Chinese Poison

Haven't written for a long time. So let's start with telling you about a week of terror my poor friend had. Partly she is also to be blamed, for her current low status in the company, her extremely poor bad luck, her failure to get software which is tried and tested ready, her lack of intelligence when it matters and just her extremely SUAYNESS.. But the rest of the blame, she blames the psycho manager she happens to meet during her 2 week business trip to shanghai.

Freaking mad people in shanghai are DAMN proud that they work crazy hours.

She wanted very much to just snap at the guy, but she knows she can't, because she cannot put her career in jeopardy. But he drives her nuts, very very much.

And also due to her own fault that she cannot get her system up and running, he is able to inflict toture on her. But seriously, she is sure that even if she did get the system up and running on time, he would have found her another 10 things to do. She is sure, because he keeps saying so.

Monday to wednesday, the girl can already tell things in china are going to be unpleasant. On thursday, the gal's first poison is injected at 6pm, when he insist that she install HIS VERSION of a software from beijing. Doing so, needs the whole server to be reformatted and takes 3 plus hours and its 6pm.. never mind. At 9pm, the installation of the software fails halfway. In fact, it causes the whole set up to fail at a step even earlier than she previously progressed to. He comes in, looks at it and says.. Hah! You must have configured something wrongly ( which he says to the girl all the time, but finally when he can be present at this installation, he had run away saying it is complicated and he is scared to look) (what the?!? then you come back and say the girl configured wrongly? ) Anyway, the girl is 100% sure that his software is crap and she did not configure it wrongly. Anyway, he makes a call and find out nothing about why it is wrong. He says ' i duno what is wrong, but you configured it wrongly, uninstall it and do it again. I'm going for dinner.' The girl has actually endured similar crap the whole day and is really tired, so finally she says,' no, I will uninstall it, but I will reinstall it tomorrow when we find out why it is wrong. Because I am sure it will fail, because you are not telling me what the right configuration is, and I am sure of my configuration already.' she thinks "wow, that sounds like rebelling, but she doesn't care that much cos she is damn tired of standing the whole day and being in the server room with the endless loud whirring of the machines.

Also, it is 9.15pm, and uninstallation and reinstallation is going to take another 45 minutes of her time. Seriously, she is sick of how they think that trying and trying blindly will get them anywhere. But they keep making her do it! The way they work, no wonder they have to work such long hours! but yah.. she is also dumb not to be able to solve it herself hence the torture. No peace of mind to troubleshoot actually, cos he comes running over with some absurd solution all the time to make her try.

So he says ' okay, i think you are tired.' But seriously, it is not in the sympathatic way at all. He says it in such a way that conveys the message that.. you aren't strong and determined enough to continue.

Damn.. She is furious and disappointed in her inability to perform when it matters. She is also very confused whether it is her own configuration mistake, a software incompatability ( because china site did not have all the setup files needed and she mixed in her own) or even a hardware issue. Because she was given a rusty old machine, with amber light blinking and all 3 usb ports broken. At night she dreams of doing the whole installation from the top and wakes up in the morning on time just when she is about to do the crucial installation.

On friday, she goes to another place to do the installation and is spared the man's endless nagging, chasing, poor jokes, out of the world suggestions and request. Alas, at night at 7pm, as she decides to end her day, the guy calls her trainee and asks how's everything. she is terribly embarassed when trainee has to tell the guy it is not set up yet. The man asks to talk to the girl, and says. Do you intend to come in tomorrow. The girl says,' well, I sent a reply to my colleagues, if they give me a reply, or if i find something on the internet I will come, else I will wait till monday cos there is no point repeating the same mistakes with no new ideas.' Which is the truth. It's not that she wants to slack, but she really is boggled by the whole issue. She also needs some rest.

He cleverly says. " i can ask beijing to set it up for you"

She says no firmly, because that is the whole point of her to coming to china.

then he says, " I can come in tomorrow morning to help you with the installation if you want. Do you want to come in tomorrow morning?"

And yes, to his credit, he is a very nice to come in to help.

She is trapped. but she feels a surge of energy and says 'yes! I want to make sure I get this installation done myself anyway!'

Anyway, it is a freaking simple instalation that she does normally in 1 day in S'pore, but she is just being a moron in china.

So she goes to work tomorrow and arrives at 9.10am in the morning. She knows the exact time because she signs in at the security desk at the ground level of the building.

She works and works. And the guy too, works and works... They troubleshoot and basically try a lot of things. With him driving her nuts occassionally of course.

After some time, at 9pm, he seems tired and disinterested, but she works happily, because she sees the progress. Finally at 10pm, the system installation finally completes successfully. She is happy partly because she is happy it is finally working and she can go home. Then the GUY asks, now I want you to configure the live and video services. The girl thinks he is just making a suggestion or trying to act hardworking. In fact, she is totally surprised that he will make such a request in the first place. She is already dead tired and the whole point was to show the installation process to the trainee who has gone home after they have been stuck so long at the same point.

She says, "no, it is already 10pm, and the trainee is not here to see the whole process if I do it now.

(plus she witnessed *** taking 3 DAYS to get it working here)" She knows she can get everything done in just 2 hours, but she is afraid that any mistakes or accidents due to her poor state of mind would lead to it dragging to a day even.

He says "come on, I want to see the live services and video working"

She says again, as controlled as she can " no, I dont want to do it today. I am tired and how about the trainee"
She actually thinks " are you freaking man!?!? You slave driver!"

He says "no, we can do it now. I want to do it now"

She has, but to agree.

She really wants to break down, but she remembers to smile occassionally although she is seriously fuming. She can't wait to go home and BITCH about him, because seriously a pathetic trainee can only get back in such a way. As she configures the services, she can't help but notice her own fingers are all trembling as they configure the services as fast as she can. he says " I can see you are very good at this configuration, its just the installation you are bad at. I am giving you good training! *laugh* You can tell the people in singapore you have gone to hell and back. This is hell... *laughs*" She is damn tired, every single piece of conversation he makes, she is interpreting in a very very bad way. (beware: very subjective iinterpretation of his words, but this is what he said!) he says " you see.. you learn something, you must read everything slowly, and must use the command line all the time. nagnagnag" she thinks ("stop nagging me! yes I know you are soooo great and no, you must NOT use the command line all the time, seriously only wastes time! )

he thinks that his ways are always correct. He is fighting with her for the keyboard now and asking her to direct him. Actually, she just wants to do it as fast as possible but he makes her do dumb things and keeps asking. "are you sure are you sure? 100% sure?" stupid things also include insisting that you copy and paste things like a short line like chinese.mf from one window to another instead of just typing chinese.mf herself. He says.. that is the only way to get it 100% right. She wants to say " that is being idiotically slow and wasting a lot of time when it is 10 something at night" and "I am not so incompetent to type such a simple line wrongly!"

The delay in the installation has lessed her self-confidence and she has unwillingly been made to look like an ignorant trainee, but now that installation is complete, and she can get her configurations on the way, she can speak louder.

so yeah, good for her, she manages to get live services running by 11.15pm, despite his interference. By this time, her colleague ***who went home at 3pm has gotten worried and called the office. Probably only then he says " we will continue the video on monday"

Then he also says 'I think *** 's set up has a mistake. I will ask her to reinstall it on monday." On hearing that, she wonders how her colleague will react, because she has been very tramautised by this man as well." he continues "if she likes, I can come in on sunday and do the instalation with her! " He laughs his characteristic laugh, which to her now is extremely irritating.

the girl thinks "I know this is not singapore and this is china and asians looove working long hours. To show that they are hardworkers, but this is not the way to do it."

And finally, she sends an email to her colleagues back in singapore to thank them for the support they have given her through this time, but is unable to write more details, as he lingers by her desk.

Finally, they leave the office at 11.45pm, and the man is actually quite nice, he offers to drop her off at her hotel 15 mintues walk away as he goes home.

