Honestly, it came as a surprised to me when I started telling people that I'm leaving the company and subsequently a lot of them started making lunch plans with me. At the same time, it baffles me that these group of people would want to have lunches with me. I had always thought that I gave the impression of drawing the line that we are all strictly colleagues only. I admit that I am helpful whenever any one of them needs help with but I know to keep my distance with all of them. My understanding is that once you get too close with your colleagues, it will then evolve into a friendship which will then lead to after-office hours hangout. Truth be told, I'm at the stage of my life when I have no interest to hangout with my colleagues at all. As much as it's a nice surprise to know that I'm being acknowledge for all my friendliness, it does feel a tad weird to get notice. Anyway, I ended up having 8 farewell lunches with my colleagues - so 8 free lunches.
- 9th Jan, Tuesday - Lunch with my 2 Senior Managers from Research & Engagement Sub-Division.
- 12th Jan, Friday - Lunch with colleagues from Heritage Policy & Research Division.
- 15th Jan, Monday - Lunch with my Senior Assistant Director from Built Heritage Sub-Division.
- 16th Jan, Tuesday - Lunch with one of my colleagues from Strategic & Corporate Development Division.
- 17th Jan, Wednesday - Lunch with colleagues from Preservation of Sites & Monuments Division.
- 18th Jan, Thursday - Lunch with my Deputy Director from Research & Engagement Sub-Division.
- 22nd Jan, Monday - Lunch with the Director of National Collections Division.
- 25th Jan, Thursday - Lunch with colleagues from International & Museum Relations Division.
Spending the rest of my time - clearing my remaining leave days and preparing things for my next job. And that is pretty much me buying a whole new wardrobe. Apparently, my new work place requires their employees to wear typical office long-sleeve shirts daily and because of my current work place, which is quite relax with the attire, most of my clothes are prints and patterns. Along with my long-sleeve shirts, which are all prints. Thus now, I have to buy 20 new plain long-sleeve shirts - i have a thing about not repeating the same outfit within a span of 4 weeks. Too many things to buy and I feel like my break is quite short.
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My new work environment is quite different. Firstly, it is a small office of only 10 people, including me which is surprisingly refreshing for me. I mean after a year of running around answering to 3 directors and assisting more than 20 people, it is nice to have a small team to concentrate on. I personally feel that my new role is pretty much similar to my previous role except this time round, I am considered to be part of the HR team and will be working closely with the Compliance team.
It has been 7 working days and I have a rough idea what I need to be doing though I can tell that it's only 10% of my overall jobscope. One of the things that I needed to do was to review the Business Conduct Manual for the Singapore office. I could literally cry as it is about the laws and statutes of the industry. And for someone who is not from this industry, it was ton of confusing research for me to do. It doesn't help that I need to multitask while doing my reading and research.
Other than that, I was just planning things for Chinese New Year - sending out CNY hampers to our clients, planning for our team activity and CNY dinner, planning for the new staff coming in, among other things. And I will be starting my German classes in March, paid for by the company, which I am looking forward to. My first week has been good and my target is to work at this company for the next 5 years. Then I shall evaluate my life again.
In Shaa' Allah, everything will be fine.
