Comm blog entry #2 (Behind the scenes - doing research for Org Comm project)

One day, yet another assignment landed on our laps. It required us to find and interview and/or observe an organization for their culture. After some discussion, Lydia came up with the idea of going to her parent's firm for the project, and i was like, "what?? your parents actually OWN a firm?"

And then i realised... hey this is SIM we are talking about, almost everyone here has to have some kind of wealth to begin with, that's why we're here... (i don't consider myself to be obscenely wealthy, just enough to get by, i.e. pay the fees).

Anyway, enough about the wealth have and have nots, it was decided that i was to interview a manager of the firm at their premises. Rode down on a thursday into the outskirts of the Central Business District at North Canal Road (Somewhere in between chinatown and clarke quay stations) to discover that the firm was housed in a nice cozy shophouse along a row of them.

I entered and introduced myself and sat at the reception area waiting for my "target" to arrive. Just my luck, the night before the workers were up late in the office rushing for a submission deadline and hence they were all entitled to report late for work on the following day.

I was sitting there for a whole half hour when i realised i had forgotten to remove my cashcard form my bike... oboy. Hurried to the bike and flipped open the card unit and............ empty........ some greasy fingers had already swiped it ........ curses!! Bloody thieves... only a whole half hour elapsed and its stolen.

I returned to the office with a black face and had to wait another hour before the manager arrived. Needless to say, i wasn't in the best of moods but still managed to force a smile through my scowl.

Due to the fairly long amount of time i spent there, i managed to observe a little into how their office culture operated. Since it was a small firm compared to huge super corporation, the office had a more "village" feel to it; everyone that came in was cheery (partly because it was payday) and knew everyone else. They also discussed work matters informally at the reception counter and the pantry. The whole place had a laid back atmosphere and yet buzzing with activity at the same time.

I wouldn't claim it to be an eye opening experience... its just a nice variation from the norm of the office culture that one would see here in Singapore.