Wed 16/12/09 9.30am. Attending a progress meeting at the site office
"Any matters to be raised?" the fat lady chairperson raised her shrill voice looking at everybody around the table with a condescending attitude. Typical snotty behaviour of high ranking government servants in position of authority, I thought to myself.
The day before I had received a letter from the government client specifically addressed to me as the ARE (Assistant Resident Engineer) asking me to file a report on among other things some shoddy sanitary plumbing work. As the structural guy I always thought that my responsibility is to look after the building structure only. Other people's stuff like plumbing, water supply, electricity, architectural work are none of my business.
"Puan, the consultant for the sanitary services should comment on the sanitary system. As the ARE for the building structural work, other services not related to my scope should be handled by the respective consultants." I said factually when it was my turn to speak.
Then came the bomb shell. "You are not hired as the ARE for the structure only. You are the ARE for the WHOLE project!" the fat lady chairperson said flashing a sinister smile and gesturing impatiently with her hands.
Wow! The implication is that I have to play nanny and take care of everybody's problems. My boss said that my scope is limited to the structural building work only when she assigned me to look after this project.
"No way is the company going to take responsibility for other people's problems! I, you and the design engineer will thrash this thing out with the contractor tomorrow," my lady boss said rather annoyed after I related my encounter with the fat lady client when I got back to the office.
Brave words indeed. Let's see if boss will walk the talk when we meet up with the contractor tomorrow. Bear in mind that the contractor is the company's paymaster and the client is a government agency.
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