Wednesday 30 May 2007

You are the reason

I used to have a part-time job when I was still a modern slave in one of those big glamorous firms. I was an “escort”. Yeah, it wasn’t exactly a glamorous thing to do but I had to do it. I mean… the girls wanted it anyway. So during those nights… when I am needed… when those girls are alone… I have to escort them to their cars. What were you thinking?

Yeah, during those times, when me and my colleagues all worked till the wee hours of the morning, guys are the designated escorts. Of course, escort service only provided till the doorstep of the car.

Anyway, such service is vital to avoid any unwanted incidents. There were incidents of snatch thefts and one particular incident where a manager was actually slashed repeatedly. So, the presence of a guy is believed to bring about an increase sense of security… keep our female colleagues safe from such petty crimes.

So… working late is hazardous because it exposes oneself to potential snatch thefts and other unwanted incidents. Whose fault it is? As I ponder upon this point… I am of the zewtpinion that it’s… your fault! Yeah… you!... the modern slave who’s reading this entry. No, no, no… I am not talking about working late which gives rise to opportunity for those criminals to strike… I am talking about you contributing to the population of such criminals.

How so? Let me tell you why…

Because you work late everyday, you are doing more than what you were supposed to do.

Because you’re doing more than what you’re supposed to do, your company is not required to employ an additional person to do that extra work.

Because your company is not required to employ an additional person, someone somewhere out there is deprived of a job.

Because someone somewhere out there is deprived of a job, he or she is jobless and is desperate to make a living.

Because they are desperate, they develop the tendency to resort to petty crime and turn into a snatch thief.

Because they turn into snatch thieves, they commit such crime to you or your father or your mother or your sister or your brother or your boyfriend’s sister’s friend’s fling.

Because those people got snatched, they come to you for a new wallet or handphone or i-Pod.

Because they come to you for a new wallet or handphone or i-Pod, you need to work harder to make more money.

Because you need to work harder you most probably end up working even later.

Because you work even later, another fella is deprived of a job.

Hmm… I guess the process never ends… so, do you know whose fault it is that we are having so many snatch thieves around?

65 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting theory, now I know how to answer my boss if he gives me extra work next time :) Thank you Zewt!! :D :D You are tehhh genius!!Say no to extra work!! No to OT!! Tak Nak! Stop the vicious cycle! You can do it bwahahahahaha!

p/s : how to define extra work then? we need to define that now..

rainbow angeles said...

Gam dou tak??

You know, most of the time I see people "work" late not because they've got lots to do but because they don't do real work during working hours. Yeah, they surf blogs, reply blog comments etc... just like you haha! :p

Rabbit said...

Chain reaction eh? Keke! Is this theory applicable to the students ah?

nyx said...

OMG!

I've been reading your blog for 2 weeks now and it's only now that I realised that YOU ARE A GUY!

This is the third time doing this.

1) First being eyeris
2) Second being wuching

AND NOW YOU!

*runs away giggling*

confessing7girl said...

hey zewt of course u can submit urs!!! just send an email with ur url to billy on http://critiquemyblog.blogspot.com

Lobak said...

goodness you came up with a whole circle of life - circle of social status kind of ideology. You are great! R-E-S-P-E-C-T!

"gam dou lam dak choot. Lei hou yeh!!"

Acrelaine said...

hmm. then i shud stay poor.. wtf

TingTitLei said...

wow thats a pretty fucked up chain reaction. but it doesnt matter for me. gaming doesnt hurt anyone =) .. wait..
by being such a pro in gaming, someone else is losing his job as a gamer

by losing their job, they tend to commit petty theft crimes

GASP!

kyh said...

LOL LOL @ the blur blur nyx... :P

ur blog sounds so serious and got spooky theme summore... sure is guy's one la!

wah liddat oso can????? but the chain reaction or food chain/work chain watever sounds reasonable... so we must say no to OT!!!

but sadly, i think my prospective job requires me to work till the wee hrs! sad sad sad!!!

KopiSoh said...

Me like your theory, I owes think people who work overtime, reli not veli efficient, how I know? I use to be one of them.

J.T. said...

I love your theory Zewt. You got me laughing to that chain reaction that makes one full circle.
I wonder what will happen if everyone suddenly makes a concerted effort to drop everything at 5pm and go home. No one works overtime. If they have to, it is because they need to entertain clients at a hotel restaurant or karaoke. No office work. wah.. dare I think it is possible?

JamyTan said...

