Today one of my ex-colleague received what was due to him a long time ago. He finally received his 2 years 13th month bonus owing to him by a company. I believe he won after a long battle to get what was rightly due to him. If one has a will, he will always be rewarded. I was there when the cheque was signed yesterday and immediately I informed my ex-colleague. I am very sure he will be celebrating his victory today or over the weekend.
As a matter of fact, he was not the only one facing this problem. Since 2002, the company was in financial difficulties and all employees didn't get their 13th month bonus. Being the patient loads, we swallowed the fact unwillingly and hoping that the owner will keep his promise to pay us the bonus un due time. However, a year past and no news. Came end of 2004 and again, our 13th month bonus was no where to be seen. Besides that, I found out some of our EPF wasn't paid to the KWSP department. It was deducted from our monthly salary, but was never submitted. I filed a complaint to the GM and luckily he was professional enough that he order to get our EPF updated to date.
Coming back to 13th bonus, the company owe quite a few employee 2 months bonus. All has left the company expect myself. Well, I did left the company but I joined back again due to the opportunities the president promised me. I took the job knowing that they still owe me two month bonus. I still keep in touch with most of the previous colleagues who left the company after 2002. In fact, some of us became close friends and hanging out together monthly. All of them said they wanted to take legal action but I have doubt. There is a different between all talk and no action. In the end I knew they are not going to do anything and waiting for someone to initiate it. So when my ex-colleague told me about his hearing, I was very happy for him. He took the initiative and not waiting for the company to take their own sweet time to pay. To tell the truth, I don't believe the company will pay what was due to us without legal action. Unfortunately for me, I can't do anything at the moment because I'm still an employee of the company. I have cons0ulted many people and everyone told me I will be at risk of getting fired if I file a complaint at the labour department. When time comes, I will do it.
Being at a losing end and helpless due to my situation in the company, I promised myself that I will reap the most knowledge and gain from it. In fact, after returning to the company for 6 months, I was already building up my business from the experience I gained. I gained in terms of business, management, industry and work experiences. With that, I used it to my advantages. Team up with couple of friends, we build a business during the 3rd quater of 2005.
We started small because we believe in being prudent. We spend only what we can afford and try to make the most profit in everything we do. The cost was very low because we work from SOHO. In just a month, we managed to get a business contract from oversea. Using freelancers to save cost, we began to build business and customer relationship with our client. In the beginning, the work were fewer, never the less, it was a paid work. After trying us for 2 months, our client has more confident and began to past us more and more work to do. Mind you we are only in our 4th month! The amount of work has gone up over 100% but we maintain the total freelancers. I always believe employees should be an asset with high value. I will only increase staff when everyone is overloaded. I did this not because I want to overwork staff but in the frigile economic since 1997, it is important to create value so one will not be easily dispossed by the company.
Now we have one stable client who gave us more work, we also have a new client. Even though I have to put in a lot of hours daily and all my weekends, I have never been more content. Now's it's like having 2 full time jobs. I work for a company in during the day, clocking in 42 hours a week, After that I work on my business during the nights and weekends, clocking countless hours. All the hardwork my friends and myself put in are bearing fruits. Our second client is giving us full control, which means all work will be coming to us. We are a start-up business and we are constantly trying to improve our business and process. I would like to work together and along-side with clients so we can help each other to meet our goals and objectives.
All that I've learnt my my company, good and bad, I am using it as a reference in my business.
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