Summary – Tips for first day at work – based on personal experience

Dear friends… For your information, Alfattah will be starting her first day at work this coming Wednesday. And she would appreciate if everyone could give some advice on her first day. Congratulation sis…

Let me start by laying out some lessons I personally learnt during my first day. You probably knew most of them already, but it is in my opinion that important to be repeated

Tip 1 – First impression
That’s why it is called first impression. Only the first one will count. So.. be presentable. Dress suitably, Get enough sleep the day before. If you are excited like I was, you will not be able to sleep anyway, but no worry 🙂

Tip 2 – Learn as fast as you can.. (jgn malas)
You must realize that work is work.. It’s not like studying. And you are expected to work the first day you reported in, even though people say you can start later. So do some research on what your job scope is (MOST IMPORTANT), Prepare some question to ask on your work. Of course they will allow you some familiarisation period. But seriously you need to show that you are not some student doing practical training. You are there to work. Ask question if you don’t understand but please try to research the answer yourself first.

Believe me, the first few month of your work will be very demanding. You are expected to know everything as fast as you can, and in the mean time, all daily task need to be done. So be strong kay. it will get easier.. I promise

Tip 3 – Make friends immediately
Do not be shy, I made a fatal mistake of being a bit shy making friends when I started working. As a result after a year gone by, I still don’t know the name of a few of my staff. It’s very hard to work with a person if the two of you are strangers to each other. So make friends… Of course you will have to screen them eventually. Not all can be made friend.

As you are the new person, you are allowed to ask their name again should you forget. “Sori ye, tak ingat lah pulak nama, boleh saya tau sekali lagi?”

Tip 4 – Observe the culture
Make a mental note, you will be surprise with the working culture there. So keep your mind as opened as possible, because if not, you will start to be uncomfortable with everything. You cannot change the culture there on your first day. So go along with it.. For example, you see people got yelled in public because they are late for work… don’t freak out just yet. Just nod, and try to be early to avoid that kind of embarassment. observe and adapt… later we’ll change the culture

Tip 5 – observe the people
This is the fun part. You will see many people testing you. Yes.. testing you. They want to know what kind of person you are. So be smart with them. observe and listen. You will figure out the type of people in no time. Typically, there will always be

• people who’s good
• people who’s a suck up
• people who’s manipulative
• people who’s just plain annoying

Last Tips 6 – Don’t be nervous
After reading all this tips, you may start to be a bit nervous. Don’t… actually if you notice, there’s no reason to be. All you’re doing, is coming to work with an open mind. it is not hard at all to do.

Guys… do you have any other first day tips for Alfattah

So again, congratulation sis… I pray all the best for you 🙂

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Summary – A conversation script to illustrate how to handle difficult customer
I read this in a book about how to manage difficult person. I found it very interesting and had tried the same tactics in my line of work. The story and script are obviously rewritten based on my memory.

One day, while working in the ticketing counter of an airline company, Asni was approached by a fierce looking man, namad Latif. He is very rude cutting the line straight to the counter and slammed the counter with his fist so hard, everyone was shocked.

Asni – How can I help you sir?

Latif – Don’t give me that polite rubbish. I want to get on a plane to London now! You hear me!

* Let me stop you right here. If you were Asni, and you check and know that there is actually one available seat. What would you do? Give it to him? Here what Asni did

Asni – I’m very sorry sir, but there is no available seat left. Hm I tell you what, just give me 2 minutes while I try to find any other alternatives.

Latif – you better find me that seat or I will sie your company for making me missed my appointment

Asni – (picking up the phone, PRETENDING to talk to another person) Hello, this is Asni, I would like to check if all seats were taken or not?

Asni – (obviously talking to no one continues)Yes, I understand, you cannot do that. But I have a gentleman here who urgently need the seat. It’s a matter of life and death (wink at the gentleman)

Latif at this moment.. seemed touched by the effort made by Asni, started to calm down and give her a thumbs up.

Asni – Please, if there is a seat, why not give to this gentleman. He wouldn’t mind buseness class or not. He just need to be there for his daughter’s operation (again wink at Latif)

Asni – I tell you what, you help me with this one. I buy you dinner later. So how? Ok Thank a lot!!! I really owe you one

Latif – (by now in debt with Asni… amazed with his service) Thank you so much dear. I will put up a good comments on you later. Thank again ya

Asni – (smiling)

/end script

If we just give Latif the ticket, he will still be cranky all the way to London. This way, both will benefit. But of course, Asni cannot bluff all her customer. Now that would be unethical hehe..

So how do you guys handle difficult person? Any tricks?

————— Personal Note ————————–
I used to do part time in Metrojaya as a Customer Service. I still missed the worklife there. Less responsibility and you can see a lot of people. One of our daily job is of course to wrap gift. I can do any design within minutes… heheh But the best memory there, is when we are so busy wrapping (it’s christmas) and suddenly one gentleman came and bought us 1 box of Dunkin Donut, appreciating our work. We were smiling all day long

Photo Credit – PDAgrl

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“HAHAHA I am the CEO of this company!!! I have ultimate power on my low level worker…I’m the most important person in this company, and without me… the company will go down the drain”.

Have you ever met anyone so arrogant being the boss or working in high position in a company. Well I have… Not my current manager obviously. It occured to me. Comparing the CEO of a company and the general cleaners of the company, who would be more important? The answer to this is simply by having them take a month off.

If the CEO of the company take a month off from working, can the company manage to survive and operate normally. I believe it can because there are so many people willing to take control the CEO’s power and do his work.

If the general cleaners of the company (any company) take a month off, what do you think will happen to the company? Rubbish left uncleared, stale fried rice still left at the waste basket, the toilet is unbelievably smelly. Can everyone do their work efficiently? Is there any people willing to do the cleaner’s job? I can guarantee you that they can’t even stand one week

So any of you guys have experience the no cleaner scenario? or no CEO scenario. Do share. let’s decide… who’s more important?

————— Personal Note ————————–
Again I appreciated all of you who frequent this humble blog. I admit, I’m not much of a designer. I guess it’s genetic. When I was a child, 5 to 6 years old, my parents did send me to a drawing class. The class is actually for Form 5 students. Did I tell you the art teacher is a friend of my parents. So we were supposed to draw some vegetables. Everyone was given one. When the class is over, everyone finished their work except for me. I am so into the details that I even draw every hairline and leaves exactly like it is. Spending all that time and still not a good piece. I persuaded my parents to give me other hobby to start 🙂 Good ol times

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Have you ever felt that you are a working zombie. Working for a long time already and you can predict you will be doing the same thing in 10 years. I read in a book about how to give yourself some motivation and direction to working. First I apologize for not being able to give the reference to that book, read it long time ago.

It basically says that there are three levels for monthly-paid workers.

• level 1 – Salary below 5K

• level 2 – Salary between 5k to 10k

• level 3 – salary above 10 k

1) First identify which level you are in

2) For example you are in level 1, search through the newspaper for any job paying at level 2. you can search via other ways too such as internet, chat with clients etc.

3) Once you found the job, do research on the job requirement. for example the job may require 5 years experience in project management, or must posses steam certification or an MBA

4) The most important thing is that now that you know how to get there, plan your way. If that level of job requires you to have 5 years experience in project management, volunteer yourself for the experience. If they need you to have steam certificate or an MBA. invest on that. Dedicate all your energy now to achieve that goal. 

Once there, you know what to do.

in short, if you want things to change… change it. However you can always choose not to do anything and get the increment slowly year by year. It’s totally your choice. This is more like an advice to me than to you. So help me Allah. What do you guys think?

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