I was so used to work at a big corporation where it emphasized the corporate identity. But with the makcik2 inside the office at that time, most of the times, the office became the next M E L O D I. Not only the entertainment gossips but also the internal rumors spread widely and over sensationalized added with spices,
rempah ratus!
When I first joined the company I worked at right now, I had quite a major culture shock. My day 1 of perceptions:
- Small group. There were only 30 + of us. The place I worked before had hundreds or maybe thousands of staff... Who would want to count - that's HR's job! ;P Hurmmm...
- Small workstation, no office phone, all of them weren't very friendly. (but I was the one who didn't know how to blend in :P)
- Small Pantry but foods and drinks are free! Tea Lady make coffee and wash all our cups, plates, tumbler, and cutleries all the time. My previous workplace, they had this small project of kedai runcit which encouraged staff to buy snacks from the pantry. :P The tea lady only washed cups once in a day and that was all.
- Wow, I had to learn to use Window Vista since the new office only uses Window Vista cos my previous workplace was still using Window 2000 at that time.
- The new office has poor email system as they fail to have file sharing, calendar sharing, intranet, IM and etc like my previous workplace used to have.
- The new office doesn't have the checklist for newbies until I get my office phone fixed at my workstation only after couple of months. Hahaha!
- Hey double standard ke, why all other staff but ME are given handphone? Cos I came in as a contract staff at first... Hehehe... Tapi cool la, dapat handphone each person and bill is borne by the company!
- Finally, wow all staff are given a lappie and we can work from home once a week... Weeehooo!!! That's absolutely super cool!
OK... but I love where I work now! The first year I joined, I was only on one year contract basis. But now, I am like the rest of the team. All of us are on 3 years contract basis, which means our contract is renewed in every 3 years. I'm not a HR person to talk about my contract anyway. But Alhamdulillah I managed to win a place here to be part of the team the result of my own effort. I didn't cheat but I sweat a lot to get it.
Being a small company with now 40+ staff including the management team, we have been motivated with so many cool stuff. We have been given a flexibility in terms of punctuality. I mean when our official time starts at 8.30am, that doesn't mean we have to tag in at 8.30am. Some of us come as late as 10.30am. The rule is we have to be at the office for 4 days in a week and 8 hrs in a day only. I myself reach office usually quarter to 9am. One more day, we get to work from home... ~Again Weeee... And the most important thing, we need to deliver our task timely, efficiently and effectively! Voila ~ that's our company's culture!
To work effectively, each of us is given a lappie and blackberry. Cool eh?
If we need to de-stress ourselves, we are allowed to sing
walapun sumbang mambang cos we have a karaoke set and sound proof wall, we are allowed to play ping-pong cos we have ping pong table, we are allowed to play PS3 (but only guys conquer it all the time), we are allowed to do YOGA with our in house YOGA master, we can go jogging at KLCC park, and etc as long as it happens after working hours. The only things that always happen on Friday noon are either we go shopping or having lunch with the bunch of ladies while watching OPRAH in our office lounge.
FOOD FOOD FOOD. I have been gaining weight lately. Why? We really enjoy food. We enjoy pot luck and steam boat once in a while at our pantry. The whole bunch of us explore fancy restaurants once in a month. That's how we do internal networking.
We also do sports once in a week like badminton and futsal. Sometimes, we go for great activities like paintball and stuff.
There's no firewall created at our internet system. We are using the high speed Unifi WiFi connection. WHY? Our senior management team encourage us to be creative endlessly. So, we are allowed to explore what's the current trend through unlimited internet access.
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| See, how creative we can be? ;P |
Ever since I stepped into this office, I had the chance to go to the places that I have never thought I would reach. First year, we went to Beijing, second year, we went to Hong Kong and this year Insya-Allah we'll be going to Istanbul. It's like part of the reward for our efforts throughout the year.
Friday is a dress down day. Literally dress down ok. We can wear jeans and tees or even track suit. All up to us cos it's a happy FRIDAY! We can also wear jeans whenever we have casual events, manning the booth or attending courses. : )
Sounds like an MLM company? Nope... we're just a company that helps people to achieve their REALISTIC dreams... And again...this company is a not-for-profit company.
Our CEO recently quoted:
"We have always focused on the substance and the big picture, we have always put much attention into providing staff one of the best working environments that anyone can have and we don't usually sweat the small stuff".
Our CEO's expectation:
"I expect zero politics here and I expect that trend to continue. If you're not focusing on the job - you're focusing on the wrong thing".
But... Our office is also NOT a bed of roses... Zero politics? It's quite impossible... I've been working in such a great place but somehow there's still office politics going on. But nasib baik there's no more makcik2 issues here... Haha! On top of that, this is not the place for you to look for big bucks. Since it's not-for-profit company, we are trained to spend wisely... *big grin*
Check out the google office
here, cool gilerz... How I wish...
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| Google's office |
But... it's just my dream je kot... Our office is not as fabulous as google's but we hope it'll be the next coolest one in Malaysia!
