In the history of Kuwait, the English Daily Arab Times is the third daily newspaper but first after the invasion and liberation of Kuwait. According to the available information it is read by the greater number of English readers in Kuwait which fact proves that it is more popular English Newspaper in Kuwait. On every Thursday it publishes a special column under the heading “Overheard in the Souk” which is a very interesting column. On 15th of this month the writer of this column wrote that in Kuwait the number of Hospitals and Clinics has increased thereby proving that people are falling sick in more number. One of the reasons the writer asked “is it due to the working atmosphere?” which means tension on the job?
According to me the expatriates are too much suffering from tension on their jobs, this happens when one’s superior or manager is over strict for nothing at all with the staff working under him. Every expatriate working in Kuwait is fearful of his job, afraid of losing his job. The job here is not permanent, you can be fired at any moment and there is no Trade Union to fight for you if you are sacked without any proper excuse or if you lose your job for any other reason. The Sword of Damocles is continuously hanging over your head as far as your job security is concerned knowing not when your services will be axed. And if your manager or superior is a Hitler or a Saddam Hussein as I had earlier then your uncertainty on the job is more leading to more tension.
Generally speaking Kuwait is a place to work for the poor expatriates and only poor expatriates come to Kuwait, he may be Easterner or Westerner, he may be a cleaner or a top manager but he is poor in his own country and because of this home poverty he comes to Kuwait to enhance his financial status. He may have high social, educational, professional and financial status in his own country but all these high qualities become null and void when he steps into the soil of Kuwait where if you watch minutely he is treated as sub human being in a non-egalitarian set-up.
A financially rich expatriate will never come to Kuwait to work under unfavourable conditions where there are so many restrictions as per the local traditions and as per the system of this country where you have to curtail even some of your human freedoms and natural tendencies. A sensible expatriate having enough of financial resources at his disposal in his home country will never come to work in Kuwait by restricting his own personal freedom and many times to live like a donkey.
Kuwait is not a holiday spot to enjoy, here you work and work to accumulate wealth and the wealth thru salary one acquires in Kuwait is not much but a little more than what you can get in your own country. Here good money and fast money are acquired only by the expatriates holding top positions. It is these expatriates who eat the flesh of Kuwait and throw the bones to the lower grade expatriate workers and that too without any shame for their conscience. In order to protect your regular flow of income, however tiny it may be, thru your employment you undergo maximum of sacrifices, humiliation and suppression on the job from your superiors and managers. Because of this you undergo total mental depression leading you to get afflicted with different types of sicknesses.
The managers who threaten the staff working under them with dire consequences even on flimsy ground are the weak managers to conduct their affairs, this threat they issue to protect their regular flow of income smoothly. To protect their interest and gain maximum benefits for them on their jobs, financial and others, they squeeze their staff to the extreme leading the poor staff to undergo depression and mental tension ultimately filling the hospitals and medical clinics. When expatriates come to Kuwait to work they come with a purpose to make little or more money by leaving their closest and nearest back at home thus depriving them of so many privileges at home. And in the bargain if they lose their jobs in Kuwait they get heart attack. In order to avoid this type of attack they suffer not only mental tension and depression but also physical abuses from their superiors.
When threatened by your superior or manager with the harsh and threatening words like “you are useless, you bloody, I will stop your increment, I will throw you out, I will deport you, get out from here, don’t enter in my office again and such other humiliating words”, you are bound to get terribly afraid leading a very ill effect on you physically and mentally. When you get such threats you are bound to get your blood pressure high leading you to suffer from tension forcing you to go to the medical practitioner which means filling the hospitals and medical clinics.
The Human Rights Activists in Kuwait must monitor each and every move of the managers to keep a tab on their arrogance towards their staff who face human rights abuses from the arrogant and abusive managers. Why a manager should raise his voice and shout and insult his staff? A shouting manager is not a good manager but a good Donkey because at the time of selecting and recruiting his staff he must do the correct selection in which case the need of shouting does not come. Like himself a Donkey he is selecting Donkeys only and later on shouting at them means the manager himself is a big Donkey and such Donkey managers are plenty in Kuwait among the expatriates. A good and efficient manager will pay good salary and recruit good staff and not “sacrap” to insult and to shout at them. Paying beggars salary and expecting genius’ output from the staff is the job of third class Donkey managers.
Two of my earlier managers – one a Nazi German and the other a Madrasi Indian Maharaja – were expert in shouting and insulting their staff as the company is their fathers’ property. By their shouting they were uprooting human dignity from the dignified hearts of their staff thus making their staff believe that they are sub-human beings. Even the owner of the company was so nice, kind and humane. It is these two managers who tarnished the fair image of the company and finally both were thrown out like dirt from the company. I will give good publicity later on for their arrogance and pride by identifying them in open forum. This is the preliminary punishment for them and gradually they will receive more severe punishment from God for destroying the peace of the staff working under them. It is said in the Holy Bible that “SWORD BEGET SWORD” which means those who fight with sword will die with sword only. God’s punishment will surely come however slow it may be but surely it will come.
Referring to the domestic sector, many maids in Kuwait are suffering from mental and physical abuses leading to suffer from tension where they are working. Because of this tension they run to the Medical Clinics and Hospitals for curative medical help. When I asked once a Goan maid whom I met in the Hospital the reason for her being there, she replied saying “my boss is making sexual approaches on me and because I am resisting it he threatened me to deport. Because of this I have tension of thinking what will happen to my three growing up children. If I am deported who will support my young three kids whom I left under the custody of my aged mother in the absence of my dead husband? I am in a dilemma now knowing not what to do. I neither want to surrender bodily to my boss nor I want to return back”.
