Baffling

Seriously, there's an attitude problem with my new colleague.

Remember Fung, the new guy who left me and my other colleagues during lunch time but never came back? Yeah, he's the one I'm talking about.

He comes to work early, which is good (the rest of us often come late, haha). Think that's about the only good thing about him. He goes back at 5.30pm if boss is not around, our actual knock-off time is 5.45pm. He's very punctual. So punctual that sometimes he leaves 5 minutes early or right on the dot...even when boss is still in the office.

He flips and reads through newspapers even if boss is standing right behind or in front of him. After he finishes up something, he never asks the seniors to check for any mistakes and simply go on temporary holiday in the office, yeah reading papers. Then when the Art Director enquires him about the status of the project, he replies it's done. After checking it through, the AD can normally find more than a couple of mistakes. When confronted about it, Fung will get defensive and even tries to point the arrow back at the AD. But my AD simply seethes quietly inside without ever confronting him straight up.

Stupid.

Should at least respect your senior colleagues right? You still have to depend on them to show you the ways of the office. Can understand if your superior is a total asshole but my AD actually looks like he's being bullied by the newcomer all the time.

We have tried talking to him about the office culture here. Boss doesn't like people leaving early and of course they like us to stay back if we have things to do. But thoughout the 3 months here, Fung never once did OT even when he has to submit something urgently the next day. And it's not because he has finished it. He simply wants to go home. When asked about why he wants to go home so early each day, he just ignores my colleague.

There's an unwritten rule here among the staff requiring newcomers to give a treat to the existing staff. And the whole office only has a total of 5 staff, including Fung. It's not like we wanna suck him dry. We even made it clear that if it's too expensive, we'll top up the remainder ourselves. If he really can't do it due to financial constraints, we would not force him. Rather, it's his way of handling it that irks us.

Every time we bring up the matter, he'll just keep quiet. Didn't give any response. Hello! Are we talking to a doll here? C'mon lah, everyone of us here had given others this treat when we first came here ok? If he doesn't wanna belanja us, can at least say so? Ok, so we thought probably he is tight financially.

Weird thing is, he frequently asks me and my AD where to get good food. Where can get nice dim sum, Japanese food, etc. Then when my admin asked him about where to belanja us, he claims that he seldoms dine out. ?? What's happening? He just told us he often goes out to eat with his Mom, like, 2 days ago! And it's not even cheap cheap places you know - Victoria Station, seafood restaurants, Sakai; he'd been to lotsa fancy restaurants. I don't even know how the inside of Victoria Station looks like ok?

He also asked me and my AD which brand of watches is good. He said his budget is around 300 bucks. And when he knew I am going to Singapore this month, he asked me to buy a pair of Puma limited edition trainers for him cos the colours available in Malaysia are not his preferences. Of course, those cost a few hundred bucks too. Some more buy in Singapore leh! But I would have no time to buy for him cos I'd be rushing from KL to JB to Singapore on that day.

Do you believe this guy can't treat us to even McD because he is poor?

Don't think so.

By the way, he never lunches with us, except the first day he was here. And that didn't count cos he ran away. But that's besides the point.

He's definitely a one-of-a-kind weirdo. When it was Mala's, my admin, birthday, he gave her a birthday card, which was perfectly normal at the time. Then when it was Pauline, my female boss' birthday, we presented her with a box of Ferrero Rocher. Each of us only had to pay around RM7. We told him beforehand, as usual, he just keeps quiet. When Nazha, our AE, wanted to collect the money from him, he keeps quiet also. If he didn't wanna share, at least have the courtesy to let us know la! It's been 3 weeks, he still hadn't paid back the money to Nazha.

Then I remembered a few days before, we had talked about something which would makes it beneficial for him to be on better terms with Mala (that's probably what he thinks la). But he should be on good terms with everybody, our office don't have any politics between the staff. Everyone is nice. We all unite to stand against the boss, rather, to acquire our benefits.

Anyway, if he wasn't trying to lick Mala's shoes, tell me why he would rather give another staff a card instead of sharing with the other colleagues for a present for boss?

By now you'd definitely think, "Aiya, he's probably a shy and quiet person. Don't be so hard on him la."

WRONG! And I'd even give you a gigantic X for that!

Sometimes I cringe at how he talks to the seniors.

Example, there was a period when the AD assigned lotsa mock-up jobs to him. But actually, he'd only did it for 2 days and he had the audacity to tell Kenny, the AD this when Kenny wanted to assign another job to him : "What's the new job? Not mock-ups again! My hands hurt already!"

HELLO! First few days, or even weeks I was here, I kept doing mock-ups after another ok! And that was the peak period too!

And when there was a mistake in one of his artworks, he actually accused Kenny of tampering with his files! But Kenny was busy doing his own jobs and what fool would bother about his files when they have a deadline to meet?

Yesterday, he said that he knew Pauline is a conservative person in terms of design from the day he was interviewed. I raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything, since he was talking to Kenny. In my opinion, Pauline is quite receptive and open when it comes to design. The guidance and advice she gave me really helped. I'm not saying this just because she's my boss ok. But her designs and concepts are meticulous. It didn't surprise me to learn that she was a fine art student. I have grown a lot design-wise since my last job.

Today, he argued a little with Pauline about his design. He's the kinda person who finds it hard to accept the opinions of others. Everything done by him is right and others are all wrong. He doesn't admit it when he's in the wrong and when he realizes he really was wrong, he just keeps quiet but never apologize.

Ok, anyway, I could see Pauline was a little pissed off but she continued to explain to Fung why he should and shouldn't do this and that.

It really baffles me to witness people like Fung in action. Disgust is the feeling. I'm normally impatient with these people. Let's just say I'm glad that I don't need to work with him so much. Since he's a newcomer, his jobs are more attached to Kenny. That's why me and Mala advised Kenny to let Pauline know about this when she asks for Fung's appraisal. Because working with him won't be easy, Kenny will probably get a heart attack in the process.

It's not like we didn't give Fung the benefit of the doubt. We've told him about what the boss like and dislike. We've advised him on the office culture. We try to be nice to him. But seems like he's too "individualistic" for our liking.