Remembering The Good Old Times........In Humorous Vein

          

After more than three decades of past employment in an international insurance company before my recent retirement, I can still recall very vividly the humorous events that I experienced (and which I still cherish as the good old times) in my earlier years. And based on these experiences, I coined this prose for my own reminder:  “Add fun to work, and work will be fun”. Those years (I am talking about the 70s’ till early 90s’) the personnel at large - regardless whether they were administrative staff or members of the agency force, regardless of rank or position – were cordial in dealings.  A sense of affiliation prevailed amongst the personnel to each other and to the company. I would give my commendations to the top executives of that period who either laid or maintained the path for the close rapport across all sectors. Let me cut short the prelude and now recount to you a few of the real memorable events.

·        1. It happened in 1978. I was based in Melaka – my first station of work in the company. There was a young agent Paul, a bachelor in his late 20s who was very diligent but naïve in social relationship skills. Paul was known to have quite a number of middle-aged single career ladies in his client portfolio.

One day, my superior walked into my office with Paul and his agency leader. “Can you please listen to Paul and see how you can help,” he said, in a hurry to attend a meeting elsewhere. Noticing that Paul looked dejected, I began by asking what had transpired.

Paul: “I was presenting the 20-Year Endowment with Reversionary Bonus plan plus Hospitalisation & Surgical benefit to my lady prospect who is an accounts manager. Everything appeared to have gone on fine. In fact, she gave the signal she was interested. Suddenly, as I was about to go for the close, she became very unfriendly and walked out.”

Me: “Is the prospect married? How old is she?”  I was keen to find out first whether the prospect was yet another single middle-aged lady to be added to his portfolio.

Paul: “Single, close to 40 years old.”

Me:  “Just before that point she walked out, can you narrate what happened?”

Paul: “Oh, I took out the application form for her to complete. She actually smiled at me but posed me the question why she should take up a policy from me instead of another agent she knows.”

Me: “Then, what did you reply?”

Paul: “ I said, ‘I specialise in servicing single ladies like you.....you can be assured of full satisfaction, just like many other single ladies who are my existing clients.’ ”

I sniggered. “That’s the problem. It’s your last statement to her,” I retorted.

Paul: “But what’s wrong with that statement?” He scratched his head in naivety.

I explained that it was the wrong choice of words, especially “servicing” and “full satisfaction”, and the wrong way to put across the intended message. Surely, the prospect, being still single at her age, felt offended as she would have thought he was trying to get fresh with her. “Servicing” and “satisfaction” could connote the sexual context, I said.

(Actually, Paul meant to convey the message that he was very service-oriented, and his existing clients, many of whom were single career ladies like the prospect, were happy with his committed policyholder services.)

With the permission of his agency leader, I offered to help draft a letter (for Paul to sign) to the prospect. The purpose was four-fold; firstly to thank her for allowing Paul to meet her, secondly to list out the reasons why the proposed plan was suitable for her, thirdly to reinforce that Paul was committed to provide prompt and continuous after-sales policyholder services to his clients, fourthly to seek another meeting opportunity.  I also advised Paul get consent from a couple of his existing clients, who were in similar career positions and marital status as the prospect, to be mentioned as his referees in the letter (in case the prospect wished to cross-check his credibility).

Bingo! That did the job. The prospect agreed to meet Paul again after receiving his letter. He finally made the sale. The episode ended well.

·        2. Also 1978. All agency leaders and sales support staff participated in a sales management school programme in Port Dickson. One of the topics was on the definition of dynamism. After rendering a lengthy elaboration, the lady trainer asked the audience to identify a Malaysian personality who could fit the following characteristics – a person of action, very energetic,  enigmatic, wide exposure, performance and results oriented,  popular, can capture people’s attention and have many supporters. Silence ensued for some moments. “Don’t tell me none of you can identify even one personality who fits the description?”

Then one leader jumped up from his seat. He echoed out loudly: “Rose Chan!!!. She fits the characteristics perfectly!!!”

Everybody burst into hilarious laughter. The head of agency, who acted as the sergeant-at-arms of the event, emerged to the floor and declared: “Mr. Ng, for your creative answer, I reward you RM10. The rest of you……….for laughing at the creative answer, I fine RM1 each!” We gladly paid the fine.          

(Note: Peers of my age group or older definitely know who Rose Chan was. To those who are much younger and do not know, well, you go check with the older guys.)

·         3. Year 1988. I was based in Perak. The General Manager came for his official visit. During discourse with him, I thought it would be timely to bring up some technical issues, which were bugging me, for his opinions. His response came  to me as words of wisdom, nicely put in humour. “You have been appointed to handle such matters. It’s your role. You have the technical knowledge. Don’t look at me for answers. I know a bit of everything  in  general, and not in specifics………that’s why I am called the general manager!  You know the specifics of your tasks better than me. Use your discretion wisely, backed by specific substantiating grounds. Don’t generalise like what I always do as general manager.” Boy! I felt greatly empowered by him.

·         4. Year 1991. The previous General Manager was promoted to a regional post at home office level. His replacement was a very hands-on gentleman, well-versed in administrative operations and technical aspects. Since he implemented the e-mail facility for staff, he was encouraging all to switch to the new electronic channel for communication, especially among staff stationed at different locations, instead of relying on manual letters and phone calls.

Not long after he took over the helm, he paid an official visit to Perak. After our personal meeting, he instructed me to send an e-mail to my direct superior in Kuala Lumpur regarding the points of concurrence arrived at during the discussions. I called in my secretary as I wanted to dictate to her the points so that she could send the e-mail message on my behalf.

“No, no. I want you to send the e-mail by yourself. I want the communication to be confidential among the three of us only,” he instantly advised.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know how to do it. All along, she has been helping me to send out e-mails,” I replied

“I’m very disappointed with you! This is not acceptable. I have to penalise you. Let’s put aside the e-mail for the time being. I will let you know what your penalty is during lunch,” he commented in reprimanding tone. My heart sank, thinking that I would be in hot soup.

We went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch. Immediately after we sat down, he said: “I let you know your penalty now before we order food. I penalise you to have two rounds of beer with me, and not more than two. And make sure the food you order is good value for money,” he quipped with a sneer.      

Surprise to me. “That’s it?”

“Yes, that all to it.”

“But what about the e-mail………..……….”

He quickly interjected. “No need to send.  I just wanted to test you whether you know how to use e-mail. I caught you off-guard. My recent instruction to all staff members that they should send messages via e-mail as far as possible is clear. So, make sure you start learning to e-mail by yourself……understood?!”                             

“Yes sir! Will do, sir!” I then sighed in great relief and released a radiant smile.

Yes, those were the good old times. Moral of my real stories: Never underestimate the power of proactive communication, amicable working relationship and conducive working environment.