Who's Alonso Now

Sometimes I tend to go overboard with giving sound advice. Of course I meant well. I just want to ensure that things go the way it should; smooth and creamy like that peanut butter sandwich I had this morning.

I guess Alonso did not see where I was getting at. I was concerned that Alonso might not be able to get his car up and running so I showered him with skies of sound advice. So I told him to check the weather and make sure he had the right kind of tyres on, reminded him call up the workshop to set an appointment for his car's regular checkups (I should set an appointment to get him checked instead...), make sure the mechanics greased the nuts and bolts, etc.

It's all sound advice, but Alonso's respond was as usual, "shocking". Alonso replied, "Need to do all that?" In the end I gave up, so I replied, "I would have done it just to be sure. It's up to you." I feel so much like Alonso after saying that. I learnt a new lesson. I should, from now onwards, refrained from giving advice to people especially to Alonso.

Alonso's standard reply

Alonso is always Alonso.. Alonso always *assumed* what he/she did is CORRECT, what is WRONG?there will always no "wrong" in their world. If you have any problem and need to check with Alonso, their general responses (and the sequence) will be:
1. NO! you didnt test it right,
2. Cannot be, it is correct just now,
3. You didnt go through Step1 (I did)
4. Like that, you didnt go through Step2 (I did)
5. Then, it means your codes got problem, you delete it and run again (I did too)
6. Like that ah... let me see, get back to you later. Please GIVE me time.

So the "get back to you later" will probably take more than 1 day. hahaa... and the way of "Please GIVE me time" was as if I want things to be done immediately. come on la... how can we ASSUME Alonso can get things done in a few hours time? They are not up to the standarda anyway, and they are so busy, how to get things done fast?

Signs of moving on

Sometime or most of the time, it is quite obvious when colleagues at work is planning or have plans to move on to another job. Here are some common signs to look out for:-

1. Sudden surge in emergency leave, sick leave, annual leave, etc...
2. Increase in phone calls received and each call has to be answered outside office premise.
3. Uses the printer more often and usually will be standing by the printer to wait for the print-out
4. Dressed up more smartly on certain day and will clock out on the dot on those days.
5. Dilligent in learning and brushing up skills. (Note: Skills that are not relevant to current job scope.)

Good to be Alonso

Alonso was given a new task. For some people this might not be something out of the ordinary because "ordinary" people completes few tasks a day. We are talking about Alonso here, so a new task, any task big or small will eventually end up "extra-ordinary".

For those who had first-hand experience of working with Alonso, they had little or no expectation. When the job is done, if it was a total screw-up, people tend to be very forgiving towards Alonso because it was expected of him. In rare cases when the task is completed, Alonso receives the much awaited words of compliments on the job done.

So, it was good being Alonso because:-

1. Alonso never had to live up to anyone's expectation. (because no one expects anything from Alonso)
2. Alonso never gets leave behind. (because he is always the first one to leave on any given day)
3. Any job done by Alonso is a good job regardless of how shoddy it is. (because it was less of a hassle to redo the job than explaining to Alonso on how to get it done properly)

Burning Engine, and Alonso thinks his car is still the best.

Can you imagine how frustrated you can get when your comments are not taken into consideration, ended up everything turned into mess?
I was working in a project which the project timeline is quite tight. I have to learn up something totally new in 3 weeks time and get the real work done in 1 month. Before all these started, I checked with Alonso on some issues, where his reply was, if we work based on what you said, we'll not able to get things done. My way is much much faster. He couldnt answer what I was asking, I believe he couldn't get what I mean.
Later on, after learn up his framework, I started to work on the system. And guess what happened? .. the extra and very important component is not able to work on the so-called best framework. oh.. no no no.. it can works on the best-framework, only thing that you have to do extra works. We do not have time for that already.
One thing I really want to tell my Alonso on his face, "PLEASE make sure you know and consider everything before you tell me your framework is the best in the work. ". And stop telling me "I want to bring xxx up, I want to bring you up. I'll make sure you learn up bla bla bla by the end of the project". Well, you are one of the lousiest communicator I've ever met. My previous Slow-and-soft Alonso is far better. My prev-previous shit-shit-super-arrogant Alonso is much better.
I am so so so so frustrated, for not able to complete my works and still have to work with my Alonso for the remaining of this project (at least 8 more months) without showing my frustration. sighhhhhh...

Alonso Roars

Based on the brief introduction of Alonso and the post on Alonso and his car, one might get the impression that Alonso is meek and gullible. Perhaps I am terrible at judging people. People used to repeat, never judge a book by it's cover. In my case, I guess I wouldn't be able to judge the book even after I see beneath it's cover.

Funny thing about Alonso is whenever he was asked a question, he will pause for some time and usually quite a long time before giving any reaction. Maybe he is trying to give people the impression that he is putting his thinking hat on. But it succeeded more in annoying people because sometimes people only expect a short "Yes" or "No" reply and while Alonso is taking his own sweet time to put on his thinking hat. People start to wonder whether Alonso is putting on the "right" hat on.

So, Alonso completed his task. Despite taking longer and having more resources to get the job done, Alonso complains that he doesn't get enough credits. Alonso demands that Ronnie, Alonso's boss, gave him a better score. Alonso refused to accept the score and when Ronnie turned down Alonso's plea, Alonso called for a press conference to vent his frustration to the public on how unfairly he was treated.

Now, someone who is meek would not go through such trouble just to obtain a better score. Of course being Alonso, it never crosses his mind whether he deserved a better score in the first place.

Get your superior to back you up.

Two days after my conversation with Alonso that was obviously FAILED, I talked to my project manager trying to show him what are the things that I'm working on.
PM showed me a rather weird look, thinking that he couldn't understand what i'm talking about, I tried to explain him again.. (at the same time have the "failed" word in my mind for the reason I couldnt explain well). I said, "sometimes I think there is a major problem with my explaination skill, or else why Alonso can't understand me? but very weird oh, my friends can understand me..I also dont know why la...sigh...". mana tau, PM said, not only you.. I have problem with my explaination also.
ah?? @_@... how come? he continued, Alonso can't understand me. No matter how plain, how easy is my explaination. He just cant get it. He can't understand.
O-o.... I think we got an answer to our problems. It's the problem with Alonso, not us, not me.

I am still having problems communicating with Alonso, but the best thing is, I have PM to back me up in this. It's not me who do not want to get things done fast, it's because of problem with another side who couldn't understand language. hehehe.. it's good to have someone to back you up in this situation huh..