The wise are heeding their own advice

I remember an older and wiser O3ber once told me that he understood why I was leaving. Although he was sad about it, he understood perfectly the reasons behind why I simply had enough and needed to move on with my own life and development.

He even wisely kept silent and simply smiled when I asked him what he thought about the O3 HR Philosophy of how only 'Elites" exist in the company. I bet he had his own comments but held his tongue. =)

Anyway, I'm glad that many people have left and more people are deciding to find a better job and life balance outside of O3.

Dehumanise...

No, its not one of those freaky digitalising movie tricks. Its O3 taking more steps towards dehumanising its employees. (Apparantly Uberbaus and Miniboss are not on agreement here, but the bigger boss is winning so far.)

Practically every company will issue its employees a personal email address where the employee's name is coded in. This was the way with the O3. WAS.

There's a sort of new coding thing going on there and it involves giving people code names and serial numbers. Every dept has its own name but for one dept, the name given by the baus doesn't make sense. It wasn't explained to them what the acronym meant either. OTA??? For an Engineering Dept? What does it mean? Baus should have the courtesy of explaining what it means, cos it could mean something derogatory that only baus understands.

"Yo, call OTA1 here with OTA 13, Bring SBC 3 and MTA2 as well. I want to find out who is doing all this." Sounds like a potential conversation in the future at O3 eh? You have to go and find out and memorise your collegues numbers...

If there is a practical and meaningful reason for this, will some one enlighten me?

The Offer was For February

When I left O3 at the end of January, I had told miniboss that I was willing to return to office for 1 day in February to debrief the new person taking over me. Thereafter, I told him I was going to be busy and unlikely to be available.

In the fashionable O3 way, miniboss nodded his head and said thanks and that he'd contact me when he found a replacement. And in the fashionable O3 way, miniboss' mind did not register the part where I was going to be busy after February.

As always, the replacements are hard to find. One came and left before I even had an opportunity to meet the poor sod. One day went by...one week...then February came and went. March came and miniboss started Sms-ing me questions.

Finally in April, they found a replacement. It turned out to one of those "prodigal sons" who left O3 and for reasons unknown to the human species, this fella returned to O3. In mid April, the fella now (after 2 .5 months!!!) then asked if I were able to return to O3 to brief him.

Sorry dude, your coupon expired long ago and my benevolent heart now belongs to my very own personal business. O3 can go the way of the dinosaurs - and they just might, at the rate the feet dragging goes...

There'll be Peace In the O3, Somtimes

Occassionally life in O3 returns back to normalcy. Sanity and happiness is allowed to reign in the office sporadically. For instance, it happened again recently when boss, boss and boss were all overseas and away. Away from the office. Their physically presence was not felt. A burden lifted from the shoulders of the beasts of burden in O3. The clouds cleared. Sun shone through. Smiles were a plenty and everyone looked forward to the end of the day.

Yes, the end of the day. That's when you usually go home. And during these times of peace, the employees can leave without fearing the boss, boss or boss calling them back into the office to perform last minute duties. The employees feel a peace and calmness at the end of the day. No stresses, just peace.

Dire Certification

O3 always has trouble passing certifications for the product. They claim this and that but the american standards of certification is very strict. And to worsen the problem, the cleanroom is dirty. And to worsen-worsen the problem, the test sample of bacteria ended up containing plenty of other bacteria.

Of course, the best O3 method to counter this type of certification stress is to either keep trying (which costs alot of money) or to bribe the fella (which costs less money). There are certain standards and certifers who you just know you cannot bribe...but there are also certain countries where the certifiers welcome whatever extra income they can weasle out from you. So in the fashion of O3, they proverbially and miraculously passed certification in this country (with EXCELLENT marks nonetheless) while failing every single test it required.

Certification - A piece of paper that is meaningless if in the hands of O3.

The Lone Ranger

In the midst of the madness of the Uberbaus' family, there is but one normal individual who is attempting to fight off the madness that encompasses the household. This Lone Ranger is the miniboss' brother.

Lone Ranger is an intelligent young man who decided NOT to join the dark side and work in the O3 environment. During the short couple weeks he was made to work there (and help out in HR), he was probably the nicest HR helper I have seen. Meek, humble and friendly he was the freak of the household. The Lone Ranger looked incredibly out of place and uncomfortable working there and this was apparant when one day he stopped helping out at work.

I know that Uberbaus loves to control his sons' lives and especially their love lives. Extreme measures of relocation has been taken when he disapproved of certain other halves!?!?! Now, the rumour is that Uberbaus has his eye on a specific young lady who I suppose he would love to have bethroved to his son. He is even going to USA just to get the ball rolling?!?!?!

My heart goes out to Lone Ranger. He fights hard against the current of madness. May the love of his life be true and untainted by Uberbaus.

Never Point Blame at Yourselves

Following up on the 10 sins of a bad manager, I would like to touch briefly on the way the Uberbaus swiftly and efficiently deflects blame from all three bosses.

More often than not, he deflects blame and embarassment from the miniboss by targeting the arrows, bullets, cannon balls, missile warheads and nuclear bombs onto the heads of the unsuspecting employees. You see, the miniboss likes to, no...., LOVES to BRAG and talk. In doing so, he tends to inadvertantly leak information about OEM projects and contracts that hurt the partners or clients. He usually conviniently forgets that he ever said such a thing.

Now, when the partner/ client complains and it gets to the ears of the Uberbaus, the Uberbaus automatically sends a homing signal and target to the nearest pantsy that he can find. The poor chap (s) are then treated to hours of scoldings, swearings, threats, etc. Poor fellas. I did once witness the mini-boss trying to tell the Uberbaus that he was the one who mentioned it, but the Uberbaus brushed it aside, twisted the argument and scolded us for not "saving" the situation???!?!??! haha....how nice is that?