Alan you are a menace in the office. From what I have read about you, you are unrepentant. I wish you have a boss like yourself and perhaps that would be the start of a successful learning journey for you.
Verbal abuse in our workplaces is common. I have seen too many and I had also been on the receiving end. My first supervisor threatened to knock me on the head if I made the mistake again. That was uncalled for but I couldn't resign. I needed the job and the money to get married. To this day I can remember how I felt my ears burned and I wanted to hit him in the face. My take away from that experience was a financial strategy that allowed me to walk if I needed to (an option too many workers will never have). You never forget such lessons. Well the story had a happy ending. Privately I forgave him and as I learned the ropes and became very competent, getting along with him became easy and we became very good friends.
Of course I think of my kids when they go out to work eventually and meet bastards (strong language) like Alan. While getting physical is rare, the tongue lashing doesn't hurt less. I have emailed them this story and advised them that they must never tolerate such treatment. I think all parents must share this story with their kids. If society do not tolerate such behavior, bullies like Alan will become an endangered specie. We need to reverse the trend, the workplace has become more toxic than when I first started working.
I had the same problem with my boss. He was ten times worse than Alan, publicly humiliated me in front of my co-workers, threaten to blacken my name so that I could never ever get a job as a QS again.
ReplyDeleteI told Darkness. He visited the man's wife and teen daughter one evening. After that my supervisor told me privately, please tell you friend not to disturb my wife and daughter any longer. This man even looked exactly like Alan. This was quite some years back ago and I remember my supervisor was very emotional and in tears when he pleaded to me.
I never got a chance to ask Darkness what happened. But I spoke to the others. They just said, he went over there to play scrabble with my supervisors wife and daughter.
I can't help feeling something is missing. Or maybe I just have an over imaginative mind.
I just thought I'll share this. As it's my first encounter with bullying and also darkness.
Thanks Darkness. I now run a furniture factory in Muar Johor, employ 400 workers. And I still haven't figure it out. From time to time, I asked my wife, what actually happened, she just keeps quiet but she looks embarrassed to explain more.
It is really terrible that a 29-year-old man, a Singaporean(?), put up with this kind of physical and mental abuse. And for as long as three YEARS.
ReplyDeleteHow desperate could he possibly be for the pittance he was earning? For a job in a country where hundreds of thousands are being brought in to fill the hundreds of thousands of work openings? A cleaner and a security guard is paid as little.
What does it say of our managers, our citizens, our workforce, our education system, our integrity and behaviour, our upbringing, our culture (corporate and otherwise), our thinking, the people who govern and those who are supposed to check such behaviour, that he is not the only one who is facing/has faced such cruelty?
How has this country come to this, where a man is so fearful, he dare not even stand up to abuse of himself? Would such a person then stand up for others? Would he allow his wife, his children, his elderly parents, to be similarly abused?
Where a boss can close his eyes to his supervisor's extreme bullying behaviour? Would such a boss stand up for others?
Is courage and decency so lacking in this country? Have we no confidence in ourselves and our abilities? Isn't this taking being a Yes Man to absurd lengths?
Importantly, will bullies and cowards defend our country in an attack?
Characters like Alan presents us with a simple (but not easy) question.
ReplyDeleteWhat values do we stand for as a people, society and country?
The Germans of the Third Reich stayed silent.
And as a result, Hitler has forever tainted the history of the Germans and the contribution of Germans to European civilization.
Choose wisely.
The honour of past & future generations of Singaporeans lie in your hands.
My former supervisor once threw his tandem and temper at me at my workstation in an open office with other staff around. I reported this to my union personnel who later brought up the matter to the senior management. I could have retaliate him, but I wanted to report the matter through proper channels first, and see how it goes.
ReplyDelete