Saturday, December 11, 2004
The Law of Shit
Much has been said (by me) about the monotonous nature of my life in Brunei, but there are times when things get unexpectedly exciting.
The early part of this week was fairly smooth - nothing noteworthy happened. It was literally a snore, I'd spent most of the time during office hours snoozing on the couch. But it was to be the calm before the storm (yucks! I hate that cliche, but I can't think of anything better now, so bear with it guys).
Then Thursday came. I was happily watching "Stepford Wives" - maybe not that happily since the picture quality was pathetic to say the least - when my supervisor beckoned me to the office computer. The usual cheery tone in his voice was absent, and was more sombre, more solemn. I sensed something was wrong.
We had sent an e-mail wrongly. Now, looking at this in isolation, it could never be classified as big shit. At worst, maybe a lizard's dropping. But as thing would have it, the mistake had to be committed on an important e-mail, and only discovered much long after. I didn't have to suffer the brunt of tongue lashing - my supervisor did - but I felt bad nonetheless. If my supervisor had been a nasty bastard, I would probably feel elated, but he is a nice guy, and he didn't even reprimand me for the mistake, which accentuated my guilt.
Shit never comes in one clump, or as the Chinese would say, "祸不单行".
Friday: I was tasked with checking the phone bills of my Big Boss. However, as fate would have it, the phone number list I was supposed to check against was missing. To exacerbate matters, in the midst of my frantic search for the list, I uncovered two other sets of unchecked phone bills left by the former 2IC dating back to the middle of the year.
I was caught in catch 22. The only person who could tell me which phone call was official or private would be my Big Boss. However, if I were to show him the phone bills, he'd ask about the old phone bills, and I'll get shit. But if I didn't ask him, I won't be able to check the phone bills, and I'll get shit too, albeit later. I had to decide which shit was smaller and less smelly.
In the end, I opted for the former. Things didn't turn out that badly for me, but only because my supervisor took yet another one for the team.
Two major screw-ups in two days - things have definitely been better. Oh well, to complete the Chinese saying: "祸不单行, 福无双全". I guess things will get better next week
Much has been said (by me) about the monotonous nature of my life in Brunei, but there are times when things get unexpectedly exciting.
The early part of this week was fairly smooth - nothing noteworthy happened. It was literally a snore, I'd spent most of the time during office hours snoozing on the couch. But it was to be the calm before the storm (yucks! I hate that cliche, but I can't think of anything better now, so bear with it guys).
Then Thursday came. I was happily watching "Stepford Wives" - maybe not that happily since the picture quality was pathetic to say the least - when my supervisor beckoned me to the office computer. The usual cheery tone in his voice was absent, and was more sombre, more solemn. I sensed something was wrong.
We had sent an e-mail wrongly. Now, looking at this in isolation, it could never be classified as big shit. At worst, maybe a lizard's dropping. But as thing would have it, the mistake had to be committed on an important e-mail, and only discovered much long after. I didn't have to suffer the brunt of tongue lashing - my supervisor did - but I felt bad nonetheless. If my supervisor had been a nasty bastard, I would probably feel elated, but he is a nice guy, and he didn't even reprimand me for the mistake, which accentuated my guilt.
Shit never comes in one clump, or as the Chinese would say, "祸不单行".
Friday: I was tasked with checking the phone bills of my Big Boss. However, as fate would have it, the phone number list I was supposed to check against was missing. To exacerbate matters, in the midst of my frantic search for the list, I uncovered two other sets of unchecked phone bills left by the former 2IC dating back to the middle of the year.
I was caught in catch 22. The only person who could tell me which phone call was official or private would be my Big Boss. However, if I were to show him the phone bills, he'd ask about the old phone bills, and I'll get shit. But if I didn't ask him, I won't be able to check the phone bills, and I'll get shit too, albeit later. I had to decide which shit was smaller and less smelly.
In the end, I opted for the former. Things didn't turn out that badly for me, but only because my supervisor took yet another one for the team.
Two major screw-ups in two days - things have definitely been better. Oh well, to complete the Chinese saying: "祸不单行, 福无双全". I guess things will get better next week
Posted by De Rui at 10:26 PM
Post a Comment