STRAITS TIMES cheery report about the availability of jobs
a reader's letter to STFORUM about the dilemma his father faces about getting a job.
observe the stark contradiction. one of them is not telling the trtuh. no prize for guessing who is pinnochio.
i think i m SWITCHED OFF. relaxed and retired for good.
after losing my garden, i was conned to work for free for an avaricious contractor who still owed me 3 mths pays. not only that, all my plants from my bulldozed garden were migrated to his nursery. so there u have it! not only i didn't get any pay for doing quite a number of landscaping works for him, my plants were complimentary stocks to his nursery :(
i still had my few landscape maintenances to look after. that provided me with some form of regular income which was just barely sufficient to meet monthly expenses and groceries shopping.
but that didn't last long unfortunately. my guy who i had trained from a simpleton young farmer to now a self employed hotshot gardener in demand betrayed me. i didn't know - up till today - whether his falling from a tall ladder accident and thus crippling his arms was true or a faked up but the fact that he took the initiative to terminate ALL my garden maintenance contracts with my existing clients was something i didn't anticipate from him.
anyway, the fees collected from my garden contracts were mostly paid to him. i only pocketed about 30% of the amount collected as i also needed to visit and inspect the landscaped gardens which were once designed and constructed by me. surprisingly, this scenario didn't seem to faze me. i had sort of anticipated it long ago when i discovered he was already moonlighting behind my back.
so that was it. no more garden contracts to maintain. no more monthly income. luckily i still have a self-supporting talent and that was shares trading. it was retirement for me.... everyday was a relaxing day. no more stress. no more complaints like: bob, the leaves of my hibiscus are shedding. could u come and have a look?
it was good life. until i landed a part time job with a new reputable garden which opened up a branch in queensway. it was very near my home. working there was ok even though i was deducted every day 1 hr for lunch. (that wasn't told during the intereview and i worked through lunch until i realised that in my first month payceck) it was complicated working there.
their highly paid "sales director" was always leeching on me:(. i heard he borrowed money from almost everyone but without the decency to refund. soon, it was my turn to lend him without the hope of ever seeing my hard-earned money returning.
as i was still driving my pickup to work there, i was exploited to use my vehicle to help in the delivery with promise to supplement me with only $8 per trip regardless of how long the journey. out of responsibility, i obliged. but after many delivery assignments, there wasn't any extra money in my monthly cheque.
as if that wasn't enough, sometime i had to work very late past my agreed working time of 6pm. i had to continue working till 9pm. at about 7pm, it was dinner. again i was used and abused. sale director would request me to drive my vehicle to buy for him and some of the staffs dinner. (i presumed meals were provided). off i drove my vehicle buying dinner for myself and the rest of the staffs.
the sad part was: i wasn't reimbursed. that dinner money were paid out of my own pocket. ( i wonder whether the SD made a claim for it and pocket the meal allowances for himself and i ended up having to pay for it :(
though my title was a HORTICULTURIST, my job was bao ka liao situation. i had to sweep the floor. cleared the garden trash bins. ordered new stocks - plants, chemcials, etc. answered to cutomers' non stop queries about plants, about delayed deliveries, about host of other matters....
i even had to man the cashier. at the end of the day, i had to tally the sales. if there were extra $, the SD would take it. where the money went, only god and he knew! if the amount was lacking, to save all the troubles, i just topped it up to balance the account and i could go home to rest after a weary sweaty work day.
my deep passion for plants relieved me for being frustrated and exploited thus. unfortunately, the last straw came when the big boss arrived one day and told me that i needed to clock out and clock in when i did my plants delivery. the period while i was away was supposed to be deducted off from my hourly rated pay. my god!! for $8 using my pickup and petrol....and i faced the prospect of pay deduction?
it was about time i called it a day. i quit!
now, i saw this contradicting news/letter from the STRAITS TIMES. i wonder just how much does our labour ministry really side with the employees or continue to fake up cheerful news. cos if it's that authentic, i would be busy tiptoeing the daisies in a nice big nursery happy doing my gardening.
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