Friday F-Ups

Warning: work related rant ahead.

It's been crazy at the office these past few weeks, with our 10th anniversary looming closer and so many loose ends still dangling every which way. In the chaos that's been my job I've noticed many, many things that are potential irritants, but none as damaging and mind boggling as the two I'm about to set down here. Some of you may disagree and call it nitpicking and that's fine, since everyone's entitled to their own opinion.

The Case of The Expensive Fee

I'm betting not a lot of people know this, but on the 30th (next week) the faculty is (who am I kidding, the faculty? It's me and my mates) organising an ICT exhibition as well as a seminar, both which are accessible to the public. Entrance to the exhibition (which showcases the history and "achievements" of the faculty as well as some other IT stuff, like online games) is free, while there's a fee of RM 50 for students, RM 75 for my university staff and RM 100 for outside participants for the seminar. The fees are inclusive of all materials and meals, and among the speakers coming are reps from MAVCAP, MIMOS, TMNet, IBM and Sun.

Now that the promotional bit is over, let's move on. Recently some of my colleagues have made a big deal out of the RM 75 fee. Apparently it's too expensive, and they're trying to push for a reduction in addition to wanting to deduct it from their RM 2000 yearly seminar allowance. While I can't really be bothered with them trying to have it deducted (it's their allowance, anyway) the fact that there's a fuss being made about this irks me to no end. Here we have confirmed lecturers who on average not only earn much more than I do, but also choose to live 5 km from the campus, and here they're crying foul over the supposed "expensive" fee. As anyone in the IT industry may probably tell you, RM 75 is a piddling when compared to what you may have to pay for some other talks out there. Granted that we may not be getting THE best speakers in the world (that I'm saving for GeekCon, more on this later) but to me not having to move your butts anywhere and having THEM come here is worth my RM 75, at least to expand my horizons a little.

Shows you where their priorities are. They'd gladly fork out for some direct selling seminar all the way in Shah Alam and at the same time balk at a paltry RM 75 fee for a chance to improve themselves. Wow. In a sense (as I said above) I don't mind the fact that you think it's expensive. Maybe you have ten kids, or face a horrible, horrible mortgage that sets you back a couple thousand bucks a month. All this is perfectly understandable. What I don't understand is why you have to make a big deal out of it. Just don't go, is all I'm saying.

So as a response to this (to me, at least) mind boggling way of thinking, I'm not only going (that's a no brainer since I'm the emcee, among other things) but I'm sponsoring two of my students, both whom scored the highest in a recent exam, as a sort of a reward. I figure if attending will knock some sense into them before they turn into some of the people I know, then it's gonna be worth it.

One can hope.

The Case of Being Too Meticulous

This is a short one. Some other murmurs I've heard point to a weakness in the way my committee handles our job. They say we're doing things "too detailed", citing the fact that we seem to take into account all sorts of factors in planning while conveniently forgetting that it was our meticulousness that allowed last year's Family Day to be the best in years. In the years I've worked, this is the first time I've heard complaints about being too organised.

Wow.

Anyway, since I'm going to have to stay back today for rehearsals and a meeting (I'm also teaching a Flash class tomorrow at eight) I'll wish everyone a good weekend.

Cheers.