I'm Back!

Wow, I realized that it's been awhile since I last blogged.. reason being.. there's nothing interesting happening to blog about!  Okay, maybe not, but I've just been going through some stuff that I don't feel like blogging about, and it's pretty much taken a lot of my time... and energy.. but I now figured.. where else can I rant if I am not able to rant here?

I'm still flying out to Bintulu once a month to deal with payroll.. it's a tedious job, that's going to be lighter now that everyone finally understood that we meant business when we said that we no longer want to use time cards!  We now rely on a fingerprinting system to clock in and out of work.  That makes payroll so much easier.  This month was no different.. except this time, I flew to Bintulu with my new minion!  She's going to be the one going to Bintulu going forward!  (although I'll still have to accompany her for the next few months!)

Keying in data is the tedious part.. we spent two whole days keying it in that I had to miss my returning flight to Kuching in order to finish the payroll.  Instead, I had to buy a whole new ticket leaving lunch the next day.  That was when shit happened.  See, I have 3 administration people there.. two admin clerks and one site administrator.  One clerk was on maternity leave so I have two staff on hand.  Well, the site administrator is Lazy with a capital L!  It seems like my questions are always answered with an 'I don't know lah!'  What the hell am I paying you so much for then?  So that morning, I sat down with her, and explained to her that I was reducing her job scope, therefore I am reducing her salary as well.  I mean, logical isn't it?  She was calm.. said she'll read the contract and let me know.  I thought it went pretty well... until I was at the airport waiting to depart when all hell broke loose.  I received an email from her .. and boy was she angry.  Now, firstly, her English was atrocious, making it difficult for me to understand what on earth she's on about (and to think.. we rely on her to take minutes!) and secondly... she accused me of being "young and inexperienced"... OMG.. this is the second time in my working life that I've been accused of that!  Like.. dude.. I have 9 years working experience already man.. at least she thinks I'm young =D

She went on and demanded a 10 day leave from the project manager.. who foolishly signed it (Sigh) and went on an SMS rampage with me (double sigh) and threatened to go to the labor department etc.. I'm not worried cos I didn't break any laws.  That night, I got a call from a colleague that some files were mysteriously gone from the server (uh-oh.. sabotage?) and the next day, I got a call from our other clerk saying that all the data in the fingerprint system is gone.  OMG.. sabotage??  I had to make an emergency trip to Bintulu... and luckily was able to salvage all the data, although it did take me a whole day to do it.  All throughout the day, the Site Administrator was sending me SMS .. badmouthing one of my supervisors at the site, saying that he's stolen money etc.. 

That's it!  I don't want to downgrade her anymore.. I want her OUT of the company.  She has a potty mouth.. but I can't just fire her.. I'll be breaking all sorts of labor law (I'm pretty sure that's what she wanted).. so after several maydays to HR managers and Labor law lecturers.. I got my answer.. and I'm so happy with it.

1. She's under probation so I can not-confirm her position, therefore terminating her as soon as possible.
2. She can't take that to the labor court because of my full-proof employee handbook that states that she had to be confirmed in writing.
3. She doesn't have a case against us (I hope)

Yup, it looks like HR wins.... =D  Oh, and I've already hired someone new to take her position as site administrator... Boo ya!