External Course

True but tough initiation.

For the past 2 days, I had went to the Central Manpower Base for an external course "Working With Difficult People". Working in my company, we employees will have many opportunities to attend such development courses without paying anything. I feel that we are quite fortunate to have such opportunities because there are very little companies out there who are willing to send employees for self development courses.

Instead of the usual 8am work time, I get to sleep 1 more hour because the course starts at 9am. The venue is at Depot Road, which is near the town area. Taking the ECP/AYE path passing by MBS and then Keppel Road, I was exorbitantly charged. It cost me $7 just to pass through 2 goddamn operating ERP. I was pissed but what to do? Gotta suck thumb and move on, I will avoid travelling through the town area during peak hours though. This will just be the start of the horror though. Parking wasn't so friendly either, I have to put more than 10 coupons to last through the day, totaling to a grand amount of $10. Wow seriously, I had spent $34 for the past 2 days just for ERP and parking. However, the course was quite motivating and I found the it to be worth the money spent. Thank god my camp is not situated near the city area, I will go bankrupt very quickly.

1 day worth of coupons, tiring to tear all these crap.

One of my friend is serving his NS at CMPB and I managed to contact him and have lunch with him (and another colleague of mine) for the past 2 days. He is a vegetarian like me and we used to travel around Singapore with one of our mutual friend to find good stuff to eat. We had been to quite a few far away places such as Clementi, Bukit Gombak etc to eat, hardcore if you ask me. Somehow the city area are places we left out during our search. Not sure why, but it seems like nobody was quite familiar with the town area.

On the first day, we went to a coffee shop just opposite of CMPB. The stall was only selling mixed rice and bee hoon, nothing quite fanciful. To be honest, I don't really like vegetarian bee hoon as they tend to put alot of mock meat which are made of flour and stuff like that. I prefer natural foods instead of processed ones and hence I will avoid vegetarian bee hoon if possible. Hence, on the second day, we went a little further for our lunch. We went to the ABC Market in hopes of finding nicer food to eat because I heard from my friend that there's a Vegetarian Stall there which is quite nice. Somehow we only found 1 stall in the hawker centre and they only sell vegetarian bee hoon and mixed rice. Tough luck, another day of mock meat feast. It wasn't until when we were leaving the place when we saw another Vegetarian stall called 'Nature Vegetarian Catering Pte Ltd'. Damn, if only we had seen it earlier. The menu looks good though. Oh well, looks like I'll have to try it only when I pass by next time. 

Working With Difficult People Course

During these 2 days, I had learnt how to cope with difficult people, be it at work or if it's just your friends. I feel that this course is worth the $34 I spent LOL, but seriously it's true. It makes me rethink on how to solve a problem with different approach. Normally, the problems are not difficult to overcome if you can blend with that difficult person you are facing. There are actually 10 types of difficult people, they can either be aggressive or passive. (Yes, passive people can be difficult people too)

The Tank

Pushy, Pointed and Angry, Confrontational

The Know it All

Seldom in Doubt, Low Tolerance for Correction, Blame others Quickly

The Think They Know it All

Attention Seeker, Loves to Exaggerate, Prima Donnas

The Complainer

Helpless, Blames the World, Complains about Everything

The Sniper

Prone to Gossip, Backstab King, Tries to make you look bad

The Grenade

Unpredictable, Emotional, Easily Provoked

The No Person

Wet Blanket, Says No to Everything, Cynical

The Yes Person

Tries to Please Everyone, Pleasant Outside Resentful Inside

The Maybe Person

Procrastinates Alot, Avoid making Decisions, Fence Sitter

The Nothing Person

Passive, Introverted, No Feedback

These are the 10 types of difficult people you will face in your life. So far, I have not identify anyone that are in the list in my workplace due to my experience. I will take a look out for them though, as chances are I will have to solve the problem before it gets too big for me to handle. I wish to continue writing, but it may get too long and I think it will bore anyone who is reading but chances are there aren't any readers. Perhaps I shall continue tomorrow, oh well.