Somethings Never Change

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Some things never change. While the media has been hollering its head off over the sudden burst of dotcoms and the so-called new economy businesses being spawned everyday, there haven't been any real changes in the local corporate mindset. All the talk of doing away with Chinaman business practices and fuddy-duddy thinking has been just that, all talk.

Wandering in and out of big and small offices over the past year since I got back, I've noticed one thing in common amongst most of the companies that represent the new economy in Malaysia: the misconception that the cooler your office is, the more forward thinking your company is going to be. And no, I'm not talking about how the air-conditioning freezes your butt off as you sit in what must be a prototype mass-storage freezing facility. I'm talking about the style and furnishings of the office. Sadly enough, I think what most people fail to realize is that it's not the office that makes the company, it's the people that create the mindset that drives the company.

I've lost count of the number of people who told me that I should work for XxXxYZ Company because they've got a cool office. I don't care what an office looks like if the people in there are half-baked morons or worse, they've got seriously dysfunctional upper management. My sporadic ventures into so-called IT networking functions to try and spot something to prove me wrong turned up with the same results. Almost 95% of the enterprises that are supposed to be driving our country to the 'perfect eyesight' vision are still thinking in the box. And an old box, at that. There's no real point having an 'open-concept' office if the people who run that company are unwilling to accept any open concepts.

Over in the US and even in our neighbor down south, concepts such as 'flexi-time' and 'free-agents' are catching on like wildfire. Not so in the Klang Valley. These concepts were spawned by the need to accommodate to the fancies of purveyors of Dorm-Room Economics, where students that have yet to graduate are also building their businesses at the same time. Unlike the generation of students before them that dropped out of University as soon as they got funding, the current batch of kids have realized that the university environment has its advantages, especially for networking purposes. Why bother going out, paying bills and then worrying about what to eat? Why not just stay in the uni halls, go to classes, come back and then continue working on your business and have a blast of a social life with all the money that you've earned in the few hours that you put in everyday? And these kids aren't earning small potatoes either. Once these kids finally do graduate, they carry with them the knowledge that adherence to an hourly-fixed schedule does not equate to productivity. If I know that I can produce twice as much if I work at night, then why am I sitting in the office in the morning, staring at my screen, still in a daze even though I slept at 10 pm the night before?

I've been running around talking to as many people as I can about this problem and the underlying disease in our culture that allows it to be accepted as the norm. So far, no luck. I once went on a 15-minute rant to the sole development person in a medium-sized company who I can imagine was grossly overworked. While listening to my views on the matter and what I planned to implement, he was all for it, saying he agreed totally and wished that at least SOME companies in Malaysia would be visionary enough to give it a try. And then he started whining about how he was overworked and needed more people to help him. And when I asked him if he was willing to start an 'Alternate Work Shift' in the company he was working for... he paused... and said, "Err...I ask my boss first". DUH! What ridiculousness! A prime example of what the common Malaysian employee is. Malaysian employers should take heed, "Quantity does not equate to Quality". And with the shortage of good skilled people in the workforce, you'd think that a little flexibility couldn't be implemented??

I still find it hard to understand why companies refuse to accept working schedules that differ from the daily 9-5. Factories work several shifts, advertising agencies have people running in and out of the office at every hour of the day, so why not new economy companies??? I've heard many promises of implementing 'radical' concepts once the company has made a profit, but the sad reality is that most of these companies will stick to the old practices, for fear of losing their profitability. And companies are more likely to expand their premises rather than have flexible working shifts to accommodate more employees. I know of many people involved in research and development that agree that 9-5 is not exactly the best time for productivity, but none of them have been willing to go to the extra length and raise the issue up to their superiors. Worried they'll lose their job, it seems. Over in the States, I've heard of companies having a section in their application forms that actually ASK the prospective employee what are his/her preferred working hour arrangements. The difference in attitudes is mind-boggling, much like the discrepancy of broadband availability over here and there :/

Let's face it, our economy is just stuck a little too deep into the old method of running businesses. The people calling the shots now are still mostly old dotards that conduct business at the golf course, or if not a single person then a whole board of directors that take 10 days to decide if the company should shift to providing decaffeinated coffee in the pantry. True, there are small groups of Malaysians that are struggling to combat the inadequacies of our current corporate system, but there are just not enough of them.

Furthermore, there's something about seeing your university classmate dropout make over a million dollars from an operation out of his grotty stinking dorm room that just opens your mind to the possibilities of an alternate corporate culture. Until the age group that experienced this phenomenon becomes the group that manages local companies, I doubt there'll be any significant changes here. Even then, they'll have to do battle with existing companies that will seek to quench the little upstart and his radical thinking. There's no way they would allow 'unsur-unsur fikiran barat' to change their nice little corporate hierarchy. Noooo? too much risk of losing their mindless-zombie employees that took two generations of potent brainwashing under the KBSR and KBSM syllabus to produce. Conspiracies would form and no one would do business with the brave little company, which would eventually have to bow under pressure and either fold or revise their company policies to 'fit' into local culture. May God save their brave souls!

Me? I can't wait to book a ticket out of here.

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