Lessons that life teach.

Lesson 01 : Punctuality is a virtue few Singaporeans have.

Being late is in the blood of most Singaporeans. When they are supposed to meet at 10 AM, they start to arrive from 10 onwards. Although it is not a rule, but generally when people say "meet at 10 AM" they mean everyone should be there before 10 AM.

These Singaporeans also like to assume that others are also late, and so they themselves are late. When I messaged this friend of mine that I am already out of my house and I am going to reach 5 minutes before our meeting time, she actually messaged back with these exact words - "Wow so early."

Is 5 minutes before time so early? I do not think so, and in fact I think that that should be the way it is. I sincerely do not think that it is so hard to be on time. You just need to start preparing 10 minutes or so earlier and you can be on time. What exactly is it so unachievable here?

Time does not come back. There will never be another 01 December 2007 10:00 AM ever again. I spent so much time waiting for people that are late sometimes I feel my heart ache for the time wasted.

"I could have read a chapter of the Java textbook in this 20 minutes."

"I could have finished a race or two in NFS in this 10 minutes."

If you want to waste time, waste only your own. Please do show some respect to yourself and others by being punctual.

_{I am not saying that I have never been late but I am rarely late and even then I am never late by more than 10 minutes (except for this time when I had a stomachache before exiting my house).}

Lesson 02 : Trouble is like bird shit : It's random.

Today at BaliThai I was accused of misplacing and forgetting a customer's plate of satay which she wanted to be packed and brought home. Although I often forget things, I do not suffer from amnesia. For something as dramatic as being stopped and asked to take a single dish to the kitchen and be packed, it is rather hard to forget.

And in short - I did not do it. I was not the one she told to pack the food. She made the mistake, not me.

But voila! There she was, ingenious at my response when I said that I am extremely sure she did not tell me to do so and she has gotten the wrong person.

"No, I stopped you and told you to do it. I saw you taking the dish inside."

No, Mdm, it was someone else because I am sure as hell the person you saw was not me.

And now, I think she dislikes me. The expression on her face whenever she sees me practically radiates disdain. I cannot say I am surprised, because I must admit I am quite a "blur" person at work.

Speaking of which, I think I ought to up my level of indifference. I was so affected by her accusation that my performance was impaired for the rest of the night. This cannot do.

<sub>On the side note, I surpassed my dish-carrying limits today when I finished clearing a single table at one go (with the fish head clay pot, dishes and glasses). I think it was a moment of courage, because for the rest of the night I did not do it again.

And oh, I have also started to take orders which I often forget to read and confirm the customers' orders before giving the list to the kitchen.</sub>

Lesson 03 : A comfortable environment breeds efficiency.

I used to think that a boss or a leader must be commander-like. I am talking about those in the military - fierce and full of authority. I believed that people are lazy and must be pushed to see efficiency.

After starting to work as a waitress (the last job I want in the world), I realized that the way I have been thinking is wrong. Employees only start to dislike and fear when you exercise militarism. When they start to dislike and fear, they start to not take initiative that much anymore and maintaining a healthy relationship becomes extremely difficult.

I myself will less than likely to put my best in for the employer if my feelings towards him or her are only dislike and fear. I will only meet the minimum requirement and that is it. There is no motivation/incentive in giving more at work.

I came across this quote once.

"Power is about influence."

And I cannot possibly pen in words how much I agree with that. You want performance? Earn your employees' respect and win their hearts first.

_{But of course, this does not work if your employees are lazy and unmotivated by nature. A comfortable environment will breed incompetency is this case, and it is really up the employers to know the degree of comfort to be bestowed upon their workers.}

Lesson 04 : Customer service sucks in Singapore because of improper training.

I am unsure about the high class restaurants, but looking at their revenue I suppose their service staff is properly trained and that is how they maintain their standards.

Hawker centres are excluded for this, because considering the fact that you pay $3 for a dish it would be somewhat ridiculous to expect the hawkers to provide and sustain a common standard of good customer service. I am not saying that they do not/should not because good customer service is one of the major reasons why customers come back.

I am talking about expectations.

Mid class restaurants like BaliThai do not train their service staff. Not formally, anyway. The training the new staff get is basically to look at how the seniors do it and print the procedure in your mind. They are not given the chance to have their mistakes corrected/try out because the training consists mainly of just going up to the customers and imitating what they have seen.

Also, a common standard is not specified because there are no formal training. More often than not, the standard is merely "good enough". Oh, that setting looks alright - close enough. Oh, the way she holds the tray does not break the dishes - good enough.

Parrots imitate, but you need to teach them properly before they can imitate properly. So what makes employers or the management think that to provide good service to customers they do not need to provide proper training for the staff?