Why (Company Name) sucks and my ex-boss NSB is an asshole !

Because of lots of threaten given to this employee, I need to make some changes in this posting. Sorry for the inconvenience to the readers of this thread.

The sad news is that his blog was closed. So for the persons who didn’t get chance to read the original posting, I have posted the edited version.

The only thing changed here is the name of his boss (short name is provided) and the name of that company.

By an Employee | March 24, 2009

I am making this post to explain why my ex-workplace, a local branch in Kathmandu Nepal of a Dutch software company based at Holland absolutely sucks and why the manager of my ex-workplace, NSB is an asshole. (N Asshole B is a better name for this guy.)

After I finished Computer Engineering back in 2007, I was desperately looking for a job. Desperate, because I didn’t want to stay at home all day doing nothing after my Bachelors were over when most of my friends were already engaged somewhere and I really wanted to experience spending my own money.

One fine day when I was browsing a few Nepali job sites, I saw this vacancy published at jobsnepal.com. It was for a post of an ASP.NET Software developer put up by this company, exactly what I was looking for being an ASP.NET programmer. The offer was quite lucrative because the employer had on offer an European Work Environment, competitive salary and excellent benefits. What more could you ask for in Nepal? Excited after reading the employer’s offer, I emailed him a copy of my CV without any delay.

I was called for an interview and then after spending a whole day at the interview, completing a small web project on ASP.NET, I was given the good news that I was waiting to hear – I was hired and I was told that my salary for the first 3 months would be Rs.6000 (75 dollars) and then it would be increased to Rs.8000 (100 dollars) and then it would be gradually increased. The salary was not at all a comforting match for the advertisement that the employer had put up earlier but still, I was really excited to get my first job. As soon as I got the news, I called my dad and my girlfriend to tell them that I got my first job. They were very happy for me.

Although the advertised "European Work Environment" was nowhere to be found at office, I thought I would still get the remaining – competitive salary and excellent benefits. A TV and a microwave oven at the office to warm your lunch is not going to create an European Environment when the office even lacked an air conditioner and a group of 5 guys needed to share a fan in the summer and a single room heater during the winter. Things started looking grim at office as time passed by. And I was not the only one; almost all the employees at office had complaints. Then it all started becoming clear slowly that the manager, NSB was actually hated by almost everyone at office. He was a bloody miser and everyone blamed him for embezzling the fund sent to him to be distributed among the staffs as salary by the parent organization at Holland. Some still seem loyal to the manager, but that was understandable, those were the ones who were fed well by the manager for serving him.
Back then, I started doing a bit of research personally about the issue. I found out that it was stated on the company’s website that they charge their customers to a maximum of 45 Euros per hour of work of an Asian Programmer. But most of us at the office were not even receiving 0.5 Euro per hour for our work. And after I saw that, it was pretty apparent for me that this lad, NSB was siphoning away the money. From that day on, the sight of this guy would warm my blood. Still I had to hang in there until I got some other job and I had to be nice to him so that I could collect my job experience letter at the end of my stay at that office. But I was not able to maintain a healthy relationship with that asshole for long. He had his own logic on things when the rest of the office had something else.

After the first 3 months were over, I was asked by that asshole manager to sign on a contract that read that I would be paid Rs. 6000 for 6 months from the start, that means 3 more months on the same pay, a clear deviation from what I was told earlier. I denounced the offer and told him that he had instead told me to increase my salary to Rs. 8000/month after the first 3 months when he hired me. He then pretended trying to prove that he forgot what he told me earlier.

Similarly, one day, I needed to take a leave for my personal affairs. And on that same day, he had scheduled a program for all the staffs to go go-carting. Don’t be amazed that a miser arranged a program for his staffs. Actually at that time, an official from the parent organization was visiting Nepal from Holland and it was that asshole’s way of showing to the official that he was doing some spending here at Nepal and also to please him. I went to him to talk about my leave, he told me that either I was coming with them to go-carting or that day would be counted as a non-paid office day for me when everyone else were receiving their salary for visiting the go-carting arena with him. I become furious for obvious reasons that day and had to tell him that "I am not gonna let you set preferences for me and if you want to count it as a non-paid day, fine, do it!” And since that day, the tussle had begun.

Next time, it was the month of February. On Valentine’s Day, I had plans with my girlfriend. So I wrote him an email on that day to tell him that I would not be able to make it to the office that day. I almost always mailed him when I had to take a leave earlier. But since he already had received some nice word-blows from me, he went on to call my mom that day when I was out with my girlfriend. When I returned back home that day, my mother told me that my boss had called me. I was surprised and furious too that this lad wanted to control me like he would do to a kindergarten kid. I carry a mobile phone and that asshole had both my home and mobile phone numbers but he opted to make a call to my home to reach me, what a freak? The next day, in the morning, I got a call from him again, this time on my mobile phone. I picked up and he was there at the other end shouting at me for sending him an email to ask for a leave. I had to shout back and tell him that it was fine when I did the same earlier, what’s was different that day? Then he put up the question that I was hoping he would. He asked me: "Chirayu, do you want to work with us or not?". I said, NO. Then this guy told me "You are fired as of right now". Poor lad didn’t even know that he had no right to fire me after I had already left his job – I answered "NO" for his earlier question which should have been understood as me leaving the job, but how would a dumb ass understand?

Asshole is a better middle-name for him than “edited”. N Asshole B. This guy is a MBA from University of New Hampshire – Whittemore School of Business and Economic. Amazing, ain’t it? A 10th grader would have managed the office better than him. This guy really deserves an asshole award. So here’s the ass-hole award for Mr. N Asshole B. Go get it dude!
And if anyone for any reason doubts your status as an asshole, I have an advice for you, JUST BE YOURSELF !

Probably this kind of exploitation happens in almost all IT offices in Nepal, but if you can expose guys like N Asshole B, it can be hoped that this trend of exploitation of labor by outsourcing companies in Nepal can be brought down.