Journey of a Dream

The developments of late have caused me to be very frustrated, it certainly wasn't the way I thought it would be. One would expect a climb on the career ladder, I had no idea how the ladder could fall on me. I was hit enough by the pay cut in Jan, and despite that I went ahead with my long awaited trip to Hong Kong, Macau, Guangzhou, Foshan and Shenzhen. Throughout the trip I hardly heard terms like retrenchment, bankruptcy; what I saw was people living their lives as much as possible like the economic meltdown, financial crisis, whatever you call it, never hit us.

Shortly after CNY break finished, I received a fax informing me about training at LGM, what I have been waiting for for the past 1 year of working in Mech Chem. The road to LGM was tough, I woke up early every morning to brave the traffic to Jln Ampang. Finally, at the end of the one and a half weeks, I returned work with a renewed zeal.

The news came 2 days later that my dear boss decided to cut our working hours (and pay). The illogical thing was then he cut 1.5 hours from Mon to Thurs, and as for Friday, it would be a half day. From his point of view, samples still came by on Friday, but in my humble opinion, why put through all the employees the trouble of waking up and dragging ourselves off the bed on a Friday when he could make it 4 full working days and then Fridays are off? We still need to pay for petrol to come to work as per normal and yet our pay is being cut 20% (or more). The worse part was that he didn't even have the courtesy to tell me the news when I, the Lab Manager has the every right to know. Nevertheless, I confronted him and reasoned with him that this is not workable. I told him that despite the samples being less, I still have the same amount of work to do, if not more. There wasn't a conclusion that day, but at least I gave him my point of view.

This was not spoken about for the next 1 week as audit approached and I continued the days with increased frustration. Every morning, I would tell myself not to be frustrated, but at the end of each day, my emotions have overwhelmed me. The hours of tuition helped me to make up for my financial losses, but the reality of having to spend so much time teaching and preparing tuition worked me out. Worse, these tuitions didn't help me to elevate my quality of life. I still ate biscuits for lunch.

As sick as I am with the whole thing, I realise that all these could be a blessing in disguise, though it was a wrong decision made in the beginning. I believed my boss for all the promises he made, little did I know some of it were lies, and it made all the difference. Initially I wanted to stay here for 2 years, but the situation now has certainly speed up the process of me leaving this hell place.

Mr XXX, the external auditor, was looking through my training records before he remarked, "you have very good results, you are brilliant, what are you doing here?" I am very grateful by the kind words Mr XXX uttered to me. Over the past one year, I have not heard of my boss praising me or thanking me for my hard work. Every time he dropped by my room, it was to give me more work, if not to complain about something. He did not outrightly scold me, but nothing was simply good enough for him. It made me feel that I am not good enough, but in reality, the order for SRM has improved a lot since I came. I believed part of the reason was for the quality control that I did for all the rubber, which my boss will never know and will not bother to acknowlege.

I have great future ahead of me. This experience have certainly taught me great lessons in life, and I am grateful that I got them when I am 24 and not when I am 42. As for my boss, I finally came to understand how some people can be so hated as a famous cliche says, respect is earned.