The Pressure of Purchasing

Part of my working space in Procurement Department .
Messy right? Indeed--just for today

Today, I feel like I just needed a breather. A slap of fresh air and a breakaway from all the office work pressures. If you happen to be working in the procurement department maybe you can closely relate to every inch of stress that this kind of job brings. 

It was a whole day of chaos in my department. Admittedly, we are under staff compared to other departments in our company. Adding to my pressure was the recent resignation  of one member of my team. Well, he'd got a new job in an investment bank with a much higher renumeration. Who won't be tempted to quit a current job if the offer from a new prospect is something highly irresistible? Everyone right? 

I know I'm delivering my task at par which is one of the reasons why I've been rewarded with high accolades plus a bonus more than I expected last year. I'm certain as well that I've been distributing my time evenly to all my work concerns. More than that, I hate to have work backlogs.


Dedication at work? Well, there's no doubt I have that. I'm always up to the challenge of my boss. Disappointing him is the last thing in my mind. I am a multi-tasking Juan who loves to be busy at work. It has always been my attitude that if I'm done with routine work earlier than expected I would always think of ideas that could improve efficiency and effectivity at work. My motivation didn't  even slip one level down. None that I imagine going it down or else it means I'm totally shifting to new interests.

But this very day, I was just totally overwhelmed by how office works overly demanded my time & even startled myself when I ended up in a heated arguments with the Sales Manager . Apparently, I wasn't able to finish my regular work routine in a day. 

What consumed most of my time today & completely pissed me off was when the manager of our Sales Department hurriedly and sarcastically told me that one particular item were almost zero in stock. Pointing to me as if I was to be blamed by this incident. Who won't be in irate? 

I also have my own today's deadlines assigned by the President of the company and here he comes bugging me up to urgently contact suppliers in China and request promptly for quotations. What the heck? And who is he to like command me like someone his under.I was angry of course! Blood runs fast to my brain and I just found out myself loudly exchanging heated words with him. I know myself more than anyone else. If I know I'm in the right parameters of reason no one can't topple me down. 

Here's our verbally heated linguistic calisthenics:

Sales Manager: (Hurriedly walking upstairs and shouting) Jay, Why you didn't alarm us about this incident. about this almost zero stock?

Me: (Politely asked about his concern) What is it Mr. Youssef? (He's a Palestinian) (Normally, Middle-Eastern people talks like they're shouting at each other and when they're upset it doubled the volume.

Sales Manager: (Understandly, his English skills isn't that good) About this item! Habibi! You are handling purchasing department you should know this? Why like this? (His tone was like assuming that I'm not doing my job well). 

Me: (A bit surprised by his deafening tone). (Normally, I'm a cool person even if everybody is shouting I can still remain cool. But today's incident loses that in me) What!!? And who told you that I'm not constantly reminding you of all these things? And who the "h*** are you to talk to me like I am someone your under? Watch out your words!

Me: (Talking in great disgust) For your #%&&$ information, I've been reminding Hassan as per your instruction everyday about all these things. (Hassan is out for a field work). Didn't he tell you about it? Before rushing to me like a bull better ask your people first . What the heck! (feeling American accent na yan!) hahaha!

Sales Manager: (Stunned by my words) (His voice melted down and eventually asked apology from me.) Oh! I'm sorry Jay! I didn't mean what I said. Like you, I am just pressured.

Me: Mr. Youssef! (my voice back to normal) we're supposed to be a team right? teamwork is the key. Do not lose your temper easily. Seek first the root cause. I'm sorry too I was carried away. 

And everything's back to normal. Some sales people were secretly laughing at their boss. Haha!  But I can't join them because I don't want them to gauge that I too, after the heated arguments, wanted to laugh out loud. Thinking of it was like "what the heck has just happened"?

Well, on a serious note, I feel the pressure at work now because I'm alone in my department right now. The newly hired employee isn't reporting yet. This is the problem of locals here, they take jobs less seriously. My big boss told me he's still processing his papers.  Wow, it's almost a month and yet he's still at that stage.


Going back to the main topic. As someone assigned in international procurement, it literally freaks me out if items run out one after the other and the Sales Department somehow failed to inform our team ahead of time. As a result, I need to work double time just to catch up with it. And researching for highly potential and well established suppliers with great product quality isn't a job too easy to handle. This kind of chaos normally happens when our long time suppliers increases their prices and after further negotiation our effort to lower the prices won't succeed. This leads us to source out for others. Frustrating right? Urgencies in a very untimely and unlikely manner.

I sure do know too that incidents like this normally happens in any offices. Sometimes, out of sudden outburst we caught ourselves off-guarded that results to actions we regret later. 

REFLECTION:

1. Ask first before complaining. 2. Patience is really a virtue.