All the best...

It was a day of remembrance when I left on 26 July 2007.

It was a sad moment as I bid my colleagues farewell and wished them all the best; it was a happy occasion as all the 'sufferings' have come to an end; it was a wonderful experience working there, learning lots of things about property management; it was also an experience exchanging blows with my boss for my leave entitlement, salary and many others.

I had expected this day and was totally prepared for it in case my boss holds back my salary and demand me to do this and that. Previously, I had confronted her a few times to get my salary for June. Instead, she turned the table around saying that she wanted to deduct my no pay leave for the months she hasn't done so. According to the Employment act, your employer does not has the right to deduct your pay for overpayment if he/she hasn't done so for the month when u collect your pay. However, your employer may file a civil suit against you.

Fair enough, I let her recover her overpayment of the days which she paid me while I was on No pay leave. Pursuant to this, she also want want to deduct the overpayment of CPF contribution. I told her the right way to do so is to write in to CPF Board but she insists otherwise. She didn't even pay me CPF in April loh, so she will be fined if she tries to claim back the CPF. In the end, she paid me CPF for April in cash. If I go and complain against her, she will be punished too.

Of course there are several other matters which I confronted her but I shall not dwell on it any further. If you are interested to know can come to me personally. Not clear about the employment act also can look for me....

MOE Induction 2007

The world is really small. Just on Thursday when I attended the induction program, I made new friends, some of whom saw me before during my army days. I told them I have never seen them before while they told me they have seen me lots of time in the camp, especially in the vehicle shed maintaining my M113....

The Induction program was quite boring, and I tried to sleep through the event with my eyes wide open..the event started with a dreaded ice breaker where we have to dress up a person using magazines and newspapers. My group was extremely quiet to begin with but lots of crazy ideas came in. We made paper hats, folded hearts, 'decorated' the person with newspaper, who in the end looked like a chef as we also made a club with the words 'On government service' which was actually printed on the envelopes provided.

After the breaker, we were briefed about the education system and the latest development in the educational scene followed by a tea break then another talked by the associate dean of NIE on the course overview which we will spend one year there. She talked about people breaking bond, leaving the service etc...it was quite disheartening to hear that...

Following that was a sharing session by the principal of Northlight School. Her talk was very interesting and I was so tempted to join the school as a teacher if not for my lack of experience. She also shared about how she came to become the head of the school, the ways students are taught there, the life there etc. Every student was given a card and when the teacher notices a positive behaviour, he/she will award one chop to the student. Every four chops will entitle the student to exchange for a token to play pool in the recreation room and every eight chops can be exchanged for 3 tokens. That's why the students rush to school every morning before the assembly starts at 8am...Students live as far as Bukit Panjang where they have to take a bus to the LRT, then LRT to CCK MRT, CCK MRT to Paya Lebar MRT, then finally a bus to the school in Dunman. The Principal also played the school song which was in fact the best one which I had ever heard before. I was so mesmerized by the lyrics and the accompany music..

Right after lunch we broke up to our respective teaching groups namely science, maths, english, literature and so on. Another boring session about the science curriculum in Singapore ie. H1, H2 H3 subjects offered at JC. What's the point of telling us all this when the policy will change in time to come?

I want to teach in Northlight!!!

It's going to be over on 26 July...

I can't wait for this day to come....I had enough of adhering to the system that you deemed to be working perfectly for the past 40 years....

What's the point of persuading me to stay when I have made up my mind? What's the point of promoting me from a small Admin assistant to Admin officer when I want to leave? If you really appreciate my effort, recognise my contribution, you should have done so earlier on. Perhaps I might consider staying for another year. But that's gonna be a tough decision to make.

Anyway, I think the company is heading no where....some of the better, hardworking staff like throwing in their resignation letters, people in this field have blacklisted the company, Council members have been complaining about the high staff turnover and that the quality has deteriorated. On the average, one person quits every one or two weeks in a small company of about 20 staffs. See how screw-up the company is?

If you had taken care of your staff, given them their due salary on time, this would not have happen...Every month before getting our hard earned salary, we have to submit our report, attendance, leave report, stationery report etc. If we don't submit, no salary. What the heck is this? And why is some of our CPF delayed?

Slowly, one by one will leave for the greener pastures out there....I would like to thank all the wonderful staff there who made my time spent there more interesting and for guiding me along. And working there has made me more knowledgeable in the field of property management....