Confession of a brave soul

Ya’ know what? Sending e-mails to the boss after one has thrown in his or her resignation later is a hot trend nowadays. Like many readers here mentioned, people will only be able to pluck their courage after knowing that their future no longer lies in that particular slavery kingdom.

A friend forwarded me a mail and boy oh boy… what an exciting piece! It depicts a complaint made by a person who resigned and just as she was about to leave, she wrote a long e-mail to the biggest boss there is… to the CEO! After reading it, I think she must have been pushed to the limit already. And why I think it’s a she? Well, read it and you will know.

Only specific names have been removed so mind the English Manglish…

COMPLAINT TOWARDS TEAM LEADER OF XXX TEAM, MR. “THE HATED ONE” FROM XXX DEPARTMENT.

Refer to the above matter.

I would like to complaint towards my team leader, Mr. Hated One (zewt: his name was actually mentioned!! But I changed it la…)

Here are the complaint as below:-

A) From I experienced from him:-

-- He bias to who he like most.
-- Warning me not to approached to get solution of my job matters and chatting with colleagues but he always approached and chatting to the same person who he like most (address that person he like as Ms A because not convenience to perform in letter but can verbally ask from me) many times during BOSS not around in the office
-- Never ever concern any problems is facing among us except Ms A.
-- On last month (December 2006), he order us to bring him a long to appointment with customer at least once. But the most he only follow Ms A. I did ask him before, he said not free and ask other colleague to follow.
-- Said that I lack of product knowledge and will planned give some training but till now there are no training as mentioned from him.
-- Said that I’m not always at my workstation and seldom make outbound calls.
-- I’m the one need to do daily call log and monthly appraisal to him but others they are no need.
-- Everyone need to get his approval to use company car. I wonder why he can’t tell us directly instead instruct xxx to do so.
-- Xxx asked me to inform our sales team that who are after using the company car, must make sure the petrol is still available. So, iinformed him about it and then he straightly judged me the person always didn’t make sure the availability of petrol.
-- I did asked him to apply 2 days of unpaid leave for moving my house but he told me that those sign in contract are not allow to take unpaid leave. But what I had referred to Human Resrouce, said that contract staff can apply for unpaid leave.

B) From what I heard and know about him:-

-- All referral cases passed to him, supposed he need to distribute towards among his team but he only passed it to Ms A.
-- He did said before the referral cases only will passed to the senior which work more than few months but Ms A haven’t being a month can get referral cases and she became top sales of the month of November 2006.
-- All his sales team’s paid are totally different:- with working experience get low salary, with working experience less but is a degree holder get higher salary but there are staff with no working experience and is a degree holder get low salary, he will give higher salary to the staff he like most.
-- Gossip me in front one of my colleague and said that I won’t be so nice to give back the claim that on behalf of my colleague.
-- Heard that he distributed the name list among us but he give good list to Ms A only.
-- heard that one of the ex-colleague which already tendered her resignation, there are no paid give to her till now. Somemore he pretend himself is a Team Manager and create an excuse for the lateness of salary in. Said that during the Christmas time, he met an accident and need to stay in hospital for two weeks.

Thank you

If the writer of the above e-mail happened to drop by this blog… no offense but you seriously need to brush up a little on your English. Anyway, I must say it is a very brave act. The mail was brutally honest and I truly believe it was written straight from the heart. Of course, many of you will be thinking… what happened to the hated one in this situation? Hmmm… intriguing isn’t it?

What do you all think happened to him?

P/S: Oh, I managed to find out that Ms A is a former air stewardess who has also resigned.

We REALLY deserve it

I know you're probably bored with my modern slavery entries but I really have to say this... Last week, I talked about how a hero emerging from the crowd of modern slaves to bring the concerns of many to the right channel will probably have to stand on his one. And of course, it is not easy to find a hero amongst us. Furthermore, who is brave enough to be the hero? It’s an act akin to career suicide.

