Is New Year the Time to Change Our Job???

I started this posting with this questions after a phone conversation with my best friend on Chinese New Year Eve. She told me that most of my friends, who are currently working wishes to change their current job. I didn't enquire it further, because I thought that there is nothing much I can help in their situation.

I just had another phone conversation with one of my better friends just an hour ago, and not to my surprise, she is also one of them who wishes to change her job after Chinese New Year. Well, I didn't discourage nor encourage her, but merely offer my point of view regarding the changing job issue.

For me, I always believe that there are two important factors that influence someone to change their job, either there is a better opportunity awaits them, or saturation happened that unable them to gain more knowledge in their current company, so they decided to move ahead to gain new challenge.

From my friend conversation, I can conclude that her reasons for her to change job are the both I mentioned above, plus she don't really like the management of the company. So, I guess that the best move for her is to look for a better job. There is no point hanging on something which doesn't results in anything.

Thinking back, I faced the same situation early this month, where I decided to change my current job, because I believed that I had become saturated with it. If not because of a new appointment, I should be doing a new job now. Well, I guess that how working life is all about. We don't really find someone who work in a ceratin company for a long time, unless they always have the opportunity to upgrade themselve.

However, the funny thing that caught up in my mind is why people always plan to change their job whenever a new year arise. Is it because it has become a norm, or is there a better reason for it. I still remember my friend used to tell me that I should start looking for a job after getting bonus from my company. I found it a bit annoying because it doesn't sound right to me. Or maybe that's the reasons why people change their job after new year. It is because even if their had quit their job, they still have their bonuses to spent while looking for a new job. And that's just my guesses.

As for me, I will only change my job if either both reasons happened to me in my current company. However, under certain circumstances, I might also change my job.

The Purpose ???

The Chinese New Year is just a week shy from its date, and while everyone should, by now receiving their heavy bonuses from their employer, and counting for the final day of working before departing back to their hometown to re-unite with their beloved family, I spent my 3 hours in the afternoon to do the cleaning with my sister-in-law. Is quite shocking that I did it in the last minutes, but thinking that I am living in Malaysia, I shouldn't be surprised at all.

For me, celebrating Chinese New Year had not becomes a norm to me. What an extraordinary and crazy attitude. I do think of that because I didn't see the reason of celebrating it. My friends used to tell me that it is a moment where we can have reunion with our family members and spent time with them. Well, my opinion is, if they had the heart to do so, they can always did it on other days, why purposely choose to do so only when there is any festive season?? I get to know the reason now.

Since started working, I had not been able to spend lot of time with my family. For me, who work in my hometown, I can only spend times with my family after working, which is only about 3-4 hours a day before going to bed. But if to compare it with some of my friends who is working outstation, I can be counted as very lucky among them. So, perhaps for a national holiday such as Chinese New Year, it gives them an opportunity to go back to their hometown to rejoice with their family.

While there is a reason for us to celebrate Chinese New Year, there is still some celebration which put the doubt in me as why we need to celebrate it. I take a example of Valentine Day (sorry couples, I mean no offence. I am just giving out my opinion). I still don't get it why people nowadays celebrate Valentine Day by giving their partners expensive gifts (I heard that during that day, everything is a few times more expensive than other day, especially flowers). Is Valentine's Day the only day to give gift to your love one while other day, we are forbidden to do so?? I doubt it.

If they were to show how much they love their loves one, they should be doing it everyday, and not only on Valentine's Day. And showing how much you love someone is not by merely giving out gift, but more than that. In fact, or perhaps, Valentine's Day were celebrated in such way to remember the sacrifice of Saint Valentine, who were put to death after he secretly performed marriage ceremony for armies thousands year back. So, couples nowadays celebrate Valentine's Day by showing how much they love their loved one.

However, I am still at my stand, which is if you really treasure your loved one, you should show to them much much your love everyday, every moment. Well, my opinion can only be in such way, probably due to the fact that I had not been in a relationship before. Perhaps, my opinion on the Valentine's Day celebration will change after I am in a relationship in the future. Or perhaps not. Only time will tells......

