threshold…

This is the story of a company I used to work for…

The background

I introduced some friends to a company where Ive worked occasionally for a few months before. We then had several assignments last May and June. The first payments came in September for the assignments done in May, then they promised to pay for the assignments a month later.

Circa February 2008, no payments has been made.

All this while, Ive been messaging two individuals from the company about the late payments. No reply. Period.

My friends bug me about the non-existent payments.

Frustration is at a high. You know that feeling of not knowing what they are doing in their office, or whether they even bother? Cos if they did bother, and if they did have a problem within the organisation, perhaps a simple notification and reply would have sufficed. As simple as that.

And for the months between October and January, I have been civil, wording my msges nicely, with a semblance of trying to understand. No reply.

Then came the email from the Company, saying sorry for not replying, and that the payments will be settled by next week.

Circa a month later. No news.

So I emailed. A less civil email.

The reply:

Hi,

I don’t quite get it, how much does the company still owe you and your friends?

My reply:

Good Evening,The company paid us for its May assignments (in September if I’m not wrong) and said that the payments for June assignments will come later.So long story short, whatever that is owed to us is for the June assignments. Of which from my personal accounts, its 2 sessions at Pasir Ris Sec and 1 at Cedar Sec.
For the rest of my friends, whom I believe are not liars or unprofessional, perhaps the onus is on this professional body of yours to track and update accordingly.

Lets not drag this any longer.  Merci.

My humblest regards,Kamal Halim

To add insult to injury, I cced to the mailing list that they had for their first email.

- Perhaps it would goad them into action

- Perhaps they would be forced to be professional

And oh my was the impact immediate:

The boss called me 2 minutes after the email was sent.

Sounded a bit angry, but trying to be civil.

He asked, whats the purpose of the CC. I said you should know the reason, you are not dumb.

And the debate went on a bit. He mentioned of a personal problem he had, BUT what has that got to do with being professional. By God, when he mentioned it, i felt sympathetic towards his predicament, but that doesn’t negate the fact that for months at end, no reply was afforded to its former employees.

Funny that for months the company stayed silent, but just a simple email cced to a public audience changed all that. Perhaps this pro activeness could have worked wonders early on, but maybe you left it too late.

He talked about relationships, well, if it was truly a valued one, a modicum of transparency could have been shown. I would have understood if a reply was afforded explaining things,  but there was none at all.

Everyone has that threshold, and perhaps the organization could have bamboozled some of its workers, perhaps even think that we are passive employees. But in the end, for me, it wasn’t about the money, it is fundamentally the manner in which the situation is handled. And truth be told, to you, someone who I admired, shouldn’t make it a personal attack, cos it isn’t. The bigger picture is simply how the situation has been handled thus far. And if you can’t look beyond that, then it is indeed being unprofessional. Seeking for a payment for almost half a year is not joke. When civil steps goes unheard, then it naturally leads to an aggressive one. That’s the course of things.

I end thus with a sad note. I learnt several positive things from the company, but in the end professionalism and efficiency is what makes individuals want to continue working for it. There is that tinge of sadness, cos ultimately I did enjoy my time there, but this closing chapter has too much negatives, and as I just found out, some individuals from that mailing list, who I didnt know was in the company in the first place msged me and said that they too have not been paid, 700 bucks to be exact. And yet the company mentioned that most has been settled. So, I guess its same old same old.

I learnt some lessons from this experience, and I hope it will bode well for whatever I’ll be pursuing in my future.

And my friend, it was never an attack against you, it is, I reiterate again, a salvo at how things were run for the past half a year. Perhaps those perm staff would be angry at this forwarded email, but take a step back and look at its cause, it is a disaster waiting to happen. Do not be defensive or have a siege mentality. Iron out the chinks in the armor and move forward. Khalas.

Ultimately, whatever I base is on what I think I would have done if I was in charge of an organization, and also from my experience in working with other bodies.

God grant me the serenity to accept the things that I cannot change, strength to change the things I can, and the courage to know the difference. Syukran.

