THE EMPLOYEES' ROLE IN THE CURRENT CRISIS IN MALAYSIA

by Dr. Ng Yan Goh,Ph.D.

The stress level in the employment scene may reach a point when the office environment become very negative and unproductive. The employees must be motivated irrespective of whether they can keep the job or be retrenched. They have to plan for contingencies just in case the employer cannot sustain and survive the crisis. For a lot of people it may be necessary to start using the savings to see them through bad times while looking for other opportunities. We have to bear in mind that the performance of the company is dependent on the management team and the employees. In these very trying times, the employees have to change their attitude and reach out to their core competencies in order to help their employer. 

Attitude Problems 
I was at the Subang International Airport on the 17th June 1998 at 5:30 a.m. and had a very interesting experience with the attitude of the staff there. The World Cup broadcast had just finished and TV2 went off the air with the usual continuous irritating high pitch noise. The noise did not seem to bother many of the early morning passengers. I have been teaching people that noise above certain decibel can cause deaf so I approached the guards and after a number of "don't care" responses only one of them had the initiative to listen to the complaint. He tried to help me by communicating with somebody else at the airport. The reply which was loud and clear "ini-lah cara hidup". Did the guy know that he is working at an international airport? What an attitude. Somebody managed to switch off all the TV's by 6:00 a.m. half an hour later. 

Other attitude problems are as follows: 

• during the boom time the human resource personnel have to escort the workers to the factory buses and say thank you to them and reminding them to turn up for work; now-a-days the workers obediently turn up for work without fail and they do not need to be escorted nor reminded of coming back to work 
• don't turn up for work on a Friday or Monday and letting the company paid for the medical chit 
• turning up for work late and going home promptly without bothering about the scheduled completion date 
• perpetually demanding for more pay without improvement in performance 
• preoccupation with chit-chatting and selling other products during office hours when the bosses are not around
• refusing to communicate with the superior 
• refusal to take up more responsibilities 
• "don't care" about quality, performance or results 

Never Say Die Positive Mental Attitude 
The employees must have the fighting spirits in order to stay focus. Perseverance and determination are the fine qualities and can be put to good use during the crisis. The employees should put up a good fight to help the employer steer clear of the economic doldrums until such time that no more avenues are left for a chance to turnaround. 

For those who are unfortunate to be retrenched it is necessary to have the sporting spirit to accept the reality of life and move on. During the last recession I was attending a talk by a very pretty 'mat salleh' lady in a packed room of about 400 people and one advice she gave the attendees was that under whatever circumstances you can be more motivated if you can mix around with the positive minded and the successful people. Never try to network with the demotivated retrenched colleagues and friends as you are likely to feel that the whole world is tumbling down. 

Performance-based Remuneration to Compensate for Pay Cut 
The employees may have to accept the unavoidable pay cuts as most of the companies are trying to reduce the overheads to stay viable or to maintain healthy cash flow. If this is the case it may be a good idea to suggest to the management that the remuneration shall be based upon performance over and above the reduced base pay. 

This can mean that more and more people are gearing towards intrapreneurship and work as though they own the business. In a downturn like this it is important to look beyond the existing products and services and maybe introduce or develop new products and services to get in new sales revenue. 

Personal Leadership & Power 
Some of the personal leadership qualities like taking charge, independence from the superiors, having initiative and drive, risk taking and self-motivation are essential for the employees to remain productive. All these can be re-inforced with the individual's personal leadership and power which may have remained untapped due to preoccupation with fire-fighting during the boom time. Good leadership skills can enhance our ability to influence others to work willingly. 

Lifelong Employability and Agile People 
The employees have to become agile people who would be expected to possess multi-skill cross-functional capabilities. Each and every one have to be flexible and willing to participate in team-based activities to focus on problem solving, innovation, creativity and volunteer themselves for new assignments if they are capable. This will ensure lifelong employability either with the current employer, new employer and becoming self-employed. A lot of employees become functional specialist due to the organisation structure but have to learn how to become agile, flexible and responsive to change and crisis. 

Managing Stress to Remain High Performance 
Stress will remain one of the very important challenges to the employees as well as the management because too much stress will make any person malfunction and too little stress will result in the lay back "don't care" attitude. 

In order to attain optimum level of stress for high performance, it is crucial to learn how to manage personal, interpersonal and organisational conflicts effectively. A lot of the conflicts can be resolved with good organisational structure, value system, simplified processes, two way communication and cross-functional teaming. 

Loyalty & Commitment 
It is time for the employees to demonstrate loyalty and commitment which have been very lacking for the past decade or so. It is crucial to work harder than ever before in order to help the company. Try get rid of the cosy and complacent 9 to 5 syndrome and get back to the industrious mode. Putting in extra hours may help to identify new products, services and business opportunities for the employer to diversify in order to sustain and even grow. The clear message shall be commit or go. 

Going Back to School for Further Education & Training 
Some of us may not have the necessary skills to take on new jobs after being made redundant, retrenched or just wanting to take on a new career. In this case it may be necessary to "go back to school" for further education and training to acquire new skills. The need for perpetual education has been highlighted very often but some of us always procastinate or postpone the move due to various reasons. The government has allocated grants for the retrenched to attend skill development programme or education in order to minimise the pain of the victims of circumstances. 

Unity is Strength 
Due to the uncertainty in the employment, some employees may choose to intensify politicking as a tactic to improve the chance of being retained in the event of down-sizing or retrenchment. This is very unhealthy and will make the environment even more stressful and may backfire most of the time. The employees should stay united to synergise in order to improve the chances of sustainability. Together, all of us can really overcome a lot of problems along the way. 

The Way Ahead
I may sound like biased towards the employers but in actual fact I want to share with you the bitter sweet experiences of the employees and employers. It is time to bury the dislikes and sometimes, hatred, and team up to fight the pressing issues of the current crisis. Put up a professional struggle and even if the company has to close shop you have gained the extra learning experience to help you to take on new challenges. The situation can be more promising if all of us put our acts together. Since MSC will create ten of thousands of new jobs, for those who are unfortunate enough to be retrenched get out there and study for an information technology, multi-media or related subjects. It is never too old to learn. I know of the founder of one pharmaceutical company who retires from the business at 80+ and went on to study doctor of philosophy.