Crappy Sentosa Management II

Such fine weather. Looks like its gonna rain again. No, I'm not being sarcastic. I really love rainy days. It's cooling. Perfect for a good afternoon nap, or to generate inspiration for song-writing.

Anyway, it's back again with more updates on craps from work.

What's the rationale for a customer to tip a service staff? It is a compliment and reward for their good service. It is as far as it is like sales commission which should go directly to the sales personnel who sealed the deal. But strangely, things doesn't work that way over at my end. I'm not exactly sure if that's how it goes in other parts of FnB outlets in Singapore too. At least over at my side, part-timers are not entitled to tips even if given to them by the customers. To make the matter worse, the upper management passed down the instruction that only full-timers are entitled to it. Furthermore, it seems like the management had an idea that they only wanted the full-timers to act in supervisory position, rather than actually assisting in the real groundwork.

Consequences? Firstly, it drives a wedge between the regulars and part-timers. Part-timers ain't happy that the upper management expects so much from the part-timers, doing the manual job, serving the guests personally, only to be rewarded with criticism, distrust, and unfairness due to the tips issue. It increases likelihood of delinquency in part-timers, which in turn might result in substandard service and non-cooperation with the full-timers. The backlash of this can result in customers' complaints and increasing distrust by the full-timers on the part-timers. I've worked at yet another part of Sentosa where the manager and supervisor personally get their hands dirty to help the servicing staffs. Those are whom I actually held respect for. The manager of the casino himself actually passed down some magic words... Humble, Trust, Respect. In the latter case, I really saw a humble attitude in the management. If things are important or difficult, at least help out, rather that lashing out harsh words and crossing arms, watching things happening at one end of the floor, especially when there's shortage of manpower. They really earned my respect. There's hardly much trust in the case of the former...

"Cover backside". To cover yourself from responsibility. Well... If you had to work independently, I guess it's important to limit your responsibility. But if the work involved requires teamwork, the members needs to be team players, and the management requires more delicate hands to manage the members... and definitely not one with priority to lookout for someone to be blamed. A corrective action is necessary, but not necessarily one that is always disciplinary in nature. Sometimes, procedures can be changed to allow staffs to function more effectively. At other times, some things are best not to micromanage, to provide for some level of sensibility and flexibility as the situation requires.

On a sidenote, I've noticed an interesting example while at work. They seemed to have manager (or management executive) who would ask guests for feedback after they finished gaming. In western culture where gambling tends to be more of a hobby to kill a little time after dinner, winning and losing seemed to have much lesser impact on their mood... or at least most of the average people. But for the Asian counterparts... Gambling is pervasive. Many are likely to spend hours, if not days in a casino, gambling their life away. And most of the time, guests aren't happy to have lost alot. The manager... approached a lady who left a gambling table, looking displeased. When the manager asked for feedback, she replied that she's not happy she lost alot. The manager in turned tried to console her and said he's sorry for her lost... I'm exactly sure how sorry he is, but I'm pretty sure he asked the guest at the worst timing possible... if not being insensitive. He's trying to do his job, but he wouldn't be able to get his job done properly for his responsibility. 事倍功半。

Conclusion: Life is never fair.
After all, it seemed like there are plenty of people out there who just got nowhere to throw their money, easily gambling away over 1 year of our salary in a single stake. Doesn't that make sense how the GDP still increases per year and yet there's so much people who just don't earn enough?

大海

不知道为什么。。。 最近一直感到一丝丝的快乐，但后儿也带来着幽幽的悲伤。 最近一些人与事进入了我的生活， 但也有些人逐渐离开了我，总觉得好像很多重要的东西都不在我的掌控之中。。。无能力抓住他。 或许我不配拥有幸福吧。。。 好几天的漫天大雨，似乎反照出了我的内心世界。

如果大海能够带走我的哀愁。。。

Strange Happenings

Been getting alot of weird calls lately. Not too long ago, I've got an overseas call from who-knows-where. Think it's China, since I've also received calls from there last year, telling me that I've strike an international lottery or something. And a few moments ago, there came a local sms from someone called brian, asking me if I'm bi or aj. When I further probe since when I gave him my number, he claimed it's last year. When finally I asked who he's looking for, there was no reply afterwards. Shrug. A gay trying to do random hookups, or a prank from some friend who juz changed his number? Either way, I didn't bother to call.

