August 5, 2010; 7 minutes to midnight.
Word document opened. In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
"I tender herewith my resignation as Systems Engineer... with effect from today..
....... to thank the Management for the knowledge shared and continuous support throughout my tenure..."
I look at it again. It sure is a hard decision.
After three plus years at the Company, and after ten long years in Perak, I finally decided to call it quits. I've made a lot of friends in the Company, met a lot of people from various backgrounds and learned many new things. But after some time I feel that it is time to be where I'm supposed to be, where I was born and raised as a child – the city of Kuala Lumpur – to face new challenges in the quest to reach for "The Goal".
It is not much of career development; rather it is mainly because I want to be close to my parents again. Mom has been ill lately, and dad is also not well due to asthmatic and hypertension. My parents had given everything to make sure I become somebody – time, money, prayers, you name it. I was sent overseas to study with their hard earned cash from their retirement benefits. They gave up their dreams to travel the whole world or drive a big car after they retired just to give me proper education. It is time to repay them. The least I could do is to be with them.
I must say that (other than the reason to be with my parents in KL) it is a sad ending for me with the Company. I lost three men under my supervision – two were dismissed when their contracts were not renewed, and one left after he was frustrated and later scolded harshly by the SM of Contact Centre. Other than that I also lost many good friends when they too decided to leave after the Company began ditching itself into a black hole.
I do not know what exactly went wrong with the Company. Everything was smooth in the early beginning when I joined back in 2007. I later pulled Adik and Kembar into the team and things were working perfectly. We had our first "OPS CENCON" at the end of 2007, where delivery, installation, testing and commissioning (DITC) of PCs and printers were done continuously after Local Orders were received one after another. That was when I slowly built a system for the preparation of SAP (Sijil Akuan Penerimaan) and SPP (Sijil Pengujian dan Pentauliahan) documents, which made it easier to prepare. I can say that the Company's Perak team was organized to cater mainly for MOE projects in the state.
The name "CENCON" is the acronym for MOE Central Contract. We use that term to differentiate the project with another MOE project which is the MOE Maintenance. The project code-numbered MOE (COM) A76/2007 covers the region of Batang Padang and Kinta.
During CENCON new delivery and communication processes were created, and special type of relationship bonds the team members. The project has created an identity of its own where there Company's presents is felt strongly among MOE officials. I was also told the team had managed to bring the Company to a level where it reaches the top three in terms of delivery and maintenance performance for MOE Central Contract project nationwide.
I have to say that I had a great time with the team members. The communication and collaboration effort were fantastic, with Jenny Liew at Operations department worked superbly well and close with us to ensure smooth delivery of all orders. Put in a scale percentage, I think the error made in CENCON is only about 2% throughout the project until May 31, 2010. We had other sub projects under CENCON like for example "OPS 420" (DITC to 14 schools, where we had our first experience installing the wall mounted projection screen). The name "OPS 420" was derived from the 420 units of PCs. We also had OPS RED103, where we 'illegally' penetrated to deliver CENCON items to schools in the regions that were not allocated to us.
My men, well, they were a bunch of great guys. Never before in my life I had come across a group of guys that would leave their family to voluntarily stay overnight at the office just to accompany and help me to prepare the CENCON documents. We've experienced 'chasing' the delivery trucks as early as 5am, and Adik nearly got electrocuted during a networking installation at a Tamil school in Tg. Rambutan. Those were among the experience we encountered.
Apart from the sweet memories we had, there were also events that left bitter reminiscences throughout the project. I was diagnosed with PID (prolapsed intervertebral disc) sometime during late 2007 after the first round of OPS CENCON's DITC. I went through a series of physiotherapy sessions before the doctor decided to perform a surgery on my lumbar four and five. The medical report stated that I suffered from severe spinal stenosis. After the surgery my life has changed a little bit. My movement is limited, and to a certain extent I couldn't even lift myself up from bed properly. But Alhamdulillah, I am still able to walk.
I guess the scar from the surgery is the one thing that shall remind me of the Company. The scar will be there forever, and it tells many stories – the pain, the laughter, the guys in the team, the long nights we spent at the office, Pangsun, and many more. The scar also witnesses the downfall of SSM in Perak.
It is not easy when you're at this level. You see, when you end up losing one of your men you tell yourself it happened so the Company can save cost and the livelihood of two, or three, or ten others... maybe a hundred others. I've lost twelve men under my command throughout my career in the supervisory and middle managerial level, and it was all because of management's decision. But that means I've helped the Company to save the livelihood of ten times that many, doesn't it? Or twenty times more, yes? And that's how simple it is! That's how you rationalize in making the choice between the survival of the Company and your men.
