This is a war between a boss and his secretary. This is a war without a winer. This is a war drawing large attention and heat debate of local Beijinese.
It all started with Soon Choo Loke, the chief of EMC China, a Singaporean Chinese. He sent an email to his secretary Rebecca (Hu Rui) complaining that he was locked out.
From: Loke, Soon Choo
Sent: Saturday, April 08, 2006 1:13 AM
To: Hu, Rui
Cc: Ng, Padel; Ma, Stanley; Zhou, Simon; Lai, Sharon
Subject: Do not assume or take things for granted
Rebecca, I just told you not to assume or take things for granted on Tuesday and you locked me out of my office this evening when all my things are all still in the office because you assume I have my office key on my person.
With immediate effect, you do not leave the office until you have checked with all the managers you support - this is for the lunch hour as well as at end of day, OK?
Apparently Rebecca felt angry about the charge: Everyday she worked so hard; even sometimes she need to sacrifice her private time to work overtime. She still remembered she had planned to hang out with her boyfriend in Valentine's day last year:but she received an unexpected phone call from Loke to draft a project proposal. She said nothing but worked the whole night. After she came back, she found her boyfriend had already fell asleep. She didn’t understand why she devoted so much to the company and the boss, but in return she always got complains and abuses. She could not control her emotion at that moment; she began to weep. After she calmed down, she made a hard decision and replied an E-Mail with harsh language in Chinese:
Soon Choo,
First, What I did is absolutely right. Out of concern for security, I locked the door. It is not that it didn’t happen here in Beijing things got lost. If it happens, I can’t afford to take the responsibility.
Second, you have your own key. You forgot to take it with you and now you blame others for it. The reasons for this incidents are all from yourself and don’t shift your own mistakes to others.
Thirdly, you don’t have rights to control my private time. I work here for 8 hours a day. Please remember the lunchtime and the time after work are all mine, my private time.
Forth, since I joined EMC, I have been working diligently to fulfill my responsibilities. I worked overtime too many times without complaint. But if you ask me to work overtime for things that are not part of my job description, I can’t do that.
Fifth, though our relationship is that of a supervisor and a subordinate, but please pay the attention to the way you speak. This is the most fundamental courtesy of human being.
Sixth, let me emphasize here, I didn’t assume anything or take anything for granted. I don’t have time or necessity to do that.
Rebecca didn’t just send the email to Loke. At that moment, she felt extremely disappointed with her Boss.Her instinction and justice drived her to tell peers a truth: you worked for which kind of person. She finally hold up the courage, and clicked the CC button, having sent an E-mail to all the staffs in China branch: even those worked in Shanghai, Chengdu and Guangzhou offices.
The News spread fast from esoteric to public. One month later, The story was published on a widely-spread local newspaper. This news recurred heat debate among locals. The responses were divided: Some hailed her as a hero, calling her the most audacious secretary in the history (the most cow vagina one). Some insiders also complained about Mr. Loke for being arrogant in the company. Mr. Loke took part in the IT business for over 20 years, and been working for IBM, Siemens, and Oracle. Some complained that the first things he did when he joined Oracle and EMC, he reshuffled all the important posts and gave them to people from Taiwan and Hongkong.
Others said Rebecca has been spoilt by those foreign companies. She has been working for some big name international companies. Some questioned if she would dare to do things similar in a Chinese company. It also rumored that she has been fired from EMC and she was quoted as saying that she could not find a job now.
Dear friend, as for your opinion, who should be responsible for this incident? What they were supposed to do to attain a win-win situation before this happened? Or if you were the secretary or boss, what you would do at that moment? Thank you.
The main problem in this situation is lack of self-regulation; both of them were probably acting before thinking. If they were able to control their anger and frustration, there probably wouldn’t be a conflict at all.
ReplyDeleteIt’s also a question of self-awareness. Both the boss and the secretary should have asked themselves what the source of their anger was. The boss was probably angry with himself for forgetting his own key, but projected his frustration on the secretary. The secretary on the other hand was probably tired from working too much lately, and the angry e-mail might have been the straw that broke the camel's back.
So by understanding their own emotions through self-awarness, and avoid to turn the emotions into action by self-regulation, the issue wouldn’t have gotten as large proportions as it did. My solution to the problem for both of them would have been to stop, count to ten, and then move on.
Thanks for this detailed and imaginative post, Desmond. I especially like the way you have centered the conflict on office responsibilities, and that you share with us two emails, one from the boss and then the secretary's pointed letter. I also appreciate the questions that you have formulated, although I suspect that it would be easier for readers to digest if you only posted one.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of easier to digest, again some grammar problems appear, but few truly impede clear communication. Here are a couple to take note of:
- heat debate >>> heated debate
- she need >>> ?
- her boyfriend had already fell asleep >>> ?
- Her instinction and justice drived her to tell peers a truth >>> ?
Maybe you can review the rest of the post as well.
In any case, I appreciate the relevance of this scenario and the hard work you've put in.
Hi Desmond,
ReplyDeleteA very detailed story! Here's my take on the scenario.
From the email that the boss sent, it appears that it wasn't the first time a similar incident happened, which explains the source of frustration. As a secretary, Hu's duty was to assist the Loke and the other managers; Loke requesting Hu to check with the managers and himself for any outstanding instructions before leaving does not seem like an overbearing task to me.
Loke also chose to enquire Hu's opinion on his instruction, instead of issuing an order. In my opinion, this was an gesture of respect to his subordinate; inviting Hu's feedback to understand how she felt about it.
On Hu's end, it was a clear lack of self-regulation and empathy. Loke was after all the superior. The use of harsh language, forwarding the email to everyone else; these definitely crossed the line. Loke, who returns to the office after Hu leaves, definitely seemed like a busy man to me. Perhaps Hu could have shown some understanding Loke's packed schedule, the urgency of the project proposal and how locking him out had caused inconvenience, instead of assuming the boss was making things difficult for her.
Communication between superior and subordinate is a key to a healthy work relationship. From personal experience, assumptions are often the root of conflict. Rather than building up the frustration, Hu could have feedback to her boss about her workload and devise a solution. A face to face meeting would have been an ideal channel for the discussion instead of an email, which one might wrongly assume the tone of the message. If it was not possible, a phone call would suffice. On the other hand, Loke should have initiated timely meetings with Hu, to understand her work and concerns.
Hi desmond,
ReplyDeleteI posted a com few day ago, but apparently, I forgot to answer the security code..
Anyway, my com was about the progress I noticed in your writing. I really like your story, which is clear and concise. I also liked the idea of writing the emails of the secretary and the boss.
In my opinion, both were rude in the emails they wrote. The boss shouldn't have vent his anger on the secretary and let her feel inferior and humuliated. And the secretary shouldn't have sent the email to all of the colleagues. I think she is the one who get to bear the consequences of this incident (she did not find a job after that)...