Beggers Can't Be Choosers

Isn't it interesting that the title phrase of this entry is more than true in the world of O3. Recently some ex-O3bers met up at a mutual friend's wedding and we reminenced the old times and shared hilarious stories - hence today's blog entry.

O3 has attempted to have lean staff that take on multiple jobs. I believe that if you read the TODAY newspaper (http://www.todayonline.com/articles/288568.asp) you'd have seen how Microsoft hardly ever retrenches even in times of bad economies. Most of their staff have been there for quite a period and the incentives are good. Pantries are filled with fresh fruits and healthy snacks.

O3, however, tends towards a high turnover. This high turnover has a pro in terms of cost per job...at least in the short term. You see, if you hire someone for a year at most and they leave, there's no need to talk about a pay raise or bonus or even 13th month. Yes, most staff are paid their starting salaries and hardly a cent more. Pity the upper management are short sighted and in doing so they've stagnanted 2 major high-cost development projects for at least another 2 meaningless years. Who knows how many hundreds of thousands of dollars have been wasted just by the relentless replacement of workers.

Back to the title phrase. Many staff were fired within their first few weeks of work. Funny thing is some of these staff crawl back to ask Uberbaus to take them back. These people are the special O3-ber-wanna-bes. With such strange tenacity due to desperation, Uberbaus will hire them back knowing that he can push their limits now that he has sussed out the "true O3bers".

Why be a "true O3ber"? Hmm, one of these "true" ones told me that she knows that she can't be fired, cos she plans to do things such that Uberbaus can't live without her. Another "true" one also said something almost to that effect. So it seems like these BEGGERS actually CHOSE to join O3???

Ah, what is the world coming to????

O3's Employer's Pledge of Lies

I found out something so hypocritical about O3 (ok, so its impossible to think of honestly within O3) that I couldn't stop myself from laughing when I read the recently signed Employer's Pledge.

Some background: The Employer's Pledge pertains to exhibiting FAIR EMPLOYEMENT PRACTICES within the company. (Does anyone see where this is going? Hahaha!) This pledge's scanned image won't be posted here so that we don't get sued....but it was signed by Uberbaus, wife of Uberbaus and little mini-buas. Little mini-buas is the younger brother of mini-baus, son of Uberbaus and the latest family addition to the crazy-bi-polar management of O3. Little mini-baus is supposely in charge of human resources. Wah...... It is also signed by the president of MIWU, part of some tripartite partners of the govt and stat boards.

Let us now dive into and giggle at the absurdities of what these bosses have pledged to lie about:

1. My favourite: Treat employees fairly and with respect. Ohhh! Does that mean throwing stuff at workers, screaming swear words in hokkien, fining indiscriminately and not paying O3-bers overtime? Wow, talk about fair...yes, let us recall how minibaus stayed at a 5star hotel in germany while the rest of us cramped up to 4 or 5 people into a backpackers lodging. Hmm...yes, very respectful and fair don't you think?
2. Reward employees fairly based on their ability, performance, contribution and experience. Many foreign O3-bers will tell you of their ability to cringe when screamed at and how they will defer to consistently work overtime for free just so as to not get fired. O3 fairly rewards O3-bers by letting them keep their jobs (usually where its 2 to 3 person's jobs falling upon one poor O3-ber) with an almost indeterminate pay freeze.
   
3. Abide by labour laws. Oh boy. Where do I begin? =P Like not hiring enough Singaporeans to cover the foreigner quota? Erm, like not paying OT and not allowing people to take leave or making O3-bers pay for their medical costs or firing without due cause or having no fire safety in site or sealing of fire exits or hiting a poor small female worker or being an evil dark presence in the light of day? Ok, so that last bit isn't part of our law but it should be.
4. A harmonious work environment....teehee! I think the O3-bers are harmonious amongst themselves (except for the snake) during lunch time and after work. So yah, ok, we'll let this one slide. =P
5. where employees are highly motivated and contribute to their fullest to their organisations and the economy. Who is motivated? The Bausses of course! They are so motivated that they motivate O3-bers into working via threats, scoldings, screamings, etc. Hmm. The pledge should state the type of motivation. O3 survives because of the fear induced in the O3-bers. Work continues and targets raised everytime just to contribute to O3's profit. Bah.

