We owe a debt of gratitude to our colleagues in the Estates Management Office for their tireless efforts to maintain a clean, safe, and beautiful campus. Yet the works of this team of unsung heroes go largely unnoticed. If you have ever called the Office to request assistance or repair work, you might have heard Tony Lai’s voice. Taking calls from departments and units across campus, the conscientious clerical assistant jots down details of requests and assigns orders. At the beginning of each month, he prepares a report summarising jobs during the previous month, which the Office’s management uses to improve its services.

Before joining the University, Lai worked in the sign manufacturing and installation industry, where his deft hands played a part in weaving the neon-lit streetscapes that are the city’s shining legacy. The advent of personal computers in mid-1990s, however, filled him with apprehension that the industry’s best days were behind it. Haunted by uncertainty, he spotted a CUHK job posting in a local newspaper. Finding the University’s stable environment appealing, he gave it a go, and the rest is history.

To say that Lai was unaccustomed to his new role at the beginning is an understatement. From afternoon to late at night, he worked in a small underground room at what is now Chan Chun Ha Hall, taking calls and inputting information. When his co-workers went out to perform their duties, he was alone; it was a long day’s journey into night. Eventually, the doubts and negative thoughts that haunted him dissipated as work got busy. But what makes Lai stay and remain steadfast in the face of vicissitudes and challenges is a handful of good supervisors he’s met throughout the years. His current supervisor, maintenance works scheduling supervisor Tsang Chow Yat-ling, is one of them.