Well, after anticipating it for about eight months, the axe has finally fallen - I have been retrenched from my job. Of course, the company has trotted out the usual crap - poor results, customers not committing on orders etc. Things were much worse than earlier anticipated etc.
Why then, did I feel I was going to be retrenched from July? I'll tell you - my manager took over my job, then made absolutely no effort to include me in team meetings and videoconferences, even organising all conferences at a time when he knew I would be taking radiotherapy. There were many other meetings to which I was simply not invited. He would send me long (three screens long, some of them) emails telling me what I was doing wrong. Never mind that what I did they worked for his predecessor. Never mind that as a new manager, it is his responsibility to establish new processes if he wanted things changed. When I asked for elaboration, dialogue, guidance on what his expectations were, he did not respond. Communication was merely one way - top down. It got to the point where I was afraid to do anything that he had not specifically ordered for fear of getting another of those emails.
Those of us who have been managers know the routine - to get rid of someone, build your case. Working from home, being 'poorly', having cancer - it made me invisible. It took away any contact with my support network in the workplace. It took away my voice. In a period when the company was going through a merger situation with a company that was not doing well in the first place, everyone was fighting to save their jobs...even at the expense of someone else.
In my case, the team manager, whom most of us would count on to work to support his team, edged me out and is now, I am given to understand, doing my job. I guess I should be flattered that my role was so strategic that he felt he had to be the one doing it.
Right now, however, I am furious. I did not ask to have cancer. I did my best to keep working through the treatment, taking time off only the week before Christmas. I started chemotherapy in July. I met all my deadlines. I had to because I thought I had to protect my job. Fat lot of good it did me. Every contact with my manager brought me stress, and late nights, sometimes when I was plain exhausted. He had no consideration, although he had the right platitudes (and made sure everyone knew it) for what I was going through, once even kicking me work the day before a chemo hit when he knew I would be too tired afterwards to work. More than this, for the two years prior when I was with the company, I had very positive performance appraisals. I have contributed, and I have made a difference. Does this all mean nothing because the new manager decides that he wants my job?
So, the question is: what can cancer patients expect in terms of protection from this kind of treatment? Is it really right that people with a life-threatening, dread disease, should have to cope with bread and butter issues when there are ways around this? How many people in the company had cancer? Why axe the, possibly, single cancer patient?
You may ask why cancer patients should deserve to be treated better, or differently, than those without the disease. They don't. But they do need to be treated fairly. To be given the opportunity to prove themselves in the job after treatment, not axed because their situation makes them sitting ducks.
In Singapore, it is unlikely that, with the government's pro-business stance, things will change. That the government will legislate in favour of people with illnesses which require long periods of treatment - it does not support the drive to profit it likes to promote for companies here.
But there needs to be a conscience in business, and so far, I do not see this. As a country, we do not encourage it. Yes, Singapore is a great place to do business. But not so great for the Singaporeans who need work in the companies who do business here.
The government needs to remember its other role - rulership of the majority, but with the protection of the minority. This is the mark of sophisticated government. Perhaps one day we will get there.
Why then, did I feel I was going to be retrenched from July? I'll tell you - my manager took over my job, then made absolutely no effort to include me in team meetings and videoconferences, even organising all conferences at a time when he knew I would be taking radiotherapy. There were many other meetings to which I was simply not invited. He would send me long (three screens long, some of them) emails telling me what I was doing wrong. Never mind that what I did they worked for his predecessor. Never mind that as a new manager, it is his responsibility to establish new processes if he wanted things changed. When I asked for elaboration, dialogue, guidance on what his expectations were, he did not respond. Communication was merely one way - top down. It got to the point where I was afraid to do anything that he had not specifically ordered for fear of getting another of those emails.
Those of us who have been managers know the routine - to get rid of someone, build your case. Working from home, being 'poorly', having cancer - it made me invisible. It took away any contact with my support network in the workplace. It took away my voice. In a period when the company was going through a merger situation with a company that was not doing well in the first place, everyone was fighting to save their jobs...even at the expense of someone else.
In my case, the team manager, whom most of us would count on to work to support his team, edged me out and is now, I am given to understand, doing my job. I guess I should be flattered that my role was so strategic that he felt he had to be the one doing it.
Right now, however, I am furious. I did not ask to have cancer. I did my best to keep working through the treatment, taking time off only the week before Christmas. I started chemotherapy in July. I met all my deadlines. I had to because I thought I had to protect my job. Fat lot of good it did me. Every contact with my manager brought me stress, and late nights, sometimes when I was plain exhausted. He had no consideration, although he had the right platitudes (and made sure everyone knew it) for what I was going through, once even kicking me work the day before a chemo hit when he knew I would be too tired afterwards to work. More than this, for the two years prior when I was with the company, I had very positive performance appraisals. I have contributed, and I have made a difference. Does this all mean nothing because the new manager decides that he wants my job?
So, the question is: what can cancer patients expect in terms of protection from this kind of treatment? Is it really right that people with a life-threatening, dread disease, should have to cope with bread and butter issues when there are ways around this? How many people in the company had cancer? Why axe the, possibly, single cancer patient?
You may ask why cancer patients should deserve to be treated better, or differently, than those without the disease. They don't. But they do need to be treated fairly. To be given the opportunity to prove themselves in the job after treatment, not axed because their situation makes them sitting ducks.
In Singapore, it is unlikely that, with the government's pro-business stance, things will change. That the government will legislate in favour of people with illnesses which require long periods of treatment - it does not support the drive to profit it likes to promote for companies here.
But there needs to be a conscience in business, and so far, I do not see this. As a country, we do not encourage it. Yes, Singapore is a great place to do business. But not so great for the Singaporeans who need work in the companies who do business here.
The government needs to remember its other role - rulership of the majority, but with the protection of the minority. This is the mark of sophisticated government. Perhaps one day we will get there.
posted by Simone @ 11:21 PM
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