Musings from Dennis #17: So this awful experience happened to me when I was trying to settle matters with a vendor and was trying to get my division head to approve the plan but by doing so it caused some inconvenience to our company. Leaning back on his chair to one side, with a cigarette in his right hand puffing away, and feet up on the table towards me, he said slowly and wryly in his heavily accented Japanese voice: “Dennis-san, tell me, tell me.. which company pay your salary neh?” I was stunned, paused, felt the heat behind my neck and said “Yes Kxxx-san.. let me settle this immediately. No more problems neh. He smiled, tilted his head to one side, closed his eyes, took a puff and said “yes yes”. I fixed the issue and reminded myself that my first priority at work is to protect the interests of the company who hired me. A lesson learnt that I had never shared publicly until now. And something I am reminding my fellow workers all the time too!