Ah yes, the Employer's Pledge is a cheapskate way of putting the blinders on unsuspecting potential O3-bers. Please everyone, note that this particular O3 lies and bluffs its way through an ISO audit and has obviously signed this pledge just as a front. Beware of their masked internet presence...it's one humungous lie.

O3 - "Best" in Asia for Lab Equipment Manufacturing!

Hi everyone,

Most of us have left the original O3 company that this blog is based upon. Kudos to all of us! Yeah! I think its good to ocassionally remember what was left behind in that chapter of our lives so that we will better appreciate our current situation.

I was looking through the O3's website. Never really read it properly or in depth when I was there. What I find funny is that the Uberbaus, mini-baus have declared that O3 is the LEADER IN ASIA for MANUFACTURING of LAB EQUIPMENT.

WHAT?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?! *gasp!*

Ha! I think there's obviously a much much much much much, did I mention MUCH, better brand called SANYO. Duh. And uh, they are based in Asia.

O3 the leader in Asia for manufacturing would be true for the following criteria:
1. Cheap materials
2. Bad manufacturing quality control
3. Under-the-table certification "pass" status
4. Incredibly late deliveries of orders
5. Delivered items have faulty parts (ref point 2)
6. False promises declared on catalogues
7. Copycat research

Yeps, I think if they had the above criteria in mind then O3 is justifiably truthful in the declaration of being the best in Asia for Lab equipment manufacturing.

O3's abound!

I wonder why there are so many O3 type companies. Just like disgusting viruses...ew... I hope there's a vaccination against such companies. Sometimes I wish I were a govt official who is allowed to go under cover to bust these O3 companies wide open. I wish.

Recently I met a very nice filipino lady who was sucked into earning peanuts for an O3 company. I didn't know it was O3 type until she started to describe the torture she was enduring:

1. Verbal abuse from the big bosses.
2. Grossly underpaid (less than 1k a month!!!)
3. Grossly overworked (doing about 7 peoples job!!!)
4. Forced to work OT until work is done, without extra pay.
5. Denied medical leave when sick. (this is bordering on inhumane!)

This is just the tip of the iceberg for the work she is doing. Come on now...we all know temp and part-timers who are earning more while working less right?

The good news is that she found another job. (woohoo!) And the funny thing is that her soon-to-be-ex boss actually asked her what about the company? How are things going to be done?

I never fail to find it humourous when such awful O3 type bosses EXPECT loyalty out of the "slaves" they have. This isn't the kidnapper's syndrome you know, where the NICE captor gains respect and loyalty from the captive. But again, the captor is NICE. NICE! O3 dudes, do you even understand the concept of fairness and niceness to all???

Moving on...

Hi everyone!
Its been a looooooooooooooooooooong time since the last update eh? Well, some people have moved on, gotten married, and even had babies!

Here's some rather outdated news I heard some weeks back but didn't manage to get around to putting it up.

In O3, there was a certain dame that thought she was Uberbaus' favourite. He doted on her and let her whine her way through work. He found it entertaining to observe her daily shrieks and rantings from his fishbowl office (he told me it was amusing...not kidding.) He said that she gets things done in her home country. He stressed on her usefulness to me countless times and I had to tactfully remind him when she sat on a job for weeks when it could've been done in a day or two.

Anyway, Uberbaus insisted that she is the cornerstone of this important department. I think that this particular cornerstone let drop one too many grains of sand from her foundation and it finally collapsed.

Not sure if these facts still hold true, but not too long ago, the dame was found to have corruptly done transactions in her home country (Egad!). Seriously, is that so surprising? Its one of those country's that are famous for corruption in business. Then again, so is O3 itself.

Corrupt within, corrupt without.

What shocked me was the news that this precious dame was fired! Not by Uberbaus I think, but by mini-baus. He's background is deeply rooted in the states where bribery and corruption are more than frowned upon. Uberbaus' background is rahter deep-seated in it that he does not have qualms about faking documentation and "being nice" to officials to attain his goals.

