An Interesting Conversation

I had a very interesting unplanned conversation with two of the senior staff of PSS. It was interesting because these were the two guys who seem to be serious and did not appear to be that friendly at all. I was on the computer today checking out the company's intranet site that was link with the other Philips company. In the beginning, I was just surfing around some sites that I could access as I was kind of bored. I began going through some of the companies businesses and areas that they were involved in. One of the more interesting that kept me wanting to know more was the Global Branding Communication. I was captivated by the content of the pages as it provided alot of information and resources. There were alot of source codes, html templates, javascripts and CSS files that were shared on the page that were used for the companies general website. I began downloading this codes as reference which might come useful later if I decide to do some revamping on my blog site later on. There was this small javascript window that allowed users to switch the colours on their page instantaneously. Besides that, there were also many pictures, brochures, print advertisements and also a number of commercials that was shared on the site as well. I did not hesitate to download almost all which I had seen.

As I was browsing through the intranet, Mr Azmi, the engineering section manager came into my cubicle to talk with my collegue Fizah. He then turned his attention towards me and asked what I was doing. Initially, I was abit sceptical and afraid that I was caught not doing my work but instead surfing around. However, he was taking an interest with what I was doing and I told him that I was surfing through the intranet and had found some very interesting reference pertaining to the Philips website. Our conversation soon took flight as he began to explain to me about the web content and what were used to get that certain effect. He told me that the current template that I see on the Philips main page have a striking resemblance with the other Philips company around the whole. This was because the main template were stored in main servers at Hamburg and if a change would to be done, the other Philips company sites would show the changes as well. However, the content of the page at the site would be done by the local companies instead.

Mr Azmi seem to be very knowledgeble in this area as I found out that he is the main web designer of the PSS website. Its no wonder I had seen his name before at the bottom of the PSS site. He used to stay back after office hours to construct the site from scratch and this was done voluntarily. Besides, he has a strong interest in wed designing and acquired all the necessary software like Photoshop, Flash and Lotus Notes to start it off. However, the site was last updated last year and I asked him whether there were anyone incharge of doing the updating. According to him, MIS the IT department were supposed to be in charge of it after it was handed to them but they have yet to make the necessary changes for it. I suggested to him that it would be good to employ trainees to do the updating of the site as most of the times trainees would normally be given the task of updating the companies site. I was really impress with his understanding about web designing considering him being a middle aged man himself. It was a nice conversation to begin with and I had learned a little bit more about web designing through this.

Later in the evening, I had tea with Ms Chan at the cafeteria with the other young enginners who were there before us. Mr Rajamillu who was the Financial Controller of the company joined us for tea as well. I had met him earlier as he had come through our office just to look around. He seems to be a very detailed person and had told us that he is someone who sets a high standard for himself both personal and at work. At times, his subordinates do find it difficult to meet up with his standards. However, this seems to be his work style which he had practiced all this years. He was initially posted to Philippines and Bangkok before this and the number of workforce is much more than the number of people working for PSS. As a result of that, he had decided to resigned due to the huge amount of pressure. However, he was called back to join PSS and decided to take on the job as it was less stressful. Besides his high standards set upon himself at work, he also sets a high standard for himself which results in him having to take on various activities to keep himself busy such as gardening and also working out. No wonder he seems so much younger for his age as he keeps his body in good shape. His family is in Shah Alam and he goes down to visit them every weekend. Although he is alone throughout the weekdays, he keeps himself busy by doing his house chores and tending to his garden. Other than that, he reaches office way earlier than anyone else at 6.45am, the time I get out from bed which is a norm to him.