TheCompany.

And I told him, "Since its a long weekend, and according to L, the current phase of work would have been completed, why not have me reassigned to the local office?"

He kept silent for a moment, giving a thought on my proposition. He then proceeded for some sort of confirmation with L, in a language common to them, but not me. I remembered D once mentioned in a meeting, to have a common medium of communication between all, keeping things transparent but it never happened. I guess its easy to change the habit of one individual, but not the culture of a group.

He finally turned to me, "Alright then, you can head back this coming Sunday, no issues with me or L"

That was good news, one after a long absence. I booked my tickets and spread the news, its meant to be shared. All was well, until just now, when N called me into L's cubicle. Right at that moment, a negative feeling overwhelmed me, as though informing me firsthand that something bad was about to happen, and I wouldn't like that.

"I need your assistance, for the previous project cause there's some complications from the client's server, needs to be rectified from there. Would it be possible for you to extend your stay for just, about a day or two?", N said.

Needless to say, the abbreviation WTH keep on popping in my mind. It took a while before I agreed, reluctantly. I guess 2 days isn't too bad, at least I still get to spend the rest of my time in KL after and I kept that running in my mind. Then something strucked my mind, something mentioned by my colleague yesterday night about the client, something really important (sorry, but I must not reveal that here as well, too risky). I immediately brought the matter up to N, and hell, was he shocked.

I still remember clearly, that he mentioned, "It never crossed my mind, fortunately you brought that up, else all of us would be in deep trouble. They're not someone to be messed with, especially in this situation"

Much discussions and debates later, they decided its best to have someone else take over the requirement, because that seems to be the best approach, judging by the time and resource constraint. Needless to say, I was a little below estatic, after all the mess ups (not forgetting to mention, the unecessary time wasted), I'm finally still heading home this coming Sunday. It was a battle hard fought, and I prevailed.

Happy ending occurs only in fairy tales. How true.

Less than an hour, L called me into his cubicle, and guess what? (no prize for the correct answer though, so don't bother) "I'm placing you into another requirement, which will take approximately 2 weeks, starting from next Monday. You'll be working from the client's site this time around"

2 things played in my mind. The first one would be a big ass WTH billboard falling on me, and the second one, since when did I become a resource at your disposal? Needless to say I protested, and again, I had to go through every single detail of the initial discussion with D for him. I was tensed and frustrated, and I really hope he noticed that.

Much negotiations later, he said, "I'm fine with this then, you can head back this coming Tuesday and report back here the following Tuesday morning, there shouldn't be any issues arising"

I seated myself in front of my machine and let out a breath of relief, I'm glad its finally over. But deep down inside, my frustration grew stronger. There's definitely a huge difference between flexibility and inability; flexibility for reassignments to various locations for various projects, given proper time and information, inability to plan and manage resources, forcing unnecessary wastage of time and unrequired stress. I booked and ammended my tickets.

I hope what was determined today stays that way for I am already well over my limit, and things might turn ugly... Yes, I realize this might also be their culture, the way they do things, but I have already told them, and hope they remember, to take into consideration the fact that I am STILL recruited in MALAYSIA for the local office.

The above is based on a true story, representations are used to protect the identity of the actual individuals involved, and also to protect my ass.