Thursday, December 29, 2011

Name-calling

I have been called and labeled with many names - negatives and positives. I didn't bother much about what people said about me negatively. It's waste of time to bother but when name-calling is tinged with subtle threat, it's a problem.
As a member of the Management Council of the resort that I live in, I was given a task in charge of cleanliness since I spend most of my time there. And I take my responsibility seriously. The resort is always in a mess due to selfish attitude of people who go there. The management has always faced with problem of cleaning service. We terminated the last company's service for being complacent. The new company belongs to an Indian couple based in PJ and they appointed an Indian supervisor to take care of the work. Two months passed by, the service has not improved. I complained by phone and email to the owner as the supervisor is supposed to see things done.
The most irritating thing is, the cleaners and the supervisor didn't even know that somebody shit and urinated on the staircase in different blocks until I went for my walking exercise and informed them so. There were always the same excuses why the car park was not swept - many cars parked there. Old wooden door was thrown at the beach - a short cut work whereas many times I have informed the company that nothing should be thrown at the beach. It was an ongoing battle. Why was it so difficult for some Malaysians to understand simple awareness on cleanliness? So my complaints went on and on and I wouldn't stop until the issues were addressed.
When I returned from Pekanbaru, the Deputy chairperson forwarded me an email from the supervisor, cursing and calling me names to say that I accused him of not doing his work and gave strings of excuses.
Of course, I was upset for a while but I thought it was a childish email coming from a wounded child. I decided to disregard it but planned to bring it up in the next management meeting. The Deputy Chairperson responded to his email explaining to him that as a member of the Council, I have the right to pursue issues pertaining to my portfolio and that as a member I have the say in hiring and firing people. If he is not able to handle complaints gracefully he should leave. I guess that fueled his anger, aiming at me in particular.
The owner of the company sent me SMS when I was still in Pekanbaru apologising for his staff's behaviour and that the individual is resigning at the end of December. From then on, I received regular reports through SMS of the company's effort to keep the resort clean. In an way, I am happy my complaints are taken seriously and hope this sense of responsibility will continue. I have no attention to make people lose their jobs but if jobs are not done seriously and responsibly, they deserve to be sacked.
In the management meeting I was never in favour to employ people with aggressive and talk big behaviour especially among Indians. They can turn to be gangsters and difficult to get rid of when work is not satisfactorily done. I hope the committee learns a lesson from this and be more aware the next time in awarding contract. As far as I am concerned, I paid service fee faithfully and good service should be provided. Lets see what happens after this and I'll keep everyone posted.

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