I was in the company described here, where I applied my newly-won Bootstrap skills. Everything went peachy for the first year. I met deadlines, applied myself, and took a course in mobile app development. Off work, I even had time to work on this blog and play around with all the new stuff I was learning. All was well. It didn't matter that I was often the most technically-qualified person in the room, or that some of the my colleagues (including those in higher management, the horror!) could not figure out how to use their email, much less understand the complexity of a web developer's role. But I was getting paid more than I'd ever been in my life (at the time, anyway) and on one hell of a roll.
Gradually, though, the dissatisfaction crept in. Remember when I complained about people who treat their employees like kids and insist on micromanaging them? This company had it in spades. Worse, the people who wanted to micromanage me couldn't carry my shoes in a development role. My direct Manager got complaints all the time about my toilet breaks, smoke breaks, latecoming... and he brushed them all off. What a guy. If there was one person who made my job tolerable, it was him, the only other technical person in the company.
Pay cut!
Then the day came. My Manager warned me of an impending company-wide pay cut. In a WhatsApp chat group opened specially for management personnel in the company, the Towkay had shared an article that predicted an economic downturn later that year. And like every other fat cat cheap bastard (with a mansion and swimming pool) I had ever worked for, he was using it to justify the pay cut. Within another day, a company-wide memo was sent out. Those at managerial level would receive 30% pay cuts, while the others would have 10% pay cuts. There was much consternation. Every staff member was called in to a meeting with the COO and HR Manager, to sign a document of acknowledgement of the pay cut. I did a few calculations and reasoned that I could lose 10% without things getting too uncomfortable. Even though I had been drawing an unprecedented level of pay, I lived like a guy who still drew 2,000 SGD a month. |
| Pay cut! |
There was only one problem. They wanted to cut my pay by 30% instead of 10%.
The General Manager and HR Manager explained this by saying that I was drawing a salary on par with, or higher, than that of some of my colleagues who were Managers. And that was even after my Manager argued on my behalf that I didn't have the same benefits of actual Managers in the company. The COO and HR Manager then started to bring up my performance at work, such as latecoming, smoke breaks, and so on... somehow conveniently leaving out all the deadlines I'd met. And the fact that I'd never missed a day of work due to illness. That was when I realized just how much they resented me for not conforming to their long-cherished - and severely outdated - notions of what a valuable employee needs to bring to the table. Incidentally, this is one of the reasons I refuse to work directly for laypeople anymore.
I shut them up with an upraised hand and refused to sign the document, and told them I'd sleep on it and give them an answer the next day. So I did give it some serious thought.
I could leave the company, of course. The Towkay was playing this douchebaggy game of Chicken, banking on people being too afraid to do just that due to the projected economic downturn, and was taking this opportunity to squeeze his employees. Just on principle alone, I would have left. However, my Reservist duty was coming up in a month, and no company was going to hire me with that looming over my head. The best I could hope for was hunt for a new job after performing my Reservist duty, and then quit.
Back to the pressing issue of the pay cut. What if I reduced my working hours or took a couple days unpaid leave every week? Then they could deduct even more of my pay, and I would have more free time to code, work on my projects and maybe even find a new job. This was a win-win proposal, or so I thought.
Surprise - they turned me down. Apparently the Towkay was very insistent on his employees taking less pay for the same hours put in. (Again, see why I refuse to work for guys like these?) Once again, I refused to sign the document, and told them I would be discussing the issue with my Manager. The COO and HR Manager told me I should feel free to tell them how much of a pay cut I would be comfortable with. I promised to think about it, and give them an answer by the end of the day.
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| Putting on that friendly caring face. |
At the third meeting, I started to tell them 30% was too much of a cut, and they told me this wasn't a negotiation. They just wanted to talk in order to get a better understanding of the difficulties of each employee... basically they wanted to appear sympathetic but their ultimate aim was to make us sign the document anyway. This was getting more ridiculous by the minute. The COO started to plead and I had this horrible feeling she was going to cry any moment out of exasperation. Tired of this charade, I patted her on the hand like she was this pitiful old aunty and signed the document. They tried to feed me more crap about how the company was going through hard times and we should all pull together. I'd had enough bullshit for one day and left the room.
