24 August 2016:
PM Lee collapsed during the National Day Rally.
That was on Sunday night. By now, of course, it is somewhat old news, especially since he has repeatedly assured that he is all right. He did, however, bring up the topic of succession planning when returning to complete his rally speech.At about the same time, I too 'took ill' (to quote PMO), but at least it was not in front of a live audience, with almost the whole Singapore watching in shock. Long story short, I apparently caught a particularly nasty strain of influenza.
I was feeling the pre-sick symptoms on Sunday night, and went to sleep at 2230. Which was why, in fact, I did not get to watch PM Lee's second part of his English speech. True enough, I woke on Monday early morning with a high fever.
One suspected diagnosis by the doctor was, in fact, dengue. However, as I did not have rashes and nausea, she was more inclined that it was merely influenza (albeit a strong one). Since then, I have been having an on-and-off fever, which is sickening yet alarming.
Whilst all this was taking place, I kept thinking about work. Calling a workaholic, or wayang, or whatever, but I was really worried that there were outstanding items. In particular, one part of my job has periodic submissions which cannot be missed.
Thankfully, I settled everything the week before. Yet, I was still very afraid if my case did turn out to be dengue. Of course, by then I would be more afraid of my diagnosis than work, but then if it were to be dengue, I will be out of action for much longer.
All this is not to show that I am indispensable. No matter what, my office will still be able to cope and move on. It's just that, again, I would prefer to cause the least inconvenience when they do so.
As such, when I returned to camp, I began teaching essential skills to someone that could help cover me whilst I recover fully. The thing is, his role in my office is not permanent, just like me a year ago. Technically, he could be posted out tomorrow.
(Afternote: did I jinx myself? The very next day after this was posted, that person received his posting orders. In the end, he wasn't able to help cover me.)
Which brings me to consider my understudy. According to the official schedule of 3 months before ORD, I would be getting one by September. However, I certainly could use some help at present. At least if this guy comes, I can impart to him as much as possible.
And another issue: WK has expressed interest, in part due to his boss' recommendation, to take over me. As I mentioned to him, I am not against it because of him - i.e. it is nothing to do with his work ethic or other qualities.
In fact, I think that he deserves better, so to speak. A plus point for him is that he stays pretty near camp, all the more so when you compare it with me. But with the current state of the office, I really feel bad if I were to 'trap' him here.
I don't think I want to make any further comment about how dysfunctional the office is currently, but just that I seriously don't think WK should stay and suffer. Having been through almost a year by now, I know how it is like.
In the start, things do not seem that bad. In fact, you may subconsciously filter out only the good points. But once that filter fails, motivation drops. And when that happens ...
I'm not saying that WK is the type that will rage-quit once motivation drops. I trust that he will soldier on. But why choose a potential living hell (in time to come)? Already, the general consensus is that NS is a burden. Therefore, I really think that one should try to get the best out of it.
As of now nothing's confirmed, though. To be fair, there will be a few potential candidates coming over, which is the more 'traditional' route of selection. Not sure when that will be, though, which again links to the issue of time.
~
To be honest, this whole week has been rather awful. Basically, my sickness made me shut out quite a lot of people / things. It also made me lose track of my sense of time, as I kept sleeping. I really hope to recover soon.
And to get an understudy.
TTFN.