Rantage

ROAR!

Having yourself embarrassed in front of 20 people in the room is NOTHING funny. At all.

Also, having a annoying pest who claims he's your brother does not help either. The pest kept coming over because he wanted to 'listen to some songs' on the media player. Prying and snooping is more like it. I had to minimize this window for countless of times. =.=

Then, daddy decided he needed to photostate some things and lo and behold, there he was, standing right next to me, causing me to re-minimize this window and start pretending to be browsing through blogs.

Yeh. All the wonderful 'privacy' in this house. Awesome.

I am actually resorting to listening to these shuffling tunes which my shuffling-crazy cousin introduced to me back then. Am contemplating on taking an interest in shuffling.

.....

Nah. Maybe not.

Back to what I shall call The Embarrassment.

Since last week, a memo was passed throughout the center about this telephone answering course which was going to be conducted by this representative from the HQ. Yes, telephone answering. Apparently, they wanted to standardize the way we answered the telephone throughout the company.

So, of course, attendance was compulsory. The staffs were then divided into different sessions which were going to be held for 3 days. I was handed the afternoon slot on the first day of the course which is actually today.

The comrades comprised of 22 other people who were also scheduled to be in the same session as me.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, the talk was fine, certain things were made clear and we now knew the correct way to answer the phone. Then, it was time for role play.

Now, before we get into that, allow me to say that I was already introduced to the speaker along with my partner yesterday. She was told that we were the receptionists for this certain department. During the talk, she asked me once again, and I clearly stated that I was from that certain department. During the demonstration part, I, once AGAIN, said that I was from that certain department.

By now I'm sure all of you can understand that I am from that CERTAIN DEPARTMENT, yes?

So, during the role play, she called my name and yes, I had to pretend to be this receptionist on duty where she had to be a caller. So she pretended to call in and asked whether her 'son' was admitted and gave me her son's name.

Now, this is OBVIOUSLY not my job since these PRIMARY calls are connected to the main counter before being transferred. I do not work at the operator console. I am at the Certain Department.

Of course I found this question weird but I tried my best to help; the logical thing then was to connect the call to the ward.

After that she terus-terus ask me, "Don't you have the system in front of you? Kenapa you talk boleh check?" She's West Malaysian so yes, imagine HER speaking in that accent.

Then it hit me and I was like Owhh. Mind you, I have never worked for the primary console, which means I do not have any experience whatsoever answering such calls. She then proceeded to ask me questions like "Apahal you nak transfer call ke ward? Nurse kan busy?" and yada yada yada. Which made me go ALL BLUR cos working at the Certain Department, we only deal with OUTPATIENTS please. Plus, we only answer calls WHEN they are transferred to us from the main counter.

During this time, I stated once again that I am working at the Certain Department so we do not get calls like this. She must not have understood what I said because she continued bombarding me with all this KENAPA questions.

Anyway, thank goodness after the 20 over people who were mute suddenly started making noise in explaining that I DO NOT work for the main console and at the certain department.

After the PATRONIZING way she talked to me, you'd expect her to at least apologize. Instead, all she said was, "My mistake."

My. Mistake. HAH!

You know, you think speakers are people who actually practice what they preach. During the talk, there were sessions were the speaker stressed that it was important to LISTEN. Also, 'Sorry' and 'Thank you' were words people hardly used since everyone has an ego, according to the speaker of course. Not forgetting the fact that she claims to be highly professional through the stories she shared.

Through my experience with her, I could have easily come to a conclusion that the speaker is a BIG fraud with an ego the size of Malaysia since:

a) She was told 3 times that I was stationed at the Certain Department
b)She did not apologize for the mistake she made. 'My Mistake'? That is obviously NOT an apology.

Nevertheless, I was super pissed and embarrassed after that. Maybe little peons like me are so insignificant in her eyes since she is not able to digest information fed to her 3 times. After that, she had to have a blast talking down to me and instigating that i did not know how to do my job.

Like whatever, big hot-shot SPEAKER. I shall Thank God that I am not a permanent staff of your fine establishment, else I'll die of convulsions one day.

Listening? Thank you? Sorry? HAH! If you do not practice these YOURSELVES, save us the trouble and STOP trying to make everyone else do something that YOU don't even do. Tsk Tsk.

Somehow, this situation made me despise this certain group of West Malaysians look down on us 'poor' East Malaysians even more. I am not saying that the speaker is a racist or whatsoever. It's just that the way she talked to me just now reminded me of the fact that some West Malaysians, I repeat SOME, think that they have the upper hand on us. Booo.

Anyway, I just had to share my experience with some trustable colleagues after that and it was good that none of them thought that my reaction was abnormal. Yes, I actually have the right to be mad. Grr.

I shall now be grateful that I am over and done with this talk however remaining a teensy bit pissed at the fact that some people just do not have the courtesy to APOLOGIZE once they've embarrassed somebody, thank you very much.