One of my cousin asked me about this career problem he is facing. I thought, I will share with your guys and seek your opinions.

He is currently working with this company as senior support. It has been around 1 year only now they want to confirm him. His previously had a contract of 6 month. That means he has been working for 6 months without contract and could have leave anytime.

Now, eventually the company offered him confirmation which he is reluctant to sign up. The salary did not increase. Previously, his manager promised will have little increment. His current salary is okay. Not high and not low. Maybe a little on the low side for the extra things he has been doing for the company.

He is thinking of resigning cause he is unhappy about the delay and not no increment. Currently he is taking quite a lot of responsibility and company will definitely need him. He felt the company is taking advantage of current economy situation and not increase his salary.

He have a family to take care but also have some side income. Resigning will not make a big dent to him. He should be able to last 6month or so.

Pros about this company:
- flexible working hour (late also no problem but not too much)
- relaxed environment
- immediate superior is okay

Cons
- sometimes need to work at night and weekends
- always need to work from home (hence the flexible hour)
- stingy boss
- work got difficulty due to bad management
- lack of SOP
- work other things out of his responsibility
- don't see much future in this company

Question :
1) Should he accept and sign the confirmation?
2) Should he re-negotiate? He did tried before.
3) Should he just resign?
4) Look for other jobs first then resign?

My advice to him is (3) since he have side income. Let the company feel the wrath for trying to take advantage of staffs.

What you guys think or advice?

This post has been edited by abubin: Jul 9 2009, 02:53 PM

my advice is negotiate with boss first. dont simply resign. dont confirm also.
look for other job, got the job then resign.

i think he should rethink and hold a meeting with his superior regarding with his situation.. with current economic situation.. i dont think its wise for him to resign and look for another new job..

nego with boss for increment
while looking for a new job

for the nego use
1) boss say b4 got increment
2) additional job load

cant give basic salary increase, then pls arrange Hardship/Standby Allowance due to being on standby and always need to work from home.

Most important is the pay. Is he living comfortable with it or by paycheck every month?
Next is does he like his current job?

Most companies today will extend staffs probation/contract to the maximum allowed as long they can no metter how good you are. This is a trend. It is also an indication that the company [b]has doubts about considering new staff for long term and valuing them.[

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Added on July 9, 2009, 3:22 pmThis works only with understanding bosses.

The first thing and most important thing he should be asking is why the long overdue contract extension?Should his boss give some lame excuse just forget it!
You know the drill.

This post has been edited by cameltoe: Jul 9 2009, 03:22 PM

The extension is because of delay from his boss and management. They are taking their own sweet time since my cousin did not really push them.

However, right before the confirmation letter, his boss did discuss with him about his confirmation. Says, can't increase that much and only increase a little. Then my cousin also suggested other compensation method like internet connection allowance (cause need to work from home also) or car allowance. The boss agreed and said will talk to management.

How, come out nothing. Imagine the disappointment.

Looking for job is not really an issue. My cousin should be able to find some freelance jobs to do. He also sort of fed up working for chinamen company now. The company is not doing that badly.

You guys think he should re-negotiate eh?

For me, personally I felt he already negotiated with his boss previously. Then would have come up with a better package for him. But they didn't. So what's the point to keep on negotiating? No fun already lah.

This post has been edited by abubin: Jul 9 2009, 03:41 PM

Do you think Chinamen company only doing such things?
I can tell you the largest of European MNCs are also doing such things today by skimming down on allowances.

Tell your cousin try to stop all those homework since it's not compulsory to use personal time for work while not getting paid.
This is an old trick use by many companies to give their staffs notebooks and ask them to work from homes after office hours.

