Inefficiency with Excuses.

Of all the inefficient people that I hate, there is one in particular that I hate most now. It changes my view on ‘inefficiency’. Now I think it’s OK to be inefficient, but it’s NOT OK to be inefficient and at the same time with tons of excuses and push the responsibilities to others, and then shoot arrow at their back!

My first day at work after the long holiday was greeted by this fella at work whom I was forced to work with. While I planned to be in the office after lunch hour, a colleague IM-ed me just right before I was about to leave:

“Eh, did H asked something from you and you said no?”

Let’s just name the inefficient fella H. I didn’t know what she was referring to at first, and suddenly something came to my mind. I knew what was that. 30 minutes later one of my superiors, N called and asked. I told him the whole story. It’s not difficult for me to tell, I have extremely good memory when it comes to situation like this, and I can go into extreme details, even every single word during the conversation. The incident happened 2 days a few days before Christmas. I was at the big mall with the new shop thingy again. He came in around dinner hour, when I was busy preparing some items at the counter.

“Oh, I’ve got your email. But I haven’t had the time to reply yet.”

Dude, the email was sent to you at least 2 days ago. So busy ah?

I didn’t really like this so I looked at him with not much response. He then started to tell me which drafts in the email that he liked. After that, he moved on to talk to another colleague (DARL). Apparently he was asking if DARL could go outstation to help him deliver some goods and do some set ups in a week time. DARL told him that he should check with me if we have sufficient manpower, since it’s holiday season. So H turned to me, and that’s what I told him:

“I haven’t received all updates from our staffs yet, but I can foresee that we will be lack of manpower, as at least 2 of them won’t be available. We need extra manpower during holiday season. If you must take him, you can check with N (my superior) and see if we can have lesser manpower on these 2 days. If he says OK, then I’ll arrange for that.”

H replied:

“Oh OK. I’ll be having dinner with N later, together with C from Singapore. I’ll discuss with him and let you know.”

Fine with me. When N came back after dinner, I asked him about this case, and apparently he was unaware of the whole thing. Since H didn’t bring up the issue, so no instruction, no action.

And then, on my first day back at work, H was complaining to the GM, stating that he had notified me about the arrangement but I refused to take any action. OK. I went straight to the office, and I asked him what did he say on that day. He finished the front part, and skipped the last part. When I told him the whole conversation, he was stunned, and insisted that it was a miscommunication.

Harlo dude. It’s not a miscommunication, I told him. If I’ve already told you in exact that what you should do so that I could help you, and you didn’t do it, it’s not a miscommunication. I asked him if he wants DARL who was there the other day to come in and repeat what he said? He kept quiet. I made it a point that he shouldn’t say I refused to do the work and helped him out. He also kept quiet.

The dispute ended with him apologising that he had probably ‘overheard’ what I said. Funny thing. ‘Overheard’ and can still answer me and said he will check when having dinner with another fella from Singapore.

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