Beyond Human Comprehension

Hmm… how time flies. The last time I posted was 6 days ago!

Just an update: Avatar was a great movie. I would go watch it again in a heartbeat. James Cameron really is a good movie director. The movie is grand, much like Titanic, and has a very thought provoking storyline. Makes you contemplate about the goodness and the ugliness of human natures.

The only minus was the insane line-up. And where there are line-ups, inevitably, I get to witness the uglier side of human nature (ie. Pushing, and cutting line-ups). But Wayne and I were lucky. We were there a good hour and a half early, and were among the first few people in the long line-up. =)

I’ve always said that the Christmas holidays is a time of contemplation for me, and this year is no different.

I will attempt to organize my thoughts this weekend as I had contemplated on what it means to be a mother.

I am both excited and scared at being a first time mom, but I know that our baby will be very patient with me and Wayne, as all three of us embark on this new chapter of our lives.

Most importantly, we have abundant love in our hearts, and I am sure our love for one another will see us through those sleepless nights, and overwhelming emotions that may threaten to drown us in our first days as parents.

Alright, enough rambling for now. I am now going to share another speech, which I wrote when I was contemplating about the callousness of human nature. Hope you will enjoy it!

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Beyond Human Comprehension

Recently, I was asked to write a petition letter for what I consider to be a bizarre and the most ridiculous case that I’ve ever encountered in my professional life. The petition is to seek redress for a recently deceased employee of a multinational corporation. Her name was Jannie Wu.

Jannie was an employee of a large American corporation, based in Singapore. She was diagnosed with stomach cancer in July 2006. She passed away recently on May 5th, 2007, and her death was believed to be brought on prematurely by work related stress and unnecessary aggravation from her immediate manager, Lester.

Through phone conversations, Jannie’s family described the case to me, and also forwarded some documents for me to read.

Needless to say, I was thoroughly saddened as I read through the correspondence that Lester sent to Jannie as she battled with her cancer, and her deteriorating health.

Instead of being an understanding and compassionate employer, Lester made life miserable for Jannie, even after learning that Jannie had a medical condition. From conversations with Jannie’s close friends and her sisters, Jannie was very much traumatized by the events in her workplace in the last few months leading to her death.

Citing corporate human resource policies and procedures, Lester claimed that Jannie did not provide enough evidence, and proof of her medical condition, and even had the audacity to write to Jannie’s doctor at the National Cancer Center of Singapore, requesting for confidential medical information.

Jannie’s doctor was bound by the law to keep her information confidential, and even told Jannie that medical information should not be extracted under duress. Even then, the doctor took time out of his busy schedule to issue a handwritten memo to Lester, telling Lester that Jannie’s situation remains status quo, and Lester’s cooperation in ensuring light duties for Jannie is seeked.

Ignoring the doctor’s handwritten note, Lester still wanted Jannie to work the graveyard shift, which started at 3:30 am. All this despite the fact that Jannie just undergone surgery to remove a couple of tumours from her stomach, and was recovering. That was in September 2006.

In the months following the news of her cancer, Jannie had to go through a couple of surgeries, and hence, she incurred medical and hospitalization leave.

Lester repeatedly called her, while she was on medical and hospitalization leave, asking her about her medical condition, claiming that he needs to have a contingency plan.

Even when Jannie’s teammates approached Lester, and informed him that they are willing to help cover Jannie’s duties so that Jannie could have a lighter workload, Lester would not hear of it!

In one of the memos that Lester documented with regards to his 1-on-1 sessions with Jannie, Lester actually asked Jannie to brush up on her work performance and to meet her quotas as a collection agent, or he would have to consult with HR regarding her performance.

In another memo, Lester actually documented that he will not initiate Jannie to leave the company until she is completely recovered, however, Jannie will have to meet the minimum performance requirement, and not allow her condition to affect her work. If her performance goes down too much, he will have to no choice but to ask HR for advice.

What a great way to induce fear of job loss for a terminally ill employee! What a great way to add unnecessary stress to someone who is dealing with her impending death! What garbage coming from a man who is supposedly well educated! It certainly made me wonder what exactly had Lester suffered from that he seemed to lack the basic human compassion, which makes us different from a beast?

It is the culmination of a series of such events that led to the rapid deterioration of Jannie‘s health, resulting in her early demise.

To make matters worse, or rather more ludicrous, the human resources department of the company, and Lester’s direct reporting manager, were evidently aware of what was happening, as Lester copied them in his meticulous documentation.

What baffles me, and continues to do so today, is why not one of senior management and HR personnel was willing to stand up and speak out for Jannie?

Perhaps, they believed that such callousness towards Jannie and such indignity is acceptable? I cannot, for the life of me, comprehend that such less-than-dignified behaviors are actually perpetuated in a first-world country like Singapore... A country that I am proud of to call my motherland... and in a world class American multi national corporation.

But most importantly, I cannot understand why Jannie would allow herself to be treated with such disrespect and indignity? As I read through the entire case, what struck me really hard was that Jannie had allowed her job insecurity, and her fear of losing her job overtake her more immediate concern of nursing herself back to health.

In mid March, she was crying to a colleague, lamenting that she would lose her job by end of May... Little did she know that she would lose her life first....

Jannie left this world on May 5th, 2007, at 12:15 am, half an hour after the Managing Director of her division visited her, and spoke to her whilst she was in her coma. She only let go after she heard from her managing director.

I do not know Jannie personally, and sadly, I will never have a chance to know her. But I was moved by her case to write the petition letter to the senior management, and also to send an email to the CEO of the company.

I wanted so much for Jannie’s story to be published in the newspapers, as I really believed there are huge lessons to be learnt from her story.

Jannie’s story is not only a call for the corporation to examine its corporate policies and values.

It can also serve as a reminder for us to always fight for what is important to us. For truly, I believe that no one should be saying that they wish they had spent more time at work when they are on their deathbed!

More importantly, I believe Jannie’s story should be a wake-up call to all of us, as we are so mired in our day-to-day lives, that we should never forget to be compassionate towards our fellow human beings, to come forth and protect those who may be weaker than us, and to reach out to those who are in trouble.

For the callousness of Lester towards Jannie while she was alive is to me beyond human comprehension.