Disclaimer: In Real Life is a platform for everyday people to share their experiences and voices. All articles are personal stories and do not necessarily echo In Real Life’s sentiments.
We are often bombarded with slogans like “support local!” Most of us want to, of course. We think of the kedai runcit near our taman, an easy place to pick up small essentials like bread. Or maybe the local leggings brand that uses artwork that appeals to Malaysian culture.
But sometimes the friendly facade hides more insidious business practices.
Adam was employed at a local bar and restaurant that preaches values like “the customer isn’t always right” and claims to treat their employees like family. He told me his story.
“I single handedly ran the entire kitchen myself,” he said. “From food prep to cooking to washing dishes to cleaning after the night’s work was finished, I did it all.” He was paid RM1,000 a month.
“I was paid RM1,200 once when times were good but when times were bad, which was most of the time, my pay was dropped to RM1,000.” He made a dismissive gesture. “I put up with it because I admired the values of the bar.
It was only much later that I realised that they did not practise what they preached.”
The work was long, hard and ultimately unrewarding.
“I skedaddled off after about 3 months at most,” he told me. “Because I was the only person in the kitchen, I wouldn’t even be able to sit or rest or even eat my staff meal most nights.”
Apparently, the reason for the low pay was because the owners were in debt. “I don’t think workers should be punished for the terrible financial decisions of owners,” he said while he was mulling things over. “The salaries you’re paying is part of the cost of running a business – I really don’t think it should ever be something that owners can just change at will.”
He had also found out that they usually hired foreign workers for a fraction of what they paid him. They were forced to turn to locals because they had been caught by the authorities.
“They didn’t have any proper SOPs or anything for any of the work I was supposed to do,” he added. “They really didn’t know how to run a business.”
Apparently, they didn’t even have proper stocklists or equipment. Adam had to figure out things and implement his own systems as he went along with his work for them.
He also directed me to his former colleague who had worked at the bar as well. Gaya only affirmed everything he had said.
“They really didn’t know how to run their business,” she told me. “I was always asked to do lots of things outside of my job scope as part of my responsibilities- I assume they were trying to save money by making us do all of the work they needed done.”
Adam agreed with her. The work had left him constantly exhausted because of how much he was expected to do every day. “On my days off, it wasn’t uncommon for me to sleep in for like 10-12 hours and my body was constantly sore.”
But he also thinks that there are serious problems with small businesses and how they believe that the work they do is so important that they shortchange their workers.
“I mean, look at these kononnya progressive small businesses, like PichaEats and GerakBudaya… They make their money off people feeling good that they’re supporting a small business with the ‘right’ values, but it’s all just virtue signalling.”
Virtue signalling happens when people express opinions that are “good”, trying to connect themselves with the reputation of being a good person.
You see it happen a lot with influencers who say the “right” things on social media, gaining plenty of engagement on their posts easily by saying things that people care about or relate to.
But here’s the thing about virtue signalling: it’s insincere.
“I think the owners experienced some cognitive dissonance in what they preached and how they turned around and treated their employees,” Adam said.
He started seeing the red flags clearly after about 2 months of work. He left the business before Gaya did, but he did tell her what he thought. She stayed on for a little while more, but eventually she left as well.
“I saw how Adam’s replacement was treated and how things were going from bad to worse,” she told me. “They started actively gaslighting us, telling us that our meagre pay of RM1,000 was more than what we’d get from other places.”
She quietly resigned, cut ties with the bar, and has been unemployed since. She has applied to work at other F&B outlets, but a problem she frequently encounters is having to pick up the slack that comes from owners having the money to run businesses but refusing to listen to her experiences in the industry.
The money is also abysmal. “Service workers aren’t paid enough,” Adam agreed. “Everyone wants their nice drinks and food, but they don’t see us as skilled workers. They don’t see how we need the skills to be quick on our feet, to adapt to different situations and how to layan customers in a way that makes them want to return.”
He smirked. “I don’t think people who work office jobs could do what we do, as much as they like to claim people like us do unskilled labour.”
Unfortunately, this issue isn’t likely to change for the better anytime soon.
Not only does Malaysia have a laughably low minimum wage, exploitation of labour frequently occurs because of how weak labour rights are here and the lack of trade unions.
Locals are usually grateful about being treated much better than immigrants in the workplace, but we cannot deny that we need stronger employment laws and rights – these affect us all regardless of our citizenship.
For more stories like this, read: The Brutal Truth About Corruption In Malaysia Where The Rakyat Continue To Be Poor, Malaysians Must Acknowledge The Importance Of Our Foreign Residents As Part Of Malaysia and Malaysian Income Inequality Is Getting Worse – What You Need To Know.
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