A Laugh Affair

A secretary, an assistant and their boss are walking to lunch when they find an antique oil lamp. They rub it and a genie appears to grant them each one wish. The secretary says, “I want to be in the Bahamas, driving a speedboat, without a care in the world.” Poof! She’s gone.

“I want to be in Hawaii, relaxing on the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of pina coladas and the love of my life,” says the assistant. And poof! Just like that, he’s gone.

“You’re next,” the genie says to the boss. He says, “I want those two back in the office right after lunch.”

I laughed quietly as I read the caption of this Reader’s Digest cartoon. Somehow it made me forget about my worries for a second – Global warming, earth-menacing asteroids and the dangers of trans fats in Raya cookies.

I am kidding!

Coming back to work from a really long holiday must be depressing. It’s a torn between leaving honeymoon that we’ve come to fond and embracing bitter reality that awaits us at the office (And be a total nonchalance about it!)

Comes this Monday we will be welcoming a new batch of Management Trainees. 24 of them. They are a batch of young bright graduates that our recruitment unit had been scouring high and low for the pass six months and now they are dumping it on us. (I just hope they are not a bunch of snob)

By ‘dumping’ I mean the workloads. Now that they are our responsibilities, expect no less that 1001 things do to ‘serve’ them. – Classroom activities, motivation and teambuiding, attachment programmes, numerous sites visits from Westport to Ipoh – and all this need a proper, immaculate planning from our side.

And this sits ‘conveniently’ on other pressing works I need to do at the same time - Executive Tea Talk, Corporate Hari Raya Open House, Compliance Audit by SIRIM and a gazillion of other things that equally important.

Well, now since I am already in whiny mood, I guess I’ll go on talking about my deteriorating health conditions. Since after Raya, I haven’t been feeling really well. I think I am down with cold or something but as I said earlier, I can’t afford another day off from office, at least not until Christmas.

Being an optimistic freak that I am, thank God I know a way out – I laugh it off. Yes, in times like this I could use a good laugh. I know it sounds absurd but I read somewhere that a team of serious scientists (no pun intended) has found evidence that humor can tune our minds hence increases the memory and help us coping with stress better. So limber up your mind and wise up by having a laugh.

Hey did you hear the one about a secretary, an assistant and their boss?