Horrible Bosses: Hong Kong edition!

Tales of crazy management and their antics echo in after-hour bars, behavior so bizarre, people are left gaping at the horrors unfolding before them during office hours as the empowered and the employed deal with horrible bosses. P.Ramakrishnan was in bar-lit conversations with a handful of Central workers who had to deal with bad to verse*.

As the film Horrible Bosses opens this week*, finding humour in the hubris of powerful people and the fledglings that suffer beneath them is an often told tale. There are many anecdotes born in Hong Kong that could seep right into the scenario of the Kevin Spacey-Jason-Bateman-Jennifer Aniston flick.

In the hyper kinetic work force, dodging the mine-fields of power-hungry bosses is often a daily occurrence as they vent out their frustrations on underlings. Often enough, erratic behaviour borders on the criminal and yet people succumb to the pressures by remaining quiet, venting out over multiple drinks in the serpentine streets of Soho and begrudgingly returning to work come Monday morn. Or empowered by shots of tequila, quitting.

Ned* worked at a major investment bank and saw enraged seniors losing their cool at the drop of an index, "We were all called in to a briefing and my boss came in and sat down on what ended up not being his usual lumbar chair,” says the former analyst. “He went cr..a..zy (he says, stretching out each syllable). Screaming and shouting and pointing fingers and going up to others and checking to see if they had his chair – all the chairs in the office are exactly the same. Same brand, same make, same colour. What was he on?”

As the head’s head incremented in shades of red, nine other employees stood quietly watching the middle-aged man unravel. “There was a moment, when you step out of your body and record the scene with your mind's camera. You see a grown, man behave like a two-year with a temper tantrum and think, I can't work for this moron for one... more... day,” concluded the now ex-banker. “I was updating my CV and searching for jobs at Classified post.com by the end of the week.”

Writer Amy*’s recount of her last week at a publishing house borders on the cruel, if not criminal.

“I had resigned from my job and mistakenly told my editor which other publishing house I was going to. I had worked for the company for years on my nominal salary. In front of everyone, he espoused, ‘I wish you well and good luck’ and then he asked me to meet him outside. Our office had a balcony, so I waited,” she says. So far so good.

“He made me wait from 9am to noon. Everyone else worked quietly at their desk. I got completely sun-burnt and was left standing outside like a child put out in the corner.”

At midday, he returned to negotiate with offers of double pay and a bigger title. In the ensuing days, things went from bad to worse while none of the promises were kept. A heated discussion ensued.

“Well, I say ‘discussion’ but really it was him yelling while I stood in front in shock. He threatened to kill me if I crossed him in any way, including poaching his staff. I had no intention to it. I told the publisher about his behaviour. Nothing happened. I keep thinking now why didn’t I speak up? Why was I such an enabler of this ridiculous behaviour?” she asks rhetorically while recalling on the horror that occurred several years ago, but remains fresh in her mind like an untreated wound. “I must have had really low-self esteem.” She trails off, remembering the warm spittle that had landed on her as he went off.

When Amar* quit his job at a regional magazine, his publisher sent out a mass e-mail to others in the industry seething with vitriol and resentment. Threatening e-mails were sent directly to his e-mail account and then, oddly, recanted. “For a week after I quit, I received  a series of bizarre messages that were hostile, threatening. The first email was, 'I can't do this without you', followed by a series of name-calling and unprintable expletives. Then I got a bizarre e-mail from a Laurent F – a fake hotmail account – address me as a bitter closet case who was conniving and secretive. I asked a techie friend to trace the IP address and it traced back to her computer within minutes. It seems funny now... ” He pauses. "Actually, it doesn't, it wasn't funny. The trauma I went through...."

Going over the anecdotes, employment lawyer Jennifer Van Dale says, “Well, while ridiculous and childish in itself, there are some things here that are clearly a violation of employment laws. Creating a hostile work environment, sexual discrimination and a classic case of libel that would hold up in any court.”

TBC………



* There was a boss who would keep shoving his rap singles to his employees on home-made, home-burnt cds (that was a thing back then, post-mixed tapes, pre Spotify!).

* August 4, 2011

* Names changed to protect the innocent.

Note:

Back in the day, this feature was supposed to be in print on the same weekend (August 4, 2011) as the opening of the film Horrible Bosses, a movie which had a phenomenal run at local cinemas.

Working with legal team, the editor and the publisher of a magazine, we went through a lot of back and forth while I was writing, interviewing, researching for this lengthy article. The people mentioned in the feature did not want to go on record (Hong Kong is very small and its a litigious community with the all-mighty having access to endless pits of cash for legal recourse).

We came to an agreement to protect the names and worked with pseudonyms. Then during layout, we couldn't have photographs of the people interviewed obviously so a draft of some incredible caricatures were created. A couple of days in, some of the people interviewed went into panic-mode, they were worried this would affect their current/and/or future employment.

Finally, the article was pulled as it looked like the quotes were made-up (I had the audio recording of all those interviewed, many e-mails as obviously there was plenty of back and forth) and the magazine was coming off its own bad press as its former editor had been accused of... how shall I put this... creative liberties with a cover story on death-row penalty. (If you know who I'm talking about, then you KNOW the shizz that went down back then!).

Anyhoo, all my days and weeks of reporting and writing came to naught. Literally. As a freelance writer, you only get paid for what's published.
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