Today, i received a rather funny (but sad funny) email from a clerk in my firm.
Her email attached an invoice bearing the date 11/12/2018. A client from the US had requested that we re-issue the "November invoice with a December date".
Now, it is immediately clear to me that the US client is confused by the date format. Unlike the rest of the world, the US appears to revel in its odd ways of not using metric, and adopting counterintuitive date conventions i.e., month/date/year.
But this is not my point.
That clerk knows full well that both the service and the invoice were rendered in December, being the same person who processed the work and issued the invoice. There should be zero doubt in her mind that the invoice was correctly issued in December.
But what does Ms Clerk do? She simply forwards the invoice to the accounts department, asking that the invoice be re-issued with a December date, with a note, "Client's request".
Stupidity? Nonchalance? Incompetence? A bit of everything?
Is it any wonder that people like that would never improve their station in life. They simply cannot be bothered, or worse, are incapable of doing so. These are the same people who then go to online forums, or election rallies and complain about wage stagnation. Well, maybe, just maybe, you fully deserve to be left behind?
What SJWs like Teo You Yenn seem to often forget is that meritocracy does not just exist simply because a group of social elites banded together and somehow willed it to.
Meritocracy is an immutable aspect of life. Every business owner wants the best person for the job, so that they are getting bang for their buck. No one wants to hire an imbecile just because that imbecile fared well academically. They do so because a good degree from a reputable University is a reasonably good barometer that the person you hired is not a robot zombie like Ms Clerk above. It is not fool proof for sure, but it sure beats any other indicator at this time.
People who attribute a perceived lack of social mobility to the meritocratic system in Singapore need to take a few years and work in the private sector. There is a marked difference in both attitude and aptitude between graduates with proper degrees and those who simply enrolled in the "school of hard knocks."
Her email attached an invoice bearing the date 11/12/2018. A client from the US had requested that we re-issue the "November invoice with a December date".
Now, it is immediately clear to me that the US client is confused by the date format. Unlike the rest of the world, the US appears to revel in its odd ways of not using metric, and adopting counterintuitive date conventions i.e., month/date/year.
But this is not my point.
That clerk knows full well that both the service and the invoice were rendered in December, being the same person who processed the work and issued the invoice. There should be zero doubt in her mind that the invoice was correctly issued in December.
But what does Ms Clerk do? She simply forwards the invoice to the accounts department, asking that the invoice be re-issued with a December date, with a note, "Client's request".
Stupidity? Nonchalance? Incompetence? A bit of everything?
Is it any wonder that people like that would never improve their station in life. They simply cannot be bothered, or worse, are incapable of doing so. These are the same people who then go to online forums, or election rallies and complain about wage stagnation. Well, maybe, just maybe, you fully deserve to be left behind?
What SJWs like Teo You Yenn seem to often forget is that meritocracy does not just exist simply because a group of social elites banded together and somehow willed it to.
Meritocracy is an immutable aspect of life. Every business owner wants the best person for the job, so that they are getting bang for their buck. No one wants to hire an imbecile just because that imbecile fared well academically. They do so because a good degree from a reputable University is a reasonably good barometer that the person you hired is not a robot zombie like Ms Clerk above. It is not fool proof for sure, but it sure beats any other indicator at this time.
People who attribute a perceived lack of social mobility to the meritocratic system in Singapore need to take a few years and work in the private sector. There is a marked difference in both attitude and aptitude between graduates with proper degrees and those who simply enrolled in the "school of hard knocks."
Your company invoice is dumb and not the clerk. Date format is DD MMM YYYY
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