2009 年 1 月 1 日 星期四 【颳風】

May everyone have a happy new year!

>>January 1, 2009 at 11:07:21 PM GMT+8

2008 年 10 月 18 日 星期六 【微冷】

"My Damn Life"

My diary has not been updated for a very long time. Tonight, I would like to drop a few lines of words. Before writing this diary, I have a long conversion with one of my good friends. We shared our worries. At this moment, I have only one thought in my mind: “Even though I don’t like my life, I do enjoy what I am doing right now.”

>>October 18, 2008 at 12:52:08 AM GMT+8

2008 年 5 月 31 日 星期六 【微雨】

"Long time no see"

It has been a long time since my last diary. I have been devoting myself in studying new things lately. My story will be back soon.

>>May 31, 2008 at 12:23:26 AM GMT+8

2008 年 4 月 20 日 星期日 【颱風】

My new diary is supposed to be posted soon.

>>April 20, 2008 at 12:05:35 AM GMT+8

2008 年 2 月 24 日 星期日 【微雨】

A New Job (2nd January, 2008 – Present)

A month after I had left the tutorial centre, I was hired as an administrative assistant by an education consultation company in Kowloon Bay. It is a small-sized company which organizes some training courses for food dealers and school clerical staff. I am responsible to all administrative work. Although the boss and co-workers are very kind to me, I do not think I am the right person for that position. Even though it is not my ideal job, I still try my best to do the job well.

>>February 24, 2008 at 12:48:12 PM GMT+8

2007 年 12 月 26 日 星期三 【微冷】

“The Days in Quick Mind Education Centre” ———— “A Miserable Experience” (5th June – 21st November, 2007)

Six months ago (5th June, 2007), I was hired as a centre in charge in an education centre in Sham Shui Po. The Quick Mind Education Centre is a medium-sized education company which provides a wide variety of tutorial courses in categories such as Cambridge English and Olympic Mathematics. The boss, Ms Li, has run that company over ten years. She seemed to be a nice person on my first impression. She offered me a responsible position with a fair salary and pleasant working environment. Everything seems just about perfect until my supervisor show her true colors.

At the very beginning, Ms Li treated me with respect. We will consult together about every major company policy. My supervisor also paid much attention to my advice. The company was left in my trust when she was not in the office. Most importantly, my boss freed me from all office chores. All those annoying jobs were left to be done by my other subordinates. It seems to me that it was such a cushy job

However, the honeymoon period did not last long. The company has its own problems. First of all, I noticed that certain company policies did not comply with the labour legislations. For example, some of my colleagues had never signed employment contracts but just service contracts. They were not “employees” but only “independent contractors”. One of my colleagues was hired as a tutor without any contract. In other words, all my co-workers were not protected by Employment Ordinance. Neither sickness allowance nor insurance was enjoyed by them. Secondly, no sick leave was granted to the “employees” even if medical certificate was issued. No one dare to ask for sick leave. Thirdly, Ms Li always made a mountain out of a molehill. She made some trivial matters seem important. She was a fussy employer. Everyone felt jumpy when the boss was in the office. Nobody likes the boss.

An unfortunate event happened during the summer vacation this year. In order to increase productivity, Ms Li determined to computerize the managing system. I was appointed as the program in charge. Two young tutors were assigned to help me to finish the project. Miss Lam and Miss Wong were two capable staff who devoted themselves assiduously and faithfully to the duties of their profession. They were really good employees. I was responsible for the programming and the tutors were told for data input. Everyone tried their best to finish the job but our supervisor did not think the same. Ms Li only focused on the accuracy of the data but not the grand plan of the programming. All data should be crosschecked once again if any single item was found inaccurate. It made everybody nervous because we had to make a careful check on the whole set of student records once a single error was found. There were hundreds of student profiles and no one can make sure all data were absolutely correct. Ultimately, the project was stuck in the problem of inaccuracy. The grand plan was doomed to failure. The issue of responsibility brought into question. Who should be blamed for the project failure? Miss Wong was the scapegoat in this matter. Ms Li put the blame for the failure of the project on her. It was because she was the one who was responsible to key in the data. As far as I was concerned, Miss Wong was in no way to blame. As I mentioned before, the student records contains hundreds of entries. It is impossible for a person to make sure every single entry is definitely accurate. Ms Li and Miss Wong had an argument about the question of responsibility.

