ONCE Ms Grace Lim returned to Singapore after a holiday, she rushed to school and stayed overnight to ensure that a mass temperature-taking exercise would run smoothly the following day.

Ms Lim, 27, the head of events and technical support services at Republic Polytechnic's One-Stop Centre, was holidaying in Tioman over the Labour Day weekend with two colleagues when she received a call from the deputy principal.

He informed her that the Education Ministry wanted all schools to start screening staff and students for fever and other flu symptoms, as the new Influenza A (H1N1) strain was spreading globally.

So the polytechnic had to take the attendance of all students and staff, and screen them with thermal scanners at its main entrance on Monday morning.

The centre had to help plan and organise this mass screening.

'Everything had to be done at short notice,' Ms Lim said. She and her colleagues had no choice but to spend much of the rest of their vacation making calls to Singapore to get updates and to make arrangements.

They liaised with the school's estate department to set up booths and equipment, such as computers for student registration, near the main entrance.

They also planned for enough staff to help on Monday morning.

'Mobile reception wasn't always good because we were overseas, so it was a little inconvenient,' she recalled.

Upon her return, she went to the school immediately and stayed over to ensure everything was ready, even though she had to work a full day as usual the following day.

'I felt that I had to be responsible - check on everything and read my e-mail messages to get updated - since I hadn't been around over the weekend,' she said.

The screening was successful, and no students or staff were late for classes.

Going the extra mile to make a customer's day easier or better makes her happier too, Ms Lim said. 'I treat a challenging situation as a new learning experience. When I face the same problem again, I can handle it better.'

GOH YI HAN

This article was first published in The Straits Times.