Death of cancer

Got a whatsapp message from group ex-it sometime in May 2013.  A friend I knew during my IT life in this conglomerate returned to her Creator. She had a successful corporate life during time I knew her. IT Manager at PDB. We followed our way and eventually lost contact circa 2004/2005.

Alfatihah for Puan Nurul Noriah. Semoga puan lebih baik di sana.

When a senior manager does business

We were having a dinner at a new outlet in Taman Melati area fronting MRR2 when somebody followed the waiter who came to us to show the bill. She was a familiar face I knew. She could have been another customer, but she was not.
"I own this outlet, a franchising business."
"Part of retirement plan, he he. I am not going to work until 60. Aren't you?" she added.
She was a successful senior manager in the corporate office, and I was pretty much surprise, or may be I am the one left behind in planning for the future, about her involvement in 'other' business, whereas we are not allowed to do moonlightings.
She sought for the feedbacks about the foods served, in the name of improvement, same way OPI people at corporate office do after the event.
"Bit salty, I mean my bakso."
Afiq and Syahirah said nothing but the way they looked at me I knew they wanted me to say 'sikit sangat'.

Lesson learnt:
START PLANNING EARLY FOR RETIREMENT. In my case, only one year left.

Cat on Car

Title for my next short story? Ha ha but very catchy. Indeed it is.
Yes this creature is very friendly and cool. It has 9 lives too.
I like the cool part. Thats why many has gone under my Forte tyres. Kesian.

In my Miri house, there are >10 cats of various colors, mainly grey, as they are offspring of Michelle.
Adam and Ummi like them so much. We travelled to Kuala Belait in Brunei every month or so to buy cat foods. Way much cheaper than in Miri. Smarheart pack of 7 kg, cost RM62.90 in Miri, but only BND18 or about RM45 in selected shop in Brunei.

Lessons learnt:
Brunei is tiny place with good and beautiful people.

Complicated love affair in Miri

An operation engineer, female, less than 2 years in the organization was in relationship with a local technician. She was sweet and friendly that many could have fallen for her easy style and could have easily mistaken her charming approach as something serious - something called love, probably. But not what she thinks. False hopes, probably not that false, I dont know, was given. The technician was on cloud nine, until time came for the engineer to make decision. Change of heart. She realized she needed somebody equivalent, an engineer too, as a life partner. She found the operation engineer she thought could make her life meaningful, unfortunately working on the same platform with the technician but different shift. The poor technician could not take it and demanded promise to be fulfilled.
In one incident at Miri Airport, upon her arrival from KL, he grabbed her into his car, but somehow let go when others watched. The case was reported. The company conducted internal investigation. HR stepped in. The solutions were to immediately transfer her to another sister company in Semenanjung. Her new beau was tranfered to another platform.

Lessons learnt:

1. Never underestimate the power of love.
2. Old ways of transfering problematic people to faraway location may not work these days when email and whatsapp know no border.

Staff left because of manager, not job

Attrition rate in this organization is not alarming, less than 1℅ for the first quarter 2013. But when technical engineer left, one with critical skill and well-trained, HR people felt bad. The cost of recruitment is not worth it.
During one of exit meeting, one of the reason quoted was the manager did not deliver the promises, not helping at all when approached. Yes middle managers are overloaded in this company, I am one of them. Organizing Staff Appreciation Dinner, developing offshore technicians KPI,  leading HR team in due dilligence for brownfield takeover are some tasks I am expected to complete in May 2013.  So when the resigning staff said his manager is one of the reason he decided to resign, I am not surprised at all. I have 7 staff under me, all running on auto mode. Except junior staff who need handholding a bit longer.

Death at 54

A senior manager busy at work at Dayabumi. Meeting after meeting. Chasing KPIs. Complained or chest pain and collapsed.
I did not know him in person. Saw his name in emails, cc-ed to me many times.
Semoga Allah ampun dosanya dan reda dg amalannya. Alfatihah kpd seorang sahabat.

More death at 48

Another friend passed away this week. Aged 48, about my age. Kidney transplant went wrong, despite donated by own brother. I knew him when he was IT manager at Optimal plant in Kerteh. A softspoken man from Tawau, Sabah.
Semoga Allah menerima amalannya dan mengampuninya. Alfatihah buat Sdr Rauf.

Morning routine

One of my morning routines is climb this stairs up to fifth floor where I work. The building is 5-storey in Lutong, suburb of Miri, Sarawak. I hv done this without fail everyday since the dawn of 2013 when I am not outside Miri.

Ya Allah, grant me health and wealth so that I could do and give more.

Brand new generation in Sarawak

Had opportunity to interview few candidates in Feb 2013 to fill in various entry level positions. Candidates were all fresh graduates. All ladies, unfortunately. One candidate really impressed me. She was cool but confident. Her English was 100% Malaysian, no slang, normal and natural. Fair complexion like Local foochow Chinese, but she was not. Her paper qualification also impressive. A beauty with brain indeed and should be an asset to the Company if developed properly by HR and superior alike.

