Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Managing difficult people is fast becoming a norm for me. I never dealt with people who's sole aim in life was to wreck havoc in yours till I step into the most difficult place in SAF. I tell you the number of crazy people that I meet everyday is outrageous.
My friends and I are going crazy over well, crazy people. They try every trick in the 101 ways to make life difficult for someone book on us and we are thinking of about 1001 ways to counter these.
Take this person that I have just encountered before. He is a 40 year old managing director of some company. Apparently a high flyer, he got himself drunk and was battered outside a pub. He made a police report and instead of getting sympathy, he was arrested instead for an outstanding military offence.
This was where we came in. We saw his battered and bruised face and we screamed.(well not literally). We arrested him and he started shouting his head off that he was innocent.
"YOU BLOODY PROVOST CAN'T SEEM TO ARREST THE CORRECT PEOPLE!!" I sort of like paraphrase his words because what he said was more explicit than this. He demanded to see some higher authority at 10pm at night.
We coaxed, threatened and coerced but he refused to be taken in so we called an officer. (Note this guy is as old as me. Doesn't know shit but wears a bar on his shoulder. I presume I should call him Sir.)
The officer said" Eh, Sing how ah? I never kena this type of people at all leh. What is the procedure? I dunno what to do." I look at him and look at his bar. I felt like slapping him. Ok never mind I told him. You are here because you spend 9 months in the jungle, got foot rot, recieved a sword from the president, so you just act like you know everything ok?
So he went in, sat down and look at the accuse. He said ok listen to these guys here. Cooperate with them and we will try not to hold you here ok? A barrage of insults and abusive language flew. The officer look at me and I look at him. There is really nothing we can do!
So I talked to him. Cool down. Relax. Take a deep breath. We are not charging you. We are only doing our job. You are wanted so we arrested you. Talk to your superior tomorrow.
Until 6 am, he refused to enter our cell or get himself cuffed. He demanded the media, he demanded a cook, he demanded to smoke and he demanded my dear officer to get him out.
The officer whispered a few inaudible words to me and whizzed off to play warcraft leaving us to clear the mess.
I wrote this article with the primary reason to educate the masses on how to deal with difficult people but it has an underlying theme of irresponsible army officers as well. I still don't support the idea of a 20 year old officer who cares more about his girlfriend and games than his job. But that is besides the point. A difficult person is what I encounter almost everyday. This crazy managing director was dealt not dealt with a stick. We told him to cool down and we spoke nicely to him. But sometimes this method won't work. When all else fails, I won't want to pick up the phone to disturb my officer playing warcraft. Sorry sir....

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