It's complicated

I have a friend, and he's entangled in an office conflict.

He resigned from a reputable MNC firm and joined his former boss' company, which coincidentally his first company since graduating from university. He was reluctant to jump ship at first, knowing the fact that his former supervisor would feel displaced if my friend make a comeback to the office. But he was reassured that he'll be given a different role and poised to 'lead' a new division of the company to do consultancy jobs. So he leaped on, without any tangible backup.... and practically burned the 'bridge' behind him when he chose not to be interviewed by his management during his exit from the MNC firm.

In the 'new' office, there are two 'heads'. So when my friend hopped in, he's the third head. The 'old' head was my friend's former supervisor, when he was a fresh grad... junior staff. And the 2nd head, Snr Project Manager is super envious (based on body language, spoken words & actions) of my friend, and very kiasu.

Hmm... for ease of reference, I would now refer my friend as 'dragon', 2nd head as 'dog' and the old head as 'pig'.

Dragon, dog and pig are all reporting to the CEO. Being an old staff and as an act of face saving, the pig managed to convinced the CEO to promote him as an 'adviser', having served his capacity as a general manager in the past few years with directorship status in hand. But pig poured all out to the dragon last year, saying that he had lost his dignity if he decided to take up the contract agreement (strip his directorship status, but all benefits remained) with a validity period of one year. Meaning, the pig now is on yearly contract, and he kept bragging about how the CEO pleaded with him to stay and sign 5 years contract, to which the pig said he refused (sure or not I do not know lar... ar but then why the CEO only offered him one year contract instead of 2 or 3 or 5 years before he said no?). Anyway, the pig seemed to forget about his talk to dragon (when dragon came to talk to the CEO about his offer) about saving his dignity when he chose to accept the one year contract with the company last year. Talking about going on freelance and team up with the company's competitor in Johor konon... but in the end he would rather eat his words rather than leaving the company with dignity (as he said earlier about not signing the contract which strips off his directorship status) and work his butt off outside. The pig asked the dragon whether he should stay, and the dragon said 'why not' because pig has still school going kids to feed... and he's way over the retirement age already (married late). The dragon still has respect for the pig, because after all, the pig was his first mentor in his working life after graduation from university. But the pig took the dragon on a ride during a task which the dragon was involved. In one assignment, the dragon was looking for some suitable pictures for the company's powerpoint presentation and he pointed out some photos to match a theme of the presentation, to which the pig said those photos are not related to the theme. So the dragon left out the said theme, only to be queried by the CEO. And when the dragon said there were no photos to show, the CEO said the pig can point out some photos to the dragon, and the pig nodded. What??!! Earlier the pig said none to the dragon, but now it's the other way around. Obviously the dragon has been made to look like a liar or fool in front of the CEO because of the pig and now the dragon would never believe what the pig says anymore! So now the pig is on the 'watch out' list of the dragon.

The 2nd head @ the dog took over pig's status as director, as well as his shares in the company. Knowing the company has not been performing under the pig, the CEO had recalled the dog back into the company, promising him 'carrots' in order to train him to take over pig's tasks and responsibilities. The dog is shallow minded and always assess things from a short-term perspective. The dog has said to the dragon before, that he would do ANYTHING for money. So after listening to the dog, the dragon knows he cannot afford to belittle the dog; hence the dog now is the 2nd person on dragon's watch out list. Well, I guess when the dog decided to rejoin the company, little that the dog knows that it is hard to overturn a company and make it a profitable one if the management doesn't change. For change to happen, the management must first change first right?!!

The plot begins when the dog came to know that the dragon, a new comer into the fold, was offered directorship... not only one...but two, including a newly formed company. And although the dragon has half working experience under his belt compared to the dog, his knowledge on the technical and know-hows are much greater. That include report writing, utilising softwares, costing, management and using techie gadgets etc.

To be continued........