Midnight Train
Last Tuesday was the deadline for the submission of a big proposal I was working on. My company bid for a total of 4 modules and I worked on one of it. The bloody Request for Proposal (RFP) document was 600+ pages long with 7 parts to fill up. Part 4 alone had 2400+ items to answer. In reality, only me and my colleague Chinz worked on it. The Fatty Boss merely gave vague comments and criticism. And he keep on chiding the rest of the team for not helping out and quizzing unrelated colleagues about the content when obviously he also did not know heads or tails about it. He even remembered the submission date wrongly. What a great way to "train" your staff. During the final week to the deadline, Chinz went on leave, leaving me with the deadweight. Since many uncertainties were left, I just quickly chose to mark the items with non-compliance to avoid future problems and proceed to fill up the gaps in the other parts.
With just 3 days left, we starting printing and organizing the documents according to the submission instructions. Fatty reviewed the document at THIS juncture (although he had more than a week to do so) and started complaining that thing's weren't satisfactory and he had to REDO it all over, spending ALL night (kononnya). I couldn't care less. It was his responsibility to begin with. It wasn't easy getting everything done. And everything that could go wrong, went wrong-- last minute changes to the answers and format, difficulty in sourcing a 3-hole puncher, empty printer ink and toner and can you imagine even the staplers in the office weren't in good working order?! It was so frustrating. And don't get me started on the stupid Fuji Xerox printer that kept on having paper jams and error messages. And as expected, Fatty was there at the last minute giving his stupid comments again and "helping out" and acting all busy so that he can claim credit. On the evening before submission, we moved the stack of documents to my parent company in Bandar Utama. And you know what? The people there were still struggling with the printing and compilation. They had the nerve to ask us to wait 7 hours there for them to get the time to verify our work. We went out for a 2-hour dinner to calm ourselves. The woman was so infuriating with all her strings of pearls, gesturing, bad make-up and fake angmoh slang. She did not give the proper instructions and when we came with our own format and style, she complained and asked us to follow her standard. Fine!
"OMG. I'm trying to figure this out. So much to do... so much to do..."
"You know or not? The last time we did this, we stayed the whole night."
And that did not teach you to do things earlier?! Can you imagine that by the time I left, they were still updating the document?! Crazy. Anyway, by the time I got home, it was already past midnight..... The following morning, the big bosses submitted the documents... all 8 boxes of it. :S. I really hope we DON'T get the job. It's bad news anyway. The stupid customer has been toying with vendors for years and until now have not awarded the contract. Cheh!
With just 3 days left, we starting printing and organizing the documents according to the submission instructions. Fatty reviewed the document at THIS juncture (although he had more than a week to do so) and started complaining that thing's weren't satisfactory and he had to REDO it all over, spending ALL night (kononnya). I couldn't care less. It was his responsibility to begin with. It wasn't easy getting everything done. And everything that could go wrong, went wrong-- last minute changes to the answers and format, difficulty in sourcing a 3-hole puncher, empty printer ink and toner and can you imagine even the staplers in the office weren't in good working order?! It was so frustrating. And don't get me started on the stupid Fuji Xerox printer that kept on having paper jams and error messages. And as expected, Fatty was there at the last minute giving his stupid comments again and "helping out" and acting all busy so that he can claim credit. On the evening before submission, we moved the stack of documents to my parent company in Bandar Utama. And you know what? The people there were still struggling with the printing and compilation. They had the nerve to ask us to wait 7 hours there for them to get the time to verify our work. We went out for a 2-hour dinner to calm ourselves. The woman was so infuriating with all her strings of pearls, gesturing, bad make-up and fake angmoh slang. She did not give the proper instructions and when we came with our own format and style, she complained and asked us to follow her standard. Fine!
"OMG. I'm trying to figure this out. So much to do... so much to do..."
"You know or not? The last time we did this, we stayed the whole night."
And that did not teach you to do things earlier?! Can you imagine that by the time I left, they were still updating the document?! Crazy. Anyway, by the time I got home, it was already past midnight..... The following morning, the big bosses submitted the documents... all 8 boxes of it. :S. I really hope we DON'T get the job. It's bad news anyway. The stupid customer has been toying with vendors for years and until now have not awarded the contract. Cheh!
Comments
well now it's holiday, so really time to chill! get some nice cookies to bite will ya? ;)
Giler kan. Consultants punya kerja, compile so much. Cookies? Famous Amos Pecan Chocolate Chip!
@URaj:
:D
@LittleD:
I've already opened most of my Xmas prezzies. :P. Time for some carolling.
+Ant+
Memang rubbish! So many trees died for that pile of rubbish!
Hmmm, lou gai again... **hugs**
@JL:
Hebat kan? There will be other RFPs in the future, but I hope not as complicated.