A Singaporean In Australia

I was amazed how well I multitask. I had to attribute that to my motherland, who trained me so well for this kind of thing. I hope people here were secretly admiring me for my feats. It would extinguish their ill feelings that I was being paid more than them for seemingly doing the same job. In my point of view, I was employed for daily routines but was paid to handle tough times like this. If anyone thought they could do that better than me, they were welcome to take my place. No hard feelings.

In reality, when you issue such a challenge, many wouldn't take it up. Most of us like to have the best of both worlds. To be paid double for the same work we are doing sounds like a good idea but even if we change ourselves, work doubly hard and take on more responsibilities, that is simply not going to happen in any environment. We have to face it that hard fact. While changing ourselves for the better is a good thing, we have to understand we need to change our environment as well. Having said that, a change of environment doesn't necessarily guarantee better money. Many Singaporeans for example, are unable to find a job here in Perth that pays them as well as their old jobs in Singapore. For someone who was clearly underpaid for my previous jobs in Singapore, it was a no-brainer. I would even make more money stacking up ice cream tubs in the supermarket here (even after tax) than what my last job in Singapore paid me for. For the "unfortunate" ones who are being paid so well in Singapore, they find it difficult to come to terms with getting a huge pay cut if they are to move to Australia and begin from the bottom again. Well at least they could afford their COE and eat three meals at restaurants for comfort.

By Day 6, workers started to slacken visibly. I could accept a slow down in performance but not taking longer breaks. I didn't expect them to work without taking breaks like myself. I was covering for the machinist's extended break time so that I could keep the machine running. In Singapore, we call this buay zi dong. I wasn't sure if Afghanis understand the meaning of such a concept. If they did, they were doing a good job being just that. For the first time, I instructed the other worker to "tell the guy to get back to work." When there was little work going, I allowed them to have unspeakable lengths of break. So I expected payback when the company needed it. That was only fair and square. I wished my bosses back in Singapore stood by such a mentality. Unfortunately they kept taking and gave nothing back in return.

Needless to say, he came meekly back and resumed work. There was nothing need to be said. We all knew how much we took and there was nothing to argue about. If I ever run my own business in future, I would always manage based on the 拉长补短 concept, managing based on conscience and goodwill to eliminate the need of lipservicing or shallow motivational talks.