When I was managing human resources in ATS Automation Asia, an engineering company, during the SARS period, I had to take on tasks which I never expected an HR professional would have to perform. Just like many of my peers who were in SARS-hit industries, I had to work closely with the Ministry of Manpower to keep up to date with the latest guidelines. Of course, besides handling all the additional SARS-related work, I had to stay on top of my day to day HR operations.

My company was involved in many collaborative projects with overseas subsidiaries. Therefore, foreign engineers would often be attached here for a pre-determined period. Some of them were from SARS-hit countries. In this case, the quarantine order affected two engineers from our factory in China's Tianjin municipality. When the engineers reached Singapore, I had to buy groceries, arrange private transport, provide quarantine lodging and make daily house calls as part of the isolation arrangements. It may sound simple but was not quite that.

I had to decide what groceries to purchase, deliver the goods right to their doorstep, call the affected employees to inform them that their food have arrived, then leave the area as quickly as possible. My new make-sure-engineers-get-their-daily-meals-plus-obtain-temperature-updates routine went on for the entire recommended quarantine period of ten days. Although I was afraid of getting infected and dreaded the possibility that my whole family may have to be placed into home quarantine if the worst happened, I still carried on. In fact, after the SARS outbreak, the Tianjin engineers told me that they were more afraid that I may infect them than the other way around, because Singapore's SARS situation was ranked as more dangerous than in their municipality.

In retrospect, it was a funny and memorable incident which simply proves that there is never a dull moment in HR!