Lesson learnt:

Interracial marriage does wonder and must be promoted to create new breed of Muslim. If you cannot develop further or change their attitude or mindset, you can alter their DNA by interracial marriage.

In Sarawak it is the norm.

Death in Labuan

15/2/2013:

I heard the news at about 5 in the afternoon my staff Ali via sms, who got it from his counterpart in Petronas Methanol Labuan. Then I quickly texted and whatsapped close friends who knew him. Untimely death. A committed man to work whom I knew since I joined HR fraternity at Ethylene plant in Kerteh in Dec 2004. Just met him last December in KK Sabah when we were SI panel together interviewing some candidates from Sabah Forestery meant for methanol plant in Labuan. He told me about being alone in Labuan when the family were in KK. He told me about his empty house in Sierra KK which had been ransacked and looted and his plan to rebuild. What an ambitious man with strong drive.

Salam terakhir buat En Hardy Mohd. Semoga ALLAH SWT merahmati tuan di sana.

Death at 46

When En Azli Paat died at the age 46 last week, a force inside me insisted that I reevaluate my priorities in my life. He was just 46, with 10 kids. The fact that he appeared on TV3 last 2 weeks to give comments on government's rebate scheme for youth to own a smartphone, then to be dead - forgive my words - two weeks later, sent a sharp shrivel down my spine. Not many characters I met left such an impact. He said first question to ask is not what brand of mobile good for me, but what is is for. He was a simple man, but with a complex mission, I could sense it, from the way he explained to audience. Yes with drive and belief.    I think I can relate well to him, because we fight the same cause.

To him, may Allah bless you. To those left behind including yours truly, your time will come. What have you prepared?

Testing bloggeroid app

Today is sunday 10 feb 2013, where all my chinese friends having fun with their family.

Dragging left foot

22 Jan 2013:

another working day in miri, sarawak. izan - still stranded with left leg in casting - complained about how difficult it is to move about on ground floor. so i said -  honey life is hard. Really hard. The harder it is, the better in reward.

Bigger hard disk and memory for my old desktop PC

It was a very reliable Compaq Presario desktop PC which followed me to Yangon, Myanmar and later Miri, Sarawak. With only 80GB SATA hard disk and 512MB DDR memory, it is under capacity now. It was high end spec and strong then. But now it is nothing, even compared with Atom-powered Toshiba NB520 which came with 2GB RAM and 320GB space.
So, on one trip to KL. I dropped by at Malaysia's famous IT market, owned by Mr Low Yatt, to shop for 500GB SATA internal hard disk (RM205), SATA cable (RM5).
Days before I went to GM Klang and managed to get 2 pieces of 512MB RAM (RM45 each).
Came back home and DIY the installation, and alhamdulillah, it works! My PC hardware knowledge still sound.  Now my old faithful is much faster with upgraded components, i.e. 2.5GB DDR (2 X 256MB plus 2 X 512MB) and 580 GB hard disk (original 80GB plus new 500GB). The brain is still the same -- AMD Athlon 64 X2 2.0Ghz. No complaint.

Using performance appraisal system as a catch-up plan

This story happened in 2008. This company operates in an unionized work environment, which means our plant operators and technicians are members of the Company-approved employee union. We had Collective Agreement that spells out term and condition for union members. This CA is revised every 3 years and the latest revision was implemented last year in July.

Among new item added is new salary adjustment. Somehow during the latest revision issue surfaced as not all operators benefited from the adjustment. Some were considered not eligible. Salary people in HQ said anomalies were inevitable in big population and the approach adopted is the option with less adverse impact. And this resulted in some junior operators left out. They came compaining
to the management and CEO promised he would do something. CEO asked HR to look into the matter. I said salary is one of the policymatters managed by the HQ not by the branch HR manager. What the affected staff could do is work extra hard to catch up with their colleagues. Working harder normally translates into better performance rating. Better rating in turn translates into higher annual increment. HR and CEO met the affected staff during breakfast meeting. We explained the process and calculation and everything we wanted them to know. They bought in. Subsequent HR examined their performance ratings and push one notch higher.

Lesson learnts: Anomalies do happen in any salary revision implementation. Use less damaging approach. Arrange for engagement session. Explain. Don't apologize.

Resigning at 24

This is premature, too me.

While most fresh graduates are so excited to join the labor market after 5 years of burning midnight oil, this one chap strikes different cord. He tendered 24-hour resignation notice just after joining the company in Feb 2012. Reason given is to be closer with family in Melaka. The pressure from the wife and his in-laws seemed so intense that it finally broke down his determination and perhaps sanity to decide wisely. Yes living separately due to work location is not a cuppa tea for every married man or woman. Highest degree of understanding and trust are prerequisites.
In this case, there is an option, Plan  B. Be a weekend husband until your transfer is approved. But he has different plan. Wish him all the best.

Rezeki masing-masing.

