This year, celebration of my birthday was held at the 5-star Peppino and joined by Sam, a rare coincidence these days! This also happened to be Sam's parents' 30th marriage anniversary. Hence, this expensive feasting was more than justified.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
Trust
Last Friday, I almost asked one of my residents engineers to "leave".
This RE (Mr. X) was posted to an east coast town to look after a project. He was entirely on his own and I would not know whether he actually carried out his work responsibly and diligently or otherwise. Everything seemed to be under control whenever I called him. Reports from other sources were that the work quality was comparatively worse off than other areas in Sabah and the work progress was also behind schedule.
Then on that Friday, another staff (supervisor) who is also posted there, told me, " Boss, I can't 'tahan' anymore and I want to tell you something". He continued, "This Mr. X has been absent from work and he was practically not on site half of the time". Immediately I called Mr. X. There was no reply even I called him twice and sms'ed him. Then, the supervisor called him in another number and Mr. X told him he was in fact in 1 Borneo Shopping Centre. Mind you, that was during office hour.
Finally, I sms'ed him using the new number and asked him to call me back. Finally, he called and when asked where he was. He answered, "I am now in Semporna".
I was really angry over such lying but I kept my cool. I told him, "I know where you are. Come and see me at 4.30 later in my office in KK". He was still trying to be funny by saying that he could not make it as he was not in KK. I said, "I do know exactly where you are. You better come to see me at 4.30!". That was 1.30pm on my way to the airport taking a flight back to KK.
By the time I reached my office at 4.45 pm, he was already waiting there. I could see he was really pale, almost shivering and almost in tears.
I had made up my mind before seeing him to ask him to go. He was extremely remorseful and begged to be given a second chance. After almost an hour of tongue lashing, I finally decided to give him another chance. One crucial factor in his favour was that this project is at the tail end and it would not be easy for someone new to take over. I showed him the resignation letter I had prepared beforehand. I said, " Well, I won't ask you to resign this time and be very very sure not to repeat this ever again". Just to add, I was diplomatic in the "tongue lashing' and was not too harsh in the words used. In Sabah, one may never know that staff you asked to "leave" may one day sit high up in some government department literally being your boss taking charge of one of your projects ! So, always have this in mind!
This RE (Mr. X) was posted to an east coast town to look after a project. He was entirely on his own and I would not know whether he actually carried out his work responsibly and diligently or otherwise. Everything seemed to be under control whenever I called him. Reports from other sources were that the work quality was comparatively worse off than other areas in Sabah and the work progress was also behind schedule.
Then on that Friday, another staff (supervisor) who is also posted there, told me, " Boss, I can't 'tahan' anymore and I want to tell you something". He continued, "This Mr. X has been absent from work and he was practically not on site half of the time". Immediately I called Mr. X. There was no reply even I called him twice and sms'ed him. Then, the supervisor called him in another number and Mr. X told him he was in fact in 1 Borneo Shopping Centre. Mind you, that was during office hour.
Finally, I sms'ed him using the new number and asked him to call me back. Finally, he called and when asked where he was. He answered, "I am now in Semporna".
I was really angry over such lying but I kept my cool. I told him, "I know where you are. Come and see me at 4.30 later in my office in KK". He was still trying to be funny by saying that he could not make it as he was not in KK. I said, "I do know exactly where you are. You better come to see me at 4.30!". That was 1.30pm on my way to the airport taking a flight back to KK.
By the time I reached my office at 4.45 pm, he was already waiting there. I could see he was really pale, almost shivering and almost in tears.
I had made up my mind before seeing him to ask him to go. He was extremely remorseful and begged to be given a second chance. After almost an hour of tongue lashing, I finally decided to give him another chance. One crucial factor in his favour was that this project is at the tail end and it would not be easy for someone new to take over. I showed him the resignation letter I had prepared beforehand. I said, " Well, I won't ask you to resign this time and be very very sure not to repeat this ever again". Just to add, I was diplomatic in the "tongue lashing' and was not too harsh in the words used. In Sabah, one may never know that staff you asked to "leave" may one day sit high up in some government department literally being your boss taking charge of one of your projects ! So, always have this in mind!
Trust once broken is not easy to reinstate again. Hopefully Mr. X learn his lesson and this gesture of mine would spur him to really buck up and work responsibly again.
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