Seminar

There is this seminar for coworkers from overseas offices this week. My boss asked me if I was open to assist the other assistant. This assistant is supporting the so-called big boss in Singapore, who is in a higher position than my boss. Let’s call this assistant O. O reckons she is of higher rank than all other assistants in the organisation, just because she is the assistant to this boss. Well, it doesn’t bother me, though the other assistant whom I’m close to loathes her to the core. Since my boss asked me, of course I have to help.

While I assumed I was to assist O, what really happened was she passed everything to me. The food catering, lunches, dinners, local transport, team building activity, etc.. Well, I guess the sourcing wasn’t the most terrible part. Today is the first day of the seminar, though they had the welcome dinner last night. So, I have to arrange for coffee breaks and lunches for 3 days and dinners for 3 nights. Today, they were having bento lunch. I think I had spent less than 1 hour at my desk for the entire day. I was running up and dow, now and then. My office is 2 levels above the level where the seminar takes place. Only when I was carrying lots of stuff did I take the lift, otherwise I took the stairs. I joked to the pantry auntie that I should have lost 2kg after today’s workouts.

O only showed face at the beginning of the seminar. For the rest of the day, she didn’t even offer to help for the lunch or coffee breaks. I was fine, actually, and this didn’t came to my mind till the other assistant mentioned. Let’s call this assistant S. So, I happened to see S chatting with another coworker whom we are close to, J, at the pantry when I was going to take the stairs up. Then when I mentioned that I hadn’t had my lunch yet at that time, they were shocked. It was around 15mins to 2pm. S was so pissed that I had to handle everything by myself and that O didn’t bother to offer her help when this was supposed to be her tasks initially. S then offered to help me as I said I was going to the pantry to clear their lunch. I didn’t have to do that, as we have a pantry cleaner at the pantry at every level. But I just wanted to make sure that they were done with their lunch and to see if there’s any leftovers. Indeed, there was a bento box left. I took that for my lunch after clearing the table. It’s weird that some of them left the boxes on the table after they were done, when the trash bins were just beside the table. Hmm, anyway, there weren’t a lot to clear. Nevertheless, I’m grateful that S offered to help.

As I was having my late lunch, the reception called to inform that a delivery was here. I had to receive the delivery with company stamp on the delivery note. I was expecting that, so I had the stamp with me. Then, I took my bento and stuff with me to collect the delivery, then return to the pantry to continue my lunch. Wah, I don’t think I had ever been as busy. Well, I did skip lunch or have late meals due to work commitments in the past, when I was much younger. But it was so long ago.

Though it was such a busy day, I wasn’t unhappy. I felt a sense of accomplishment. I think if I were O, I would have felt guilty and lousy, though I don’t think she would feel the same. Somehow I think she’s laughing away at how foolish I am to take up these tasks, instead of being thankful. Anyway, I really don’t care about her. I believe if she’s really that nasty, she will get her karma one day.

Tomorrow is another busy day, less the lunch. Praying hard that it will go smoothly.