The author has acquired a new habit lately - talking to and getting acquainted with random strangers. His latest and most memorable conversation was with a salesman who possesses the wisdom to question the status quo.

This open letter is a dedication to Jun from SEED at Mid Valley.

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Dear Jun,

As I walked into the store, all I thought of was to pick up something worthy of my cash, test its compatibility with my physique, make an expensive decision, and head to the counter. And then walk out like how I walked in.

You were quick to greet me with the affable facade that you probably were forced to put on, but it didn’t take long before I realized I was wrong and found myself at the receiving end of your passion with the capital P to serve people, when you made attempts to understand my circumstances while actively seeking suggestions for me, and even went as far as providing fashion tips to compensate for my woefully inadequate knowledge of the fashion world.

You may be a salesman, but your shrewdness and maturity torpedoed all the previous negative associative tags that I shamefully tagged onto my perception of a sales personnel. At the threshold of my question, “You’ve been working here for long?” (because you are such a nice person and I felt bad not showing mutual interest), I ended up listening to you waxing lyrical about your job in a no-holds-barred evasion-free personal account.

You are an unhappy lot. You lamented with zeal the lack of opportunities for personal growth in your job, exarcebated by the management practices in your firm that you found sublimely unacceptable. Our relatively brief exchange had in turn taught me, got me thinking elaborately and drew my attention on a few important issues:

1. Status-conscious culture. I have long condemned this as I see this as a means for the those in power to feel good about themselves for the attention and respect bestowed upon them, whether or not they (the attention and respect) come with sincerity. It is an interesting anecdote of how you were frustrated with your immediate supervisors and audaciously bypassed various levels of management in an attempt to get what you want, only to end up receiving the cold treatment from the people on top, reminding you of your status as a mere sales personnel.

2. Open door policy. Being a strong advocate in an ODP as you are, I initially had moments of inspired concordance while listening to you as I too concurred that an ODP is the immediate solution to address the status conscious culture. However on a second thought I found that the ODP, sooner or later, will train employees to bypass their immediate supervisors or managers and in turn develop a culture where employees believe that to accomplish their goals, they need to bypass their immediate supervisors and seek out the ear of the more senior managers. I fear the positions of the immediate supervisors and managers might appeared to be redundant, and thus undermines the functioning of a successful organization. I believed that employees should attempt to solve problems with their direct supervisors. And the ODP should be applied if and only if there is an irreconcilable difference or unsolvable problem between the employee and his/her direct supervisors, be it communication barriers between the two or something else that could possibly be the impediment to solving problems together.

3. The hierarchical organizational structure. I listened with keen interest how an organizational structure, by design, can bring the much despicable office politics. Having a direct supervisor who sees you as a pain in the a** spells “trouble”, as words can be improvised, stories can be distorted, truth can be spun and meaning can easily “lost in translation” as they make their way to the top via the various levels of the hierarchical organizational structure. Not to mention the red tape and the slow decision making process that ensue.

4. Lack of transparency. While you talked about your own supervisors keeping secrets from you, I further realized that the lack of transparency totally undermines the spirit of team-work and a dynamic organization. Hearing how serious an impact this could be on you (an employee), I realized that transparency and an honest communication is really the very thing that bonds people as an organization.

Your rhetoric - further enhanced by your constant repetition of the issues - immortalized in my mind, getting me thinking about the mental notes that I have taken as you were spilling your thoughts, even as I am writing this. I shall always remember your words and pay attention to the employees’ conundrum, should I one day own an organization, manage a department, or merely lead a small team. I am utterly glad you chose me to share this with, for I did not walk out like how I walked in.

As I adjusted my bearings to face the exit sign, I approached the anti-theft device with anxiety - I did not pay for something valuable that I took out of the store.

Inspired and invoked,

Aaron Lo