6.30 a.m.
Wake up
7.00 a.m.
Packing
9.00 a.m.
Breakfast
10.00 a.m.
Shopping at Plaza Semanggi
11.30 a.m.
Checkout from hotel
12.00 p.m.
On the way to the airport
12.30 p.m. – 2.30 p.m.
Luggage checking, boarding time
2.50 p.m.
Flight time
5.50 p.m. (MYT)
Return to Kuala Lumpur
Today can be considered slightly better but if you wish to have a smooth and quiet day, it’s impossible when he’s around. Once I stepped out from my room and waiting for him to go to take our breakfast together, he started to ask me to insert records into the database in order to generate the report.
We thought that we can leave the bank earlier today but we still need to stay late. The IT manager at the bank was very upset with the users because they only started to test the system by today and that causes us to stay late for the fixes and customization. The user has been given for six days to test the system but they just started it by today. They even try to ask for our extension to stay onsite. The IT manager disagrees with that suggestion although he knows that he can request us to stay longer and besides that, extension of days will need to charge them for our expenses and this is one of the reasons that the manager doesn’t want to do so.
In fact, this is not the first time I faced this problem. In local bank as well, user is the one to control the whole situation. When they were given time to prepare the necessary documents and data for testing, they will prepare their stuff slowly and dragging the time. If the issue is on vendor site, they will just keep complaining and chasing the vendor for an update and fixes. It is so hard to resolve the issue in an efficient way especially when the vendor is too difficult to get their cooperation.
Normally, overseas bank is easier to support and the issues can be resolved faster due to the expenses and time consuming. Besides that, they are more efficient in providing all the relevant information no matter for onsite or remote support compared with local bank that has too many procedures and security issues that causes the delay.
Although I’m not sure the exact number of banks in Indonesia but I personally feel that is a profitable business if a company just only have Indonesian banks as clients. There are too many banks in Indonesia. Even if not more than fifty of banks, there might be probably more than twenty or thirty banks.
8.00 a.m.
Wake up
8.45 a.m.
Breakfast – french toast, fruit tart, lychee Juice, black Coffee, fried potato
9.40 a.m. – 12.20 p.m.
Onsite Support at bank
12.30 p.m.
Lunch at Kafe Mal, Wisma BNI
Fish & Chips, Iced Capucino Oreo (Rp. 36,500 + Rp. 21,000 = Rp. 57,500)/ RM20.77
1.20 p..m. – 8.45 p.m.
Onsite support at bank
9.30 p.m.
Dinner at Japanese Restaurant, Plaza Semanggi
Today can be assumed slightly better than the previous days because the setup has been completed and not much work needs to be done. Besides that, my day working with him also can be considered slightly easier compared with other days. If you wish that he will stop bugging you is the most difficult thing that you hope for it but today can be considered it happens slightly less than usual.
Recently, besides of related to work issues, another new topic is about the vendor that provides onsite support to the bank. He likes to meddle about what they are doing and complain the way they do their work. Sometimes, it’s hard to understand his intentions of pinpointing on people because I thought this kind of attitude only will happen with youngsters but it will also happen to people at his age.
When we were in the bank, he asked me to add the data length into the log so that it can standardize all the logs in the system that has the same information. It’s just only a single line code but I didn’t add into the log because the log contains more than enough to provide the useful information about the network status.
I used to listen whatever he said no matter I understand it or not but during this trip, I started to feel I want to be myself. I started to know how to filter what he said and not blindly accept what he said. During this trip, most of the time, what he told me about the system has been inside my mind and I had reported to him long time ago but sometimes, I will tell myself not to be too harsh with him because he’s too busy to handle so many projects and he can’t remember all the things for all the system although I still dislike his attitude of not putting much effort and concern in this system.
I used to follow and do whatever he ask me to do until this trip that causes me started to think before I follow. I still remember he told me before that he prefers junior because they never fight him back and do whatever he ask. I started to fight back not because I have the sufficient knowledge to control him or trying to show off with my little skill but it’s just I feel IT field is a knowledge sharing field and not a knowledge manipulation. Everyone has their own thinking and different kinds of knowledge. If everyone expresses their opinions and willing to share the different knowledge, the outcome will be much better and every goal can be reached successfully.
Furthermore, his knowledge is more to backend and he still feels frontend knowledge is not that important but at this era, how he can require everyone still using dos-prompt and command line or running scripts. Everytime I solved the frontend problem, I reported to him what are the causes but he just never listen. His facial expression already shows that he’s not interested to know. Actually, I don’t wish to tell as well but I afraid after I handover to him or other colleagues, they will have the difficulty to trace the codes if the same problem happens again in the future. That’s the reason why he said that I didn’t escalate the issue to him just because he shuts off his hearing ability everytime I report to him.
Sometimes, I will let him do the work instead of doing it by myself because I already knew that I won’t understand what he wants. When he’s trying to figure out what causes the failure or needs additional information, I will say ‘I don’t know’ and let him figure it out by himself. It sounds I’m quite bad but I’m too scare to voice out what I know. I scare that once I say something; he will stop me before I finish my words. The possible replies are ‘No’, ‘I don’t think so’, ‘Yes but…’, ‘Are you sure?’, ‘Can you please check….’, ‘How can you verify that?’ and etc.
8.00 a.m.
Wake up
8.45 a.m.
Breakfast
Chicken sausage, beef pastrami, smoked chicken, roasted potato with herbs, fruit tart, black coffee
9.30 a.m. – 7.40 p.m.
Onsite at the bank
8.15 p.m. – 8.50 p.m.
Dinner at Raffel’s, Plaza Semanggi
Roasted Beef with Cheese Burger, Ice Tea, French Fries, (Rp. 20,000, RM7.22)
What I See Today?
Bank
Today almost everything has been properly setup. We just fix according to the issues that the user reported to us and customize according to the user’s requirements. In the morning, not much work needs to be done until afternoon. The user requested for the different roles that can view different parts of the frontend of the system.
We don’t need to go to lunch today because the bank served us with variety of bread. I have the chance to taste the cream croissant, bun stuffed with carrot and chicken slice, chocolate cake, Mexican bun stuffed with scramble cheese and chocolate cheese banana muffin. They always served us with breads and a pot of water everyday. Thanks for their kind treatment. We were lucky to have such a kind treatment compared with another vendor which is also from Malaysia; they don’t have the equal treatment with us.
Since last Monday, we shifted to a more corner place and I don’t know whether my manager requested from the IT manager at there because he complained to me that the previous place was very noisy and he can’t concentrate on his work. Almost everyday during lunch time, they will switch on the TV for the football match. I don’t think they will sit down and watch it from the beginning to the end of the match but maybe just for a glance or a few minutes of break.
