Friday, September 26, 2008

Bullet Points


Mr Designer's new business partner treated a client for buka puasa last Wednesday. He invited me to join them. Okay, this is rather interesting. That guy rans his own media buying agency. Mr Designer would manage the creative work and he thought I would make a good copywriter. So, I best complement their team. That kind of concept development and writing doesn't take much time, I could always do it on a freelance basis.

The client is okay, nice. We had a good meal though the buffet wasn't well replenished. At the end, after Maghrib prayer, Mr Designer said his partner was looking for me and waiting for me downstairs. Okay, that sounds weird, why were we leaving the client on their own? I checked my phone, there were 5 missed calls from his partner. Then, an sms came in. His credit card was declined and he needed a favour. The amount was RM443. He would give me his company cheque the next day. Wow! That is a significant amount.

Mr Designer was uneasy because he knew exactly my principle on lending money. I wouldn't lend him RM2k (or even RM500) when he desperately needed it. If I have a choice, I would run. But, I didn't. There wasn't an ATM nearby either. It would have been better if he could sign a cheque and give it to me there and then. We couldn't ask the client to pay, could we? LOL! Anyway, we had a good laugh over it.

His partner also happens to be his soon-to-be ex-boss and my ex-friend's ex-business partner. That is another story. Mr Designer finally decided that he has enough of her stupidity and slavery. On Monday, she asked him to return her laptop the very next morning. He couldn't work without it. That really infuriated him. He was also using it for outside work, so when I met him on Monday night, he was frantically calling up his friends to borrow their external hard disk. He needed to move his files. It was already after 11pm, nobody was at their office or available. Actually, I planned to buy myself one as I needed to save my increasing photo collection, my laptop is already overloaded and too slow. So, I gave him RM160 and asked him to get one for me, but he could use it first. Gosh, he was really thankful.

Interestingly, the next day, he didn't return her laptop. He didn't pick up her calls or turn up at the office the whole day, and even on the next day. His partner and I were really amazed. He is so soft spoken and mild mannered, who would have thought he could be so defiant when treated wrongly. She only paid him 1/3 of the agreed salary. He busted his ass for her company; he stayed up all night to finish creative work so they could take in more business. She kept on calling his friend who recommended him, non-stop, to pass threats to him. She wanted to lodge a police report that he has her assets.

He also has her car. When she gave him that, she told me that she was moving overseas soon and somebody needed to maintain the car. Recently, she turned around and asked him to return it on the third day of Raya. Damn arrogant. However, he calmly told us that he has a letter to state that he was given the company's facilities and he didn't get any letter to indicate that he was terminated from his job. So, it was legal. LOL!

At first, I asked him to hold on for a few hours only, until he finished transferring his files. But since he had already delayed it for 2 days, why not torture her for 1 more day? I have to admit that I am still mad at her. She deserved all that. Hehe... I am bad influence, and he called me his advisor:p. For the last few days, he was running around trying to buy a car fast. A first, he was hoping to get it middle next week. Yesterday, he found out that he could only get it a week after Raya. Too bad, initially, he was planning to send me to the airport and then pick me up after Raya.

Anyway, he said it's not nice to hold on to people's thing for too long. Therefore, he wanted to return them last night. He'd asked me to forward some bullet points to him, so he could blast her face to face. I did. I'm dying to hear the outcome. Unfortunately, I fell asleep after 8.30pm right until sahur, so I still don't know what happened, hehe...

10 comments:

Ummi365 said...

Oh my, it's getting complicated and interesting. What's wrong with her anyway..?

Hazia said...

Ummi,
Yeah, but it gives me a chance to see the different sides to him:)

What's wrong with her? The bullet points that I forwarded him:

a)Professional:
She does not appreciate him and does not know how to value his expertise and background
She does not have a clear thinking, lacks focus and doesn't know how to strategise and prioritise
She has unrealisted expectations
She lacks knowledge in advertising, media buy and basic client servicing but talks big
She doesn't have a transition plan and doesn't have a clue as to what she is doing
She is fickle minded in starting & managing the business, at the expense of others - staffs who really believed that her company would succeed, that she is serious
She doesn't have quality control, she has low standards, just uses or recommends any suppliers she knows, no benchmark
She is careless and unreliable in her costing and signing agreement

b) Personal:
She is inconsiderate, treats him like her slave, as if she owns him 24-7 because she pays him.
She is irrational, haphazard
She is arrogant and demanding
Her ways of acquiring business is not professional, slutty
She only highlights his irrelevant and non-professionally related traits, as if she is running an escort agency

Ailin in Aalborg said...

er, you sure you wanna get involved in this? It could get pret-ti messy.

sue said...

Hazia
salam aidilfitri..

u dr convent a/setar kan..?

Hazia said...

Ailin,
Hehe... messy already. Will update full story in my next entry.

Ala, she is nobody la, her bark is louder than her bite. Also, she's following her husband for his 5-year overseas posting in 2 weeks' time, no harm done. And I'm still mad at her for literally asking me to give her company more business for spending a lot of time with her staff ie Mr Designer. She accused me of distracting him and taking advantage of his vulnerability. This time, she messed with the wrong person/s laa...

Hazia said...

Sue,
Thank u for dropping by. Selamat hari raya:)
Alamak, mana datang that info?;)

Kak Elle said...

all I can say she is one cranky woman!

looks like you are getting deeper than I thought with mr designer and please do be careful but then you are old enough don't need my advice...hmm ... mana mr designer dpt duit bila kereta?

ps...did you pay that dinner bill?and did you get back the $$...2 men and yet .... ishhhhhhhhh

anggerik merah said...

Hazia,

salam aidilfitri...

Reading this N3...that life of business. Take care dear.

Hazia said...

Kak Elle,
Hehe... yeap, that's a lot of progress in only 1.5 months. Kereta tu dia bayar booking fee aje. Now tunggu loan approve.

Yeah, I paid the dinner bill, I didn't have any choice. I knew they wouldn't jeorpadise future potential business opportunities from my company. I had a meeting with his partner yesterday but he forgot to pass me the cash. He said he'd bank it in last night itself. I've yet to check la. Mr Designer kept on asking if he had paid. Frankly, if he hadn't asked, I wouldn't have remembered about it till this weekend, when I'm not cluttered with work:)

Hazia said...

Anggerik,
Thanks for dropping by. Selamat hari raya:)