Taking a 30% pay cut is one thing. But now I saw that they had begrudged me every cent they paid me since the beginning... because in their minds, people below managerial level should not be earning that much money. And from there, my decision to leave was cemented. In all honesty, I had been planning my exit for a while. I had merely thought to delay it for a year because they had facilitated the enrollment for the tech course I had recently graduated from. And using those new credentials to get a new job immediately after graduation just seemed wrong. But with their latest antics, they'd waived whatever professional courtesy and goodwill I might have owed them. And I had just brought the projected day of my exit very much forward.
My preparations for this day had been fairly extensive, and had started way before this entire episode. They mostly involved boosting my online credentials. For starters, I had my blog. The writing was sometimes amateurishly profanity-laden (still is, actually) but I had some nice writings on current affairs in tech which I replicated on my website. Sure, there weren't any extraordinarily deep thoughts in there, but at least it would show any prospective employers that I kept myself updated, and I actually bothered to pen my thoughts. I also had a GitHub account where I had uploaded code repositories. Working demos were hosted on my website. Again, the code wasn't groundbreaking; in fact it was really basic stuff that I had written web tutorials for. But actually having a GitHub account with working and tested code in it, is a visible measure of effort that does not necessarily speak for the quality of a developer, but definitely speaks for his enthusiasm.
It all sounds like overkill, but you don't get by on a resume alone. Not in tech. And for my planned exit, preparation was key. All that stuff in addition to monitoring the job market and updating the resume. Remember what I said about resigning in a fit of pique? Yep, that's for noobs. You want to leave, fine. You better plan the shit out of it.
Surviving the pay cut
But first, I had to survive on reduced pay for a couple months until Reservist, after which I would be free to be hired by another company. Now that I had a plan and a timeline, living on a tight budget seemed really trivial. I didn't cut the amount I regularly gave my mother (hell, I didn't even tell her. Didn't want her to worry. I'm a grown-ass man and I can handle my own damn problems); instead I tightened the belt in every other area - cigarettes, food, and so on. |
| Tightening the belt. |
Coincidentally, my appetite seemed to have shrunk (along with my waistline) during that period, and now with having to watch the expenses very carefully, I must have dropped about 10 KG in the ensuing few months. Honestly, having to make my own food daily and count my cigarette usage seemed to have done me a world of good.
My other colleagues were coping in their own way. Some tendered their resignation. Some took to mysteriously falling ill every other day and maxing out their MCs. Some just lengthened the duration and frequency of their breaks. The latter two cases were a source of consternation for management - apparently they'd been having this fantasy that those who chose to stay on would simply let themselves be squeezed.
Me? I didn't have time for any of that shit. Too busy planning my exit.
Company collapse
The day for Reservist drew near. I stepped up my efforts and prepared to put my plan into action. Everything seemed in place; the only thing I worried about was explaining why I had left this last job. Saying I had left due to a company-wide pay cut might give prospective employers the idea that I was open to exploitation.Then the CEO dropped another bombshell. I was summoned into the meeting room, where the CEO, COO, HR Manager and my own Manager were waiting. I wondered what all this was about - what would warrant such a setup? I did not have long to find out. The CEO informed me, looking quite chagrined and regretful, that he had no choice but to let go an entire department (which included me, apparently) due to a botched client contract that rendered half the company obsolete.
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| Upset? Heck, no. |
Were they expecting me to feel upset? It certainly looked that way. All of them were wearing expressions that suggested they were attending a funeral service. Me? Heck no, I was elated. Being let go due to the company crashing and burning was a hell of a lot easier to explain at my next interview, than a resignation. One of my biggest problems, solved right there. Plus, there was paid gardening leave. Things looked pretty sweet right there. I think it's safe to say I was the only dude smiling in the room. I was patting the CEO on the arm and going "Why the long face? Cheer up, life goes on!" Though I think the people most unhappy with this development were those who had already given their notice and weren't entitled to gardening leave.
So yes, Your Teochewness was free, and things had worked out even better than I'd expected.
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