Hi people!

I left Petronas - my last being 31st May. They were cutting down programmers and I, expected to join another project in Shah Alam soon was relieved from duty there.

There was no sentimental feeings from my part. I had only been there about 2 and half months and did not mingle much with Petronas staff. However, there was a slight tinge of sadness leaving my fellow colleagues whom I had grown fond of during the last few days there.

When I first joined, I felt as the guys were quite serious at their work - the all-work-no-play type. Well, I found out much later - yes, they don't "play" much but still fun to chat with. During my last week, we formed small chat groups at one corner and we'll chat about work and I would contribute my story of how I got into the company, how I felt "conned" and how I would normally rebel against the management.

My two most famous act of rebellion were two remarks to one of my boss (co-director). I had initial thought that I wouldn't do programming at this new company and yet till today I was still into this area. And so when the boss told me that learning programming wasn't a bad thing - it's definitely a new skill to acquire. I said - "Yes, but I would prefer to learn something that doesn't have connections to programming. I don't really like programming - in fact, did you know what I told my previous boss at Samsung when leaving the company? I told him I didn't want to do programming long term - that's why I'm quitting". I hoped I gave him a very obvious hint.....

Second remark came when boss said - "Of course, if we don't have implementation projects, we'll try to put people into other alternative projects and that includes programming. I mean, what do you want to do in office then?"

To this, I replied - "Shake leg loh!" I did say it! Yeah, it was like so rude but I was so damn annoyed at him that I didn't give a damn anymore.

'Nuff said about my battle with boss. Back to the topic of Petronas.....

When leaving, things started to get hectic. The Petronas analysts began to realize some of us were leaving. So they started to test the programs which we wrote in order to get back to us should any error occur. Previously they just take it easy and our programs normally remained untouched in their "IN" trays. So of course, when they started testing, I was prepared to make modifications due to enhancements and correct bugs.

One of our company manager was stationed at Petronas and he treated us (on company's budget of course) to a lunch at the Chakri Palace (royal Thai cuisine restaurant) in KLCC. Food was quite okay but I hardly remember the names of the dishes. Actually, however grand the outside food is, my favourite would always remain mom's cooking and hawker's favourites like mee mamak goreng, roti canai, char kuay teow, etc. Mmm.....

On my last day, I left quite late about 7:15pm because I wanted to tidy my files and working area. I'm glad I left late 'coz the view at night from the tower was just as magnificent. I quietly bid the building goodbye...

Note: You can try to spot Genting Highlands from the last photo shown.

Appraisal
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There were two appraisals each year for my company. I just had one on my last day at Petronas. The manager, S, interviewed me at a time near the end of office hours. I was hoping to be interviewed by the director instead so that I could 'bombard' him with my complaints again. I just like to inflict more guilt onto him so that he had take better care in giving sweet talk and empty promises.

Here's an extraction of email to some of my friends regarding this topic (be aware that it's in market-style English mixed with Malay) -

2. appraisal - i had my appraisal on may 31. okaylah. according to one manager, feedback from clients quite goodlah. no complaints lah. so must continue do good job. but my weakness is i don't know how to do sapscript. sapscript is another programming tool to print out reports that have a special layout like forms, invoice, etc. so that is my appraisal lah. anyhow, here i also listen one ear in one ear out and nodding my head as if agreeing. but i made no response about the sapscript because i don't want to have anything to do with programs anymore. it is a very tedious tool. so, what happened was that they gave internal training on sapscript on weekends, and i still rebel not to do anything with it. because if i attend, habislah (that's the end) - bila ada (when there's) requirement, pasti kena buat punya (sure have to do). so you can see how my attitude towards work. kah kah kah. however, although i do complain about it, it's just complaints only - won't effect my work and 'still' cheerful life. oh yeah, i also pointed out again about not liking to do programming to the manager. this is not the person who interviewed me, but what the heck. at least semua orang tahu supaya walaupun mereka buat kacau, tapi mereka pasti rasa 'guilty feeling' jugak (at least all of them know so that even if they make complications for me, at least they still feel some guilt).

Regards,
Li Li