They call it flexibility but the intention behind is to make you work more for less.
You can ONLY be FLEXIBLE if you work from anywhere ONLY during office hours or fulfilling your 8 hours a day. Anything after that you should be paid for overtime, allowances or even accordingly should you assume an executive role(without overtime)

if he can survive with the side income, can consider look for other work..

but still advise better get job before resign lol...

if your heart already doesnt like the company, u will reluctant to work harder in that company already

This post has been edited by xixi0708: Jul 9 2009, 03:59 PM

no harm renegotiating if u plan to quit anyway.

that why just re-nego while looking for new job.

Adding to this. The lame excuse given as flexibility is always that AS LONG AS YOU COMPLETE YOUR JOB.
That brings us to only 2 reason why you can't complete your job during office hours.

1) You're incompetent and slow

2)They gave you a workload which is actually the work of 3 or more staffs.

Even if you're incompetent or slow working beyond your 8 hours till nights is already bad. Having your boss to call you up and demanding your report to be on the table the next day while you're just about to take your dinner at 11pm is RIDICULOUS.

That is the main reason why they want you to bring home a laptop.

working extra is not due to heavy workload but more like some sort of on call support issues. Sometimes system down or some support work that can only be done at midnight.

I also had something alsmost like this where already felt not nice working in ex-company. Stay there also doesn't feel like working.

BTW, if he confirm first then look for other jobs, that does means he will tie to the 2 months resignation contract which make it hard for him to resign later.

This post has been edited by abubin: Jul 9 2009, 05:28 PM

Look for other offer first... then either

1. can use as a trump card to nego for increment with current boss.

or

2. secure the way out.

Without other offers waiting on the table, ur cousin has no bargaining chip, solely at the mercy of the boss/mgmt. However, the mgmt will not take ur cousin's request lightly if they know ur cousin on the way out to other companies. Whatever it is, having options is the most sensible and best way to go..

if the company is really keen on ur cousin, they will sign him/her up immediately...

that means they satisfied so so only and can't find another good person to replace only they offer...

with no increment and more workload that unable to adjust... ur cousin will suffer in the long term...


Look for company that appreciate ur cousin more...

evaluation based on:

- stingy boss
- don't see much future in this company

go for 4. Get other job from other company and throw immediate resignation letter. You have far better negotiation power.

Have yu seen a weighing scale? Look at the weightage of pros & cons yu have written. It's obvious, right?

Regards, Joey

look for other jobs first eh...

not easy to find jobs nowadays...probably would take few months to find a suitable one. Oh well, I guest that is more sensible. Will ask him to hold on for few more months.

One point just came up to my mind. Now, he can resign within 24hour, so if he really throw in the letter, wouldn't that give him a very advantage? All the current project or task he is handling will have no one to take over.

If he confirm only throw letter later, then he have 2 month advance notice which will give the management enough time to look for replacement. Then the pressure is not so much already.

This post has been edited by abubin: Jul 11 2009, 04:00 PM

Better start finding a new job. The company already showing signs of taking advantage of the situation to safeguard their own interests already after prolonging his contract as long as they wish.

-Extending his contract twice to keep him under probation with 24hors dismissal already shows they have lots of doubts about seriousness in hiring

-Now offering him confirmation with 2 months WITHOUT increment or allowances further tells that they want to safeguard themselves without having to spend more. All advantages leans totally for themselves.

Tell him he can forget about looking for prospects in selfish companies like that. They definitely won't appreciate their staffs.

This post has been edited by cameltoe: Jul 10 2009, 03:03 PM

Cool..you put it in such a clear view. I have the same thinking but don't know how to explain to him. Hehe..now I can copy and paste your words to him...

You already mentioned that he is unhappy. Why stil stay there?

Get a job and then resign. Don't let the employer take advantage on you.

I just spoke to my cousin. He said the company got a lot of shitz already. This is due to management taking own sweet time to solve problems. Talk only good but when pay money to do, keep delay. Until customer find out only want to say sorry and fix the problem. If he stay 2 more months there, sure will take more shitz. Always have to lie to customers on things that is clearly the company's fault.

I dunno leh. He seems eager to resign next week. But I ask him better get another job first. He said he tried for the past few months but it's easy lah.