This story is about an OFW who worked in a Consulting firm in Qatar to give his family a better future but turned out a nightmare while working under his Line Manager.
Please read:
"I worked in Dubai for eight years in a single company with Professional and decent people wherein I tender my resignation last May 2014 to take the opportunities offered by a consulting firm in Doha, Qatar. The said consulting firm has a slogan "Do it the A _ _ INS way" and "_ T K _ _ is a great place to work. At the start I believed yes it is, however it's a shame that I even posted on the networking sites that it was the kind of company I wanted to grow old with not after they terminated my service just before Christmas Day just because I filed a complaint against my Line Manager for "Bullying". The company didn't pay as well all my works overtime. ( I have a copy of this through e-mail automatically generated by JDE).
I worked from a Contractor's side in Dubai and one of our consultant's Planning Manager is a Filipino who introduced me to his company in Qatar after he left Dubai.
My first day from the said consulting firm is supposed to be an orientation about the company. I came to office at 7:45 and supposed to be the designated Line Manager when I signed the contract was the Contract Risk Manager. However, the guy with same Nationality as the Project Director (Egyptian) and with a designation of Sr. Planning Engineer took over as Project Controls Managers for some reasons. The first thing that this guy asked me is regarding what was my relation to the Filipino Sr. Planning Manager (whom I just learned later was on vacation by that time and whom I haven't got a conversation for awhile since he's not answering my e-mail just before I transfer to Qatar). Then I told him he was the Sr. Planning Manager in one of our Projects in Dubai and who introduced me to the company. Then he told me that whatever relation is that I have to leave it there since he will be my Line manager and I was not supposed to speak in my native tongue when my Filipino colleague is around.
I just realized that this guy came a month just before I arrived to Doha and instantly became a Project Controls Manager for an obvious reason. Though, the Project Director seems to be a more decent man, my Line Manager as a I mentioned earlier having the same Nationality with the Project Director is completely the opposite. There are times when he will tells me that he doesn't care if I worked 24 hours a day as long I finish my work otherwise the PMC will screw him (this is nothing but slavery, and he did not deny it when I confronted him about this on December 17). This guy is not working at all and just giving us multiple tasks and everyday he will tell me and the other three Planning Engineers (Indian Nationals) that each work will only take 10, 20, 30 minutes since he doesn't know how to do it so no matter what if the Programme/Schedule has 5,000 activities and 10,000 relationships he will tell as to finish the revision the same day he gave the tasks (btw, we have almost 30 projects in concept, design, tendering and construction stage). I still want to believed that I'm a hardworking man and extra works and overtime pay is not an issue for me as long I my Manager is considerate and decent but I will not tolerate those exercising "power tripping" According to this man we are not supposed to have an idle time otherwise he will removed us from the Planning Core Team.
While me and my colleagues use to to come to office just before 8:00 am and since we have to consume 9.6 hours a day for 5 days to complete 48 hours a week as per our contract we are supposed to leave the office at 6:00 p.m. And for myself since i only take bread during lunch it is just right for me to leave at 6:00 P.M. My Line Manager however is coming everyday at around 9-10 am. and therefore he is suppose to stay until 8 to 9 in the evening. But the worst part of it is that he wanted us to stay as well after six therefore everyday just before 6:00 in the evening he will tell us to revise what we did early on the day and tell us that it should be completed since he needs it first thing in the morning. But once you're done with the report he will just keep it on his table for a month or two.
If for instance you take a sick leave for the first time and see the facial expression of your manager like the photo below (screen captured from the video I took the day after my sick leave), what will be your impression of him. When I took my first sick leave and informed one of my colleagues regarding such since I don't have my Line Manager's contact number and because of so many instances where my Line Manager is being aggressive to tell me that he doesn't care if I worked 25 hours as long I finished my work on a extreme time pressure, and on that day, I know that he will confront me about my absence, therefore the moment he called me, I put my mobile camera just below my lower lips facing him and let him do the talking. The only words, I remember that I answered back is "yes, yes and I will advise" since I'm afraid that he will caught me taking a video recording of him. I took chances of taking a video recording of my Line Manager just to have some evidence on how aggressive he is. I don't think it's normal for a Line manager to act like the way he do just because you took absence for the first time and not able to inform him.