But lo and behold… a hero emerged amongst us… or should I say, someone was willing to be the hero. Why is someone brave enough to put his ass on the line? Well, the reason is plainly simple… he has already left this company.

One of my former slave who is now plying his slave-hood somewhere else wrote me an e-mail asking me if he should write a long e-mail to the big boss telling her about ‘the hate one’ and also to put forward our general concerns. I was absolutely thrilled of course! After a series of mail exchange, I suggested that perhaps it is also a good idea to ask the rest of the modern slaves in my department to see if they have any specific concerns which they intend to put forward. Since this brave soul is already going to do it, why not right?
Thus, he drafted an e-mail and sent it to a few of us, about 10 actually… ya’ know, those who always bitch during lunch. He asked if we have anything to add. You know what happen?

No one responded to his e-mail besides me. NOT… EVEN… A SINGLE… ONE… OF THEM!

So here we have someone who has left the company and is willing to burn his bridge with this company by writing a long (yeah, it’s damn long) e-mail to the department head. He is going to send this e-mail under his name and guess what? No one is even supportive enough to reply his mail and said “good”!

At the end of the day, I told the brave soul that it is not worth it for him to send the mail since no one even dares to put in a point or two behind the scene. I was thinking; if a briefing is called and the big boss asks whether all those points raised in the e-mail are valid, I wonder how many will actually put up their hands and say yes. The result will probably make the brave soul look very stupid.

There you have it… and this is not fabricated. It’s as zewt as it gets, it actually happened! To say that we probably deserve to be exploited is an understatement. We REALLY deserve it! All those unpaid over-time, all those un-approved leave, all those empty promises, all those bitching that we did… WE… REALLY… DESERVE… IT!

Why not then the brave soul put forward his points and mine and forgets about the rest? Well, let’s just say I already have a future plan…

P/S: A new poll is out… vote vote vote!

The sponge and dirty spoon

We had lunch in the pantry the other day. I “tah pau” (take-away) some stuff from a nearby store and we had a good time bitching about the company and bosses… what’s new. Anyway, there’s this colleague of mine who always pack lunch from her home. After our lunch cum bitching session, I went over to the sink to clean my cutleries and before me was this colleague who brings her lunch to work. I noticed that she doesn’t wash her container with the detergent made available to us.

“Why don’t you use that?”
“Ewwww… It’s so dirty. Dunno how many people used that before”

She was referring to the sponge. To my colleague, many people have used that sponge to clean their mugs, plates, containers, cutleries and thus, she thinks it’s dirty to use the same sponge to clean her container.

Do you find that……… relevant?
Let me also ask you something else… let’s say you have a spoon (we all have spoons right?) and there is this particular spoon which happened to fall into a pile of shit. Don’t ask how or why, it just fell. And it’s not just any shit… it’s a fresh pile of droppings and the texture is so tender that the spoon sunk into it as soon as it dropped in.

Then, someone then managed to pick up the spoon from this fresh pile of shit. The spoon is then sent for cleaning. The person probably soaked it in anti-septic for 1 week and then wash it over and over and over again with the best washing detergent around. Technically speaking, the spoon is clean. So clean that you might not even find a single germ on it if you put it under a microscope.

The question is…

Will you use the spoon to eat again? Why not? Something to think over the weekend perhaps…

Happy weekend!

P/S: Guess I shouldn’t stop blogging since someone wrote me this open letter. Thanks Hizecool.

I should stop blogging

Sigh… it’s very difficult to be a blogger these days. In anything and everything, bloggers are at fault in this country. Did you read the news? Well, I certainly feel threatened.

Extracted from there:

“… three laws could be used against the bloggers: The Internal Security Act (ISA), Sedition Act and Section 121b of the Penal Code”.

It appears that most, if not all of us are somewhat of a threat to national security. I really dunno what to write anymore since anything can be seditious these days. Maybe I should be some people out there… blog about some lame jokes… or maybe blog about so and so who pissed me off today... or blog about this guy who likes this girl and this girl who likes this guy but this guy like the first girl… hmmm… this could be a nice topic isn’t it?