This so-called cost cutting measures by the Company better be worth it. The management had better bounce back to become the next blue chip company or the company with the highest share price or something. The truth is I wouldn't trade a company worth RM100 million for one Megat, or one Hazmir, or one Bro or one Ghaz.
Over the past decade I've been moving around the state and have seen many people of different cultures, attitudes and ways of living, etc. Sometimes when you see things, you tend to learn stuff as it resembles pure knowledge and wisdom. Sometimes it makes you wonder how they could survive the day with such little and limited resources. I feel grateful to be given the chance to live in a small kampong. I strongly feel that Allah has chosen me to be here to have a taste of life from a different angle which will make me a better person whenever I get back to the city, insya'Allah.
Back home when I tell people what I do for a living, they'd say, "well, that figures". But over here in this Company it is a whole big mystery.
So I guess I've changed, to some extent. Sometimes I wonder if I've changed so much that my wife is even going to recognize me whenever it is I get back to her, and how I will ever be able to tell her about days like today.
I have to apologize to all for not being able to stay and hold on. I think most of you could understand why. It is not about winning; it is about survival.
Much has been said and done, I think my journey in the Company ends here. Come next month, I will insya'Allah be in KL. Things will be very different then. And I am sure I'll be meeting familiar faces along the way.
As I ignite my car for the last time in front of the Company's office, I take some time looking at it from end to end. I'm going to miss everything here. The people are just great. They are simply irreplaceable.
Ghazali "Ghaz" Seman, Wan "Bro" Azlan, Megat "Adik" Norhafiz, and Hazmir "Kembar" Hamdan – we had such a wonderful time together as a team. Perhaps someday we should make an effort to run a business partnership together too. Insya'Allah we will meet again from time to time whenever I get back. I apologize to all should I have ever made harsh statements or said the wrong words. But believe me, deep inside I know you have worked hard and you have done your level best. Thank you, jazakAllah, from the bottom of my heart. May Allah bless you all always with happiness.
Dealing with operations has never been easy if it wasn't because of the analytical thinking of you, Jenny. I admire your spirit and wisdom, which makes you an expert in what you do. You have been very kind to us all, and nevertheless your witty character has never failed to light up my day. Thank you again, and God bless.
Nurarinawaty, I know what you're thinking. I've said it before that I'm going after The Goal, and it shall stay as it is. I know revenge is a very dangerous motivation, but that's what keeping me going on, going strong. Thank you very much for your support and encouragement. It has been great pleasure serving with you in TM project.
I think the same brainwave between me and Hazlina has made us a good thinking pair. The first time we met was at Mines, with you and your soft-bossy look and me with my stern-operations face. A few weeks later we were talking at your house during Eid. A million thanks to you for helping me to solve our financial issues. Hope to see you again sometime soon when I get down to Kampung Baru.
Khairil and Hijjaz were the two hardcore guys who helped us most in CENCON. You guys were great, and I can't thank you enough for the guidance and support. CENCON will not have taken off and flew up high if it wasn't for both of you.
Nothing beats the SSD team when it comes to assimilating data for cases. Lead by Zahari, the SSD has played a vital role in determining case priority and providing information to the tech team. There are grouches here and there, but overall SSD guys have been a great help not just to us in Perak, but I believe to all tech personnel. So Zahari and team, thank you very much for all your help not just in CENCON, but in all projects.
Fadzil, you brought me into this Company to manage DITC for CENCON. Alhamdulillah, as far as I can see, everything had gone well until the recent mishap. I am terribly sorry I had to break my promise (of not leaving until everything is over). You have helped me a lot, and I pray that Allah will shower you with happiness always. CENCON would have been a great successful project if it wasn't because of SSM tragedy.
I hope I didn't miss anyone. On behalf of Sapura Perak team, a very special thanks to all:
Man "Black" Norzan Mohammad Surida "Zanor" Mansasi Mas Kimi "Bloodletting" Faizah "Baby Comel" Nora "Daus" Abdullah Khaizul "Sak kok luh" Cherlyn "Kakak" Fadzil "Abang" Khalid Abdullah Mohd "Matkorie" Bakhary Wan Aziz Ili Nurdiana Azlan "Rock Head" Yasirah "Shera Tamaki" Ros "Kelate" Faisal Jailani Ishamuddin "Shaun" Malik Aswad Elia "Light saber" Faizah "Baby Comel" Asma "Kak Chik" Shida Sairi Linda "Adik Bongsu" and everyone else in SSM, thank you very much for everything.
I also would like to thank the SST Perak guys especially Safari Sudin for all the cooperation.
To all my friends in Kampung Baru, Kuala Lumpur and Kampung Tunku, Petaling Jaya – I'll be in town soon.
It looks now Ghaz has become The Last Man Standing.