Listen to his voice trying to intimidate me. At the end of the interrogation he even tried to threaten me that something will happen if I took absence again without his knowledge. I took this video recording anticipating that he will tell me again that he doesn't care if I work 24 hours as long as I finish my work, though he doesn't deny that during our confrontation on exchanges of e-mails on December 17.
According to the Operations Manager ( Mr. Andy Riley) and the HR Manager ( Mr. Lorna Williams) in the business point of view this guy is doing a great job. I don't know their definition of being a strict and being a "bully". If this man is doing a great job by pushing us to work beyond our contractual working hours, then the company should have paid all of our work overtime then. I'm not a graduate of Psychology but I know the difference between being strict on work and being a bully.
For those people who is against bullying and slavery please feel free to share this video especially this article post to warn other OFW's abroad.
Please read:
"I worked in Dubai for eight years in a single company with Professional and decent people wherein I tender my resignation last May 2014 to take the opportunities offered by a consulting firm in Doha, Qatar. The said consulting firm has a slogan "Do it the A _ _ INS way" and "_ T K _ _ is a great place to work. At the start I believed yes it is, however it's a shame that I even posted on the networking sites that it was the kind of company I wanted to grow old with not after they terminated my service just before Christmas Day just because I filed a complaint against my Line Manager for "Bullying". The company didn't pay as well all my works overtime. ( I have a copy of this through e-mail automatically generated by JDE).
I worked from a Contractor's side in Dubai and one of our consultant's Planning Manager is a Filipino who introduced me to his company in Qatar after he left Dubai.
My first day from the said consulting firm is supposed to be an orientation about the company. I came to office at 7:45 and supposed to be the designated Line Manager when I signed the contract was the Contract Risk Manager. However, the guy with same Nationality as the Project Director (Egyptian) and with a designation of Sr. Planning Engineer took over as Project Controls Managers for some reasons. The first thing that this guy asked me is regarding what was my relation to the Filipino Sr. Planning Manager (whom I just learned later was on vacation by that time and whom I haven't got a conversation for awhile since he's not answering my e-mail just before I transfer to Qatar). Then I told him he was the Sr. Planning Manager in one of our Projects in Dubai and who introduced me to the company. Then he told me that whatever relation is that I have to leave it there since he will be my Line manager and I was not supposed to speak in my native tongue when my Filipino colleague is around.
I just realized that this guy came a month just before I arrived to Doha and instantly became a Project Controls Manager for an obvious reason. Though, the Project Director seems to be a more decent man, my Line Manager as a I mentioned earlier having the same Nationality with the Project Director is completely the opposite. There are times when he will tells me that he doesn't care if I worked 24 hours a day as long I finish my work otherwise the PMC will screw him (this is nothing but slavery, and he did not deny it when I confronted him about this on December 17). This guy is not working at all and just giving us multiple tasks and everyday he will tell me and the other three Planning Engineers (Indian Nationals) that each work will only take 10, 20, 30 minutes since he doesn't know how to do it so no matter what if the Programme/Schedule has 5,000 activities and 10,000 relationships he will tell as to finish the revision the same day he gave the tasks (btw, we have almost 30 projects in concept, design, tendering and construction stage). I still want to believed that I'm a hardworking man and extra works and overtime pay is not an issue for me as long I my Manager is considerate and decent but I will not tolerate those exercising "power tripping" According to this man we are not supposed to have an idle time otherwise he will removed us from the Planning Core Team.
While me and my colleagues use to to come to office just before 8:00 am and since we have to consume 9.6 hours a day for 5 days to complete 48 hours a week as per our contract we are supposed to leave the office at 6:00 p.m. And for myself since i only take bread during lunch it is just right for me to leave at 6:00 P.M. My Line Manager however is coming everyday at around 9-10 am. and therefore he is suppose to stay until 8 to 9 in the evening. But the worst part of it is that he wanted us to stay as well after six therefore everyday just before 6:00 in the evening he will tell us to revise what we did early on the day and tell us that it should be completed since he needs it first thing in the morning. But once you're done with the report he will just keep it on his table for a month or two.
