What a silly day
What a silly day!!! 🙁
Must write this story down before I forget it myself. Oh my what a silly day. So if you’re even remotely interested in my blog you probably read the previous entry about how I thought myself stuck where I am. My boss offered me an option to move to a larger role, which I have no basis of judging whether I’m suitable for the job, or if I will actually benefit from it (or only he benefit etc).
So, being me, I started exploring.
First I went to EDB to ask for leeway for rotating earlier, of course they throw back the standard responses (e.g. be a slave or die, no Satan is not a statutory board, can’t you read the contract yourself?). Fine, didn’t expect much anyway – wait till I get there when I rotate, just you wait. So I went to the next logical party, which is HR.
I’m working backwards, because ultimately I want to go back to my bosses to discuss the final plan. With all the options on the table, one would think one can make a better judgement on what’s the best route for both me and my employer.
We (Kumar and I, the two scholars in our batch) had lunch with two HR dudes last week, and we’re all cool with each other’s ideas. We talked about many many opportunities in SCS, even about doing HR systems for appraisals and what not. All in all we heard that there’s going to be a more formal “scholar management” where we’re supposedly rotated into different parts of the company. I wonder why no one thought of that.
Then I scheduled a personal 1-1 meeting yesterday with HR. We chat more specifically about what I want out of my 6 years in SCS – or rather 4 years, being split in half, 2 years, then outside, the back for another 2. I tried to get the message across that I’m capable of doing more, but many things don’t interest me that much. Having only 2 years to being with, and 9 months gone, and another foregone 3 months since I’ve already planed my obligations, I need to figure out a firm place to go soon so that I get a solid year to attempt new stuff.
Guess what happened? HR told my boss ARGH! That’s the worst kind of breach of confidentiality any HR in any organization can do. My immediate impression was inadvertently shown to my boss when he tried to speak to me yesterday afternoon. I explained to him the rational of why he wasn’t informed yet as I’m still exploring how I should present my case to him.
I managed to cut the conversation short yesterday – assuring him that I’ll come back to him later as work was catching up.
Today, morning, again continue same conversation when I found out that CEO heard about it *pull hair* :/
Tell me, if you have an employee in your company who have certain issues with his environment, and he has tried to rectify it for the past months with no avail, and if he then goes to HR to seek an internal transfer, does HR go tell the boss, and then inform the CEO as well? So what makes me so special? Because I’m a scholar I’m thus in a prison? Every action is monitored and scrutinized by the prison wardens?
What if they do that to other employees as well? No one is going to confide in HR anymore, and my company’s turnover rate will continue to be as high. Is this really the norm elsewhere in S’pore also? I hope not.
Finale: I went to thank HR in the afternoon for their extreme efficiency in settling this matter. My boss now offers me 3 options instead of 1. The options are now officially endorsed by CEO. So I, the corporate slave, shall think through it and choose if he wants porridge, instant noodle, or prata for dinner. No cell change allowed. I’ve lost.
>_<
