Good, Better, Best

“Good, Better, Best ;

Never Let It Rest;

Till The Good Is Better;

And The Better is Best”

Those of you who have read my articles before or heard me speak, may probably have heard of this poem before – a poem which was written by my late mum when I was just 8 years old. Then it meant nothing to me (a boring poem from my mum, I thought). But little did I know that that poem would become one of my driving values of my life.

So after Form 5 and my refusal to further my studies, I decided to work in a hotel and the only job a 17year old could get then was to be a chamber maid (and I was casual labour too, being paid a salary of Rm200 a month) – that was sufficient for me to take 2 buses to work in the morning and 2 buses back home in the evening. I could pay my parents “rental” of RM50, keep another RM50 for my weekend and off days entertainment (cinema tickets were only Rm1.50 then and a plate of Char Kuay Teow was Rm1) and I could still save RM50 in my bank account. My supervisors were hard task masters who would scream at us if they found a single strand of hair in a room that we had cleaned and it was then that the words of my mum’s poem would ring in my mind – Do Good always, keep on becoming better, till you become the best”. And indeed my supervisors were happy with my work that I was promoted quickly – to a higher floor with more rooms (but the tips we received from guests were bigger too), so there was no need to complain.

Then when there was an opening in Front Office, I quickly applied and attended an interview but was told that since I have no experience and no qualifications, I would be given a job at the back office to handle room reservations. That was my first time my fingers ever touched a computer, and my salary was increased to RM250 a month, which meant more “rental” to my parents. I quickly mastered my job and fell empowered to not wait for instructions from my supervisor and to go ahead and process a group booking on my own. Only to be reprimanded by my supervisor for not checking with him first, so he made me erase all the data I had keyed in and when he was satisfied with verifying the details of the group booking, he then made me key in all the information all over again. That was one of my first lessons of Empowerment in the Corporate World – that it is important to also understand the Power Status of seniors around, and to not step on anyone’s toes.

But it was different when I was moved to Front Office (as they felt that I could handle guests face to face efficiently) –there, whilst we had SOPs to follow, but we needed to think on our feet and we were allowed to practice making decisions on our own within boundaries set for us. We needed to serve our guests the best way possible and to make their stay in the hotel smooth and stress-free. With good guidance from the Front Office Manager, Supervisors and my seniors, I picked up a lot of knowledge, built my confidence and blossomed from a timid, shy girl to a more empowered, confident and capable person. It was there that I learnt that having a good conducive and supportive work environment, rather than a rigid, controlled, cold one, was critical for one to learn and grow. We were a family, all of us. We helped each other out, we cried together, we had meals and socialized and went on outings together, we solved problems together. It was a great time of my life – but sadly there was no career progression as the country was going through recession and after building up my savings, I left my job to continue my studies. Study what? I had no idea but I just knew that I needed to upgrade my knowledge, whilst trying to apply for a job as an Air Stewardess, so that I could find my wings and fly around the world. But sadly I was 2cm short, hence that dream died a natural death. And I was back to square one.

So my first few years of working after I left school, gave me some experience and exposure to the working world, out and away from my sheltered and comfortable cocoon at home. Did I get Empowered? Yes and No. Yes from a decision making point of view – after 17 years of living under my parents’ rules and thumbs, I had to make a lot of decisions, especially for my own personal life – which required me to use my own discretion and to be more courageous to speak my mind. No because I was also now under the thumbs of my boss and seniors, who told me what to do and follow, who guided me to perform in my job within boundaries – so I was still very much a follower, with just a little more freedom to speak and learn how to use my charm to make a guests’ day.

So Controlled Empowerment was the order of the day at work. But my mum’s poem still carried a lot of weight as I could still continue to practice her words of wisdom within those boundaries.