Maybe I should just stop blogging altogether.

5xmom has this to say.

We probably deserve it

I am not sure whether this is the case everywhere but most, if not all of my fellow slaves in my department hate despise dislike one of the top management in the department. Let’s call that person ‘the hated one’. Many things have been said about the hated one… many bad things actually. But it’s a strange world indeed because in an upward evaluation done annually in my company, the hated one actually had the best score! Don’t ask me why, it’s absolutely beyond me.

The longer I work in this department, the more bad things I hear about the hated one. It has reached a stage where I personally think it is beyond ridiculous. Imagine depriving a staff of her meal which cost a mere RM7 in a company that has almost a billion in profit in the name of cost control. Don’t ask me for details, decipher it yourself.

“Why don’t you all do something? Voice it out!”

You’re probably asking that right now. Well trust me, we really want to. Just that it’s not as easy as you think. First, the big boss who runs the whole division carries a somewhat same mentality as the hated one. “Cut-cost-at-all-cost” and “make-the-slaves-work-like-dogs-no-matter-what”… then the big boss sees the hated one carrying out such acts, it gives the big boss much pleasure.

Are you in a somewhat similar situation? Or do you see situation of similar nature around you?

Surely, we all want someone who is willing to sacrifice himself and get his hands dirty to reveal the dark side of the hated one to the right channel. But are you prepared to be this brave soul? Honestly speaking, no one has the guts to do it. We only know how to bitch about it during lunches and curse behind the hated one’s back.

But…

Imagine… a guy has the guts to step out and “indirectly” represent the majority and voice out all the concerns. Imagine… a guy who is willing to sacrifice himself to come out and deliver what hidden in all our hearts to the right person. Hey… this guy might even do a rap music video and put it up in the company’s intranet and he raps nothing but the truth, the desire of your heart. Or this soul is daring enough to write a long mail to the CEO.

What happens then?

I wonder how many of my fellow slaves will stand beside him. I wonder how many of my fellow slaves will slowly raise their hands and say… “yeah, that is true”. I wonder…

But you know what? I have a strange feeling that many of my fellow slaves will say… “Oh, he shouldn’t have done that”…”Oh, his intention was right but what he did wasn’t so ethical, not very professional”… Would you agree with me?

Isn’t that ironic? We have so much suppressed inside us and we long to let it known. But when someone is willing to do that on behalf of us… when someone is willing to stand up against the hated one… we will probably just disappear into the background and be a silent observer from afar…

Such is life… the hypocrite in us. Guess we all deserve to be exploited… be it modern slaves, or other means.

More but less

“Roti kosong dua” (two plain pratta)
“Minum?” (drinks?)
“Ais kosong” (plain water)

Those were my regular lunch when I first entered the modern slavery kingdom. Such lunch will cost me RM1.40 and for dinner, I will usually eat at home. I remember having McD for lunch is somewhat a luxury. Very strange indeed because, kind of like a reversal of fortune because going to McD when I was still a student isn’t exactly a luxury. Then it hit me… those days when I can just stretch out my palm and ask for pocket money are gone. When I started working, I actually try to limit my McD lunches to twice a month.

Another thing which sort of irritates me is farewell. I was unfortunate enough to be dragged to a farewell lunch at a somewhat posh restaurant and not only the lunch was expensive; I had to chip in to pay for the meal of the resignee, whom I don’t really know. And consider that I still haven’t got my fist paycheque at that time, imagine my face when I had to pull out 50 bucks from my depleting wallet.

I started with RM1,800 (circa USD520) a month in a firm which ranked 2nd in the international auditing world. I was given the impression that I am fortunate to be recruited because amongst hundreds who applied, that firm only recruited 4. I was one of them, so I was told. With that salary, I have to pay for my car, pay some to my dad, gave some to my Mom with parking making up the autonomous consumption. On top of that, I was determined to save as much as I can, which explains why McD is a luxury and that RM1.40 meal is my all time favourite lunch.

