Hazia’s Reflections

Today God decided to open my eyes to the real source of the ‘core problem’ here.

It started with a surprise call for a meeting with the MD at 8.45am. I had 8 candidates waiting to be interviewed from 9am onwards. Pity them, LOL!

Again I was the only woman present, and of a lower rank. The rest were all GMs. Their body language said a lot, 2 older ones were crossing their legs. IS (see ref below) had this permanent smiling expression that read ‘I’m only humouring you for the next 2 years. I won’t sweat, you’ll be gone after that.’

I already knew half of the agenda. On Wednesday, the MD called me to pre-empt. He started throwing us the items from his list one by one. I realised that the tone he used with them was completely different from the one he normally uses with me. He was really sharp, harsh even. And he tolerated no crap too. No wonder they were nervous with him.

First was the re-branding. Prior to that, I had briefly pre-empted my immediate boss. He wasn’t happy with my MD’s wish to do it internally. I quickly realised why he wanted to hire an external consultant. It was not that he doubted my capability. No, he was making a back-plan in case I resigned halfway. It was really bad that I picked it up.

The MD also read out a letter that the Peacock sent to the Minister to announce the ‘appointment of his company’ to do work for us in 2008 by our MD. That wasn’t true at all. We would reply.

There were other issues. All in all, I think he actually shot all the right problems. I was learning at the same as he, and yes, the solutions were that obvious and clear cut to fresh minds.

After the meeting, I proceeded with interview. The candidates had been waiting for more than an hour by the time my meeting was over. HR manager and I screened them in record time, 8 candidates in less than an hour. We agreed on the same person but there was one problem. She had a blacken tooth on her upper right row, I noticed it clearly but he didn’t. For a customer service position, she would have to rectify that first.

When my MD called on Wednesday evening and asked whether I was ready for a speedy ride, I had to highlight the manpower problem. He asked why couldn’t we ‘buy back’ my most reliable staff. I immediately spoke to her about the possibility of a counter-offer. The HR Manager and I met our immediate superior (IS) after the interview just now, he was just back from leave. I had already consulted the former on Wednesday. I think it went well and we connected. Telling both of them was only a matter of courtesy. It backfired.

To my horror, IS jumped. He said making 1 staff happy would make many others unhappy. He also added that my staff and her husband (same company) would take leave at the same time when she gets pregnant, like another couple. So what, they are from totally different departments. Same goes with when I mentioned the librarian, he was very defensive about the whole thing. His rationale was that she could better contribute where she is now, where the company needs her. Whether she likes her job or not is irrelevant. Her old post was too familiar and too easy for her. ‘Enjoys her work’  could also mean negative (it was relaxing and she could lepak, so she enjoys). 

He said you need to know the history first, and not listen to people.Yeah right! In a ’sustaining success’ kind of organisations yes, but this one is already at an urgently needed to be ‘turnaround stage’. One would have to make drastic calls, and fast too. His questionable solutions include hiring a new librarian, hiring an information researcher under PR and hiring as many new people as I like for my department. Definitely, something’s not right, he was practically shooting hysterically off the cuff.

In fact, he really ‘melatah’, he cut me off before I even got to mention that I’ve already spoken to the MD. Big mistake. HR knew but smartly kept quiet. Yeah, God has opened my eyes. Now I know who the real ‘dalang’ is, the root to the long-time core problem, the one who treats human like ping pong balls. Everybody put the shit on the previous MD. But this problem started long before he came on board, and didn’t disappear after he left. I would look at the person who survived  a row of 3 MDs instead.

I was called by the MD again after that. He sensed and asked what was bothering me.Unfortunately, I didn’t get to talk much, Friday prayers call. He was flying off in the afternoon too. He also apologised for me having to witness the unpleasant meeting this morning.

I decided to focus on the big picture. I’ll include human resource messages in my re-branding proposal (under internal communications) for total control. I’ll let these 2 matters go, not important enough. In fact, only this morning, the librarian had the cheek to ask me to consider increasing her salary too. Cis! Beri betis hendak peha. Only a few days ago, she mentioned she didn’t have any qualm about her low salary. Someone told me that when my reliable staff asked for a salary increment, IS offered to get her a high paying job with his friend instead. Can you imagine?

Knowing the real deal breaker did demotivate me a lot. I didn’t expect the culprit to be so close to home. Mann!!! Well, I didn’t sign up for all this to begin with. But somehow, I’ve landed at the advance stage of the game. And yes, I did intend to play all the way, and win too. So what if I got kick out, I have another job waiting for me. It’s not half as challenging but the pay would definitely be better:)