".....Wish all my friends Happy Chinese New Years....."

Learn from Mistakes

I don't really remember what the short formed OEM actually stands for in the industrial line. From what I heard, it is some sort of business, where a company manufacture a product, and the product were then being sold by the company who pay for the manufacturer. Confuse??

Well, in another words, most of us preferred to called it contract manufracture. The more simple explaination about this OEM lot is a company becoming a supplier for another company's brand. The OEM term is more well-known in electrical&electronic factory compared a food manufacturer. An OEM is given out based on two reason, either the company doesn't have the expertise in the field they are venturing in, or the demand for their brand is too high that tehy fail to meet their demand, and they resort of asking other help.

My company is a company that involved quite actively in this OEM. Although we do manufacture our own brand, which is not really popular, my company is currently in contract with other few comapny which can be considered "giant" in the industry.

However, the recent incident that happened to our company leaves me a bad impression regarding OEM. A company which received an OEM without detailed discussion will suffered heavy loses. The lucky part is we managed to stop the production before we inccurred more loses.

Then, another interesting happened todays, as yet another company came to my company to discuss about OEM. This company is also considered a "giant" in the food line, and they are a competitors to the first company which caused us to suffered heavey loses. How ironic.....

So, I guess that my company should be knowing what to do this time. Instead of rushing to get the deal done blindly, they should discussed everything in detail before landing the deal. If they didn't, I guess the company will surely gone down the earth soon.

A Sweet Story

The body of this posting will not reflect the title that I typed just seconds ago, because what I will be talking is not a sweet story, but rather something got to do to sweet. Confuse?

So, what is so special about sweet? I foremost, is not a person who actually like to consume sweet, mostly due to its sweet taste. Well, what other tastes can you expect from a sweet after all. By the way, not only sweet, I also doesn't like to consume other sweet food. I didn't understand myself either on my weird attitude towards sweet thing, but I guess partly due to my body weight, haha.....

Anyway, for the past few days, I had been devouring sweet whenever I drive to work or coming back from work. I do so because I am worried that I will lost my concentration while I was driving, especially in the morning. I still don't get the reason why I felt so tired every morning. I tried to get more sleep, but since the schoolins session began early this year, I had to get myself up 15 minutes earlier in the morning, just to avoid the traffic congestion (I wonder how the KLrian will react on this statement). So, just to keep myself staying alert, I choose to devour sweet when I was on the road.

Now, thinking of devouring sweet, its reminds me of the good old days, when I had my study week sessions with a few bunch of friends in the library. During that tenure, I used to sent about RM 4-5 daily in buying sweet for all my friends. It served the same purpose, that was to make them stay alert while trying to crack their head memorizing all the facts needed to the next paper. But eating sweet in the library? Now, that doesn't sound convicing from a person who had spent 8 years of his life becoming a librarian, and 2 years from the total as a head librarian.

Remembering back the time, there was indeed a lot of sweet memories during that tenure. Ok, now it does reflect on the title of this posting. During that period, all of us will went to the library daily, some were early birds, while others only appear after lunch hour. Even though sometimes, we talked more than we studied, we did enjoy the time together. Having lunch and dinner had became the usual routine for us. Then going back to home after the library closed, and spending time doing short notes to be lent to friends was some of the things that I had done during that time.

However, the most memorable one was during our final study week, where we spent most of our time shooting photo (and some of them are pretty artistic too) in the library and the area around it. It doesn't sound a bit of funny here, but at least when I looked back at the photo, its lighthen up my life.

Currently, most of my library members had stepped into the working society. Some, I still keep in contact with them. Some, I had not heard from them since my graduation. Nevertheless, I will always keep them in my memory, as they had given me such a pleasant moment during my stay in my university.

The Human Civilisation is Rotting

I can't really help it when I type the wording "rotting" in this posting, but I can't find a better word to describe about what the world had become nowadays. I admit that I seldom get into touch with newspaper this days, but the news about the rape cum murder case which I came acrossed while I was having my dinner really put me into wonder whether my earlier posting about the society was correct afterall.