When I first worked here, one day, I stayed back after 5pm because I did not finish my work. Around 5:30pm, my boss came to my desk and said 'Jamy u got to go now.' I said 'Sure, I will soon after I finish the work you assigned to me.' She said ' No, u need to go now. ' I looked at her puzzled ; she then asked me to go to her office ; and explained to me that we the employee were not covered under insurance after our work hour. The company did not want to be sued if any accident should happen after work hour. I thought wow ! this is a new thing to me. She then said I can apply to work OT if I choose too. I said cool, that's neat.

When I was working in Asia, it is a common knowledge (or rather unwritten rule and policy) that u work after 5pm even though yr appoint letter stated yr working hr is 9 to 5.

Ehon said...

hahahahaha. nice theory!! lots of stories told in the other comments eyh.

but then again, as much as i like ur theory, i just think it's a fallacy. like the chicken and egg theory. :)

anyway, GO the zewtpinion!! ;)

**************Jz***************** said...

u are right! i had to work late nights to compensate my losses cis........then as we were saying......we over worked but underpaid........that is cis x5......im a slave~~~~~~ey the first part i thot u were selling some kinda 'special service' muahahahah to the girls.....the colleagues of ursssssssss

Anonymous said...

This is got to agree with you
It is a chain reaction and well, the chicken and egg is still there
Do also wrong, don't do also more wrong
Heh heh heh

Seaqueen said...

Hmm....very interesting theory. How long did it take you to hatch out such a theory? Should I print this out and give our union guys? Think it would make a difference?

"Joe" who is constantly craving said...

you got a good point..but the thing is if u want to work less hard..u will get fired and then you will be forced to commit crimes..and the cycle will never end despite what u do..

ah nel said...

i work nite oso bah!!!y nvr encounter snatch thief but those farker tat owes wana fight...

last sunday nite i saw a group of youngster wana fight then kick the dustbin n being scold by my fren don fight at tis place...later they went to the side n my other fren tat body size so small ask them don fight but they pretend to see nth...i saw a mineral bottle next to me i throw to the ground and ask them don fight here...the boy tat wana fight wan fast fast went in car...other of his fren say he were drunk n duno nth so i asked tat boy in the car come out since he so good fighter but he don dared look at me...

i wish i met snatch thief infront of me coz i reli so long nvr wack farker liao... ;)

Unknown said...

I was told by someone those people aboard aircrafts are given allowance because of the risk factor. So no allowance for this escorting thing?

Anonymous said...

Haha... another reason why we shouldn't work late.

Personally, after working for 5 different employers in a short span of 7 years, I concluded that:

i) They just love to cut costs and they don't want to share the gain,
ii) You are replaceable (and there are other jobs too),
iii) Deadline is just that... dead. If it can be revised, we might as well do it. Rushing late nights, weekends and public holidays do not ensure lesser amount of mistakes. In fact, many times we tend to notice errors after we submitted our work. Hah!

Jonzz said...

Ah, the thought of working less...

Dangerous Variable said...

I m thinking of a sabbatical!

zewt said...

bongkersz - yup! Stop the blardy vicious cycle! We are hampering the country’s economy too by working too late. Working extra… to me, it simply means working past your official working time. Well, give and take… official working time plus 30 minutes. What do u think?

angel - it is becos I am made to work late, I have to relax once in a while during official working hours. Ahh… another chicken and egg argument eh?

rabbit - hmm… students got work late wan meh?

nyx - and let me tell you that this is not the first time someone perceives me as such. Does zewt really sounds that feminine? … don’t run away, come back!

confessing7girl - right right, I shall give it a try soon perhaps.

blueapple - the thought just came to me yesterday. Come to think of it… working late has a lot of other repercussions too!

acrelaine - how is that? U think working on time means poor?

Jorji said...

Remember,by werking late u create one job opportunities = E S C O R T !

Every time u escort someone to the car then u meet the snatch thief,tell them to quit the crime and be an escort.

So,now WE can werk late and no snatch thief as THEY are all werk as an escort.Win-win situation.

Zewt..now,today i have to go back late again cuz browsing and write comments on yr blog and some more i have to think about your theory and how to tackle the issue.Damn!

Escort me to kopitiam now!

Huei said...

how bout rape crimes? our lovely dear beloved gomen blame it on female who dress up sexily... BLEGH!! damn sexist!

actually, we're not the reason for those people deprived of a job, our boss is! =D

zewt said...

