At The Office

The desserts chef and staff certainly outdid themselves with this humourous depiction of one of our bosses. Everyone who saw it couldn't help laughing out loud - including bossie himself. Every detail - down to the three strands of hair - truly describes numerous cute facets of our boss. Happy birthday, bossie!

Hot Updates: It's found!!!

My colleague who now wants to be known as Madam Mona has this ability to discern roughly where lost things could generally be located. She's usually accurate. And so, I sought her this morning, spilling my woes about my lost mug. She sensed that it was still within the office and was handled by an elderly lady. That was part of the reason why she interrogated the tea lady.

Lo and behold after lunch when the tea lady was cleaning the cubicle of a colleague who was away on vacation, she found me mug there! So Madam Mona strikes again. It was still in the office and an elderly lady took it and gave it back to me.

I'm just so very happy now! Hee!

Original post:

My old faithful thermal coffee mug who has been with me since early 2004 is lost! I reached out for it yesterday morning to make my usual cup of coffee and it wasn't there in its rightful place.

Mona, my dear colleague is on a hunt for it. She interrogated the poor tea lady if she had accidentally dropped it and discarded it but the lady said, "Tak ala, tak ala!" But then again, she has been acting suspicious after that confrontation. For the lady doth protests too much.

I hope it turns up soon for coffee just doesn't taste quite the same in other cups. It's a gift from my mom and after more than 3 years of sipping from it daily, I've grown very attached to it. And if it's indeed broken and unusable, I still want to say goodbye to it. I need a proper closure for a faithful drinking buddy all these years.

Happier times with my mug...

It's actually "Tak Ada" in Malay which in this case means, "I didn't do it."

I find that the parenting skills, particularly skills in disciplining a child works on adult human beings as well. People can be trained to do things in a new way, even though it is much more convenient for them to do things the old way. And the effect is quite immediate, too:

• Explain why their change in behavior will benefit the company/organisation. This can be done via email, circulars, meetings, etc.


• Let them know that they are being monitored and should they violate the rules, they will face repercussions. This can take the form of 'friendly' reminders, fines, etc.


• Monitor on a regular basis i.e. daily. As soon as an violater is spotted, reprimand them for that particular incident. And remind them to practice the new rules.


• After the new ways have become a habit for them, you may not need to monitor quite so often but it still has to be done regularly. Always remember to exercise Step #3 for rule violaters.

This is how rules are made and adhered to. Without enforcement, most people would not bother obeying rules if it's inconvenient to them. Without enforcement, fear of breaking the rules and respect for authority is gone. With the upcoming pay hike for our police and armed forces, I hope to see them motivated and taking pride in their very important role of securing our country. That they will enforce the law effectively upon the violaters of our country's law and criminals.

If parents could discipline their children that way, and if companies could keep their staff in line with enforcement, surely our police and army could keep the country clean.

Heck, with enforcement and constant monitoring from the press and public, perhaps our MPs would also desist from making sexist remarks in their speeches for the benefit of all mankind.

When enforcement becomes the key, what a wonderful world it would be!