I can't read or write chinese, but I do feel sad, and angry when my mother explained to me about the case. I really wish to ask why such an innocent girl deserved such a fate. I really can't believe that there was some one out there, who doesn't really deserved to be called human, did such a cruel act. And to add salt to the wound, I got to know that the victim was a friend's ex-roomate's friend, and is my sister-in-law's friend's friend as well. This girl is due to departure to Germany to attend a course, and yet now.....

If I were given an opportunity, I would had whack that bloody jackass to his death. Perhaps, if he die for a million would also unable to repay the crime that he had done in this world. I know that I might had sound quite emotional here, but I just can't help it, because what these beast had done is totally unforgetable for what he had done.

Then my friend also mentioned about the bombing that occurred in a shopping mall, which I used to go when I was studying in an unversity there. Since when our country had been hit by such bombing?? Why is there people who like to cause injuries or even death to others just to achieve what they wish to?? It really put me in a situation to believe that our human civilisation, which was started some 400 years ago had near the end. And the one which causes it is human themselve.

Like what my friend said, what we can hope now is just pray and hope that all those bastard will be caught soon and put into justice. Let them pay for what they had done, so that no one will get hurt again. As long as these people still roam free in this society, there will never be peace for us anymore.

Here, I wish to pray to all my friends, relatives, and the rest of the world........pray that they will be protected, be safe and be happy......

".....my deepest condolense to the victims and their family. May their souls blessed in peace....."

We are not Chameleon

The past two days had been a hell in my factory as we started to manufacture another company's products. Our new clients is a well-known figure in the country with its products, so it had been a great honour when our company finally landed the contract in the first place. However, think again.........it was a hell of a mistake in the first place.

The first run of the product started yesterday, and it had already create a hell of a havoc. The havoc is being caused by the different system being approached by both company, so the whole production goneout of control....lots of rejects, less productivity, and the worst is it create an unhappy moment for a lot of workers in my company. The saga continue today, and it had caused my factory manager so fed-up with the so-call quality control that he decided to cancel out the contract.

I could say that it had been quite a frusfrating two days for me, because of confusions made by both parties. And what makes me angry is when someone argued that I was not doing my job when I was. I was so angry that I nearly exploded upon hearing such a comment. How can someone who doesn't understand our working system come and comment on my routine. And the funny thing is they didn'y even know what AQL stands for, even though they are in quality control department.

No doubt, I had to agree that they indeed helped us out a lot in term of improving our quality control system, since they had over 30 years of experience in the industry. However, I had to mention here that we are not a chameloen. They can't expect us to change overnight or immediately on our system just like the chameleon changed its colour. They had to gives us time to improve our system to suit their needs.

Perhaps, the deal was being closed in a very rush way, without understanding how both company can comply to each other. So, it results in so many complaints and tension between both staffs of the both company. I am still unsure whether the contract will be continued or not. All the final decision will be finalised in a meetin, which will be held on Monday.

I can say here now is, if the production of the product of this company still continue, I am a hell sure that I will have a torrid time ahead of me. Well, as my friend always tell, always look at the positive side and don't be so pessimistic. And the more positive side is, I can improve myself in term of working experiences, knowledges, and maybe my working attitude. The dark side, is...well....more tension!!!!!!

Is the Matter of Choice

I made a few calls to my friends to informed them about my recent promotion. And during the conversation, all three of them told me the same thing, that's is working is indeed more unbearable comparing to studying. And two of them even had changing of their job in their mind.

Well, hearing from them, I do feel that I can understand about their plight to change their job, especially my best friend. I still can't believe that why most people were entrusted with jobs and responsibilites which does not tally with their salary. So, I do encourage my friend to really seriously consider about changing her job if she really can't cope with it. No, is not that I am trying to influence her of changing her job. However, I was worried that her health will be affected, since she had to do so many thing.

