I Empathize...

I emphatize easily. More so recently. One incident involves a fast-foeod delivery call. In the midst of taking my order, suddenly she shouted "I know! I know! Aiyah... Im taking call now right? I knowwww I knowww", responding irritably to another person at the background. Further details:

She: Sorry ah. Some people ah.. aiyah.. they just dont understand. You see ah Im the only Chinese here, the rest are Malays. So when got Chinese calls, they all push to me.

Me:(emphatize)...Oh, iszit? Then why dont you push my call to a Malay?

She: Cannot lah, cannot. We cannot do that. Aiyah.. nevermind. "Some people". So what you want to order?

She took down my order with repeated mistakes but I can understand how frustated she was. She continued to speak in a friendly tone. I patiently corrected her. She was kind. She ended the call with the must-say line. I liked the effort she put in.

I also emphatize with this trainee at work who has committed a shocking crime - she pee(ed) while 4 little girls watched her. The children's toilet was out of bound. So all were instructed to use the one and only adult toilet. She was supposed to supervise their visit to the loo. My guess was, she couldnt hold on any longer, and thought, what-the-heck, "wait for me. I need to pee".

To her horror, Lady Marmalade herself opened the door only to see her (the trainee) with her pants down and everything else. Thank goodness I didnt see anything, but boy, was I speechless and shocked. I was so fused up, I started to question her in my broken Mandarin. She denied what she has done. I told her in Mandarin, that she can deny all she wants, but that 4 innocent girls are witnesses. And that, they will tell.

But then, i started to EMPATHIZE with her during the counselling session with Lady Marmalade. Anyway, she admitted eventually. She didnt realized what she was doing. To her, its a norm because she does it at home with her little girl looking. They still bathe together. She apologized. I pity her. Not easy for her, as she needs to get used to our culture in Singapore. She's not local. I hope things are fine, and I wanna be sure to act as normal when I see her on Monday.