September 12, 2010
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Job Negotiations
Had this conversation with Mr Cheong Sing Yuen, the KL State Commissioner (Boys’ Brigade) almost two months ago. This should be a BB post, put I’ll post it here anyway. We were talking about hiring a new Full Time Officer for the State to manage State affairs.
Cheong: I don’t think a full time Officer should be attached to any Company. If I were in-charge and hiring, that would be a main requirement. (I am still serving in 3rd KL though attached with National Headquarters)
Voon: What if I raised my own funds? (We were aiming to raise several hundreds of thousands to buy a premise and sustain the FTO’s salary for three years) Would you allow me to be attached with a Company?
Cheong: No. How much can you raise?
Voon: If I raise RM30,000 by myself (that’s like a year’s salary worth in Malaysia)? Sell away my car and stuff..
Cheong: Oh. If like that I sure can allow.
LOL!
Comments (4)
lol… it’s funny that our deepest convictions can suddenly be negotiated or even forgotten when simple solutions are proposed… does the end justify the means? yet we face this problem all the time… especially when it’s about God. Gone were the days when we were united to say “Jesus is the only way”, because it’s just too difficult to defend that conviction. Sigh… I’m rambling… but I wish we can have “Sure and Stedfast” stands on our convictions, especially when faced trials and persecution.
I think he was just kidding Mark. He won’t budge for this thing one la.
LOL! Good one..
I think most people feel the calling to serve full time are those who are actively attached to BB companies. If they cease to be attached to a local company By Force, then their perception towards the BB also takes a different turn. I mean, if they have enough passion to serve as FTO then why aren’t they serving in a BB company anyway? Unless they have working or family obligations during BB days.
Personally, I feel the issue of whether or not an FTO continues to serve in a local company depends on 2 factors:
1) Work obligations – does his serving in the company disrupt his work? Although both are considered “BB” work, the person is receiving money for his services and should not cheat his employer by mixing up local company work and the work he is properly employed to do (got this from Mark Leong, lol)
2) Personal – If the person feels he can’t serve both places at once, or is too mentally tired by serving BB on weekdays AND weekends, then he should be compelled to resign from one. Since both are about the same thing (BB) it would be quite easy to accidently mix work-related frustrations and bring them to BB parade on saturdays.
I have rather strong feelings towards this issue. I know many officers are not happy that I decided to “resign” from 3rdKL when I joined 7th Bristol. The reason why I did not follow your footsteps (and Han Sheng, Iggy, Chin Gian and Ding’s as well) was because besides studying overseas, I was going to be fully involved in another BB company which has its own set of problems and duties and tasks to handle as well.I feel more comfortable observing as from the sidelines how 3rdKL progressed throughout this one year but sadly there are some who don’t seem to accept this. Yup, the situation is totally different when considering an FTO but there are many similarities – no one can be forced to serve except when God calls him/her to. If the person has free time, I think he can choose what he wants to do with it and the State council can’t restrict his free time by imposing regulations.
My answer to that is that different people have different callings and capacity. BB is special as it requires you to be called – that is something instructed from God. I took my job not cause only cause I love it, but cause God made it plain obvious through the experiences in my life and events leading up to my employment that BB was the place for me to serve full-time. So, for different people.. perhaps different things apply.
As for getting mixed up with work – so far I gotta agree that it can be a BB overload at times. But looking at ppl with different “jobs”, I think this phenomenon affects any profession (ie. If you work in law firm – work there will spill over into BB anyway). In that sense, I think that a FTO-BB and Local-BB mix is NOT that distracting. In fact, you can focus better as you do not have a wide(r) scope to think about in terms of specialisation. However, it is important not to do our own Company stuff during BB-FTO hours (though that will happen sometimes – but hey, if you work in another job, that tends to happen anyway (ie. Jason Khoo using his work printer for BB at one time, remember?). I normally do 3rd KL work at night, outside my work hours.
Anyway, I personally don’t mind you being attached anywhere as long as you are serving in BB. In fact, I understand when ppl leave BB at all because God calls ppl to different things. Of course, human nature tends to be more possessive and tends to dictate on others.
Lastly, for me – I do think an FTO should not be regular in a single Company.. otherwise how to go to another place to start BB if it is a Saturday (or any week day) if he’s bogged down by local Company work? So that point I agree. But I do think that as a person and human being, we all need friends. When all breaks down – it is good to have a Company to fall back to feel at home.