Friday, September 22, 2006

Why don’t they hire chimps for the job?

My turn to vent some angst. 


 


You got a line to design and set up.  You get a deadline and you got some help and some ideas and lots of photos and videos from some overseas facilities to benchmark.  Then they expect you to become an expert overnight.  They expect you to be a superman and perform everything to perfection.  They don’t have an inkling of the process because they’re not interested to know.  It’s your job, they say.  But they have lots of suggestion for unnecessary practices which they think will help them to ‘see’ it better, but they’re not doing anything to help.  But when you did something wrong in their eyes, they slam the hell out of you. 


 


When you arrange for a meeting to list out potential problems, they have excuses not to show up or they don’t show up at all.  They don’t bother if the reps they appointed don’t show up either.  In between, they have other unnecessary or unimportant little issues to keep you out of your seat.  Meanwhile, you’re expected to follow up on what you’vie written in your work-orders to other departments or follow up on problems which other departments should be handling.  But when these problems are not solved, that’s also your problem.  You didn’t follow up!  They tell you, you’ve been sleeping.  They ask, ‘what have you been doing all this while?’ 


 


Then when some expert with many years of experience having solved all the known problems shows up to help you put things in perspective, they come into the meeting room for some free coffee and talk cock, and hold up your time instead of contributing some ideas.  Then they demand that every step of the process must be made poka-yoke (idiot proof).  They don’t believe in their own people.  They don’t think their people have brains.  And they keep wondering why Malaysians can't improve themselves.  But they're the leadership and they're providing the transparent ceiling over their own people.  Then they wash their hands of all responsibilities if their people do something wrong. So you tell them to hire chimpanzees to run production. 


 


That’s the price I pay for opting for an engineering job instead of joining the ass-kissers ranks.  (Pardon me if you’re a manager.  But in here, they’re a different breed altogether.  There’re some good ones but they’re a rare species.)  I thought I’d be spared the stress and heavy pressure.  But it seems the guns are being turned around now.  The weight’s shifted in this direction, and the storm's gathering momentum.  You have the first day, they have their fifteenth. 


 


Sigh…its heavy, but life goes on.  Besides, money doesn’t grow on trees.


 

7 comments:

  1. first and the fifteen huh, an old chinese wisdom of exclaiming the inevitable.

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  2. Yes, or your luck and your suck comes in turns...my invention hahaha.

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  3. It seem like some body really in deep shit....universal rules like to be the same every where hahahaha..... the top management and the boss all the same " ass hole" they just don't want to know how you can complete your task without any trouble but they are the real trouble you are going to encounter with. I had a bad day today due to the big boss say something is not encourage us instead of "killing our good mode".. I think you also will be disappointed if heard the boss said "He can replace any body in a split of second in the company without second thought or no mather who you are or how importance you are or how many contribution you have done to the company or how long you have been service to the company"

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  4. more to share if you have time to read the below message from my boss:-

    Subject: Company Policy
    Begin this experiment with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hang one banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water.

    After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result - all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey attempts to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

    Now, put away the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs.

    To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.

    Next, remove one of the original remaining four monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. Notice that the previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm! One by one, continue to remove and replace the remaining original monkeys.

    Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked. Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

    Remember that none of the current monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana. Why not? Because as far as they know that's the way it's always been done around here.

    And that, my friends, is how company policy begins!

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  5. Read about it before and still think it's a great experiment. It proves monkeys and people are not the same. Except that some people like to think like monkeys. They've forgotten that they have a mind, unlike the former who have only a brain and survive on instincts. Some of these people not only put an imaginary ceiling on themselves, they put the same thing on others whom they lead. And they eventually go off the edge like the Lemmings.

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  6. Tough job eh? Means you're climbing up the ladder.

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  7. nah... at my age, I'm extra careful about climbing ladders. One wrong step and that's end of the show. I'd rather stay healthy (living within my budget) on the ground and stick around to enjoy the golden years...

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