Shankar

You must be wondering what this post is about and why it is labled "Shankar". We had this young man from Myanmar come join us in the office in March 2008. His name is Shankar. He is of Indian origin but hails from Myanmar. He joined the office as a junior software programmer.

I guess I have to ventilate my woes about Shankar and one of the reasons for starting this blog was so that I could rant in cyberspace.

SHANKAR IS TOTALLY IDIOTIC!!

Let's see - I shall start with his posture. Shankar is tall - over 6 foot tall. He cannot walk straight because he hunches and slouches. He looks like a hulking gorilla because of his bad posture. I have told him to straighten up - he makes a conscious effort at that moment, but he goes back into his slump almost immediately after. OK, I cannot change his posture but I have made the effort to make him look better (somehow!), I think. Shankar agrees with me that he looks better standing straight, but his excuse is that he cannot remember.

The next part of his idiotic ways - he cannot come to work on time! From the time Shankar started with us in the old office till today, he has not been able to come to work on time. He started work on 10 March 2008. The official office hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. - just like any other regular office. Shankar's excuse for not coming in earlier or not being able to make it on time is the bad bus service. He told me that he has to wait up to 40 minutes for the bus that takes him to the interchange for him to take the MRT to the office. His routing is something like this - bus to Clementi MRT station, train to Outram Park, change trains for Potong Pasir and walk 20 minutes to the office.

I showed him the bus timings on the SBS Transit website which stated that buses will be at the bus stop every 7 to 10 minutes during peak hours. So who is he trying to bluff?? I may drive, but I do take buses too. I have complained to the CEO of the bus company when there was tardy bus service.

Shankar informed me that he gets up at 6:30 am and leaves home at 7:30 am and a lot of the time is spent waiting for the buses that come late. When I told him that he should sleep earlier so that he can wake up earlier, he informed me that he cannot sleep too early because it interferes with the digestion of his dinner. He also informed me that the body needs 8 hours of sleep to function properly. Haha!! What about the rest of us who do not get more than 6 hours of sleep every night? We cannot function properly, right??

I told Shankar that all of us have the same stuff to do - get up, get to work, do laundry, make dinner, do ironing, tidy or whatever, so what excuse does he have for not being able to cope? I know lots of guys and gals who live away from home and have to cope and still make it to work on time plus work overtime to boot.

CIO told Shankar that we are in the office by about 8:30 a.m. and asked Shankar what time he considers that it is OK to be here in the office. Shankar told CIO - I will be here by 9:30 a.m. When CIO asked him how long he intended to stay till to make up the shortfall in the official working times, Shankar informed CIO that he would stay till 6:30 p.m. So does this mean that we all have to stay till 6:30 p.m. to lock the door after him??

Sometime back in the old office, I told Shankar that the Employment Act states that a work week is 44hour week. I informed Shankar that the office only works a 40 hour week. Since he is always late for work by about 1 hour, he only works about 35 hours a week. He kept quiet. He must have thought about my statement and he came back with this rejoinder: boss told him that his performance is not measured by the hours BUT BY HIS OUTPUT AND WORK. OK, point noted but can we look at the standard of his work?? I noticed that he could not even follow the instructions given by boss and that he's slow in giving the completed task to boss. So the least he could do would be to try to make it on time to the office.

This is an example of how Shankar cannot follow instructions given to him and cannot handle stress. He was told by boss to demonstrate to me some website that he had designed and explain the functions on the site. He gave me the web address for me to look at it. So when I started "torturing" the site as a dummy, I noted some bugs. I told Shankar to fix the bugs and not to put in any other enhancements. Boss told him to fix the bugs and make sure that the work is consistent. BUT THE FELLOW CANNOT DO THAT. He was making more enhancements without knowing what the hell he's doing - his enhancements were some flashing bit on the front page which were meaningless sentences. When I asked him what those sentences were - he could not explain to me. The work was not consistent and boss already told him THREE TIMES where the errors were. I spotted these errors without boss telling me what to look for.

Then when I told him about the bugs and the errors that he was supposed to fix, he got stressed. He set his own deadline to fix the problem when I asked him how long it would take to fix. He told me within 3 hours, so I asked if he was going for lunch. He said NO PROBLEM. Then before the 3 hours were over, he came and told me that he was not able to fix the problem and would need more time.

When I "scolded" him, he got stressed and got a huge headache and went off home to sleep it off. Shankar cannot work under pressure. When he is stressed by the "enormous" task put in front of him, he will have a headache and have to go home to take medicine. We do have Panadol for aches and pains in the office, but he cannot take that. Shankar has to take his special medicine from Peninsula Plaza.

SHANKAR IS IRRESPONSIBLE!!

Shankar is also capable of going AWOL and being irresponsible. On 1 August, I had a client meeting in the morning. CIO came to the office to give him some work to do and left him with the workmen all around. I came back to the office around lunch time to tell him to go for lunch and to check on the progress of the renovation work. When I got to the office, Shankar wasn't in. The electrician informed me that Shankar had gone for lunch. So I waited an hour for him to get back and started making phone calls. Then I decided that I should drive to check out the power supply connection with Singapore Power. On the way to Singapore Power, I called Shankar to tell him that I was going out and would be back. I asked him where he was. He told me that he had gone to Peninsula Plaza to have lunch. I asked him why he had to go there for lunch - BTW we are out in MacPherson Road. He said that he went to Peninsula Plaza to have lunch and had hurt his back so he had to get his medicine there. I asked him if he had informed anyone that he was leaving the office - he said NO, he was going to do it later. I asked how late and he said after lunch and taking the medicine. I told him that he was fired for leaving his post without permission. He quickly telephoned boss to tell of his "sickness". Later boss called me to check on something, and I casually mentioned about Shankar leaving the office. Boss said that Shankar informed him, at 2 p.m. and that was after I had yelled at him. SIGH!! I told Shankar that in Myanmar, the military junta shoot soldiers for leaving their posts without informing their commanders. I think he understood that bit.

SHANKAR HAS AN EXCUSE FOR EVERYTHING that you tell him where he went wrong or committed some error. He cannot come to work early because he has to wait 4o minutes for the bus. CIO told him that we should move the office closer to his home so that he didn't have to travel so far to work. It would be better if we moved the office to Myanmar to his home so that he doesn't have to leave home to get to work.

I told him that he has to work harder and faster and apply his brains more to the work at hand. He gave me the analogy that the work is like a big pot of rice. You cannot eat too fast because you will be sick, so in the same breath he is working but it cannot be done too fast because he cannot apply all that he has learnt.

He told me that he was a web developer in Myanmar, but I noted that he had problems with his web design. He then informed me that he was the project lead. I told him that if he were the project lead, he would know what the hell was going on and he would know all the steps. However looking at him now, he is floundering and drowning in the work.

Shankar has a problem understanding English. When you ask him something, he will answer YES if the answer is meant to be negative. He will also answer NO if it is meant to be YES and then totally confuse all the people around. It is really comic - I cannot describe it because it has to be seen and heard to be believed!!

I have been counselling Shankar about his lateness and his work performance. He has always told me "Yes Didi, I will improve", but so far to no avail but great dispair for us. Sometimes I think it is no use being kind or understanding or trying to motivate a person who has no drive.

I have been given instructions to cancel Shankar's work pass and get his tax clearance. Hooray!!

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