On "Job" ... again

How's the photo? Not bad, right? I took it at Punggol Marina, where we (colleagues) had dinner at the Ubin Seafood Restaurant (http://www.ubinseafood.com/) on Tuesday evening. It was meant to be a farewell dinner for an expat who had completed his second three-year contract. He would very much likes to carry on, but his contract was not renewed. This gentleman is a 60-yr old Brit who had spent a decade or so in HK before coming to S'pore in 2001 and was our No.2 man in the department since then. He has a sail boat in Singapore, a house is in Spain (not in UK though), and his two children are in Ireland and Scotland respectively. He shared with us that if no suitable job comes around in 3~4 months time, he would retire. Though he is not a very competent manager (sth which he admitted), he is a technical expert in electrical sub-systems of rolling stock, and rivalled by none in the organisation. We would miss his knowledge and experience and I wish him well. But sadly, he did not leave at a high note. A few colleagues blamed him for not putting a good fight in the joint ranking exercise (which is far from remarkable). That affected their promotion and PB, i.e. performance bonus. (we are all expecting something gd in April)

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On the same afternoon, I also came to know of a colleague of another department who would be leaving the organisation. He was head-hunted to join a govt. agency in a middle-east country. He told me that the monies are good, and he could afford to let his wife to be a full-time home-maker taking care of his two kids. This is one chap who knows his stuff, solves problems, and UN-political. Somebody whom you would respect despite sparring in meeting.

It seems that we are losing good pple, and eventually the last man standing would be pushed up to assume key positions. Would you fancy working in such environment? I hope sth could be done to retain these staff, else like my immediate boss said frankly"the mercenaries (i.e. expat) would return some day".

Sad...

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Last week, Jin Cheng - my mate from Rangoon Primary, VS and AJC, told me that a common friend who is now his colleague in the biggest bank of this country had been promoted to SVP. Get it, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT. His monthly salary is expected to be in the region of $20k! Jin Cheng lamented that we went to the wrong courses in NTU. He in Comp Engrg, and myself in Mech Engrg, and our dear friend studied FINANICIAL ANALYSIS - also from NTU.

Doug - we spoke of the same subject. ALA was right. We all studied the wrong course!