The HQ Officer

yesterday i sent an email query to hq to ask a question. a simple one-liner answer from them would suffice. but in addition to that, the hq officer had to add on by asking me the following questions:

"May I know are you a new AM who has just joined the school ?

May I know do you have any more query ?

Fyi. I always try my best to download to schools those grants that are within my control on time and if any is any delay, I will always drop an email to inform schools."

there were some other comments too but her first question above was the one that really put me off. and reading such an email first thing in the morning was not really such a gd idea. i was feeling so irritated by her remarks so i replied:

"I am not a new AM who has joined the school but I believe that not only new AMs are entitled to queries. I believe that if we're in doubt, we should ask to avoid future misunderstandings.

Fyi, I'm not doubting that you're not doing your best to download to schools the grants on time, neither have I actually thought about it. My email was simply just to clear my bosses' doubts."

and not wanting to sound rude or invite further trouble, i ended off with:

"Thank you for your advice. I appreciate it very much for clearing our doubts."

seriously, what is wrong with these hq people? do they really think we enjoy asking them questions? and if only new ams can ask them question, does that mean they will be out of a job if moe doesn't employ anymore new ams? asking me ridiculously questions will only get you not-so-friendly answers. there are ams who have been doing their job for twenty years and even they have some things that they do not know (seriously, i know one who is like that, because i had a query, i tried asking her, she couldn't answer and simply asked me to go check with hq and since then, i've stopped asking her anything).

i do know that she was trying to be sarcastic - her underlying meaning from her question would be "if you're not a new am, shouldn't you already know this?" it is obvious she thinks i am asking a stupid question. though honestly, most of the time, the questions that my bosses wants to me ask are, often but not, stupid questions. but what to do, they prefer to hear answers given from hq, my words alone are not strong enough. to them, i've not been in this line long enough to give them the security that i know my stuff. well that is true sometimes, but i have learnt to be firmed when i know i am right.

"Dance like no one is watching. Sing like no one is listening. Love like you've never been hurt and live like it's heaven on Earth." — Mark Twain