I also found out that when me and Jane are together, she tends to pick things up on us. Whose problem is that now?

Now, she had sent this email on 10/7/05:

Dear Adelene and Jane,
Thank you for all the efforts exerted these past few days, especially for June.

a) Off-in-lieu while it is usually granted owing to your working schedule, BUT it still subject to approval especially from your immediate approval.

b) While i am encouraging to utilize this asap, please do not make it a habit that in every event you will immediately take off-in-lieu. We need to also understand the job requirements.

This means, not both of you can go on leave, rather alternate.
c) Have courtesy and manners when requesting for it, especially Adeline, who seems to have no regard for good manners when making known that you are intending to take your off-in-lieu Monday.

I am exceptionally disappointed with Adeline's behavior, where she was talking like she has no need for clearances before taking any leave at all.

Adeline, you are an intern, you should bear in mind that you will need clearances based on agreement, but you must also put the company's welfare in mind.

I am hoping that you will learn from this experience and seek clearance before declaring the next day as your off-in-lieu, rudely telling your superior (me) that you will be on leave on Monday.

d) Please provide me in writing your comments on this. While I have probably told you to come back today by mistake, 2 events were cancelled, a)TV crew recce b) Incentive group-I think I have missed out sending you or calling you info as they told me only last night, you should practice a more respectful tone--as your leave is not something you demand from me.

e) It is important for HR to note this particular attitude and behavior on your part.

How am I supposed to answer her? I am afraid of saying something wrong which allows her to shoot back at me in the future. I am really very tired to think of anything to protect myself now. I don’t feel a sense of belonging in my department as my senior manager back-stabbed me also. If she is going to back-stabbed me, what for talking about loyalty and dedication for work? I feel so stress that I dare not sleep at night, so afraid that daylight will come too soon and I must go to work. I have experience falling a lot of hair during the first 2 weeks of work. I have phobia hearing her voice and even her hand phone’s ring tone. I have never experienced this level of stress even though I went though O’levels or working at other places. My family members are very concern about my health. There is a lot more to say but that will take more pages to write.
I really hope that someone will save me and the hero might just be you…hahaha just joking. I still can joke that means I wouldn’t think of suicidal at the moment. Mr. Nair please advise me on replying her above email……..
Oh ya…last but not least, you asked me to inform her this morning that I will not be going for work. This is what I SMS and the reply from her:
Me: I will not be going for work today. I will be taking MC.
Pamela: smart try but let’s see

What is that supposed to mean? Is this considered as a threat to me?

Thanks so much for your time.

Yours truly,
Adelene
11/7/2005

- opps! it fell.