Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Reminiscing The Second Part

The company I was working for, was pretty much mismanaged.

The owner had tunnel vision and kept staring in front while ignoring everything else happening on the sides. He had around 5 companies in total with only one that had a contract and was making a decent profit. The other 4 companies was just dead weight, with overhead and maintenance cost monthly. We ended up using all the profit from the main company to pay everything incurred by the 4.

He trusted too many wrong people. We purchased 6 Toyota Hilux, basic specs from the price of a fully spec. Why, you might ask? Well the logistics manager, had recommended this purchase and brokered the deal between the company and the dealership. We pretty much ended up paying some 120K extra on the deal. The same manager also arranged for the purchase of a BMW 545i where we paid roughly 28K extra, a Toyota Prado which we overpaid by 17K.

I could not do anything about the managers as they were too secured and had the owner's total trust. I could however, clean the bottom of the barrel with the normal staffs. We were about 300 plus staff strong in total when I started. Upon a complete review, I soon realised that we had too many staff and a lot of them had actually very little or no work on a daily basis. I had 9 HR and Admin girls under me, when I needed only 2 Admin and 1 HR with 1 as HR and Admin. There was no reason for the other 4 companies to have HR and Admin staff when there was no work going on. So I began my culling. As the culling progressed, I met staffs who openly told me, that they had not been doing any work for the company for 2 or 3 years now. They just come to the office, punch card and go home or out.

I knew, I was ruffling feathers and I could hear the whispering in the cracks as I was cleaning up the company, but I ignored it and believed that I was doing the right thing. I got rid of 17 staffs that were working in our factory that has not been operational for the past 5 years. Yup, 17 staffs who came to work, only to sleep, watch television, surf the internet, hang out and well, not work. Mind you, the company was paying for their house rent and transportation from home to the office.

 Closed down an office we had, where there was no staff yet we were paying rent for the place for the last 3 years with 5 parking passes that no one used. The office was fully set up, with existing phone lines, internet service that we paid on a monthly service but not used at all. It was a ghost office which we never needed. Later I came to find out that the IT manager's friend owns the place, and he was the one who recommended we rent it....at double the going rate.

The more I cleaned, the more stronger the tremors became. I was disturbing a lot of people's life hood and stopping their ill gain money supply. I did not bother as everything I was doing, I was reporting directly to the owner and his mistress with proof back up. Before any action was taken, I would have a meeting with them, show the proof and the gains to the company before getting their approval to move ahead.

The company was being cleaned with a huge amount of bleach.

Then the fake rumors started. The character assassination attempts. I challenged each rumor heard, demanding proof but no one could provide any. I continued soldiering on but I started to feel I was running out of breath, slowly feeling the noose tighten around my neck. I was a one man show and I started doubting the sincerity of the owners. I felt something was wrong, and yet I couldn't put my finger on what. The rumors were getting louder and despite promises from the owner that he has told the accusers off.... I felt things were getting worse. I had people keeping an eye on me, at the office, during lunch, even at home. I was being watched constantly and it started to get to me.

I complain to the owner and was told he would handle it, but nothing change. Things got harder and I began to stress out and I was getting depressed more and more on my helplessness.

And then one day... it just ended. I was asked to leave the company after closed to 70% of my cleaning done.  The balance was the untouchables, who despite all the proof available, could not be removed. I was crushed as I have giving this company everything I had.

In the end, I was discarded like a piece of trash and I fell deeply back into depression.

No comments: