For the last few nites since my arrival here, I have not been sleeping well. Do not know the reason but for sure it is not depression or under pressure, etc etc. I think it has something to do with the pillow, just feeling not comfortable and not able to support my head well, and here I am, already at 6.02am, typing this message. Sleepless in Seoul.
It is making me crazy, and on top of this, we have a full day meeting. Luckily I had already presented my part, so, it is at least better.
And yesterday, besides the meeting, it was a horrible day for us from the news we get from Beijing.
A colleague that we do not intend to extend his contract (legally, we did it right, follow every procedure), and based on his performance and attitude, we, the whole company and management has decided against extending his contract, coupled with many complaints from customers, hence, we think that is the best decision. He had a total 9 years contract with us before this, and for Chinese labour law, if you have worked more than 10 years, then the company or management has to offer an open contract, even if your performance suddenly becomes worse, or drops, or you sits in the office doing nothing, it is going to be hard to fire this person. As I understood from my HR department, by then, you have to justify why you have to fire this person and on what grounds, which you need to substantiate, despite his poor performance after that. And you need to get all this proof. Even then, when you go to the court, you have to fight like hell, and the chance for the company or mgt to win the case is very slim. I am not sure what this is called, but it is creating a lot of problems, and most not so good employees are hiding behind this law. And you need to screen and work very hard to make sure that these employees are those you want to keep before this open contract takes place.
Going back to this story. We extended another 9 months, on human ground, since he cried and beg us to reconsider this decision, and after hard discussion, etc, we offered a 9 month contract to see if he can better improve himself. Instead, still very bad, and the last blow was that he has another big complaint from a customer for mishandling their case.
And the worse part is, since two days ago, we informed him about this, he said he is going to hospital for his leg treatment. It sound fishy here, and I called my colleague in Beijing to get them to act. My boss was getting very furious. The next morning, my Senior Sales Manager told my proudly that both HR and himself will handle this on that day itself, and around 10am, I called again to check out. My colleague told me he is in hospital. I told you, they better act during that hour to secure the laptop back, but upon calling him, he said he is still in the hospital for treatment. I said to my colleagues, I NEVER trusted this and my sixth tense tells me that he is lying, in fact like hell. SO, as the saying goes, the more mature the ginger is, the spicier it becomes. So, I was proven right from the start, and he was already in our SH HQ, and imagine what (as I was told) wearing a headband saying that the company has ill-treated him and firing him after 9 years and 9 months. And the worse part is, his wife, a professional nurse took part together with him, in front of our office at 18th floor. And now, the want to see the country rep.
We rejected all this, and in 3 hours time, there will be a teleconference with all relevant colleagues.
Imagine how this form of labour laws are being abused by the locals and how they hide behind this. My Sr. Sales Mgr, a local of course, was caught by surprise and his shock by this (mata pun terbeliak lah, baru sedar diri). Of course in saying this, my employment contract comes under this term too, but I think most of us, in SEA or Malaysia, or S'pore, even with the present employment contract that we have in our part of the world, when you are asked to leave for reason you are clear off, you feel ashamed or you will not demonstrate in this manner, not unless you are illegally terminated or not compensated accordingly to the service you have rendered to the company. Otherwise, immediately, you will run away, muka pun tak nampak dah, sebab MALU...........................! Tapi saya rasa di sini, perkataan malu tidak pernah wujud dalam kamus mereka.
Ok for now, have to get ready for my next meeting, tapi aku geram tahu. Kalau aku nampak muka orang orang ini, aku sepak, aku picit, and tumbuk, aku hentam sama dia kuat kuat :)
Choong, Seoul
It cost me a small 'dent' into my account, but Markus, my colleague, helped to get it from Germany, and hence I have to total saving of close to RM 1200, hence, still worth it. And then it is considered also under limited circulation for summer/Autumn collection, hence, a good buy. Anyhow, I am happy to have this bag.
See, snow everywhere, and this is one of the heaviest I have ever seen since coming here for close to two years. And you know, for a tropical guy, this feeling is always nice, and suddenly Christmas carols, etc etc, Santa Claus came to the picture. In fact, we (together with my colleagues, Markus and Andreas) were already in the X'mas mood. You better watch out, you better watch out, Santa Claus is coming to town,......................................hahahaha!
