Yesterday, I had a problem with my work laptop. Actually, signs of the problem started months ago, as the laptop provided to me was an old model. I noticed it occasionally was making strange bleeping noises, and it was not normal kind of bleeps like the one you hear when the comp starts up, but it was coming directly from my hard drive, and every time the noises started, my laptop would hang for a while. At first it was not so bad, but eventually it got worse, and I brought it up to my company's IT guy, who told me they had just ordered some new laptops so most likely mine would be replaced. So I was crossing my fingers and hoping that my hard drive would hold out til then, but today the bleeping got so bad and my comp was being stalled for so long, I got really fed up and decided to tell my boss about the problem directly, so that he could decide whether or not get it repaired or allocate one of the new lappies to me. Since my boss was out of office, I sent him an email telling him about the problem. He has a Blackberry (for the uninformed, that's that nifty little phone, , so he got my email right away, and amazingly (to me), two minutes later, he gave me a call and told me that it wouldn't be a problem to get my laptop replaced. They had some spare newer laptops and I could get mine replaced the following week when he returned from outstation. And I was pleasantly surprised, and pretty happy that he responded to me so quickly, and he wanted to make sure my problem was solved as soon as possible (well, I was happy until several extreme loud bleeps later in the day, my lappy decided to pass out. That's another problem for me, but deviating from my post here).
The reason I am pleasantly surprised is because this issue reminds me of a time in my previous company, where I had a similar problem but received a rather different response. Just so you know, if you don't already, I'm currently working for an international company which has offices all over the world but not that well-known in Malaysia (and in my few months here, I've so far gotten to meet and work with colleagues from offices in other countries, which I think is pretty awesome, but that's deviating from my story again), whereas my previous company is a large government-linked company (GLC) that's very well known in Malaysia.
What happened in my previous company was that, although it was a well-established, supposedly good company, I and most of my colleagues on my team were not provided with work laptops when we joined the company. For several months, the story was that they had applied for the laptops to the IT department, but they couldn't get it to us for so long due to God knows what problems. It was like every week, they would tell us that the laptops 'should be coming within the next two weeks', but it would be delayed. So for the first few months, I had to bring my personal laptop for work.... and at the time, I hadn't yet bought my lovely red lappy. I only had a crappy old and bulky Compaq, with a keys that were not functioning properly, so I had to connect to an external keyboard. Imagine having to carry all that around outstation to my work sites! But I didn't even complain about that. The problem started when my personal lappy hard drive also started acting up, and my comp would just occasionally refuse to start up. Not very good for productivity, of course. So at a point when it got pretty bad, I also brought the issue up to my boss at the time and asked him to try and get the IT people to send the laptops to our team as soon as possible, not just for myself but also for the rest of my team. At the time, he seemed ok with my request. Later on, however, I did some things in my work which I thought was reasonable actions for any employee, but for some reason, it ticked off my boss and he got on my case a LOT (mind you, I work the same way in my current company as I did there, and my current manager and boss have told me they like the way I work. Needless to say, I'm pretty happy about that!). Won't go into the details, but in a nutshell, my ex-boss thought I was asking for or about things I shouldn't have been asking for. One of it, he brought up later on, was about me asking for the laptop. Apparently he thought that I was being too demanding for asking for the company laptop to be brought in faster.
Naturally, at that point I was blinking at him, and I believe my thoughts at the time were something along the lines of "What the @%$&??". And I was not the only one who got the rap for asking for a new comp. My other colleagues who didn't even have a personal laptop were stuck using a PC that was close to a piece of junk coz' it was very slow and ridden with viruses, so naturally they couldn't get much work done on it. Instead of understanding our problem and helping to get us new comps as soon as possible so it would increase our productivity, he gave us some whacked out, almost-sarcastic reply about how last time he didn't even have a computer to work on and we should be thankful that company is providing something, even if it's a piece of junk computer, or the laptops arrive a few months late.
This a tale of two mentalities. The first is the mentality of my expatriate boss who understands that a cranky laptop does not make for good work productivity, therefore he does not consider my request for a new laptop demanding. Instead his logical reaction is to get my laptop replaced as soon as possible. The second mentality is of a local boss of certain race, whom, when I ask for something more than I already have, even though it is for the purpose of improving my productivity and benefiting the company, his first assumption was that I was being demanding and that I wanted a new laptop for my personal gain. He completely ignored the fact that until I learn how to magically burp or poop out reports, I can't get much work done without a properly functioning computer.
Ok lah, I'll be frank at the risk of being shot down. My ex-boss was a Malay. However, let me clarify this is not an issue of race. I know a lot of very nice Malays, so I have nothing against the race per se. The issue here is the illogical management of resources (I'm talking about employees, not just laptops) of people such as my ex-boss, whom it just so happens that most (fortunately, not all) of these people are Malays. And I believe that the reason this mentality dominates among the Malays is it has sprouted from decades of a Malay-dominated government teaching that such a mentality is perfectly acceptable. The mentality is that it is better to be thankful for what you have already received from a generous giver, than it is to ask for more things, even though it will increase the productivity of the receiver and eventually the whole organisation (in this case, the government, and in my case, my ex-company).
We hear it all the time from Malay leaders, every time the non-Malay community gripes about ot having the same benefits as the Malays. One especially pertinent issue being the fact that many bright non-Malay students with excellent academic results do not receive scholarships, while their Malay counterparts with less than great exam results get a free ticket to study overseas from the government. The excuse given, or so I've read, is that our non-Malay forefathers agreed over 50 years ago after independence that we would get our citizenship in exchange for the Malays getting more benefits, and also this was because the Malays are the time were not faring well economically. Therefore, these politicians explain, we non-Malays should be happy with what was so generously given to us and not ask for so much. I suppose it's because they are so used to getting government hand-outs even though most of the time (not all the time, as there are some smart and hardworking Malays) they do nothing to deserve it, that's why it's more important for them to be grateful than to be productive. Yeah, not a very nice comment to make, but it's happening and you can't shoot me down for saying out loud what everyone already knows.
As such, most bright non-Malay students with excellent academic results who do not receive local scholarships, get offered scholarships by private institutions or even other countries like Singapore. And so many smart Malaysians leave the country to work else where and don't come back because they know they know there is no benefit for them simply because they are not Malay, and this had lead to the current brain-drain. If they had been given incentives to stay and work in Malaysia, no doubt the country would be doing much better economically, and this would benefit the whole country. But nooooonononono.... it is more important that we be grateful and accept what we have than to ask for better opportunities. In the end, when the bright non-Malays decide to jump ship, they get neither gratefulness or productivity. Isn't that a fantastic deal for our country?
Again, let me be very clear that this is not an issue of race, or even about the Malay's benefits. If our forefathers agreed that the Malays get more benefits than the non-Malays, then I'm cool with that coz' that was the original agreement. So people can argue about whether the Malay benefits should be dropped til the cows come home for all I care. My gripe is that even if more opportunities go to the Malays, I don't understand why they are willing to leave the obviously brilliant non-Malays in the dust . Since the government obviously can afford it, why not give scholarships to all the bright non-Malay students as well? Then at least the country will retain people who are good at what they do, which will benefit the Malaysia's economy in the long-run. Instead, the brilliant non-Malays who don't get government funding are usually given scholarships by other institutions or countries Singapore. Then the government complains that Singapore is stealing our people. Doh. >_< And education is just one area, let's not start about all the other areas in which business-savvy non-Malays who are good at what they do lose out just coz' our leaders can't take a step back and see the big picture on what will benefit the country in the long run.
Tis a chilling tale indeed.... -_-
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