I wonder what has happened since...has the dame been reinstated yet? She's the cornerstone...has the department fallen apart? Anyone know?

Recruiting from the Lion's Den

Hi everyone, sorry about the drought. No entries for the entire month of July. Wow. Good thing no one threw eggs at me. Ha!

Well, no stories to write about until I recently got some news.

A certain ex-O3ber who worked there for probably about 5 years, got recruited into a foreign company. This special O3-ber was from the sales department and sold the products all over the world - the US, China... Ok, so Uberbaus didn't really like him but since he was bringing in the sales and ever ready to work hard, he did pretty well in O3.

The thing I don't really understand is why would he want to recruit engineers and sales people from O3. Is it out of goodwill? Or is it to spite the Uber and minibaus? Or is it due to the fact that he honestly thinks O3bers are fabulous (at least most of them) salesmen and engineers?

Finally, to recruit from the Lion's Den is almost suicidal, ESPECIALLY when you go ahead and tell the snake that you are doing so. While this ex-O3ber is safe from Uberbaus now, the unsuspecting hope-to-become-ex-O3bers who were called to meet him about the potential exit permit from O3...well, if the snake (who went for the meeting?!?!?!) tells Uberbaus, can you imagine the gnashing of teeth that will take place when he discovers who is sneaking behind his back to try and leave O3?

Well, I sure hope the snake decides not to tell, since his being there also incriminates himself. But a snake is a snake...so watch out. And beware of where you step.

The Fall of Minibaus

The latest event to happen at O3 is that the mini-buas finally let go of his educational life. He has left university (under unknown circumstances) for the pursuit of greatness and money.

Uberbaus has blown a gasket in the meantime. In this respect I can't blame him because he had pulled strings for mini-baus to get into the ivy league school to do a double major.

Uberbaus' blown gasket is still spewing steam and vulgarities. Of course, the bulk of the steam and vulgarities are splattered at the staff in the office and which ever unfortunate soul is in his presence. More staff are resigning as an effect. It is not known how long the spewing can be sustained by Uberbaus. I can just picture him blaming the staff for not taking on more work and responsibilities so that mini-baus can stay in school.

The short term effect of mini-baus leaving can definitely be felt. Will there be any meaningful long term? That is the million-dollar gamble that mini-baus is taking without Uberbaus' blessings.

Reverse, Forward, Neutral Engineering

In O3, we know that they demand fast products and are willing to cut corners. Thus reverse engineering is the order of the day. Labs are filled to the brim with competitor's products that management claims is for testing...

But the SOP is that once all the testing is completed, O3 engineers have the joy of tearing the competition's units apart to stare and observe and learn from their designs. To a certain extent, it makes some sense to do that. Kind of like not reinventing the wheel. On the other hand, it halts creativity and creation of new ideas. What I'd like to coin forward engineering. If the whole world kept staring at CRT tvs, do you think plasma or LCD tvs would exist?

O3 is stuck in trend of reverse engineering...in fact, it "worships" this angle of attack. Egads! I mean, if you look at the top 2 or 3 international models already...great! Why do you need to look at every single brand? I mean, the cost of procuring all these models outweighs the benefits. If you manage to put together all the best features of the units, I bet another O3 like company based in a labour and material cost advantaged country will be able to do it faster, cheaper and better.

So well, I propose that O3 attempts to look at neutral engineering. Since reverse engineering will be impossible to rip from their deathlike grasps, they should lock up at least 3 engineers in a separate room away from all external influences and ask them to come up with a new product that does xyz functions. Who knows? It might work right?

Silver spoons

We currently live in a society where getting a bachelors degree is something highly sought after. However, I've come to know quite a number of highly intelligent individuals, who were all born with silver spoons, who have either done badly or simply dropped out of school because life was easy for them and money came pouring in from directions we can't even fathom.

(For those born without silver spoons and had to struggle to work, dropping out of school may have been necessary, so I'm not in anyway talking about those who have financial hardships to deal with.)

