My previous company in Singapore was in the steel fabrication industry. We had a workshop like one I am working in right now. It was twice as small in size but we had twice the workforce as my current workshop.
Our factory manager was a total authoritarian. He didn't have an ounce of respect for the workers and treated them like dogs. Workers hated him to the core. In return, they had a nickname for him, Guta - that's 'dog' in Bangladeshi. Though I was a Project Engineer and not working under Guta Lim, I could see everything as a bystander. Moreover, I interacted with my workers onsite everyday and knew all about their working life.
Now that I am working as one of the dogs in a steel fabrication factory in Perth, fortunately I am not treated like how my workers used to be. No one is. The supervisor Steve leave us to our work every night. No keeping an eye, no mistrust, no hollering.
Strangely despite the freedom, every single one of us in the night shift team works hard, damn hard. No one took things easy, even on Fridays. Unlike my workers in Singapore, they took the opportunity to do everything but work every time backs were turned. I'm not sure why. It could be one of those Theory X, Theory Y things you learn in management.
Tonight we had something interesting. The pictures below tells it all.
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| A surprise birthday celebration for Steve organised by Jung Hoon |
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| Young, one of the S.Koeans cutting the cake with a cardboard! |
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| The jokers on the bench, Daniel and Luke - v funny guys |
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| Steve the bday boy, our night shift boss, eating his cake |
We cracked a lot of jokes, especially from Luke the Australian and Daniel the British. All of us had a big laugh. It made our work a little lighter than day.
Wednesday was a good day. Even when I was caught on fire. It was just a small one on my right rib. It burnt a big hole in my jacket and part of the T-shirt I was wearing beneath it before I could pat the fire away. Steve and Leslie (the '2nd supevisor') saw the incident and laughed. Guess these things happened very regularly. Steve came over later and told me he would get me one of the cool leather coats he wore during work.
"You can grind the world away and you won't catch fire," he declared.
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| One of my T-shirts is ruined |
I'm sure it will be a different work culture in 'white-collared' environments as well.
Bro you should use Army no. 4. It's resistant to fire. Haha. Finally a useful thing they given us.
ReplyDeleteIn SG my ex-colleagues were only interested to do work when the bosses were around. Most of the time they love to act busy & some even only start doing their work after ofc hrs, to show that the are don overtime. But the work ethic here in Sydney is totally different. They work hard during ofc hrs, like you shd & no such thing as 'eat snake' or act busy. Come 5pm when we leave for the day, we are never made to feel guilty for leaving on the dot. I'm in publishing btw and the working style here in Sydney suits me better.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous: I didn't bring those things with me haha.
ReplyDelete@Annomous 2: I know what you mean. What you said are truths.