Pan or Fire

I got a duress call from a lenglui. It started off well enough. She was indeed extremely happy and excited that she got a new job offer. That's when I turned it into a duress for her. Evil me. No bloody wonder she isn't dating me.

Let's call her Indy. Indy has been trying to change jobs for the last 12 months. Reasons are unclear but she did sight workload and bad pay. Fair enough. On Friday night, she was so happy to message me to say she was offered a new job and she accepted it. Resigned immediately and her current boss counter-offered, saying that he would pay what the new company is offering.

Indy, being a very pretty (tall, slim with a nice set of racks), told her boss an amount a lot higher than the actual offer. In any case (this is when beauty plans a part), the boss agreed, albeit verbally. She must be a good worker too. In any case, she wants to have the last laugh and told me she won't be accepting the offer. Yup, the grass does look greener on the other side.

I then proceeded to test if the grass was indeed greener. Things started to unravel at an alarming rate. Firstly, this new company didn't even give her a formal offer. It was just a short email. WTF. She accepted that offer and resigned from her current job. She didn't have a clue as the benefits, amount of annual leave or working hours. She sort of assumed it was a five day week.

Indy did ask for a formal letter, but the new boss apparently said they were busy with a new project. What the eff. Sure tells me how much they value their employee. Also, it does sound like this company is somewhat unethical. More like too chinaman like. Bad practices all around.

She was happy that her pay would be 24% more. Yeah right. I broke the news to her that if it is not 35% more, it is not worth it. The reason is simple. For such a scumbag company, they may not honour the EPF (11% from employee and 12% from employer) and the tax, which I assume it to be about 7%. They will happily make the monthly deductions but will forward no money to the IRD nor the EPF. Now, this really got her worried. She told me it was a start up company. A risk of them running bust too.

Indy got so upset that she just went offline. Oh bugger. She could not handle the bad news. So, I texted her the solution. Easy. Just accept the counter offer. Now, start looking for another job. The next new job would even pay better. Hehehe. I am sure this is what Wally would do.

For all the free advice, she owes me a latte. Hmm. I was hoping something more hot and steamy. Que sera sera.

No no...

Despite having a day of public holiday on Wednesday, it has been a very long week at work. A little background - about 2 moons back, I was asked to take charge of marketing in Nible2. Yes, it was a promotion without any pay increase. I am OK with that but the mess left behind by the previous managers were unbelievable. Many projects were more than two quarters late, mostly were dying and many dead.

So, it's clean up for the last 60 days or so. Started by considering new vendors - which brings the story to this week. We asked a couple of PR companies and advertising companies to make their presentation to us. We needed a consultant to give Nible2 a new image. All in all, the response was good - we had about 6 vendors.

Unfortunately, that was about when the nightmare started. One chap showed up alone, without a laptop, no presentations, nothing. He showed up empty handed and by the looks of it, he was suffering a bad hang-over. Mind you, the bloody meeting was at 4pm.

Most of the others were better prepared for their presentation. I was impress with one or two companies. However, I would say that of the remaining 5 vendors, about 4 of them had one problem. When they presented their corporate CD, I went....OMG, should I really hire you?


Yes, this is how one company provided their corporate CD. They are a PR and advertising agency. Hmmm... would you hire someone who cannot present their own image well? The plastic sleeve reminds me of a RM 5 pirate VCDs from SS2. Then again, even pirated CDs would have monochrome or colour printed CD titles. This one has bad handwriting on it. Not even the printed sticky labels.

This boggles my mind. They are a PR / Advertising company. Surely, they must know better. Blank CD labels and the applicator would be less than RM 50. So, what could cause this oversight? Attitude? Lack of attention to details? Or perhaps it is just unimportant to them? But it is important to me - how can I justify this vendor to my executive directors for a RM 100,000 purchase request?

While there is no clear cut to say that a poorly projected image shall cause the potential vendor to be excluded, I do feel that the vendors should not disadvantage themselves.

Something I've learnt from a footballer - the difference between extra-ordinary and ordinary is just the little bit extra.