Many of us take maintenance for granted until the lift breaks down and we had to lug our laptop, books, files and all up three flights of steps to the lecture room on third floor. For the programme leaders, the maintenance people are heaven sent come exam time. These ‘work horses’ of KDU UC work overtime to set up the exam halls moving furniture, arranging them, and after everything is over, returning them to the lecture rooms where they came from. And that’s just the main event. Think about the times the air conditioning was not functioning or there was some plumbing problem or a piece of carpentry that had fallen out of place. Or the times you needed to set up a function room in a hurry for activities. Who do you call?
Usually it is Kenneth Loo, the leader of the Section 13 Campus maintenance team.
I remember the time I needed to prepare a lecture room in a hurry for a Murdoch mid-term exam. Initially it was felt that the usual lecture room layout would suffice since there were only fifteen students. However, on second thought we wanted an atmosphere that befits the prestigious Murdoch programme. We wanted that serious, officious exam hall environment with each table sufficiently spaced apart in grid formation. At short notice, just a day before, Kenneth made up the room all on his own – no complaints, no fuss. In fact, he agreed that that was the right thing to do to maintain the image of the college. I was impressed; that comment came from a maintenance man. He struck me as someone who cares about quality, not just getting the nails in place.
The KDU Section 13 maintenance team consists of four personnel. They are tasked with overseeing the whole Section 13 campus, opening and locking up the offices and premises each day and, in the words of Kenneth, “the earliest to arrive and the last to leave”. There were many occasions we had to work late – until 7.30pm - and the poor guys had to wait until we had finished before they could lock up the office and leave. They never complained. They merely looked in once or twice, smiled, and asked if we were done yet and when we think we would finish our work. For a team of maintenance people, the customer service attitude is on a par with that expected of the front liners and student services department! To quote Kenneth, they “always lend a helping hand and keep smiling whether times are good or bad”.
Coming from these often overlooked ‘work horses’ it speaks volumes for the kind of service culture KDU UC has successfully inculcated!
