Army Life

It has been a restful yet tiring week. Restful because of the lack of thinking during office hours as I am on reservist this couple of weeks, tiring because of running around in camp and IPPT which I managed to clear in camp - a respectable feat despite the terrain and hot humid weather this week; and also due to the fact that my company does not have a HR leave policy of a staff being on reservist.

Well, I was hired from Hong Kong where my Asia Pacific HR is based, and my company is American. Besides the fact that my direct boss who was based in Singapore before, the concept of 40 days of reservist duty by Singaporeans is quite peculiar to the rest of the company. So nevertheless, the job must be done as I come home to work till 2-3am every day and up at 6am to book in every morning.

I love reservist, its a time of bonding with old friends who go through the last 5-10 years of idle time and thoughtless conversations ranging from cars to politics. Similar to our local "kopitiams" (coffeeshops), where old men sit around and drink beer in the afternoons while chatting over the latest gossips or Jack Neo's "Honey No Enough" escapades.

The Singapore Government tries its best to sell the idea of defending the Nation to Singaporeans but not understand the problems we face at work with the constant pressure of having a cheaper, "faster" (not necessarily true), and NO-RESERVIST-up-our-asses options of worthy Foreign Talents. The citizens clamouring for equality in this context is easily shut with their latest initiative of setting up Business Centres in 3 Army Camps where employees can bring in their laptops to work. Great, as I thought I can do some work during the idle period. Well, as all other wasteful initiatives previously thought of like renaming Marina Bay to Marina Bay to the tune of S$400k, this will be another while elephant in-waiting. Why so? I was briefly "entertained" as my training camp is one of the sanctioned camp which will be ready come 1st Apr and we were allowed to have a trial.

The top three white-elephant potential reasons :

1) We must inform ahead if laptops need to be brought - nothing wrong here, except only there is a limited number allowed per business centre, I believe depending on the network restrictions, so I foresee a tie up with Singtel and probably personal mobile broadband will not be allowed.

2) The laptops will be sealed before entry and are to be under lock and key in lockers (probably chargeable) with a manned reception with CCTV readily watching you protecting your laptops.

The lamest one yet 3) The laptops can only be used after training hours. And since the business centres are manned, its operating hours are like 8am - 530pm. So bite me...


Ok time to sleep as I have a long week ahead and a physical day tomorrow of morning range and afternoon route march. I have more thoughts about my reservist from more idle observations, hope to blog in the coming week.