Thinking back, I really ponder whether most of the jobs have such a pattern. Sometimes, it not that I really want to think that way. It is the society that made me think so. From my observations on people that I know around me, all of them are facing the same problem, that is work more, earn little. Is this what the working society is all about? I really can't say anymore. In fact, I am also included in this society as well.

Given the fact that I was being promoted, my increment does really tally with it. However, my workload had increase to double of the original workload. So, is this sound fair?? I can gurantee that all people that I asked will surely answered "NO" to it. I had the feeling that is not fair as well. I can't imagine how am I going to cope up with my deadline later on, when I need to look into two jobs. And it is giving me a real big question mark now.

However, does this matter made me feel like quiting my job? The answer will always be no. I believe that this is a golden opportuniy for me to gain extra knowledge about new things. So, even if my future will be overloding, I still preferred to gain new knowledge in a new field. And all I need know is just a little time management in coping up with my work load.

Now thinking back, actually throughout ur life, there is a lot of things that we need to decide. And all the time, it is not whether it is right or wrong, but is the matter of choice. We always have the choice to pick what we think is the best for us. However, once we have made our choice, we need to stick to it. In the end of the day, we might realised that it is not the best alternatives, but as long as we are determine with something, we will surely work our way to it. I believe in such concept

I Got Promoted....

2006......I really didn't know what to say about this new year. It was just the first week of the first month of the new year, and yet I got to do quite a number of important decision in my life. It all started on Tuesday, when a friend of mine contacted me and asked me whether I was interested to join her company, as her company is currently looking for new staff.I can't deny that I had interest in joining her company in the beginning. Afterall, who wouldn't be interested in joining a well-known company and with an exciting and good future prospect job.

However, there was a lot of logistic that I needed to consider when taking up the challenge. So, I got a bit of confuse with it. What else I do next? Seeking advices from my best friends, what else? They gave me the similiar answers.....take up the challenge, and change my current job. So, I got moved with their support. And to add up my decision, my mother also gave me her consent to go to KL and work.

Wednesday night, I called my friend to enquire about the job. After the conversation, I was full of enthusiasm to apply for the new job. So, I stayed up till midnight to complete my resume and cover letter. At that moment, I was so confident that I was about to change my current job. Then another turn of tide happened in my life, which makes me re-considered my decision.

It was Thursday morning. I was concentrating on my job when I was asked to attend a meeting with my HR Exec and Factory Manager. What a surprise when they told me that they decided to promote me as a new Asst. QMR. Well, I don't really say that it was a promotion, cause I am still the QC Supervisor. Which means, I am holding a dual responsibilities now. Well, I promised to accept the promotion, as I sense that it was a new challenge and experience for me. Surprises after surprises, my consultant then told me later on the same day that he will suggested that I being elected as a QMR instead of the Asst. Phew......

So, after so much of the hassle and confusion, I still ended up in the company, but with much more responsibilities in hand. In contrast, I am happy that it ended up this way, as I wouldn't need to left my family, and at the same time, got the opportunity to learn new things and experiences. In the end, I can say that I somehow or rather able to forecast what a year it would be in 2006.

I still remember that a colleague asked me this question, "U ada untung apa-apa tahun lepas?" I immediately answered no, as I had spent quite a lot of money last year. Now thinking back, I completely misunderstood the question. I do gain a lot last year, like those experience I had gained and friendships that lasted forever. but then gaining somethings, means that I lose something also. That's life....

So, for this new year, I hope that I can gain much more than last year, and by the same time, lose something which is worth to lose as well....

Journey Down Memory Lane

We will be bidding farewell to 2005 in less than 1 1/2 hours time, and welcoming the new 2006. So, what's the best way to wish 2005 a very good farewell?? I guess that the best way to do so is to walk down the memory lane of 2005, flashing back all the events that took place in 2005....