Resigning at 48

A cool and highly experienced senior technician who was supposed to be transfered to Basra to support our Iraq operation next month or so made a bold decision. He tendered resignation to everybody's surprise.

Resignation is for the brave and bold only. Making a decision to resign is not a cup of tea. Especially resigning from a well-paid job. Or from an established and reputable company, like this company. Many I met said they had to think over and over and over again before coming to a decision to quit. Quit checklist so lenghty. WHo will pay the bills? All sorts of bills -- water, eletricity, gas, ASTRO, Celcom broadband, cukai pintu, manitenance fees if you are staying in condominium. All sorts of monthly committments -- house rent, home 1 installment, home 2 installment, car 1 installment, car 2 installment, children school fees, childrens pocket money, airtime reloads for all the mobiles you and kids have. School bus fares, petrol money for car 1, petrol money for car 2, money for old mother back home, maid salary. Eat-out expenses, yes once in a while kids and their mom crave for some kinda western meals at McD or KFC or pizza hut. All those are not cheap and are in different league as nasi lemak or mee kolok. They cost a bomb for a penniless. Being used to travel on now-everyone-can-fly airline, you need to continue the tradition. Sedekah to masjid, haji, umrah. All those activities need to be revisited once you resign from the company.

You see that the quit checklist is pretty long, thats why I said tendering resignation notice is for the bold only.  It is certainly a collective decision, should be supported by a spouse, more so if you are the sole breadwinner in the family. In this organization where there is no pension scheme, only KWSP savings is your goldmine, quitting anytime makes no difference. Quitting means you simply lose income from the company you are quitting from.  But quitting closer to retirement age has an advantage. You can withdraw from KWSP to do things you want to do and enjoy doing it. 

Pushing factors

Another resignation. This time a senior executive in procurement department or in this organization, we call it supply chain management.  7 years in the company. Quite an experience. Given a couple more years, he could become an effective manager. But he wanted to leave. What can HR do? Technically nothing. It is employee's right, enshrined in Labor Laws.

Another exit meeting for HR people. The intent is not to persuade him to stay, but to make sure others do not follow him. One staff leaves, one more headache for a recruiter. To find a replacement, with  equivalent experience, is an uphill task, a time consuming process.

To get to the bottom, probing must be structured, questions aked one after another. Some will hide the actual reasons, so as not to hurt current superiors or company. Or not to be seen greedy especially when monetary compensation is concerned. However reasons of staff leaving could be summarized into 2: pushing factor or pulling factor.

As for this procurement guy, he was rather straightforward, blaming superiors for not keeping promises. He talked like he is a caring family man but his the problem is his family is not in Miri. So the reason for leaving is to be closer with the family --- personal reason, I'd say.
His story started in October 2011. He was told he is too new in Miri to be considered for transfer to KL. He began to accept the fact and activated Plan B ---  bring the family to Sarawak. He worked hard to transfer the teacher wife to Miri area to the extent of seeking recommendation from Deputy Prime Minister Office in Putraja, via his brother's UMNO political link. The wife transfer was about to materialize when suddenly the superior promised him that he could go back to KL in March 2012 due to department downsizing. With this good news, he dropped everything about bringing his wife to Miri, putting DPM recommendation letter into a dustbin. He felt guilty to everybody who helped him -- his brother and above all to DPM. He waited for March. Came January, the superior dropped a bombshell on him. He was not releasable for reasons that downsized structure still needed experienced personnel like him to stabilize the operation. He got frustrated so much. All his plans came down to ashes. You know what happened next --  this Plan C.

I could see his points.

On the exit interview form, I summarized what I heard and ticked the PUSHING FACTOR.

Regret? Yes I had a few.

5/5/ 2012@Miri:

Self-Discipline is key to success. A ladder to go up. a key to unlock all sort of doors.so  said wise men of earlier times. and contemporary ones. we pass the same message to our young ones, students at school, staff at office.

And i am one of those who needs a reminder, a constant one, because I sometimes lose sight of the destination. So I will start writing again, at least 100 words a day. God help me. 

Double parking

Dec 2011:
The above situation is called 'double parking' in our organization. It is not a good HR practises anywhere. But somehow we have to have it. A young female process engineer came sobbing into the HR Manager Room. So innocent. She is worried that in the same position in her dept org chart, there is another name alongside with hers. It took some time to explain why it happened.

Why it happened? It could either be:
1. The incumbent in the box was away from the dept doing other things on assignment basis. In this case he is still in the box. At the same time the manager wants somebody to do his/her job. Someone comes into the position, thus 2 names.
2. The second name just borrow the box while waiting for another approved box or waiting for the new structure approved.
3. To secure the competent staff, even though no position available.

Her case was no. 2. The way forward is to relocate the other name to another empty box (read: position) in other dept. ANd we did that. The challenge is you must find other vacant box and once you found it, you must seek the approval from dept head to relocate the body (read: staff) there. After all, mobility of staff is a willing buyer willing seller business.


There are also cases of triplr parking.