TTL - no no no… you got it wrong. being a professional gamer means you need another gamer to play with you. The more gamer the better, so you actually encouraged more ppl to stay in front of the computer and not run around in the streets. Very good la u!

kyh - hahaha… I think working late can leads to other more serious repercussions… I have not mentioned yet. What kinda job you applying la?

firehorse - and I am being one right now… haha…

JT - I really really really want to see that happen. Firstly, the company surely cannot fire all of us. This is what I have been trying to achieve I guess, to get everyone united and stand firm on our rights. Sounds like I am starting an union or something.

kayatan - precisely. Didn’t you read my entry titled ‘a very misleading document’? we are all conned in asia as soon as we signed on the dotted lines. Got an ex-colleague who went to Bahamas and the boss apologised to her becos she had to work 1 hour of OT.

ehon - seriously my friend, if all of us were to work according to our office hours, the unemployment rate in this country can be seriously reduced. Don’t u think so?

jaexrel - you have dirty mind that’s why think about that la hahahaha…

Azlan Zed said...

yup, what goes around comes back around... i'm thinking of leaving early today... thanx zewt... :D

zewt said...

zeroimpact - this is just one perspective of looking at it. But it does have some element of truth, isn’t it?

Jessica - do it! Haha… sound like I am a potential union head eh?

constant craver joe - what do u mean by working less? U think leaving work 1 hour after your official working hour ends is consider working less? Don’t u think that’s a very wrong approach to things?

ah nel - woooahh… why suddenly so drama wan? Like some gangster film la. haha… next time just call the police la.

kata tak nak - some things should remain unknown :P

zewt said...

anonymous - if only they know and accept how we think, then the working environment would be a much better place… right?

jonzz - not less my friend… working to what we are supposed to. Maybe a lil more but not excessively more.

dangerous varialble - not good… cos no pay…

jorji - woooaaahhh… never thought of that eh… yeah, escort service. New employment due to work-late culture haha. Why kopitiam, we go somewhere more exciting la

huei - rape crime different ler. But still, working late may be the factor. Yeah, our boss is the biggest culprit eh… totally agreed… heh heh…

alan zed - that’s a very good approach my friend. Maybe not right on the spot, but give and take another 30 minutes.

~aSstHa~ said...

hi zewt,

hv been tied up with petty things. I've jz signed my newest ‘a very misleading document’ and will be jumping ship somewhere in July.

no doubt i'll hv to see for myself how badly i hv been suckered but "oh well", like it or not, we all need to work to survive and by that must sign dat so-called document.

so no working late for me is dis new place (i hope) well, at least it won't be a two weeks monthly occurance indefinately. so i won't be giving dem petty thefts any chances on me, no?

;)

Daniel said...

hahaha.. good theory, man... so, now I shall work lesser hahaha

hcfoo said...

zewt: I'm totally agree that working late will only bring us disadvantage. These days I try to go back before it's dark.

"Joe" who is constantly craving said...

well thats better for some ppl to just bum in office until late and go back..dont u think?

Anonymous said...

haha, like this also can? But I got myself to think, and few questions I ask myself:
1. Do most the snatch-theft happen at night or day?
2. Does the snatch thief is equally educated like you? I mean since you say if you work hard/boss hire less 1 person, I assume that you are saying *you* are working in 2-person capacity, therefore the *loss employment* one would be same education level as you? ;)
3. Hehey, since there is a popular demand for "escort" service due to the fear of security, there should be a created supply for "security guard" as job employment?
lol. I hope I am not too serious abt these questions ;)

J.T. said...

Actually Zewt, your blog is immensely popular that you might just get something started. :)
You are right, the company cannot fire everyone if they all stood up one day as a group and said 'enough is enough'. But I think it is impossible because it is a 'dog eat dog' world. You will always find someone in the office who wants to get way ahead of the others and will not join in that stand... ass-kissing is sweeter to them - never mind the 'smell' that they get out of it along the way. haha

Anonymous said...

err I thought you're required to work overtime because in the first place your company has no intention to employ an additional person to do your job - why employ 2 when 1 person can "bao" everything? So in that sense, your boss is once again blamed for all social evils and these poor snatch thieves are victims of errm... corporate greed.
Btw, this vicious cycle: malaysian special edition only la. Cannot apply to our kiasu neighbour down south with equally shitty working culture. Instead of snatching wallets, some retrenched & unemployed 40-50 y.o uncles decide to serve McFlurry and cheeseburger happy meal instead in Maccas.

