Bonnie & Clyde

I'm a boss.

It's not merely because I have this idea of printing my position as "Boss" on my namecard, nor I just like calling my self that.

It's nothing glam 'bout it. In fact, it's to me, by far the most undesirable term to put upon me.

Especially month end. Especially, especially year end.

I'm a boss because I gotta feed a hundred over people's stomachs; and their wives' and their children's and their parents'.

Inspite of the government announcing how much our economy rebounded, how much growth our country achieved, and how low the inflation we could control; we, the bosses, would never be satisfied with it.

I'm in the semi finished goods industry, dealing mostly with marketer for consumer products. Economy rebound? Confidence boost? Inflation under control? These are the exact reason marketers use for reduced quantity ordered, price slashes, and last minute order.

I remember Sam Hui's song, "Bun Gan Baad Leong", singing about there's no way you can get back the same amount as you contributed. Yeah, true, at least an employee can get back something, might be lesser. The bottom line is, he doesnt need to dig out from his pocket.

As for me, as sounded good as it gets, a boss will get nothing if the client didnt pay him. There's no guarantee that you put in your effeort, you will get something back. The difference between an employer and an employee is, an employee's job is finish when he has finished he work; while for an employer, when a job's delivered, it's the begining of the tough part of his work, TO GET PAID.

And the biggest difference between employee and employer is, if there's any sort of complication, the employer would have to dig out from his own pocket to pay his people. You wont get bankrupt getting emplyed, but you will by employing.

Of course one may say bosses enjoy the benefit of higher income or profit and they dont share with their employee. Hence the bosses should bear the risk of that sort. Right, I totally agree with that. No question. But who the f*#k invented the thing called "year-end-bonus"?

As for my case, last year of all our hard work for twenty over million, I get jack. And now I'm here cracking my head for the year-end-bonus for those who didnt pay a thing for wasting extra ink, pouring away usable chemical, and careless mistakes that I gotta pay for extra raw material and pay extra salary for them to reproduce the goods that been thrown away. Yeah, they're there enjoying their time waiting for the "someone" to pay their wages and overtime, while I'm here signing check for that and now, their so-called "year-end-bonus".

I always say Malaysians are a whole bunch that're spoilt; complaining for not enough bonus, not sufficient increment etc etc. I thought I was one who are in a clearer state of mind, but now I just have a dream of working stress-free in a McDonald. All that crap in the Straits Times economic section do not concern me. All I care is whether I got my check by the month end and how much bonuses I'm going to get.

I'm especially starting to envy those who work in the highway toll booth.

I have the Malaysian dream afterall.