Case in point would be the miniboss. You see, engineering students who study locally are forced to do the 4-year course for honours. We were also taking an average of 8 modules every semester. We were not allowed to do double majors but that's changing since the numerous protests. Things are slow to change though.

So, miniboss gets accepted into one of the top business and engineering schools in the ivy league to do a double major even though he had no extra-curricular activities during junior college. By that time, he was immersed in the O3 environment and getting away with things in the school because Uberbaus made friends in high places and donations to the school. Now, miniboss refuses to understand the enormous gift he has by getting into this ivy league school. He gets to do a double major with only about 5 to 6 modules every semester. Is that fair? Furthermore, he hardly attends lessons and isn't doing well for the examinations. He has placed O3 as top priority in his life simply because he assumes that O3 will survive. (that is probably true as long as the 3 bosses are there.) Silver spoon. Uberbaus will do anything for miniboss to succeed.

Another case I know is the son of a certain politician. Badly behaved in school and kept back one year for failing. Last I heard, he has a high paying job at a well-loved beer company. Silver spoon. His dad is highly influencial.

Yah, I think the silver spoon increases the odds of brat behaviour and not being grateful for the opportunities given to you and that you had taken away from other more deserving individuals.

Dinner and Dance the O3 way

Apparantly the annual Dinner and Dance of the O3 is coming up soon. The last one wasn't that fun either but we were pretty much forced to go cos if you didn't, the individual cost would've been deducted from one's salary.

This year, I have spared myself the agnst of attending the D&D by simply having removed myself from O3 in January this year. The more recently parted though still managed to be invited for the D&D. We suspect it is to make up the dwindling numbers.

This year they have also changed the venue of the D&D and merged the factory D&D with the HQ D&D. Sounds like a good idea save for the fact that the venue is changed from a decent hotel in the city to a place on the island's factory.

Yes, the island. Let us reflect on the ISLAND: Some would postulate the possibility that Uberbaus simply wants to kidnap all the employees whilst on this foreign land. Others would say its just to make everyone sick from the mosquito bites and the food. Uberbaus has "promised" (WOW!) that he would provide nice accomodations for the HQ staff to stay over one night. Right...

Yes, the "promise". Let us reflect on the PROMISE: Uberbaus has promised to improve the accomodations of employees in that island for many months now but hardly anything has changed. Up to5 staff are squeezed into a room that was meant for 2! Beddings are infested with bedbugs and items are stolen half the time. Yes, the promise is only for Uberbaus and his family to stay in the resort like accomodations. The promise is for himself.

The last item up for discussion would be the LUCKY DRAW PRIZES. The Uberbaus shamelessly instructs the committee to scour the ground for vouchers. Unbeknowst to the well-meaning large companies who give tens of dollar or vouchers or sponsor digital cameras, the Uberbaus keeps these nice gifts for himself and then gets a worker to purchase household items like rice cookers and toasters as prizes. The vouchers are then used at the whim and fancy of Uberbaus to furnish the office or replace spoilt items. Digital cameras are then used to "bribe" goodwill from other staff or as gifts to foreigners to display Uberbaus' generousity.

Yah, last year, the top prize was supposed to be a cash prize...but instead it was transformed into a travel voucher of smaller value from O3's travel agent. Uberbaus was even witnessed to have ask a worker whether he could pay the guy's salary with vouchers instead.

You decide the shamelessness of his actions. You decide how many D&D's you want to attend at O3.

EXTRA! EXTRA!! How come WE must pay EXTRA!

I just read the news about making NETS users pay the administrative charge for using NETS! What is this? are they really so hard up for viamin M?? It's bad enough to get credit card users to pay the extra 2% for using the facilities! How come these methods of payments that is supposed bring us convenience ends up making us pay more? What kinda logic is this? So much for wanting us to go paperless, and we have to bear the cost!

I'm already pissed over the taxi companies for wanting us to pay EXTRA cos they are changing to new cabs! not to mention the fact that they also want EXTRA for the Environment Friendly cabs they have! Come on man!, get real! If you want to go enviromental, do it at ur own cost! dun get consumers, who probably dun care about the environment, to pay for it! these are the things that service providers are SUPPOSED to do to improve our comfort! How come the cost of these is being flowed to us consumers! How come no one is doing anything about this? Or can anyone do anything about it?