How much I managed to save in my first year of being a modern slave? Approximately RM9,000 (USD2,300). Of course, the overtime claim which the firm paid in cash at that time helped quite a bit.

6 years plus into the modern slavery life, I don’t earn that kind of salary anymore, a little bit more of course. Naturally, I would have been able to save more. Do you think that is the case? Truth be told… I hardly save any. Not that I do not wish to save but somehow, money just finished without me knowing it.

Let’s pause and do a lunch habit comparison. Certainly, McD is no longer a luxury. I did some observation on myself lately and I noticed that I spend an average of RM12 per lunch. That is almost 9-times what I was paying when I was an infant modern slave. Now, the question is, did my salary increase 9-folds? OF COURSE NOT!

I think I am not alone when I say that the more we earn, the less money we seem to be left with in the bank at the end of the month. We are somewhat led to believe that with a little increase in our salary, we can afford so much more but in actual fact, we can't. If we are not careful, we may land ourselves in a 5 figure credit card bills and with your 4 figure salary, you are going to have a very tough time paying it off.

I know many of you will say that our employers are not paying enough and that we are made to work like dogs with a puny salary. That is true, it is a modern slavery world after all. but at the same time, we should also examine ourselves to see whether are we doing our lives any justice. To those who live on a earn-all-spend-all motto. Let me just tell you that you have not reached a point of your life where you are desperate for cash and … not having them.

We don’t need to alter our entire spending habit to make a big difference. Just keep a check on some minor things and it does make a big difference. I am going to start my not spending too lavishly during lunch. What about you?

P/S: My company just blocked our access to blogspot this week. KNNCCB!

Monday Mix

Many of you would have already seen a particular music video that has been circulating around in the virtual world lately. A very near piece of art I must say. I told some bloggers that I will not be commenting on it simply because it’s another case of “sam jiu”. Was it wrong to make fun of our national anthem? Definitely so… Were those rap lyrics depicting truth? Sam jiu ler… So long as I am stepping on mud and not greener grass, my comment will be… it-will-be-a-total-waste-of-talent-when-the-rapper-lands-himself-in-deep-shit.

Moving along, there is also another hot topic currently being debated by a certain quarter of domestic bloggers which I have also taken the I-dunwanna-blog-about-it approach. But as I was having lunch today, I over-heard the topic being talked about by the next table, comprising of 1 old uncle and 4 old aunties. They were very candid; with a lot of hand movements… they were talking about the sad state of our Malaysian football! Imagine… 4 old aunties!!

There seems to be a big revamp in FAM with a view to bring our football to its glory days. I remember the national team was totally disbanded when they put up a dismal display in one of the SEA Games. Did that move make any difference to their performance? Definitely… that time, they lost to Cambodia (I think), now… they got thrashed by China and Uzbekistan. It’s an improvement mind you.

I just want to say that I disagree with more money being pumped blindly into this sport. Someone said we need better infrastructure, more playing fields. Please note that kids in Argentina, Brazil and not to mention the poor African nations play on near-desert-like ground and some have to kick coconuts. Pumping more money WILL NOT improve the game. Last but not least (on this notion)… I refuse to believe that our Malaysian team can be so Malay-sianed.

The charming TingTitLei, whom I have the privilege to meet in the recent blogger booze tagged me on “what I will do if I have $1,000,000”. I know I said I never do tag but this is quite a common question we ask each other. My answer… assuming that it’s US$ that you’re talking about, I will not be buying anything. The very first thing I will do is to bloody resign from my job and get my ass out of the modern slavery world.

Finally, thank you Clare for awarding me my very first “Awesome Guy Blogger” award… thank you Confessing7girl and Rinnah for awarding me my first and second “Power of schmooze” award respectively and thank you Evelynholic for giving me my 5th “thinking blogger” award. Hell yeah… self gratification here… it’s Monday and I need some cheer!

P/S: Anyone not voted yet? Taking down the poll soon.