In the taxi, she is exposed to his incessant nagging and reminders of how hard they work AGAIN.

some of this he says it for the first time in the taxi, but she has heard some of these stories the whole week.

he comments "how many hours you work today? now you have experienced 14 and a half hour on a saturday, but you have not experienced 16 hours a day. Next time, you should try 16 hours a day! We do it all the time!"
she thinks "i cannot take anymore of this! let me out of the car.. you are really crazy.. and what.. saying that I am still NOT up to what YOU guys can do? In US, or even singapore, the words would have been "hey, you really worked hard today. keep it up." Freaking asians only like to belittle others. Is it cos they started out with a higher expectation that I can't reach for now? Or is it just in asian's character to always ask for more, but never give encouragement? *** feels he looks down on us. Looking down is not really the right term, but then I can't think of what it is at the moment of time. "

he also says things like "there was one time for a project, we didn't leave the office for 3 days! We just sleep at our desk and eat in this building"

he also says " almost everybody works till 10pm everyday here. they also have been working on saturdays and sundays. you should be glad i am not making you work weekends. you are very lucky") she thinks "they get ot pay. they are locals here. I am not the same. where's your sense of hospitality. i am lucky?? thanks for implying im such a slacker"

he also says "this is the hell. If you survive this, you can go back and say you survive the hell.*laughs*"

he also says " blah blah works 80 hours a week when they go overseas. they dont even sleep in their hotel room, they sleep in the office! We really work hard here!"

OH, and guess what. The company has already booked the apartment to the 11th just in case.The girl and her colleague *** are leaving friday (9th) midnight,but now he asks them to check out friday at 10 am. He says they can leave the luggage at the lobby and go shopping and come pick it up later and take their midnight flight. Although she can normally handle this if she is on road trip and trying to save money and be garang, she is seriously not in the mood for this now. Plus, the finance side of the company didn't even suggest this, so why are you trying to do this to the two poor girls. So you want them to spend the next 14 hours outside to save your one day's hotel bill? What makes you think they want to shop the entire day. Have you asked if they would need the place to take a rest before the flight? Is this how you treat fellow colleagues that come in from other countries? What has it to do with you anyway? Seriously amazed at the ludicrous ideas of this man. Staying out for 14 hours is possible, but why would someone suggest such a cheapskate idea to a guest? Other times, he is fine buying pizza and ice cream for all the colleagues in the company, then he springs this.

Even when they say that they think they do not want to check out in the morning, he doesn't budge. He repeats (must be act blur) " it is very easy. The hotel can keep the luggage for you. " They know.. They just don't want to! They are still undecided whether to just heck care the man, and not move out in the morning.
Why? really.. is it a culture difference? trying to give myself an explanation here.

the worst thing is, he is very unpredictable, he changes his mind continously that *** is confused. On friday b4 calling the girl, he offered to bring us shopping, then *** told him we already made plans to go shopping with another friend in the afternoon. Then she said "I thought you want us to come back to work." And he said "no i am not so evil. "and then he calls the girl and tells her to come in on saturday. *** is confused and didn't know the girl had to go back to the office on saturday till she got home and explained it to her.

Finally tonight, she reaches her place at 12am. And her roommate has gone to bed. Just as well, because she doesn't know if she would have yelled the house down or broken down if given a chance to unleash the pent up frustration of her week.

One can say, tough luck babe, welcome to the working life. It's true, we need to adapt. But she is definitely not going to return to this unhappy place. And she really just needs a place to BITCH, so she can just make a log of it. (yes... HE says " I can see where you are making a mistake, you do not take logs of what you do. You must always take logs. I always take logs. etc etc.")

Seriously, just a place to bitch. No one sue her. It's only her own opinion. And she is not referring to whole china, but just a particular division in a particular company in china. She writes this so that she doesn't go to bed with the poison in her body and that's why she came to me--> www.lister-ine.blogspot.com

at least... She is here only for 2 weeks. 2 weeks never felt this long.