Rashikaps said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ehon said...

:) to a certain extend, yeah, definitely but then again to turn the question around, can we confirm that there wouldn't be unemployment problem if ppl don't work overtime? :P lol. ok ok, my question is flawed but really, overtime worker just contributes like a tiny small bit to unemployment. i believe the majority is due to the unemployeds' problems. :)

Rashikaps said...

Logic rules, man, and this argument is as logical as it can get. :)

When people can't decide whether to 'work to live' or 'live to work' they simply 'live at work':) only after they have set crazy standards for everyone else though..

I'm inspired to write some on this too.

Observer said...

I thought u still work at a big "glamorous" firm..

zewt said...

aSstHa - i wish you all the best then. sincerely hope your misleading document will not lead you far away... haha... and yeah, dont contribute to raising petty thieves ok?

landed angel - next time your boss say she kena snatch theft... u know what to say...

hcfoo - good on you. for yours and for your family members sake... let us all do that.

constant craver joe - as always... balance is the key... and being answerable to oneself.

mich - doesnt matter whether snatch theft happen day or night, cos once they are being raised... they are snatch thieves anyway :) 2nd question, next time the polive catch one, i will give them a financial reporting test. 3rd question... eh... you girls willing to pay or not? no right? see... asking guys to accompany means depriving another person a chance to be a guard... sigh...

JT - couldnt agree more. that's the reason of our downfall. someone somewhere out there just want to be different and wants to make it big... so in the end... he drags everyone in. stupid enough, everyone else willing to follow.

daisyboo - hello, welcome to AZAIG! hahaha... indeed, most of my stuff here are boleh related, know what i mean? of cos doesnt apply to neighbours down south la... there you kena tangkap... habis lor.

ehon - yeah la... friend... my reason for writing this entry is to entice ppl not to work so late while having a good laugh...

rashikaps - live to work ... that's pretty cool statement. never thought of that. i await your entry...

freethinker - heh heh... well, not the same one...

John said...

That is the reason why some (not a lot) Americans boycott goods from China becos of exactly what u write abt workers exploitation - we all sign a misleading document.

My father in law will never buy anything from Wal-Mart. Most goods from WM are manufactured in China. The workers are under compensated.

But not everyone in US has the same conviction as him. How many people in the world really care when they buy something from the store that they concern about ' exploitation of the workers ? '

Wal-mart exports the most goods to US and the goods are the cheapest. I can get cheaper rice cooker, fan, levi jeans, nike shoes here than in Malaysia , why ? the Chinese want US dollars ? and they work under paid and long hrs.

When we have meeting here, I thought to myself, how these people talk to the boss like that a ? want this want that, they not worry they get fired meh ? I thought might be not, they might go start any 'payperpost' site, or start any blogger site, ha ha ha ha ha.

Even the patient in the hospital demand this demand that, I said in my heart, 'aiyo, don't like this don't like that, so 'ho mei' ah, u think people in my country has this eh,'. Of course, I cannot say out leh but think if my great grandparents knew they have moved to the wrong place from China, they might jump out from the grave.

AaronWoolala said...

-___-
This certainly is fresh.
No more OT!

JamyTan said...

Hi zewt, sorry, not john, it is jamy. i forgot to log his blog off before I sign on.

may said...

such a Catch 22, huh? vicious cycles we're caught in. we're a victim no matter which choice we make.

King's wife said...

Interesting. With so many petty crimes nowadays, we need to be escorted all the time!
But hor, I think half of these people who work overtime probably didn't get to do anything during the day. Busy blogging. Hehehee....

Daily Nibbler said...

I know where you going with your article but don't think the Asian society and its culture is ready. After all we got our growth by being the sweat shop for the West. Looked at how Japan, Korea and China evolve. Moreover, its Asian culture to be hardworking, industrious and...cheap. Ouch!

When will we move up the value chain? Takes a long time but it is changing bit by bit.

You are a good candidate to be change agent but don't expect result overnight. And don't let your boss know you wrote this..he he

Wickedsa said...

haha...good theory.very very cool indeed.damn true...so the culprit is actually the bosses who wants us to work overtime...

Weig said...

Shit! Got barred from blogger. Now my comments will have to come late or through some Indian proxy. Which is actually a bad thing, you say... cause then, I'll actually be working during working hours, which contributes to crime in this country.

I think I need to give this reason to my IT people to unban me.

ah nel said...

shhh..don tel anyone coz im a director...