If for instance you take a sick leave for the first time and see the facial expression of your manager like the photo below (screen captured from the video I took the day after my sick leave), what will be your impression of him. When I took my first sick leave and informed one of my colleagues regarding such since I don't have my Line Manager's contact number and because of so many instances where my Line Manager is being aggressive to tell me that he doesn't care if I worked 25 hours as long I finished my work on a extreme time pressure, and on that day, I know that he will confront me about my absence, therefore the moment he called me, I put my mobile camera just below my lower lips facing him and let him do the talking. The only words, I remember that I answered back is "yes, yes and I will advise" since I'm afraid that he will caught me taking a video recording of him. I took chances of taking a video recording of my Line Manager just to have some evidence on how aggressive he is. I don't think it's normal for a Line manager to act like the way he do just because you took absence for the first time and not able to inform him.
Listen to his voice trying to intimidate me. At the end of the interrogation he even tried to threaten me that something will happen if I took absence again without his knowledge. I took this video recording anticipating that he will tell me again that he doesn't care if I work 24 hours as long as I finish my work, though he doesn't deny that during our confrontation on exchanges of e-mails on December 17.
According to the Operations Manager ( Mr. Andy Riley) and the HR Manager ( Mr. Lorna Williams) in the business point of view this guy is doing a great job. I don't know their definition of being a strict and being a "bully". If this man is doing a great job by pushing us to work beyond our contractual working hours, then the company should have paid all of our work overtime then. I'm not a graduate of Psychology but I know the difference between being strict on work and being a bully.
For those people who is against bullying and slavery please feel free to share this video especially this article post to warn other OFW's abroad.
While one of my colleagues is calling my Line Manager a "Donkey" because of his attitude. Myself, I have tried to become as composed and professional as much as I can to extend my stay with the company since I believed it's a good one with the exception of my Line Manager . One time while seating beside my Line Manager having some discussions somebody e-mailed him and the moment he open the e-mail, the message says, "The work for him, "My Line Manager" in Ashghal is over" (I will not speak about his qualification for his position though). The moment I told my colleagues regarding the matter, they seems very happy telling me that they are crossing fingers that it will happen since they are already fed-up with him as well but chose to keep mum because they are afraid to lose their job. All of these I can proved through our exchange of messages in e-mail and Lync. I'm not an IT expert but definitely it can be retrieved by the company's IT expert from my company's e-mail account.
When you're an experienced and knowledgeable Planning Engineer, you are not supposed to ask your subordinate to do the work in impossible time pressure especially when they don't have an administrative access as they cannot do the import-export thing in Primavera. There are times when me and my colleagues will ask our Line Manager to give us "access rights" for some Primavera advance features so we can save time and and this guy will tell ask what is "access rates"?. One time he even told us if both side of the double-sided formworks for a cantilever retaining wall can be fixed first before putting the reinforcement in-between the form works to save time is absolutely ridiculous.
Just before I finished my probationary period, I already filed a complaint against my Line Manager for "Bullying" address to Risk Manager and Operations Manager. I made a request for a transfer of project, but after awhile I already elevated the case to Human Resource Department and said they will investigate my grievance. Ms. Lorna Williams and Mr. Andy Riley keeps on asking me if I will pursue my complaint and according to them if I did, the investigation cannot be stop once started. I told them yes because I want to face my Manager in front of them.
After the Operations Manager spoke to my colleagues which according to them (my colleagues) is more of a 'PDR thing' questions, The Operations Manager (Mr. Andy Riley) and the Human Resource Manager (Ms. Lorna Williams) called me to inform that according to their investigation there is no bullying happens but they will transfer me on another project. They did not allow me and manager talk face to face, I don't even think that they advise my Manager regarding my grievance against him, However, I did not object about the results of the investigation just because of the thought that I will not be working with my Line Manager anymore.