Well, it started with the barbeque dinner organised by some of my coursemates to usher the coming of the new year. Then in January, the most memorable event that happened was my school nite that took place. It was my first and the last nite that I ever been, but it was a happy night after all. I didn't eat the food much, but the most interesting part was we spent most of the night taking photos with all my coursemates. After the event, we went to a bar and enjoy the whole night with some of my coursemates.

In February, the Chinese New Year celebration took place quite early. After coming back to Penang from Melaka after a one week holiday, I went out with a friend to have Thai food near a Thai restaurant near Bukit Jambul. The food is nice, but the prise is also very "nice", which causes two person nearly RM100. That will going to be the last time I ever had a Thai food. Then the celebration of my birthday is also a very memorable one, as it falls on the 7th day of Chinese New Year, which is the birthday for all mortal. It was my best birthday ever in my life. This month is also a quite month for me, as it is the month where I confessed my feeling to the girl that I had feeling on.

Then came March. What a month it was. I suffered from an on and off relationship, and it was also the final month in my university. I unofficially graduated after my last paper. Then I spent my time taking photos around with my coursemates in the campus, brushing my friends with their coming viva and had a stomach-full steam-boat at night. The follow-up was crucial, as I finally ended the realtionship with the girl that I liked that moment. Others memorable events were a karaoke sessions, dinner at Gurney Drive, supper at Burma Street before our farewell trip to Pulau Pangkor and then down to my hometown, Melaka.

April.....the month I officially started my life in the working society. Till date, my working life had been ups and downs...but I guess that's how our life is. Wouldn't it be boring if our life is so predictable???

May......nothing really happened this month, except for the arrival of my new "son". Which means I got extra burden to support. Well, that's life...

June....the month where I had my first trip to Kuala Lumpur to meet up with my friends. Quite disappointed in the beginning, as I failed to meet some of them. However, it was a nice trip as I meet with some of my best friends. We even went to Kajang to have the satay there. The trip back, however, was a disaster, as I had to wait for my bus till 11 pm, even though the schedule time was 9 pm. Jam is always the reason, sigh..... So, I promised that i won't be making trip to KL if it is a national public holiday.

July.....I finally passed my probation period. Hurray......and the countdown to convocation, and reunion with coursemates began....

Come August.....the month of my convocation.....Meet up with my coursemates, and enjoyed a very exciting outing during pre-convo. However, ended a bit disappoiting because not able to stay till the end of the event with friends for the hat throwing event. I do gave a friend a called upon reaching my house the next day, and spent nearly 45 mintues on the phone talking about some of the misses we had both met.

September....what a dull month.....

October.... my brother wedding do cause a bit of havoc in the family at the first place, and till now it still proven to be. It was also the month I had my second trip to KL to meet up with my friends. It was more merrier this time, as a lot of people came up to the gathering. One word.....Amazing!!!! I also gained the answers that I am searching for from this trip. So, a good time to let go someone....

November......I confessed for the second time in my life.....this time to my best friends. It didn't turn out tha way I wished to be, but I still contented, as we promised that we will still be someone special in each other heart. Then I still had a bit of worry that our relationship will turn sour. In the turning point, my company faced a torrid storm when the management was shaken with the removement of the company MD. The company is currently in the do-or-break situation now.

December.....the last month in the year...not really a lonely Christmas for me, as my friends dropped by to visit me. My worries were being washed away, as my best friends, the girl that I liked also drop by to visit me. I had a few hours of spending Christmas eve with her. Our relationship is still as strong as last time. Then becoming tour guide to six friends during Boxing day.

So, another half hour to new year. I just got an SMS around 7 pm froma friend, wishing me Happy New Year. She was worried of the busy line later...... So, for the coming new year, this is what I wished for..

• I wish that everyone that I know will lead a happy and healthly life throughout the new year. May they have a successfull carier ahead of them.
• I wish that for those who currently on a relationship, may them be blessed with happinest. For those who is still single, I wish that they will find their partner soon.
• For my family, I hope that everyone will be happy and healthly.
• For the people around the world, hope that there is world peace, and everyone is living in good condition.

As for me, I wish that all my wishes above will come truth this year. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!