Also had a strange dream the night before that I met up with my current colleagues for K session, then I sang till I was crying. I vaguely remembered that just before my sleep, I was pondering upon something about not letting go of potentially important people, or they will just rub shoulders with you and be gone forever, like the number of people's contact I have on msn or on phone, but we never choose to talk to each other anymore. Was also thinking over what my colleague, SW said to give a call and go out.

Been thinking quite abit over this weekends. Probably because I'm gonna stop part-timing soon, and right after reservice (which would also spell an end to the last long holiday as a student), it's time to mug for my final year. Been curious about the developments in my club, but I think that non-intervention is best since I'm no longer in position anymore and I guess that I should have more faith in the new excos after myself.

The future still looks quite foggy for me. I can't see where I'll end up at.

Idiotic China Worker

I'm blogging this entry right after coming home from a graveyard shift. Damn pissed with a China bugger who don't use his brain to work, or at least have a sense of working peacefully with colleagues. Before I got on ranting, I would like to put up a disclaimer: This is NOT intended to refer to ALL China people, but a good number of them who exhibits such behaviour. Here goes the story:

It is near change shift time. My shift was coming to an end. Most people have the tendency to not bother with helping the next shift top up their supplies. I'm was tasked with supplying all the stations for my shift. Being nice, I've topped up all the stations with supplies by at least an excess of 50% more, as a sign of proper hand-over... which something most other people wouldn't have bothered. All except one station, but the supply is more than enough to last for at least 2 hrs., which is at least enough time for anyone to take a slow stroll to top up that supply at least 4 times over. And anyway, even my guy at that station also feel that there's still more than enough, so I didn't bother to rush that.

Then this China bugger came to take over my job when change shift, so i'm supposed to be able to go off already and everything's in order. Then he started ranting, "Your guys didn't top up everything completely! You all supposed to handover everything in perfect order!". All the while, he didn't realise he's ranting to the person doing the job. I said, "I'm was in-charge of the supplies. What is your issue?" That's when he tried to wriggle out and suddenly trying to play nice, "Oh! But you need to go off already, right? Just leave it to me then." What is this? It's my fault and he's being nice by forgiving me? I was damned pissed and went to rush to pick up the supplies in 5 mins time, slapped an excess more than that station can hold, and told his (another china) colleague, "Your colleague is making a big fuss over that bit of supplies not filled to brim! What the hell is wrong with him?". He quietly picked the supplies for packing, but i didn't even bother waiting to see what he's going to do with the excess that he couldn't store. Btw, what's missing is only 10 bottles of soft drinks out of 60. That's all to the commotion he's making.

My job is not to make sure that the person taking over me can afford to slack and cross their legs for the next 3 hrs, since he's not paying me my salary. The principle is that as long as I'm not leaving them with shortage all over the place, I'm being responsible enough already, which most other staffs would not have been that kind. If he needed help with topping up the excess, at least have the decency to do it together, since he's also on the job, and not rant at one corner.

On a sidenote, here's a little maths logic to it: You can't predict the demand very well for which soft drinks the customers prefer, so if you top up the wrong one, you'll have little space for the more popular ones and the person topping up the supplies will have to go on multiple runs. A little bit of free space without causing a shortage in supply is also a resource. I dunno why the educational field look up to these people simply because they can remember things by rout, but don't apply flexible thinking to different scenarios.

The search for the one optimal solution, is at times is in itself a suboptimal solution. Not everything is 1 + 1 = 2 or always 3. I don't trust academicians very much. They tend to use beautiful language and ideals like 1 +1 = 3, but what about 2.999 or 4.6294? Believe me. If they could, they would have add it to their vocabulary and insist that the optimal solution is 2.999. Unless lives are at stake on accuracy, a perfect world is one that is imperfect... to an acceptable standard.

Crappy Sentosa Management

Lame regimentation?

