Deciphering Hidden Agenda

It was a great morning rush, as I hurried to get to office, wait for my supervisor to arrive & then zoom off immediately with him in a taxi to Changi. It was a totally new place that we were visiting, at least for my supervisor & me.

At wasn’t long before we discovered that the taxi driver too was unfamiliar with this place & he started mumbling in Mandarin that we need to tell him which road we are going to, so that he could figure out how to drive there. I wasn’t sure coz the online street directory map only showed me that the location is in the middle of Expo MRT & Changi Airport MRT station.

Thus, I decided to borrow this frustrated taxi driver’s road directory guidebook & finally found the exact street name to that location. After I told the taxi driver, he started saying that I should have told him exactly which road so that he would know how to drive there. I got a little irritated with him, coz if I knew; I wouldn’t need to borrow his road directory guidebook, right? In fact, I had expected the taxi driver to know the place better than me! After all, he’s the one earning a living by driving passengers around Singapore!

Finally, we reached this catering centre at Changi. We were slightly late & the company staffs that we were to meet were already standing outside the main gate waiting for us! My supervisor quickly got out of the taxi & walked towards to greet them. In the rush of the moment, I paid the taxi driver & forgot to ask for the receipt! Drats! And the journey cost $14.90! Cannot claim! Argh!

Security is very tight at this place & we had to surrender our ICs before entering the building, under earlier permission granted a few days ago. That visitor pass given to me was the only one that was not functioning at all! No matter how long or how many times I tapped the gantry, the door wouldn’t open. Sigh… finally the security guard walked over to tap his card, so that I could enter. So much for security… or the security card… whichever…

The company staffs, whom we were meeting with, were also visitors to this catering centre. We were introduced to two Malay supervisors, who directed us to this small office, where we had to put on white coveralls & a white wooly head dress. This is a very strict hygiene environment & no contamination is allowed.

Thereafter, we were brought to this narrow air-lock chamber where we had to put on mouth guard, before stepping inside, where strong gushes of air were blown at us, which emit some sort of ions that are supposed to kill germs on our clothes. It was very cooling & I liked to feel clean (imagining of course, since I can’t possibly see my clothes being disinfected). It almost felt like I had stepped into a small space shuttle for awhile, before stepping out a short while after.

After some general briefing by the two Malay supervisors, we were brought on a short tour around the whole floor, seeing first hand how in-flight catering meals were prepared, using all sorts of equipment & moved around several different types of food preparatory rooms. It was indeed a great eye-opener… & I really thanked God for this opportunity… especially when this place is absolutely tight on security. I felt a bit proud to be one of the few who were actually given a chance to enter & check out this place.

Halfway through the tour, we suddenly came face-to-face with a relatively short, but very stern & fierce lady. She wasn’t the security guard (later I found out that she’s the ground operations manager), but started questioning what we are doing here, do we have permission, what is our agenda, etc.

After getting her answers, she suddenly started pointing fingers & scolding those of us who were wearing watches! She scolded the Malay supervisor the worse, pointing her finger & shouting in a loud voice at him, while he just stood there looking down quietly at the floor. She said that we are not allowed to wear watches & other items, perhaps it may be some reason about contamination.

Immediately after this episode of reprimanding, she started to scold the director of this company for not wearing his head dress properly, as part of his left ear is still not covered by the wooly material! After this came, an intense round of interrogation about what we have noticed so far & what are the critical issues which we have to be very, very careful about when inside this food catering area.

She was literally blasting all of us visitors for this & that… & worse hit was the two Malay supervisors, coz they have already been working here for a short while. Although my supervisor & I didn’t say anything back to her, we felt wronged coz it’s our first time here & nobody warned us about any of such rules!

This lady was terribly strict & reminded me of Gladys. I stared at her intently whenever she looked at me, while shouting at us. I showed no fear, but not looking angry either… just serious & focused. Finally all her scolding stopped because she wanted to go to the management & report this incident, as well as all the mistakes made by us. I was feeling quite pissed off inside, but held my cool. Obviously this lady is trying to cover her own back, by complaining about this to her management… especially since we are visitors & she doesn’t want to be held responsible for any kind of food contamination.

After she stormed off, all of us guys shook our heads & muttered quietly to each other about this lady. Apparently, none of us liked her, though my supervisor found her a very strong & reliable source to speak to regarding how to redesign the job processes, since she has the most experience about what should & should not be done in this work environment.

We continued our tour, had a brief discussion about job redesign possibilities, then returned the white coveralls, threw away the wooly head dress & mouth guard, then proceed to the director’s car, where he drove us to NTU (another location where we had to conduct a site visit to assess possibilities of job redesign).

It was very long journey from one end of Singapore to the other, but I listened closely to the conversation between my supervisor & the director who were seated at the front seats of the car. Soon, my mind semi-switched off coz I felt mentally tired from all that happened inside the catering centre.

Upon reaching there, we had lunch at one of the NTU food court, before proceeding to check out the other sites where we discussed how to job redesign the jobs in those areas. This was a much shorter site visit, coz it’s after all still a school environment, which is very, very much less complicated than the in-flight catering centre which we just visited earlier.

We left in the director’s car again, this time back to his office, where we had another round of discussion with him & his staffs. All these while, I was paying attention & trying to pick up as much as I could about info, as well as how to respond to questions, how to answer & most importantly, how to ask questions.

Leaving the office, I thought that I had a fairly good grasp of what was going on, the next course of actions, etc. But soon, in the midst of a one-to-one discussion with my supervisor, I learnt that I had been too trusting & giving them the leeway to take advantage of my kindness & willingness to help.

It was stunning as my supervisor revealed another side of the situation, which he had observed & discerned from all that happened since the early morning with them at Changi. He explained his rationale about issues & also shared with me how crafty these company staffs are. I was shocked, coz I had never saw it this way before! But I began to see that his reasons for deeming so, was reasonable & true.

My heart started beating faster, coz I felt like I was ‘enlightened’ with some more added experience in how to answer questions, ask questions & decipher the motives & intentions of others that were completely unsaid. I started to feel very happy because I have begun to pick up more about being able to discern these matters, since this could be a common scenario, when faced with external companies. Everyone has their own agenda & everyone wants the most & best for himself.

I began to realize that I no longer view business people the same way as I did before. My eyes were more opened now, to a few more ways in which companies may want to twitch around for greater gain for their person agenda. I also learnt how to gain a mutual advantage in situations like this, such that each party taps on the other, totally unsaid yet discretely aware of each other. It’s a scary thing to realize & learn, but its part of the job. Not that I’m going to learn to be a bad person, but to become more aware about the tricks, ploys, decoys, up-sleeve manipulation, which business people sometimes use.

It was like a whole new world was opened to me & I begin to see people in a different light. There’s always another side to a person & in the working world, trust is not something that is easily earned or even wanted by others. True & sincere friendship is not something common or wanted, as I have discovered so far. It’s a scary world out there… & it’s important that I continue to learn from my supervisor how to see the even greater picture of things & scenarios, which also includes the upfront motives & hidden agendas of others working with us.

To me, it’s just sad to see the extent which some business people would go, just to earn more money. Lies, deception & cover-up are very common. In fact, so common that if we overlook & don’t see any, we had better be extra careful & seek to find these ‘quiet black holes’ coz we can’t assume that these aren’t there, just because we don’t notice them.

Hmm… Yeah, it’s a scary working world out there. Words are not always what they mean by the words that are said… not always…