1 hr Post-(whistleblower) email: 2 calls and 1 sms from the company.

Pre-(whistleblower) email (6 months): 2 emails

I rest my case.

of Conversations and updates

It really has been an enlightening semester thus far, arguably one of the best I have had in NUS. All the modules are pretty interesting, with Honours Module Issues and Events in Malaysian History (a great avenue for class participation, and rattling out past knowledge of taking Malay studies modules for me and Hafiz), SE1101E: Southeast Asia a Changing Region (a chance to annihilate the mainly year 1 students in class… hahaha: first tutorial went as such), Classical empires of SEA (the wonderful Bruce Lockhart as Lecturer) and what else can I say about War and Diplomacy in Early Modern Europe.

That aside, the weekly discussions with Professor Tim Barnard for the ISM has been really really insightful. I have to say I have learnt so much in just 2 discussions, and am looking forward to further debate and discussion and am really interested seeing how this ISM will pan out.

The meet-up with Izzati (after such a long time) was also a fine avenue for conversation, reminiscing about the pioneering Perkampungan Bahasa, about society, especially as both of us really feel strongly for the community, just to name a few. Both will be in the educational sector, the only difference is that she’ll be teaching boring science subjects… hehehe

The Mendaki Staff BBQ also churned out another surprise. I had a conversation with Rafiz, a staff for the Reserach and Policy Department under my father. We talked about society, about the late Alatas, (he actually had a few discussion sessions with Alatas), about our ‘great’ Malay minister, about the Malay Studies department and also about my future plans, post-teaching bond. At the end of the day, he invited me to join the Reading Group, a body set up by former NUS students to give them an avenue to keep in touch with their readings and continue on with discussions and debates on society.

I will also be meeting with Madam Suriani Suratman over coffee, to discuss on issues, hear her opinions on stuff and just to catch up with someone who I took 3 modules under and helped enhance my perspective somewhat…

I am working also, twice a week for 2 hours each, as a conversational Malay teacher at Teck Whye secondary (thank god, as it is only 10 mins away from home). And also of course, made possible by my 2 day week timetable. Met a former, Bollywood star look a like teacher there too, Mr Ralph Roche, some of you would most probably remember him, as he was our soccer coach in JJC, before he prematurely left. He’s now a VP man, and I dont think he’s 40 yet. Not bad..

Tuition with my cousins is also going well, though theres quite some drilling that needs to be done, slowly but surely. My aunt also offered to pay 100 bucks for every 4 sessions, told her that I’m doing it for free several times, she said NO, then I said ok 50 is enough, since I stay over at her place, eat and drink, use the bathroom. She said itu pun berkira, tak apa Kamal mak cik ikhlas, takkan tak bayar, Kamal da ajar anak anak makcik. I’ll see whether I can negotiate and reduce the paying price further I guess.

The East Coast outing with dear also went fabulously well. She assumed that she could beat me in a bicycle race (not sure whether it’s over confidence or just plain wishful thinking), lets just say she was left in the dust…. hahaha….. She was proud of being able to cycle for meters on end without holding the bike handle, and encouraged me to try it. Funny how she could be so proud of that achievement, when she has to turn one big round, (when others could easily make that turn acutely) to just get into position in order to cycle towards the opposite direction (make a U-turn), because she fears that she’ll fall down.

It will also be Yuyun’s birthday next Monday, gave her an early birthday gift of an array of chocs for her consumption. ‘Banyaknye’ dia cakap. hahaha…Love her so much man

Finally, I have this fear that now I am all gung-ho and fired up on stuffs, on my aspirations and want to effect change, but 20 years down the road, would I be as determined, or would I just be jaded or worse mellow down in my objectives. Well, right now, I will just continue to enrich my aspirations and fine tune my plans by speaking to other like-minded individuals and the various directors of similar companies, such as Anuar Othman and Mr. Shahril from Nuquest.

Let’s hope this buzzing becomes a crescendo in the near future. Insya Allah