Is there anyone in this world to help eradicate these work tensions of expatriates working in Kuwait? Or will they have to rely on God’s mercy?
A. Veronica Fernandes,
Kuwait.
According to me the expatriates are too much suffering from tension on their jobs, this happens when one’s superior or manager is over strict for nothing at all with the staff working under him. Every expatriate working in Kuwait is fearful of his job, afraid of losing his job. The job here is not permanent, you can be fired at any moment and there is no Trade Union to fight for you if you are sacked without any proper excuse or if you lose your job for any other reason. The Sword of Damocles is continuously hanging over your head as far as your job security is concerned knowing not when your services will be axed. And if your manager or superior is a Hitler or a Saddam Hussein as I had earlier then your uncertainty on the job is more leading to more tension.
Generally speaking Kuwait is a place to work for the poor expatriates and only poor expatriates come to Kuwait, he may be Easterner or Westerner, he may be a cleaner or a top manager but he is poor in his own country and because of this home poverty he comes to Kuwait to enhance his financial status. He may have high social, educational, professional and financial status in his own country but all these high qualities become null and void when he steps into the soil of Kuwait where if you watch minutely he is treated as sub human being in a non-egalitarian set-up.
A financially rich expatriate will never come to Kuwait to work under unfavourable conditions where there are so many restrictions as per the local traditions and as per the system of this country where you have to curtail even some of your human freedoms and natural tendencies. A sensible expatriate having enough of financial resources at his disposal in his home country will never come to work in Kuwait by restricting his own personal freedom and many times to live like a donkey.
Kuwait is not a holiday spot to enjoy, here you work and work to accumulate wealth and the wealth thru salary one acquires in Kuwait is not much but a little more than what you can get in your own country. Here good money and fast money are acquired only by the expatriates holding top positions. It is these expatriates who eat the flesh of Kuwait and throw the bones to the lower grade expatriate workers and that too without any shame for their conscience. In order to protect your regular flow of income, however tiny it may be, thru your employment you undergo maximum of sacrifices, humiliation and suppression on the job from your superiors and managers. Because of this you undergo total mental depression leading you to get afflicted with different types of sicknesses.
The managers who threaten the staff working under them with dire consequences even on flimsy ground are the weak managers to conduct their affairs, this threat they issue to protect their regular flow of income smoothly. To protect their interest and gain maximum benefits for them on their jobs, financial and others, they squeeze their staff to the extreme leading the poor staff to undergo depression and mental tension ultimately filling the hospitals and medical clinics. When expatriates come to Kuwait to work they come with a purpose to make little or more money by leaving their closest and nearest back at home thus depriving them of so many privileges at home. And in the bargain if they lose their jobs in Kuwait they get heart attack. In order to avoid this type of attack they suffer not only mental tension and depression but also physical abuses from their superiors.
When threatened by your superior or manager with the harsh and threatening words like “you are useless, you bloody, I will stop your increment, I will throw you out, I will deport you, get out from here, don’t enter in my office again and such other humiliating words”, you are bound to get terribly afraid leading a very ill effect on you physically and mentally. When you get such threats you are bound to get your blood pressure high leading you to suffer from tension forcing you to go to the medical practitioner which means filling the hospitals and medical clinics.
The Human Rights Activists in Kuwait must monitor each and every move of the managers to keep a tab on their arrogance towards their staff who face human rights abuses from the arrogant and abusive managers. Why a manager should raise his voice and shout and insult his staff? A shouting manager is not a good manager but a good Donkey because at the time of selecting and recruiting his staff he must do the correct selection in which case the need of shouting does not come. Like himself a Donkey he is selecting Donkeys only and later on shouting at them means the manager himself is a big Donkey and such Donkey managers are plenty in Kuwait among the expatriates. A good and efficient manager will pay good salary and recruit good staff and not “sacrap” to insult and to shout at them. Paying beggars salary and expecting genius’ output from the staff is the job of third class Donkey managers.
Two of my earlier managers – one a Nazi German and the other a Madrasi Indian Maharaja – were expert in shouting and insulting their staff as the company is their fathers’ property. By their shouting they were uprooting human dignity from the dignified hearts of their staff thus making their staff believe that they are sub-human beings. Even the owner of the company was so nice, kind and humane. It is these two managers who tarnished the fair image of the company and finally both were thrown out like dirt from the company. I will give good publicity later on for their arrogance and pride by identifying them in open forum. This is the preliminary punishment for them and gradually they will receive more severe punishment from God for destroying the peace of the staff working under them. It is said in the Holy Bible that “SWORD BEGET SWORD” which means those who fight with sword will die with sword only. God’s punishment will surely come however slow it may be but surely it will come.
Referring to the domestic sector, many maids in Kuwait are suffering from mental and physical abuses leading to suffer from tension where they are working. Because of this tension they run to the Medical Clinics and Hospitals for curative medical help. When I asked once a Goan maid whom I met in the Hospital the reason for her being there, she replied saying “my boss is making sexual approaches on me and because I am resisting it he threatened me to deport. Because of this I have tension of thinking what will happen to my three growing up children. If I am deported who will support my young three kids whom I left under the custody of my aged mother in the absence of my dead husband? I am in a dilemma now knowing not what to do. I neither want to surrender bodily to my boss nor I want to return back”.
Is there anyone in this world to help eradicate these work tensions of expatriates working in Kuwait? Or will they have to rely on God’s mercy?
A. Veronica Fernandes,
Kuwait.