This is not the end! Aparrently, they are gonna review increasing the fares for both buses and MRTs! like they are not earning enough from us consumers! With the new EZLink cards, they are getting commuters to pay the correct fare, with the occasional (or is it USUAL) technical glitch of overcharging them. Now they want to raise the fares again. I really hope this is not approved! Whenever there is an increase in charges, in whatever services that is provided, they will never come down. They try to justify the increase by the Gulf War, the high petrol prices and stuff. All these is to divert our attention away from the increase we have to pay, and before we know it, BAM! It hits us like a freight train!

What will we have to pay extra for next?

How Do You Sleep At Night?

How do you sleep at night? Very well? Or do you lose sleep over the bad things you've done earlier in the day? Ever wondered how the Uberbaus-es sleep? This thought came as I was mopping the floor and thinking of Horlicks. I remember watching an advert in the UK about Horlicks. The advert has a bus driver driving a bus, and as he moves off the bus stop, there was this guy running after the bus. The driver sees the guy running after the bus, but he just does not stop the bus and keeps on driving, glancing at the rear-view mirror once in a while. The camera then shifts to his bedroom and him drinking a cuppa Horlicks just before he goes to bed. The next scene was his next day at work driving the bus and him driving off as another guy runs after his bus.!

Sometimes it makes me wonder how the Uberbaus-es sleep at night. I'm pretty sure he loses sleep over how his company is losing every day even though orders are coming in. But whether he loses sleep over all the nasty things he says and does to his employees, I don't think so. I guess he consoles himself by doing 'good deeds' and thinking that these 'good deeds' can redeem his soul enough for him to go to heaven. I don't think he does these 'good deeds' out of the goodness of his heart.

I remember once he asked me the question ' You think you can go Heaven is it?' What drove him to ask me that question, I don't know. I didn't answer him but I wanted to just tell him, 'Yeah, I'll go to Heaven, but I don't know about you tho'! '

And just for the record, I sleep very well every night. how about you?

Feeding the Snakes to Fight

I recently heard that the Uberbaus is conducting one of his famous management motivational moves. Try and understand this:

1. Uberbaus tells employee P that he likes to be the bad guy so that the workers will unite together in O3-ness and work as one. (he is being "self-sacrificial" so he says).
2. Uberbaus then grabs Q into the room and bad mouths about R and says he doesn't want to work with R.
3. Couple days later, Uberbaus grabs R into the office and complains about Q to R.
   
4. In effect, Uberbaus thinks that this will cause Q and R to compete against each other and work harder.

The truth of it is, everyone knows about Uberbaus' crazy tactics. He simply gives people no reason to have better synergy for the company, which is bleeding money to the "superior races". But that's another blog entry.

Karoshi Cube's Karoshi Moment

Hey everyone, thanks for following and supporting Karoshi cube.

As material is failing to come in fast enough, I would like to know whether you'd like us to continue Karoshi-ing (on a sparser amount of posts) or if anyone else would like to join in the fun and post along side the 3 authors.

I, as LJ, having left O3, am not as updated or as emotionally involved as i used to be. So naturally postings have declined in this blog. I'm also busy with other stuff. =)

So, yah, you guys want this blog to carry on? And who wants in (to write posts)?

Karoshi! Karoshi! Kah-ROHHHH-SHI!!!!

Employment Guidelines to End Discrimination....RIGHT...

This is hilarious stuff. I practically keeled over reading the story on the front page of the local newspaper. Its entitled," New Employment Guidelines Aim to End Discrimination".

Oh sure. They are just guidelines. Watch O3 companies play the ignoramus card.

Here are some of the guidelines that are flouted by O3 all the time. In fact, the Uberbaus asked me the question and I was surprised at it.

~From the newspaper~
JOB INTERVIEWS
* Don't ask:
Questions on such personal matters as whether an applicant intends to have children.

DISMISSALS/LAYOFFS
* Don't:
Dismiss an employee before (a) He is given an opportunity to present his case; (b) Allowing an independent assessment panel to make the final decision.

