We had a little Christmas celebration today, one of two lined-up in the office. See, our office has become so "compartmentalized" that we usually have more then one celebration for a single public holiday. We have one on the section level; and another one on the department level. It doesn't really make much sense. So am I supposed to wish my colleagues "Merry Christmas" twice?
Of course, food, well-wishes and merry-making are important ingredients for a perfect Christmas function. But more often then not, something sticks out like a sore thumb during such functions in the office. It always does. I'm talking about THE GREAT SOCIAL DIVIDE. I don't know about your office, but in my office, I always observe that the bosses and the power that be usually huddle on one corner of the room, and the rank-and-file officers on the other. It's always the case and I never stop to wonder why. Some people are simply shy. But I suspect the reason why the employees do not mingle with the bosses is that we fear saying something stupid and thus leaving our bosses with a bad impression. So, we tend not to strike out a conversation with our bosses and avoid them like the plague in such social setting. As the saying goes, silence is a substitue for stupidity, is it not? And the bosses, trying not to make the employees feel intimidated, keep their distance. Someone ought to help to break the ice and break down this invisible wall...
That aside, Victor left me in stitches today, for the silliest thing he did in the office. I couldn't help myself chuckling away even as I write ... Wahahaha...
See, Victor was trying to get hold of one of our BIG bosses through the phone. However, what he heard when he dialed the number was a pre-recorded voice asking him to leave his message in the voice box. Ok, so our big boss doesn't exactly sound like an angle. But you know how it is each time you're asked to speak to a answering machine or trying to make a pre-recorded voice of you own on your machine. We get self-conscious and our voice turned out sounding very artificial. Which was what exactly happened to our boss...
Anyway, my dear pal Victor seemed to be blissfully unaware that the voice recorder was active and running and happily went on to imitate the voice of our boss, just for jest. It took him a while to realise that his voice was recorded and he panicked to the point of becoming hysterical! Heads would roll when our boss heard the voice mail on her return!
"There goes your promotion!" I jokingly told Victor. However, I was surprised when Victor's hysteria soon gave way to one of indifference. That was when he realised there was nothing he could do to undo what he has done. In the end, when he finally managed to get hold of the boss, he simply asked her to just erase his voice message saying that he was not even aware that his voice was being recorded. We were not sure if she'd heard the voice mail but she apparently bought his story! Cool. Must be his charm again. See, Victor is always so lucky. He could get away with murder. While mere mortal like me could only get away with manslaughter. Wahahaha...
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2 comments:
Go on Chris, have a field day laughing at my mistake. But it was an honest one, quite unlike the ones described in your next post. And I don't mind telling you that it was not the first time that I made such a mistake.
I promised I would relate another similar incident that happened more than 2 years ago just before my mum passed away. The setting was not so happy and the memories even more forgettable. But try as I might to forget, I still remember the incident very clearly.
My mum was seriously in hospital. My 2nd brother and I were there to visit and we had to make a crucial decision regarding my mum. We needed to consult our eldest brother urgently to discuss the matter. He was not at the hospital even though he should. In addition, he could not be contacted via his handphone despite several attempts by me. In sheer desperation and frustration, I uttered a swear word. I wasn't even aware that I did it.
It was my eldest brother who very angrily smsed me the next day and questioned me why I sweared at him. (Yes, the relationship between my eldest brother and I has not been on the very best of terms. If it has been better, he would've called to clarify things instead of smsing. I just felt that using sms was being so impersonal, especially to a brother. But that's another story.)
It turned out that I had unintentionally recorded that swear word into his voicemail. He claimed that he had accidentally left his phone in the office. (It's obvious that I couldn't verify this but I've never known my eldest brother to be a very responsible person, much less a forgettable person.) What followed was a series of heated smses being exchanged between the two of us.
He was angry at me for swearing at him and I was angry at him for being so forgetful (if not irresponsible) for 'leaving his phone in the office' while fully aware that our mum was seriously ill in hospital. On top of that, I felt that he got his energy misdirected - being angry with me instead of being concerned about mum.
"You could always have paged for me what! Why didn't you?", he continued unrelentlessly.
"I didn't expect that people still carried pagers nowadays! It's so old-fashioned." I retorted.
As you can see, our relationship and tone of communication could have been much better. (Of course, there were many other incidents that led to this state of affairs but I'd rather spare you the agony.)
In any case, up till today, the relationship between my eldest brother and I still remains the same. Hence, I never once regretted uttering that swear word into his voicemail at all. If I had to do it again, I gladly will - this time intentionally.
Thanks for sharing Victor. Take time soon, to mend your relationship with your brother, 'cause there's none like kith and kin. I know sometimes friends are more forthcoming when you need their help. My relationship with my siblings is also quite mediocre. We hardly meet and if we do, we hardly talk. The demand of life, esp at work leaves very little room for communication with members of our family. Just to illustrate...
There're 24 hours in a day. Say we spend 8 hours sleeping, and another 8 hours working. That makes 16 hours. Another 2 hours for, say, transportation to and fro office and home. We're left with 6 precious hours to do things we want. A couple of hours watching TV and surfing the internet, what's there left for family?
With so little time left, is it any wonder then that misunderstanding arises between members in a family? We spent more time communicating with our co-workers in the office then with members of our family. Isn't it sad?
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