Finally, Miss Wong was punished. She was told to copy all the school report cards which posted outside the education centre. Miss Wong had to stand outside the office with her heavy rucksack and copy those meaningless figures all day long (from nine to six) under the hot sun. Please remember that the incident happened during the summer vacation and there was over thirty degrees Centigrade with Very Hot Weather Warnings. Just imagine that a girl who standing outside an open area kept copying meaningless figures eight hours a day under high temperature. Her clothes were dripping wet with sweat. Miss Wong suffered a great deal in those days. The punishment was an awful sweat. To make matters worse, my boss forced Miss Wong to sign a statement which disclaims the meal benefit. Before that, the company used to provide lunch for all staff. After the big fight, Miss Wong was not allowed to have her lunch inside the workplace. Apparently, the punishments inflicted on an eighteen-year-old teenage girl were too severe. It was surely a punitive measure without any reason.

I could not turn a blind eye to that horrible scene and showed mercy to my dear colleague. I worked hard to persuade my boss that it was a win-win game if she let Miss Wong leave office. However, Ms Li turned a deaf ear to my advice. She insisted that Miss Wong had to keep working for another thirty days otherwise she had to pay the wages in lieu of notice. Moreover, my supervisor refused to pay the pity girl anything if she resigned at once. After that, I made vain attempts to ask for help from different kinds of authorities, including the Labour Department, labour union and even District Council. Unfortunately, I was told by some disappointed answers again and again. Although I tired my best to help my co-worker, it was all in vain.

Eventually, Miss Wong was allowed to leave office three days after the big fight. Ms Li promised that she would pay her the salary the following month. But, my supervisor broke her promise and refused to pay the wage when the time came. My boss would only pay the money if Miss Wong agreed to sign a statement which let the company preserve the right to pursue the wages in lieu of notice. My colleague refused to sign that ridiculous statement and of course she could not have her money back.

Finally, the case was passed to the Labour Department. At first, I expected that the Labour Relations Division would play the role as a mediator to settle the disputes between the employee and the employer. I believed that Ms Li should have paid the wage to Miss Wong, but the result was just the opposite. Miss Wong was told that she had to pay the wages in lieu of notice if she wanted to get her wage. I was furious when I heard that unfair result. Owing to the unjust judgment by the authority, I tendered my resignation to Ms Li the next day, 22nd August 2007. My boss was enraged with me and tore my letter of resignation out of hand. Although Ms Li was infuriated at my action, she accepted my resignation whatsoever.

Someone may think that I just lost my mind to give up a good job so easy and the case of Miss Wong was totally none of my business. However, I thought that it was absolutely a right decision that I have ever made. I could not suffer such barbarian behaviors and humiliations. I resigned nevertheless.

According to my letter of employment, the length of notice for termination of employment is not less than three months. That is to say I had to work for that company for three more months from the day that I resigned. In the meantime, I was sidelined by my boss. I had no say in company policy anymore and I was asked to do some office chores, such as counting the number of handbooks and paper cutting. Though I kept the job title as the centre supervisor, I was only a tutor in practice. After I had undergone all kinds of hardships, I was allowed to leave office on 22nd November, 2007. My long vacation started in late November.

>>December 26, 2007 at 12:41:06 AM GMT+8

2007 年 11 月 10 日 星期六 【微冷】

"Confirmation"

My resignation was confirmed by my boss, Ms Li, on 8th November, 2007. I will leave office on 23rd November, 2007.

>>November 10, 2007 at 10:56:58 PM GMT+8

2007 年 10 月 7 日 星期日 【酷熱】

My new diary will be published soon.

>>October 7, 2007 at 1:51:12 PM GMT+8

2007 年 9 月 2 日 星期日 【綿綿細雨】

"Resignation"

I tendered my resignation to my boss, Miss Li, on 22nd August 2007. She was very angry and tore my letter of resignation on the spot. I was supposed to leave office on 23rd November 2007 (22nd November 2007 should be my last day). I do believe that it is a right decision to leave that education centre.

>>September 2, 2007 at 11:42:38 PM GMT+8

2007 年 7 月 24 日 星期二 【酷熱】

"New Job, Old Occupation"

I have been a supervisor in an education centre in Shum Shui Po for over a month. I am now responsible to both management and tutorial jobs. In other words, I am not only a tutor, but also a centre in charge. I get along with all my co-workers, but not my boss. I have no time to update my diary due to long working hours. Having said that, I think I would spend some time on my writing. My new story is going to publish soon.

>>July 24, 2007 at 10:36:22 PM GMT+8