May 10, 2006

Heads roll after boss is compared to Genghis Khan

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WhatPC said:

The Singaporean executive fired off a curt email to his secretary, who had already left the office.

"You locked me out of my office this evening because you assume I have my office key on my person. With immediate effect, you do not leave the office until you have checked with all the managers you support," Loke wrote, according to copies of the emails seen by vnunet.com.

The secretary, Rebecca Hu, emailed a blistering reply. "I locked the door because the office has been burgled in the past. Even though I'm your subordinate, please pay attention to politeness when you speak. This is the most basic human courtesy. You have your own keys. You forgot to bring them, but you still want to say it's someone else's fault," she wrote.

Hu copied her reply, along with Loke's original email, to all of EMC's staff in China. Someone copied the email to a friend outside the company, and during the next couple of weeks the email exchange was forwarded around other companies in China, apparently reaching thousands of people, some of whom posted it on online forums.

Recommended by Lucian: "Online communication as the great equaliser."

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Submitted by Lucian on May 10//10:22am and published by jseng, shianux :: 3653 reads | trackback
Comments 15

lets hope all the stupid bosses of the world can learn from this.

Posted by anonymous coward 6* on 10 May, 2006 - 2:26pm

Let's hope all the stupid secretaries of the world can learn from this too.

Posted by Anonymous Coward 7* on 10 May, 2006 - 2:35pm

Let's hope all stupid secretaries will think twice before pulling a stunt like that. Biting the hand that feeds you? Food on the table more important or pride more important ? Not happy quit lor, bitch for fuck?

It's a fine line between standing for what you believe to be fair, and showing attitude. No prizes for guessing which one our PRC cousins are famous for. Makes me almost ashamed to be chinese.

Posted by Johnny Malkavian* on 10 May, 2006 - 2:47pm

erm, maybe that's exactly her intention, she's small fry, losing her like 2000RMB/month job while a president of the company gets fired/dismissed/resigns and loses his reputation internationally because he tries to act arrogant.

Posted by anonymous coward 6* on 10 May, 2006 - 5:04pm

Wake up call.

You think the her boss (or any bosses for that matter) got where he is by being nice? You can be the biggest asshole around. but if you can bring home the bread, do you think you'll have trouble finding a new job?

Secretaries are a dime a dozen, and having reputation as a prissy bitch does not exactly help your chances with your potential employers.

Posted by Johnny Malkavian* on 10 May, 2006 - 8:02pm

Having a reputation as a Genghis Khan does not exactly help your chances with your potential employers.

Posted by Agagooga on 10 May, 2006 - 8:20pm

That is not the issue.

The issue was that the Singaporean boss was being a dick, not that he was a Genghis Khan.

Posted by sieteocho on 10 May, 2006 - 11:10pm

He was being a dick -> He was compared to Genghis Khan -> He got a bad reputation

Posted by Agagooga on 11 May, 2006 - 12:11am

Yes, he was compared to Genghis Khan. But he wasn't a Genghis Khan. Because real Genghis Khans know how to be assholes and get away with it.

Posted by sieteocho on 11 May, 2006 - 11:30am

yes, by being a mass murderer, hardly a compliment.

Posted by anonymous coward 6* on 11 May, 2006 - 3:06pm

Not a compliment, but it does no harm to your employment prospects.

My point is that people will still want to employ an asshole, they just don't want to employ a stupid asshole.

Posted by sieteocho on 11 May, 2006 - 3:37pm

In this instance, a face to face talk would have defused the situation right away. Because the secretary had a legit reason to lock up the place when she's the last to leave. The boss is an idiot but the secretary should have taken a deep breath before deciding to email back, let alone copying it all the staff in the company.

Posted by mooiness on 10 May, 2006 - 3:04pm

The manager's reaction is an example of the kind of behaviour that makes Singaporeans the most disliked foreigners in Shanghai.

Posted by Singaporean in Shanghai* on 11 May, 2006 - 5:05pm

I can imagine that Singaporeans are disliked there. Why would the secretary send out that email if she didn't think that more than a few people were going to cheer her on?

As for that boss, it isn't he being a tyrant that's a turn off. It's that what he asked the secretary to do (make the sec stay behind because he lost his keys) is just so bloody nerdy.

Posted by sieteocho on 11 May, 2006 - 7:14pm

It is hard to control Chinese and/or Vietnamese staff, not sure about India.

These countries are the fastest growing economies in Asia. Their people are experiencing a re-awakening.

Singaporean bosses lack the experience to be bosses because they are mostly subservient in their previous roles in MNCs, under the foreigners. If they had work for a local SOE or MNC, then their bosses were also not bosses but more like civil servants.

Singaporean bosses are generally old and out of sync with the new generations. It is because they have worked many donkey years to have reached the boss status and would hold on tenaciously to their positions.

Moreover, most of them lack leadership qualities. They are meticulous, systematic and nostalgic, but they are not leading by example and lack qualities of a good leader.

In general, the Asians except Japan or Korea view the foreigners (westerners) more favourably as a leader. They would be less confrontational towards them. Maybe this is our conditioning- our former colonial leaders were all westerners; advertisements sell products better using westerners as models; Singaporean waiters/waitresses are more polite towards westerners; when a westerner walks in the street of Singapore, we would naturally associated it as a foreign talent; A western swinger is not difficult to get hooked with local girls as they view them as FT again with lots of money and lots of status.

It is a sad day for Singaporean bosses.

Posted by I was once a Singaporean Boss* on 12 May, 2006 - 2:53am