Job Discussion Forums

[malu]

I'm always paid on time, in full, and it's a decent enough salary. I get a nice house and never have any trouble getting flights home paid for, or expenses reimbursed. No problems there.

My employer seems to be able to take the large costs firmly on the chin - so why, oh why do they fret constantly about such petty little bits of small change? Examples:

1. I've just been asked if I could type my end of semester tests in font size 10 using 2 columns per page so as to minimise pages of photocopying (while the students had better remember to bring their reading glasses).

2. The rate of usage of toilet rolls in my unit has so far been on the agenda of three meetings, that I know of.

3. My school is now going to pass on a Rp3000 bank transfer charge for each salary payment.

My previous employers - not short of a dollar or two themselves - would cheerfully refill shagged-out marker pens and inject ink into printer cartridges during lunchtime.

Why this obsession with nickel-and-dime stuff?

[drgonzo]

Maybe too many years and lessons from the Dutch? :p

[guruengerish]

Can't agree with the title of 'stingy'.

1. Westerners use toilet paper. Asians don't. Save money, save the environment and use water.

2. White board markers are not cheap. Refilling pens can save quite a bit.

3. ditto printing inks. In fact the big printer manufacturers rely on folk buying genuine cartridges, which cost half the value of a new printer. A lot of folk I know buy refill kits and refill the cartridges at $3.00 each instead of $25.00. It saves a lot of money. I recently priced a set of genuine cartridges for my Canon and the cost would have been AU$140.00. The new printer was around AU$230.00.

[beefer]

[Gurusome]

Toilet paper goes to the same place as the poo. Hard to believe it can be more toxic than the things that come out of my butt. In some countries, it goes to a sewerage processing plant where they do magical things to make the water reuseable for irrigation or (for example, in London) drinking.

The paper is biodegradable, but the bleaches and perfumes and other chemicals do tend to get into the environment and food chain, especially in places where the sewerage goes straight to the river or ocean.

So washing is better than wiping. Except there's never anything to dry yourself on (if you're not at home), and I hate having to pull my pants on over a wet butt.

I agree with the ink thing. My $69 printer takes a $65 cartridge. It's a scam.

I'm more amused by the people who spend hours cutting the paper napkins in half. Which just means you have to use twice as many, since the paper disintegrates upon contact with water. Indonesia has the toughest plastic and the weakest paper in the world.

My school complained about us using too much washing powder, which is odd because most of us bought our own and did our own washing because the stuff the maids were using was crap. They employed a sort of creative stinginess at one of the schools where they gave us free coffee, but rarely had coffee, sugar and creamer all at the same time. The other school had properly brewed coffee, though, and this tiny gesture did great things for staff morale.

[guruengerish]

Talking of penny-pinching, I'm not trying to be one up on you, but EF Yogya when I got there had one toilet for the entire school (the 2nd had been out of order for months).

Staff and hundreds of students had to compete to get in there between classes.

The school had a "school towel" and a school "tea towel", which were washed each night and put out next day. The tea towel was used for wiping benches, cleaning glasses and drying dishes, and by mid-afternoon was looking pretty crappy.

I would drop the towel in the bin at this stage, and eventually a 2nd one was purchased.

After a heated staff meeting, it was agreed by management that a staff toilet would be built, and it was!

I never saw the owner's house, but I suspect it had more than one of everything.

[nasigoreng]

Indonesians may not use a lot of toilet paper but their overuse and reckless disposal of plastic bags is far worse for the environment.

Talk about stingy... these people are too lazy to make an effort to dispose of their garbage in a place farther than they can throw it.

[tanyakenapa]

The Indonesians probably wouldn't call it stingy.. or Pelit in Bahasa.. they will just see it as trying to save money on things they would consider not very important. And give it another name.. hmmm maybe ngirit (saving) umm maybe thats the slang word... ummm hemat biaya maybe.. saving on costs...they would never call it PELIT..they'd be soo insulted hehehe.....

I think its just the clash of western and Indonesian cultures. And no matter how hard westerners try to change their way of thinking..it will never work. Bad habits die hard.

As for the rich Indonesians, even tho they are rich and buy BMW'S or whatever, they will always try and save money but its on the things they dont see as important to them personally. I reckon its just the typical way of thinking in Indonesia.

Its just the way they are.... in my own opinion...

[malu]

At my local Carrefour you can get 2 hrs free car parking (a whole THREE THOUSAND RUPIAH) if you spend more than a certain amount on groceries. You would be astonished just how long whole families of wealthy chinese BMW owners will stand in a disorderly queue in order to take full avantage of the offer.

I swear these guys would spend a dollar on a torch to search for a cent they had dropped.

[basiltherat]

Was just thinking. There is a Philanthropist association in Indonesia but it seems to be pretty 'weak'; Indonesian Philanthropic Association (no website) .

One of the most populous nations in the world with very few philanthropists in a country which is mired in abject poverty and a society of two extremes (those who are poor and those who are filthy rich). That's a p1$$ poor showing really.

Also, I found many of the fat cats in Jakarta to be some of the meanest and inconsiderate people I've ever met.
What fun it is to be in Jakarta. Personally, though, I miss it like I miss the plague.

ps wen foreigners are judged to be giving very little, its called 'pelit. however, wen a local does it, its called 'ngirit'.

just to digress slightly, i have found in many cases that where these people have a relative weaknesses, they tend to promote them as their biggest strength. Example, in jakarta i often heard; 'We are the friendliest people in the world' or 'Westerners are pelit compared to us' or 'westerners are filthy'.
I wish I could have a dollar for the number of times I heard such opinions.

ok, im having a bad day. felt like having a rant.
best
basil

[alicantik]

Do any of you guys work for a school that cuts off out-going phone calls after the first five minute? That drives me insane. And if there are maids living on site, they lock the phones up at night so that they can't use them??

[tanyakenapa]

We dont have our phone calls cut off after 5mins, actually they pay for the local calls, but if we need to use the phone to call International, they say it will be cut from our pay.

Ive only ever made two international calls from work, one to Australia and to England, both for a family member's birthday. And its never been taken out of my pay. I think both were probably for less than 5mins anyway.

However there is a couple of staff members at my office that do abuse this, such as talk for half an hour or more, hmmm say phone hogging... and from what I know the office has done nothing about it so far. Other than complaining about the certain staff member.

As for locking the phones at night. Yes they do use a code to block outgoing phone calls... so maybe the SATPAM or the cleaners cannot call out.

However you can get this on regular home phones as well, however it means buying a phone that has a hard plastic cover that can be put over the keypad of the phone and be locked with a small padlock at the side of the phone.

I have a few friends whos parents do this, to control the phone bill, because the kids dont care about how mcuh it costs.

[laughing_magpie06]

Wow, your school actually allows outgoing calls at all. My current school won't allow any calls for any time even local calls. My last two schools allowed local calls but not cell phones.

[malu]

Hypermart, today. Huge queue at checkouts. Tarted up ibu in front of me suddenly goes ballistic that she has been overcharged 3 ribu on cooking oil. Operator pointed out to her that special offer price is 1 per customer (as per big, big notices around store) and she has tried to buy 2 and been sussed out. Demands to void sale on her (platinum) credit card, and split groceries into 2 bills, one for her husband. All this for 3 ribu...

"Ahem", I proffer three 1000 notes for ibu and remind her how long the queue is. She stands there looking absolutely horrified for a moment, realises everyone behind is having a darn good laugh, then stomps off on her 6inch heels calling me all manner of names in a most unladylike manner.

I should do this more often.

[sherlock]

Well then you are most certainly not malu!!!