It's not like I did it on purpose!

Hear ye! Hear ye! Today was my first day at the job and guess what...

I was late


I don't know what happened! Suddenly today of all days, the exit to Jalan Ampng from MRR2 was jam packed! I know that that road can be messy sometimes, but I've never known it to be this bad, the cars were crawling all the way to Pandan Jaya! Anybody can explain what the hell happened over there at 9am this morning? I was like screaming in my car, "Why God? Why today of all days?!?!?!?"

All in all, total late time was 13 minutes.

Of course, just as I expected, I got some reminders and warnings from the HR Admin Asst that met me when I first came in, the Unit Leader that briefed me in the morning, the HR Exec who came to collect my letter offer, the Assistant Head Dept that briefed me in the afternoon, the HR Manager that met me sometime in the evening, and the Assistant Unit Leader of the unit I was to be in.

I knew that being late on the first day is like a big tabboo and the biggest sin that you could ever commit to your new employer. But come on! It's not like I did it on purpose!

I knew that there would be repercussions. The Asst Head Dept told me that it will effect my appraisal and thus effect my bonus and increment, which is a common practice and quite acceptable to me. But later on, my Asst Leader told me that the staff can be downgraded if he/she has a minimum of 2 (two) lateness within the ENTIRE year (365 days).

You see, the company graded their employees according to their expertise and performance. I guess we are like cows:
A for juicy, tender meat, very punctual and gives a lot of milk
B for good skin, tender meat, great attitude but come into the barn late from time to time
C for little knowledge, sour milk but good leather skin
D for skin only good for cheap imitation products, flesh good for hamburgers, all in all good for firing.

If within that year, a grade A cow were to come in late on two, I repeat TWO or DOS or DUA or ER or 2 days, it will be downgraded to B. Very tight-ass policy of you ask me.

Well, okay I do have doubts whether I can survive this kind of condition but what to do? Of all the companies I applied, they were the only ones who wanted me. Kind of sad if you think about it that way.

However, I still have a ray of hope because after I was accepted into this company, I got an interview with another company. I would prefer this other company since it's bigger and I know the learning experience will be much more different. What if this company is as tight-ass as this current one, you might ask. I won't mind, at least I have the kind of work experience I wanted, working with a bookstore that has a chain of retail shops under its belly. I am hoping that they will call me by this week. If not, then I would have to close that window.

If you have a rough idea which company I'm talking about, just keep it to yourself. I'd rather people not know where I work. It would be committing another great booboo, talking bad about your employer on the net. And if I got caught there would be no excuse because this time I did do it on purpose!