I'm actually pretty fine with the closure of both the North-South and East-West lines. Initially it was just the North-South line that was affected -stations from Bishan to Marina Bay. THEN SMRT decided to close down both lines to do a through check of all the tracks. Yes, this closure affected many working people who make use of the train to get to work, I do understand how you guys feel for I too, am affected by it. It's pretty frustrating taking the shuttle service as the shuttle service takes a longer time than the train to reach the various stations.
BUT, how often does SMRT have breakdowns and closures? It's not like it has a closure every once a month. This incident is actually the first "failure" of SMRT. And just because of one, just one single failure, everyone starts slamming and flamming SMRT. Are we still the 'perfect society' that no longer condones mishaps?
Anyway, that was just my personal opinion on the SMRT disturbance. The actual people I got really angry and disappointed in were the stupidity and unreasonableness of my employers. This was what happened.
I woke up in the morning to realise that both lines weren't working. Thus, I took the shuttle service from YewTee to Jurong East. Then at JE, I had to transfer to another shuttle service which would take me to Raffles Place.
The queue for the shuttle service to Raffles Place was a killer. It was pretty much like a snake-queue which was so long that it passed by 2 other berths in the interchange.
I asked the staff on duty whether the bus could take me to City Hall. The uncle told me 'yes, just join the queue'. Fine, so I queued up. At around 9.45am, I called up M&S to inform them that I will be late due to the train distruptance. This problem was a nationwide issue and I was expecting the duty manager there to understand about this unforseen circumstance.
Here is the conversation that took place between the person over the phone
and I (exact words):
Me: Hi, I'm Chelsea and I'm calling to inform the office that I will be
late for work today due to the train disturbance. I'm really very sorry.
POTP: WHY YOU NEVER WATCH THE NEWS?! WHERE ARE YOU NOW?!
Me: Who is this speaking? Oh I'm at Jurong East interchange waiting for the
shuttle service which could get me to work.
POTP: I'm unreasonablestaff1. WHY YOU NEVER TAKE CAB?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Me: (wtfmode) Uh I don't think we as temp workers could claim cab fare from
M&S, and anyway cab would pass through town area, which is bound to jam as
well. I am so sorry and I will reach there as soon as I can.
POTP: *irritated* Okay okay. Tsk.
WHAT THE SHIT. I was polite enough to call up the office to at least inform you that I'd be late due to a NATIONWIDE crisis and there you are asking me why didn't I take cab to work?! YOU PAY I TAKE LA. I EVERYDAY TAKE CAB CONFIRM ARRIVE ON THE DOT. YOU PAY LA. SAY SO MUCH WTF.
So, my journey carries on. I got on the bus and it took me to Raffles Place. By that time I was already late by an hour. At RP, I was waiting for the bus to continue on to CityHall as most of the other passengers were, when suddenly the driver told all of us to alight the bus. He said that in order to proceed to CH, I had to take another shuttle service which would get me there.
Fine. So I waited for 15minutes for another shuttle service. Successfully got onto it but guess what. The roads to CH was jammed up like mad. Had to wait for roughly 20minutes before I could alight. I ran all the way to M&S. When I reached the office, I saw the Store Manager xxx and I immediately apologised to her.
Here's our conversation (exact words):
Me: Hi xxx, I'm so sorry that I'm late for work today. It was due to the
train disturbance that I couldn't get to work on time. I'm so sorry and I will
make up for the time loss today.
SM: (without even having the courtesy to look at me while speaking) It's
too late. You guys knew that this was coming, and yet you still took your
chances.
Me: (almost rolled my eyes) Yes I'm really very sorry.
SM: We'll have to work something out for you to pay back your time
then.
Me: Okay thanks -.-
Quoted from unreasonablestaff2: "You guys knew that this was coming, and
yet you still took your chances."
Right. HOW IN THE FREAKING HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT BOTH LINES WERE TO BREAK DOWN AGAIN?! SO SORRY, I HAVE A LIFE AND I MOST DEFINITELY DO NOT STALK THE NEWS AS MUCH AS YOU DO. You so zai can predict train gonna break down again, can go be fortune teller lo! Still stay at M&S for what -.-
The only person that said comforting word to me was this other staff named Ayu. She looked concerned when I was hanging clothes on the selling floor and even asked me what happened. I described my situation to her and she even told me to go to the washroom to calm myself down first. See the drastic difference?!
So yeah. That is why I am instead more disappointed and of course, FURIOUS with that two staff at M&S. This SMRT incident had affected thousands of employees. I don't think I was the only one that was late and definitely don't think I can predict that trains weregonna break down again, and therefore I most definitely don't think I should deserve this kind of treatment and comments from those two staff.
Still pretty angry with them. Unreasonable employers -.-