recently, there was a pay increment..and even though i wished it was mine, but alas it was not to be. rather it was for the people who have sacrificed their lives to serve the country. yes, they are our darling civil servants..without whom, we'd have no rice on our plates (i know singapore has no padi fields but if they don't approve the imported rice, we would have no rice to eat!), no roofs over our heads (we pay for it of course, but if they don't build houses, then pay and pay also no use rite?) and no one to curse at when nothing gets done. don't get me wrong, not ALL civil servants are crap, but when you're on the inside, most will just do as the rest do..basically, nothing!
just a few years back..when i was still "serving the nation", my main job scope was to maintain and repair certain equipment. remember, these are highly important and sensitive tasks upon which our country's freedom depended on!
common scenarioa fault is detected on the highly classified and hi-tech equipment (from another era)step 1:
officer reports a fault to a
specialist a (from department a)
step 2:
specialist a verifies the fault
step 3:
specialist a calls
specialist d (from department d, that's my department by the way) to report the fault
step 4:
specialist d verifies the fault (you really need to verify it more than once to ascertain that there is something wrong la!)
step 5:
specialist d calls external vendor to tell them there is a fault on the highly classified and hi-tech equipment
step 6:
external vendor comes down and clears the fault
step 7:
specialist a and
specialist d verifies that the fault is cleared (told you we needed to verify it more than once!) and informs
officerstep 8:
officer puts down his coffee and resumes normal duties of looking out for faults and singapore is safe again...
if you thought that that sounded like a call center environment, don't even compare..the salary of course!
just a few weeks back, we were holding a charity event to raise funds for refugee children..all donations were to be done via online so no cash was to be accepted..but being the law abiding citizens we were, we thought "better check it out with the charities unit"..and so we did...
i called mcys to enquire if we actually needed a permit for the event and the guy on the other line said have to write in so that he can advise me..over the line cannot advise. and so i wrote him an email. the guy emailed back telling me that we would need a permit..then he followed up with a call (good customer service leh!)...
mcys guy:
have you received my email blah blah blah..everything can be found on the website.
me:
the problem is our event happens within 2 weeks (short of the 30 days application period needed "as stated on the website")..is there anything that can be done?
mcys guy:
sorry..everything can be found on the website. (
goodness! am i on gotcha?)
me:
i have already been through the website, that's how i know about the 30 days application period..is there any way to speed up the process?
mcys guy:
in that case, you can send in an application form found on the website and i will help you escalate the case to my superior.
me:
oh, that's great! so how long do you suppose it may take with escalation?
mcys guy:
as stated on the website, it usually takes 30 days...
i seriously wanted to strangle mcys guy right there..i mean, i've heard of word-of-mouth advertising but i never knew mcys was into such an aggressive marketing campaign for its website! but..that wasn't the end...
a few days later, my manager made a call to mcys to verify that we needed a permit..this time, the girl who took the call told us (after checking with her boss apparently) that we would not need a permit from mcys but we needed one from the police..so, we went to the police and enquired..and the police department told us that for such cases, there was no permit needed (the lady even printed out some documents and pointed out the clauses which said so)..fantastic! another few days later, the police called and told us that sorry but in fact we would require a permit..but from mcys...
if you're still wondering why they are paid such high salaries, it is pretty obvious isn't it? honestly they work so hard. when even such straightforward things become so complicated, who's to say they don't deserve their pay increment?
friday, 05 october 2007
The Campaign To Confer The Public Service Star On JBJ@ drama centre theatre with
karenessentially it is a play taking an alternative (and hilarious) look at the political situation in singapore. acted out by just pam oei (dim sum dollies) and rodney oliveiro, the duo takes on a variety of characters through ultra quick costume changes. the humour while funny at times became sort-of tiring towards the end, or probably karen and i were tiring after a long week...
one joke i remember quite fondly is when rodney played a police officer and he said "nowadays everything is so complicated. this can this cannot. this maybe can maybe cannot. last time was so much easier. everything cannot!"
so let us be grateful for all things that "can", shall we?