Then the day before my last day with my Line Manager we gather for a meeting regarding handing over of my works to one my colleagues. Then on that very day, early in the morning when my Manager saw that I'm already handing over my works to my colleague, he called me and ask me to do a big work with himself not knowing how to do it and myself who knows how much it will take to do the work, I told him that I am willing to extend my stay for another week just to help them finish the job. But when he started to tell me again that I should finished it completely on the same day and he cannot allow me to extend my stay on that office since he already agreed with the OM regarding my transfer. With the anticipation that I cannot finish the task I already told him that whatever I can do until 6:00 P.M, that would be it and I will not take an overtime.
While working on the project that he told me to finish on that day, he keeps on sending me e-mails regarding my JDE timesheet. He is asking me to "explain in bullet" what I have done from Sunday until Tuesday while he wanted me to complete the work for the big project on that day! And since he already consumed my time asking about so many things, I decided to confront him and lead to a heated arguments through e-mail. Through our exchange of e-mails he never denied when I remind him on what he told me that" he don't care if I worked 24 hours as long as I finish my work". Then after awhile they already blocked my e-mail account.
As I have mentioned earlier, I have worked in Dubai for 8-years for 6 days a week and alternately on Fridays but never felt exhausted the way I experienced working with this company in Qatar. Since my Line Manager doesn't know our works and don't know exactly what is his duty he just keeps on giving tasks and tells us to finish it in impossible time pressure. My Line Manager don't care about the quality of our work since he just wanted to finish all the report even without our full comprehension because he is ordering a task like an instant coffee. I actually envy my Filipino colleagues there who happens to have a decent Line Manager and so they work in extended hours with their own free will which is completely opposite in our situations where we are force to work in extended hours beyond our free will.
Before I try to reach the Middle East Online News portal and the Qatar Labour for all my unpaid overtime and regarding the working conditions I have experienced under my Line Manager, I am hoping to get an advise from company's Head of HR in Dubai. Working 5 months with the company in Qatar, all my overtime was actually not paid. We have this so- called JDE timesheet where you have to enter the time you have worked within the week and it is just a matter of honesty since it is a self-service entry. The moment you put an extra time for the week, your manager is supposed to object or approved whatever extra over-time you have put on the time sheet since they will have a copy of it just before we get paid. My Manager has no objection neither approved to pay all my overtime. Some of which I have entered on JDE, just like when I'm working 8 hours even on Saturday. But those 1 hour to 2 hours extra over-time worked I didn't even put it on my JDE which is so many. The company has a CCTV and so they can check it out on what time I'm leaving the office almost everyday.
However, I still conclude that the company itself is still a great place to work for Filipino professionals like me, it is however just a matter of having a Decent and Professional Line Manager. I am currently undergoing depression after my termination just before Christmas. I even told the Operations Manager and the HR Manager if I can extend until after New Year just to wait for the guy who introduced me to the company to came back from his vacation so I can fixed my things but to no avail they ask me to leave the country before New Year. The worst part of the termination of my service and what was written on the Letter of Termination of my service is that according to the OM and HRM is "because of my false accusations and also I took a video footage of my Line Manager again on December 17 wherein they already told me not to do so" is absolutely and completely not correct. I sent the same image to my Line Manager for him to realize how aggressive he is and he might be ashamed of himself but never I took a video of him again.
On December 21, the HR Manager and Operations Manager just mentioned on the termination letter that I took a video recording of my Line Manager again without any investigation, they just said it's the reason for the termination of my service. For a company like that who has a strong rule against bullying, it's devastating to be terminated just because I stand-up on my principle and fight on what I perceived as a "Bully" Line Manager". I tried to ask them if they can give me an NOC but the HR Manager told me that I am not entitled to an NOC since I was not able to complete one year. So how can I complete one year if they already terminated my service just for the reason that I file a complaint against my Line Manager.
Hopefully those OFW's like me who will read this story will find time to share this to article to social networking sites until it reach the best people that can help me fight the "Bully" and seek justice from the termination they imposed when the reason is totally unacceptable. I'm still hoping though that the company and their people in position will be decent enough to hold on to their principle and make a fair judgement.