Once, a friend of mine (GM of Property) read my phat chee (sort of like fortune telling based on the year, day, time of birth) and told me I got male bones. Which I translated as 'You got balls, woman'. Another colleague (GM of Marketing) read my Chinese name strokes, time and etc and told me I have some weird number 9 arrangements which made me a survivor. E.g. whole plane crash and I will be walking out of the wreck alive.
(Note : I am the big boss secretary and hence these people will want to polish shoes in return for favourable feedbacks to the BIG boss mah. And this company I was working in, we manufacture power and telecommunication cables. So whenever we hear of major blackout, we will be very happy as it means increased orders from Tenaga and Telekom.)
Looking back, I really got balls as many times, I had stood up to speak for the group, whether to fight for more employees' benefits, in school or even in the community. And heck, I am a survivor too 'cos I never give up.
Whether it is fortune, fate or whatever, I attribute these traits to a few men in my life.
1. My father who has very loud temper and strong principles. He died when I was 7 yrs old so I never really kena before. But my brothers and sisters who were in his school kena rotan like the rest of the kids, no mercy, no nepotism.
2. My discipline teacher in secondary school, Mr Tan KS. My school is a kampung-type one and therefore, we occassionally have big city, famous teachers to come and straigthen us out. I have always been the smart one, moving with the right pack and therefore, was head-girl(prefect). I was Mr Tan's pet as he would pick me up on the way to school. He was like a tiger and everyone is afraid of him, except me, of course.
3. Right after SPM, I have the luck to work for a German boss who looks like Hitler in blonde and curly hair. I was his secretarial clerk and he treated me like a slave, screaming and taking it out on me when the jewellers screwed up. He had constant headaches and would screamed for a coke and two panadols every morning. Imagine, a slave driver shouting 'go, go, go NOW!!! All 18 yrs old, bushy tail and wide eyes, I thought that is how employers are supposed to treat employees. So, no big deal to me. (work for 4 years)
4. I left him and became an office assistant to a mad lawyer. From the pot into the fire. My job involves serving summons, filing court documents, eavesdropping when the Don Juan received divorce cases or made coffee with so much sugar, the thing saturated. Or singing 'kiki bubblegum baru' or 'saya charlie chickedee' as a way of answering the phone when the going gets tough. (Yeah, my colleague and I did drove many potential clients away, padan muka). (work for 8 months because he did not pay my EPF)
5. Finally, I ended up in my last job working for a man who is worse than a tiger. I was the only person in the office whom he never scold. Even his wife, kids, sisters, older brother, younger brother, nephews, nieces are afraid of him. (I worked for 12 years and had to leave to be full-time mom)
I had often looked back and thank my lucky stars for staying put with these men. I worked very closely with them, seen their softer sides which others never did, learn their principles. One common thing about them is they have principles and they stick to it. They gain my respect because they are not afraid of being condemned by others who misunderstood their good intentions. These lessons have served me well through the years and I hope, somehow, I can pass them to my kids. Not the shouting at innocent clerks part but the principle to stand firm, be truthful, humble and never be afraid to admit one's mistake (though I rarely make mistakes, kikhkikhkikh).
(P/S : Read that there is a major power failure so I am bringing this boring hot topic as traffic will be low. I live on traffic and comments, marn. No traffic, no comments = no motivation to blog.)
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