The most junior staff in the department

I joined the Business Services Group (BSG) department of C&L. BSG was set up to cater for new set-up companies where they did not have Finance or HR department. BSG provided treasury, payroll, book keeping, company secretarial, tax agent, etc services to these companies.

At the age of 20 and as a form six school leaver, I was the youngest and most junior staff in the department. Though Alfred and I were of the same age, Alfred joined C&L a few months earlier than me.

I was given very simple tasks to do ie casting of audit work paper (we didn't use much computer then), petty cash, issuing cheques, taking and returning audit files and photostating!. As BSG was located on 23rd Flr and the centralised photostating and filing centre were located on 22nd Flr of IGB Plaza, the seniors always ask Alfred or me to go down to sign in and take files, sign out and return files, filling up forms to charge clients for photostating, etc. As juniors, we were the cheapest time cost charge. I remembered there was once that I returned from 22nd Floor, before I could even sit down, another senior asked me to go down and do some photostating.

At times, when files were missing, we had to locate them as almost all of the department's files were signed in and out under Alfred's and my name.

Came year end assessment, my senior and boss gave me bad rating. I agreed and signed on the appraisal form without saying much. My very first boss, Chris Wong was surprise that I didn't ask or disagree with their rating. He asked me about my few months working experience there. I told him as a fresh school leaver, I hardly learnt anything and as such, I could not contribute to the department's revenue.

Immediately, he instructed my senior to let me try out on a small audit job. I was happy to hear that but my hard time in the department also just started. I promised myself that I was going to study hard and work hard as I did not like to be the most junior staff in the department.