I'm starting work tomorrow night at Sentosa's Casino tomorrow. Still relatively pissed about the dress code issue. In my opinion, if the waiter/waitress' dresscode is acceptable by bank industry standard, why not the FnB industry? And even if they still think that it's appropriate for us to standardise our outfit, then why don't they provide staff's attire instead? I had to go to the extent of looking for ugly, baggy, black long pants myself, at my own expense, just for this part-time job that doesn't even pay well. As if it's not enough, you don't get to keep any tips given to you by the patrons, as all the tips belongs to the casino. So really, why am I obliged to perform well, when the job doesn't pays well and it's not of my concern whether I get tipped or not? At least if you get some sales related jobs outside, you get an acceptable base pay, plus a decent commission for each deal you've secured.

Mismanagement and Ethics

I was checking through my email today when I come across a newsletter sent by SIM. There was an invitation to attend the seminar of a certain management expert. I thought that it's not a bad idea to attend the seminar for some inspiration. There was an introduction video. Checked the link:

The expert started talking about about use of Internet in the recent age, and how businesses should make full use of the Internet to drive their business, like "how effectively porn distributes online". Epic failure on 2 points... Firstly, IT is already not a new technology that was born a few years back, but about two decades already. An opening speech like this is either belittling the audience, or that perhaps he's incredibly outdated. On a sidenote, he's an old geezer... Secondly, porn is not an appropriate example, not because of it's obscene nature. Many businesses, especially in the earlier days were particularly inspired by the effectiveness of porn distribution on the Internet and hoped to imitate the success by doing advertising in the same way. It eventually leads to the use of pop-ups, banners and even tracker cookies. I'm not exactly sure of the effectiveness of such, but the younger generation of the Internet users find them to be a nuisance. Even if consumers could remember the name and product due to intense repetition from looking at the pop-ups and banners, it's usually only negative reinforcement.

The expert then went on to bring up the point on privacy, and advises all parents and consumers to adjust their facebook privacy settings. Make sense. We are revealing too much information without being aware of it. But the rationale he suggested... "You might not be able to get your dream job because of something inappropriate on your facebook, such as pictures of how you had fun at a party when you were 17, and that's not the real you". Is it good management practice to recruit people based on some facebook profiles, rather than on solid working experiences and expertise? How superficial can a management guru gets?

So who's gonna benefit from a speech like these? Spyware/Adware makers who help consumers block out unwanted ads and cookies; Internet advertising firms which continues to send out the propaganda unethical Internet advertising techniques are effective; The expert guru himself who charges a high price for people attending his seminars. Frankly speaking, I might be hasty to judge the guru based on a 5mins introduction video of him, but I decided that my money is safer with me when I'm lacking information to make better evaluation of the effectiveness of his seminars.

Human Err

Sometimes when reading the news or holding a conversation, I get incredibly work-up. There's a sheer number of figureheads and ordinary people who have a strong tendency to accept what the majority do or told them. Human's mind are so fragile. The need to conform is especially loathing. Marketers and evangelistic religious domination would love that. Bandwagon effect. Ever remember having a debate with friends when the majority of the people agrees that a shirt is black color, when some actually thinks it's dark blue, and in the end, everyone ended up agreeing with the majority? It's fine when it's just a trivial day-to-day impersonal stuffs, but when it comes to matter of religion, human rights, morality...? One culture's perceived immorality could just kill a few thousand of people without remorse, simply because they are deviates. There's no real effort on the majority's part to understand the two-sides of the coin, or to put aside personal conviction 1st.

But at the same time, there are also smart-alecks out there who simply disagree with everything the majority thinks is correct, just so as to appear different, if not smarter than the rest of the human populace. I've the tendency to make this mistake myself sometimes, but only cos' I believe that there's no whole truth in "truth". I think that people need to find an answer for themselves, rather than rely purely on what people say. Whether you'll end up as a majority or the minority is only a matter of consequence, rather than being a reason to agreeing/disagreeing something.

Even if we eventually come to a personal conclusion through research and experience, there's also a possibility that others who have also done the same might arrive at a different conclusion. This is where freedom of thoughts and beliefs come in. If people cannot accept your thoughts, you do not push it upon them. There are exceptions of course, such as the golden rule of reciprocal: Harm not yourself AND others.

Over here, I'm not trying to push my readers to believe everything I've said, despite the fact that I try to keep my thoughts and perspectives organised and accurately represented. I only hope that people read about what I have to say, AND think about it. DO some research. Experience. Learn. AND then empathize. Don't just take what you read for granted, like how typical Singapore education taught us how to study, where we so readily accept and memorise everything we are taught.

Logging out.