*keep it sexcret*

zewt said...

john / jamy - :) that's very very enlightening. yeah, i have been to china and i know exactly how it is like there. sometimes, i feel it's totally inhuman!

i think it's an asian culture... the 'respect' phenomena which in the end stretches beyond the line and it entraps us.... causing us not to speak our mind. trust me, i witness such thing everyday in my office. sometimes, i see myself doing it too. so john is your hubby huh... :)

Aaron Chua - good excuse for your boss eh?

may - yup... sometimes, we just have to see things from a different angle eh?

king's wife - agreed... either blogging or reading blogs or... replying comments... :P

daily nibbler - yeah, i get what you mean. but we need to start somewhere and i really wanna create some awareness. haha... someone said i should print this and post it on the notice board, together with some other entries on modern slavery!

baby sa - yeah... the boss is always the problem eh? :P

cirnelle - yeah... warn them... your IT ppl might suffer from some unwanted incident hehe...

ah nel - eh... employ me la.

narrowband said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
narrowband said...

I didn't read the comments initially. So it's a light-hearted post. I can see where's that coming from and yeah, OTs should be discouraged :)

CRIZ LAI said...

Very interesting. The cycle never ends. Even if you are the one who break the chain reaction, someone else in this world will continue it. That's a life cycle. If everyone is going to be successful in this world, where will there be restaurants for us to eat in since everyone has the same status? Who is going to cook for us?

Bee Ean said...

Your logic can be wrong bcos in France they implemented the 35 hours weekly working hours from 40 in hope of giving more jobs to those unemployed. The result was that people have to work even harder bcos the boss just don't want to hire more people and due to this policy the French's employment cost is relatively higher (they work the least hours) in the European countries so it attracts less investmnet. Less investment = less job creation = more people get unemployed!! Hey what do think, those people invest in Malaysia bcos the Malaysians work long hours, it's one of the competitiness we have. :-)

Anonymous said...

I know that it's not my fault now for sure! I don't work OT anymore!!!!! :P

Anonymous said...

I'd definitely support anything that has to do with working less hours. I'm stuck in a position because of a very misleading document that requires me to stay back 'just in case' my boss needs anything. So I kick my heels until I am released each evening. Am currently looking for another place and hopefully no more misleading documents. Hurhurhur.

Anonymous said...

wut happens if muggers work overtime? would it create unemployment for them as well?

Anonymous said...

this is a good theory you came up with, zewt! talk about a vicious cycle...*grin*

an ex-boss used to tell us:
9am to 5pm = work
5pm to 9am = promotion

how la like that? =P

zewt said...

narrowband - literally abolished if possible... particularly those which requires employees to work for free.

CRIZ LAI - true... i was once in a taxi and the driver told me he failed is exam so that i could have a taxi to fetch me to where i wanted to go that day...

Bee Ean Tee - competitiveness? i think it's a trap. of cos... i know things are not good either in france... and ppl can get unemployment income. however, things in malaysia are getting really bad. and if you read some of my entries earlier... some ppl are dying!

seok thong - haha! Well done! you didnt contribute to criminal activities :P

rinnah - i think that document is always misleading, just how misleading it is. damn sad right... our lives are dictated by our boss... sigh...

acme - hi! welcome to AZAIG. i think that's different... becos muggers are self employed.

sooyin - actually... that's reality. and it's reality becos we allow it to happen. partly... it's our fault.

J u n e said...

Thank god im still a student. =D

Anonymous said...

hmm... plus minus 30 mins? duh, like that i'm sure most of us here contributing to the population of criminal then haha!

zewt said...

AngryYoungChild - :) ... well... i think you still have a long journey before u enter the real world.. so take your time to enjoy life!

bongkersz - hahaha... true... if 30 minutes... and there are 16 fella working 30 minutes OT... means one fella deprived of job... means one extra criminal!!!!

Linda said...

Thanks for visiting my blog and dropping comment...
I like your blog... and this is the 3rd blog that i am going to read everything after kennysia and 5Xmom, just discover your blog few days ago... :)
I like your style of writing and your views.
my condolences to your mum, i guess now u hv plenty of time to make up to your dad. Me too lost my dad to cancer in 2006, so i can feel how it's like losing a love one..

zewt said...

Linda - hello, an official welcome to you. Very flattering indeed to know that i am being placed in the same league as kennysia and 5xmom :) hope you enjoy your gibberish.