My Corner for Education

Many people I know have been under tremendous stress at work. Often the stress was the result of office politics or nasty administrators. I have encountered a few of those as well in my career. People who know me well would tell you that I am a softie and a trouble shooter, and I don’t “play games” when dealing with issues. I am still quite “old school”, I guess. I would be one of those who would defend honour and integrity all the way to my grave. It was my misfortune to meet this guy when I had my dream job working for a convention and events organizer years ago in Taiwan.

 

A couple of years after I graduated from university, I started to wonder if teaching ESL to children at an after-school language centre was truly what I wanted to pursue as a day job. I was quite happy to be a teacher. As a matter of fact, I quite enjoyed teaching adults at Fu Jen University in the evenings. The money was more than good, but I did not know if the freelancing type of teaching job was what I wanted to do during the day. I looked around me; many of my friends were either in teaching or in the business sectors. I didn’t really know if I would like to pursuit a business career. I started asking and networking with some friends. I could not tell you how I got the information then, but I was told that one of the famous travel agencies (I will call it the XTravel here) was planning to open a subdivision as an event organizer to help big organizations plan their conferences.

 

The XTravel was very reputable. The subdivision turned out to be a separate entity but remained under the big umbrella of the mother company. The conference company was affiliated with many other sub-divisions, such as rent-a-car, tour planning and hotel booking. I was just thrilled that I would have the experience of planning events from scratch for hundreds of people from all over the world. I used to do that for inter-school events, summer camps or corporate outings during my university years. Finally, I could put my interpersonal skills and language skills to use at last! Anyway, the job interview went well, and I was hired and introduced to the Omni-president of the XTravel a few days later. The president was a very gentle man, for whom I still have great respect for to this day.

 

I started working for this company full time and our office was located on the 11^th floor of the XTravel building. My company was great but very small. We had five girls and a male manager working in the same office. I adored the girls I worked with. They were all new graduates, very energetic and lots of fun. The job was interesting and challenging, and I just loved it! There was only one problem, my manager, the guy who actually hired me.

 

My manager was a tour guide and an assistant manager for the in-bound department of the XTravel. After he obtained his MBA in the States and returned to Taiwan, he came up with this brilliant idea of operating a conference company. He wrote the business plan and submitted it to the XTravel Board of Directors. At the time, Taiwan was in its boom time. Many organizations started to sponsor workshops, small conferences and conventions. It was perfect timing for his brilliant ideas. Unfortunately, his brilliant idea fell short right off and stopped at the business plan. He really had no ideas how to target his potential clients and promote the company. 

 

I was hired to do the logistic planning and coordination, agenda and program design and translation, pretty much the brainer behind a project manager. I would take over a case whenever the contract was signed. I guess we were all young and enthusiastic girls who were very keen on taking up big projects, but the manager didn’t seem to care how the company was operating. Or, shall we say, his business ideas all looked good on paper, but he lacked the ability to carry them out to attract clients.

 

After a while, we started to feel pressure from the top of the XTravel. The income generated was not as good as the projected earnings on the original business plan. My president would summon me to his office and asked me how things were running in the office. It was awkward for me because I did NOT want to be a rat, the person who told on others. I kept my mouth tight, but I was worried that if something was not done quickly, the small company would be in serious financial trouble. The truth was that my manager did not really know what direction he would like to lead the company. Here I was spending all my time carefully crafting the events, but he would make changes or promises without notifying the client or the office.

 

The rule of thumb is that a new company usually would sink or swim in three years. A big international conference is usually planned a year or years ahead of time. So, I was hopeful after our first two conferences that we might survive after all. Then we started to notice that the manager often left the office to “visit” clients, but then the clients would call the office to ask for him. (Mmmm, interesting, we thought) Later on, the frequency of his wife calling to check on him increased. Of course, as any other stories like this one, it always involved another woman who also called the office quite frequently as well. I knew then the company was doomed.

 

I loved that job but I was very frustrated. Gradually, my frustration took over me and I started to lose my sense of accomplishment. I realized that there would not be any growth for me within the company. My manager always felt that I was a thorn to his thigh because I would make suggestions to change some of his ideas, which made me a non-compliant to his rule. He wanted a group of “young” girls who would simply follow the commands, but unfortunately, I was not one of them. He isolated me in the office and often dismissed my ideas or put me down in front of the others to discredit me. Democracy at work, the plan was often manipulated by his influence not necessary for the best for our clients or the benefits for our company. I might be just a few years older than those girls, but I knew those tactics would have terrible consequences within a company; especially, coming from an administrator.

 

By this time, I had started to look for a job elsewhere. My intention to leave was made clear to the president and my manager. The agreement was, as soon as my last conference was completed and cleared, I would resign. One day, my manager asked me to give him my “name chop”, which was an official personal seal, to stamp on a business proposal for a client. I did not ask twice because I assumed it was one of those routine business plans. Later on, I was called to the Omni-president’s office again. I worried the same old conversation would come up again since I had decided to quit. To my surprise, the president asked me about a receipt that apparently I claimed for a large sum of expenses for a conference. I was puzzled first but then surprised to find out my red name chop was brightly stamped on the paper. Gosh, that jerk (my manager) actually scammed the company money using my name! I was just furious! (Steam. Grr…)

 

Normally, the expenses would go straight to the accounting/payout department after the approval of the manager. I guess, the president somehow decided to audit some of those company expenses and client accounts. I felt so awful and sick to my stomach. My president apologized to me personally for the scandal. It was a very big company. If a thing like that happened under the president’s watch were revealed to the other board of directors, it would make the president look really bad. At the end, it was hush-hushed and shoved it under the carpet. Case closed.

 

In order to keep my integrity and follow the ethics, I could not stand to be put in that terrible scandal and the office politics. I’ve never believed that job satisfaction is measured by how high your pay is. Although I eventually left the company and got another job with a higher salary, I always miss my old dream job (but definitely not my boss). Plus, till this day, I have never gotten any apology from him. (Gee, I often wonder what Karma would do to people like that.)