Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Seven habits of highly defective co-workers (1) - Ang moh accent VP

I remembered bumping into my ex-VP at the pantry, when I was still working in my ex-company. Apparently, my ex-VP tried to be friendly by striking up a conversation with me.

“Hello Nk, jiak ba buay (hokkien: have you eating already) ?”

I looked at him blankly. I was trying to figure out which was more absurd: Speaking hokkien in a fake ang moh accent, or acting friendly with someone you don’t even know his name ?

“Oh, you are Nk or CS ?” my ex-VP somehow sensed that he got my name wrong.

“Neither. I’m XXX.”

The conversation ended abruptly.

Lesson 1: You don’t have to call the name of the person in order to act friendly. It may just bring about unnecessary embarassment.

Lesson 2: If you are a low-profile engineer, try not to go pantry too often.

Labels: ,