~end quote~

Isn't it funny? I got asked the children question and there's plenty of stories of people being fired with humiliation on the spot. What independent panel? Oh, you mean, the 3 headed boss?

Bah. Guidelines, Shmidelines.

The wise are heeding their own advice

I remember an older and wiser O3ber once told me that he understood why I was leaving. Although he was sad about it, he understood perfectly the reasons behind why I simply had enough and needed to move on with my own life and development.

He even wisely kept silent and simply smiled when I asked him what he thought about the O3 HR Philosophy of how only 'Elites" exist in the company. I bet he had his own comments but held his tongue. =)

Anyway, I'm glad that many people have left and more people are deciding to find a better job and life balance outside of O3.

Dehumanise...

No, its not one of those freaky digitalising movie tricks. Its O3 taking more steps towards dehumanising its employees. (Apparantly Uberbaus and Miniboss are not on agreement here, but the bigger boss is winning so far.)

Practically every company will issue its employees a personal email address where the employee's name is coded in. This was the way with the O3. WAS.

There's a sort of new coding thing going on there and it involves giving people code names and serial numbers. Every dept has its own name but for one dept, the name given by the baus doesn't make sense. It wasn't explained to them what the acronym meant either. OTA??? For an Engineering Dept? What does it mean? Baus should have the courtesy of explaining what it means, cos it could mean something derogatory that only baus understands.

"Yo, call OTA1 here with OTA 13, Bring SBC 3 and MTA2 as well. I want to find out who is doing all this." Sounds like a potential conversation in the future at O3 eh? You have to go and find out and memorise your collegues numbers...

If there is a practical and meaningful reason for this, will some one enlighten me?

The Offer was For February

When I left O3 at the end of January, I had told miniboss that I was willing to return to office for 1 day in February to debrief the new person taking over me. Thereafter, I told him I was going to be busy and unlikely to be available.

In the fashionable O3 way, miniboss nodded his head and said thanks and that he'd contact me when he found a replacement. And in the fashionable O3 way, miniboss' mind did not register the part where I was going to be busy after February.

As always, the replacements are hard to find. One came and left before I even had an opportunity to meet the poor sod. One day went by...one week...then February came and went. March came and miniboss started Sms-ing me questions.

Finally in April, they found a replacement. It turned out to one of those "prodigal sons" who left O3 and for reasons unknown to the human species, this fella returned to O3. In mid April, the fella now (after 2 .5 months!!!) then asked if I were able to return to O3 to brief him.

Sorry dude, your coupon expired long ago and my benevolent heart now belongs to my very own personal business. O3 can go the way of the dinosaurs - and they just might, at the rate the feet dragging goes...

There'll be Peace In the O3, Somtimes

Occassionally life in O3 returns back to normalcy. Sanity and happiness is allowed to reign in the office sporadically. For instance, it happened again recently when boss, boss and boss were all overseas and away. Away from the office. Their physically presence was not felt. A burden lifted from the shoulders of the beasts of burden in O3. The clouds cleared. Sun shone through. Smiles were a plenty and everyone looked forward to the end of the day.

Yes, the end of the day. That's when you usually go home. And during these times of peace, the employees can leave without fearing the boss, boss or boss calling them back into the office to perform last minute duties. The employees feel a peace and calmness at the end of the day. No stresses, just peace.

Dire Certification

O3 always has trouble passing certifications for the product. They claim this and that but the american standards of certification is very strict. And to worsen the problem, the cleanroom is dirty. And to worsen-worsen the problem, the test sample of bacteria ended up containing plenty of other bacteria.

Of course, the best O3 method to counter this type of certification stress is to either keep trying (which costs alot of money) or to bribe the fella (which costs less money). There are certain standards and certifers who you just know you cannot bribe...but there are also certain countries where the certifiers welcome whatever extra income they can weasle out from you. So in the fashion of O3, they proverbially and miraculously passed certification in this country (with EXCELLENT marks nonetheless) while failing every single test it required.

Certification - A piece of paper that is meaningless if in the hands of O3.