The answer : Yes and No.

Yes if

• You are being tied under an employment contract which does not allow you to leave. I was in such a contract during my fresh graduate time – a 6 month contract which would require me to pay the money back (6 months salary) to the company if I were to leave.
• You have a bond with the company. This is usually activated if the company sends you for trainings. Be careful of such bonds because some of them can be ridiculously unfair.
• Or there is/are clauses in your employment contract which does not allow you to leave the company. Always read the employment letter properly before signing.

Otherwise, it’s a big NO. Companies do not have any right to stop you from resigning as long as you

• Serve the notice period.
• Pay back any money which you owe the company – bonds, notice periods, etc.

The reason I’m writing this post is because there are people who actually asked me what should they do if their bosses do not allow them to resign. Fact is, your bosses cannot stop you from resigning under normal circumstances. The labor law is on your side this time.

So for those inexperienced people, don’t worry. You should serve your notice period on the day you submit your resignation letter. Again, this is under normal circumstances and assuming you don’t have any debts/loans/bonds with the company.

If you are not sure, feel free to contact the labor department.

Contact number for local labour offices in Malaysia

or simply go to the official web site.

Labour Department Peninsular Malaysia

p/s… if you’re dealing with recruiters/headhunters, consult them because they know the labor law pretty well and they know how to deal with such situations.

I’m finally back after 1 week of absence (or more?). Hope you guys have enjoyed your Chinese New Year celebration as much as I did. I’ve had a great time except for …erm…losing money in the famous CNY “sports”.

Anyway, I’ve some good n bad news for you all.

The good news first.

• I’m back! Okay, I’ve said that already.
• I’ll resume blogging from Monday onwards.
• The number of RSS subscribers of this blog have achieved 20 mark for the first time! Yeah yeah, I know it’s a small number but it’s quite a record for this blog. If you haven’t subscribe to this blog’s RSS, you can do so HERE.

and the bad news….

• I will not be blogging actively during the next 2 weeks as I’ll still be rushing my project. I was rushing the project during CNY as well. I’ll still try my best to blog as much as possible, but work comes first and the project does need my help (which is actually a good news since I’m not a liability).
• I lost quite most of my “ang pow” money to those “sports” during CNY. LOL. Well, not all of the money anyway…not the big ones. Lesson of the day – Alvin should not be greedy in this “cow” year. =_=

Besides the good and bad news about my life, there are some observations I’ve made during CNY period which I want to share with you all. See, this blog is not all about me.

• The economy is really bad, even in Malaysia. A lot of factories are closing down, and many more are retrenching workers.
  

  More people are getting married this year...even though it's recession period

• In fact, I do believe Malaysia will be very badly hit by recession and the signs will become obvious in May or June 2009.
• Crime rate is going up because those foreigners are the first to be retrenched. And when they’re desperate, where can they turn to?
• Dengue cases are on the rise in Malaysia. So kill all the mosquitoes you see and check if your house have any stagnant water. Do it weekly or 3 times a week, if possible.
• A lot of people are getting married this year! Be prepared for lots of red bombs.
• I expect to see a lot of sales and promotions as businesses try to improve consumer spending. So if you are looking to buy some stuff, try to be patient and choose only the best deals. Sales will not be something rare this year.
• Besides sales & promotions, I also expect to see more options for consumers since businesses will be competing with each others to get the bigger piece of the market – price war…technology war…etc.
• The food & beverages business is affected by the recession as well. More people are eating @ home, and they are switching to vege n chicken diet…less seafood. My father’s friend who sells fresh seafood complained to us the other day that business is really becoming from bad to worse.
• Cosmetics business is going to get more popular…since I noticed that more young girls in my hometown (which is quite a small place) are using make-ups nowadays, as compared to few years ago.

Hmm can’t think of anything now. I think I better sleep. Seriously lacking sleep. =_=

Last but not least, thanks for all those who visited and commented on this blog while I was away.

Customers love convenience and hate problems. They engage your business because they are hoping you will help them with their problems, and not because they think your business can give them more problems. After all, they are paying you for that…I’ve yet to hear anyone who actually pays someone to give more problems.

Source : http://earthguide.blogspot.com/2008/06/angry-customers.html

That’s why if your business is not helping the customers to fix their problems…then you should really start to be afraid of losing them. And if your business is actually giving customers more problems than they already have, then forget about “you should really start now”…instead, it should be “you MUST change your business now”. Otherwise, you will lose your customers. No doubt about that.

***** Beginning of rant *****

And this was what happened to me the other day. I went to Best Denki @ KLCC to shop for my company’s annual dinner lucky draw prizes. I was there for 10 minutes, and nobody actually came forward to ask me whether I need any help. I then approached one of the employees there after running out of patience.

Me : Hi, I actually need some help here.

Employee : Yes sir, how can I help you?

Me : I need someone to serve me. I’ve been waiting here for 10 minutes.

Employee : Sorry sir. What do you need? Maybe I can help.

Me : Ok, I have RM xxxx budget for my company’s annual dinner. I need like 25-30 items, and here’s the breakdown of the estimation.

Employee : Hmmmm.

Me : So for one of the prizes, I need a 32 inch LCD TV. Also, if there’s any other item which can give me more free stuff, even better.

Employee : Okay…I will have to look around. Not very sure.

Me : Also, I will need a digital camera. Do you have any camera to suggest?

Employee : Oh, I’m not in-charged of camera. I’m only in-charged of the TV and the theater system. I can direct you to the person in-charged in the camera department.

…… he then showed me to the camera guy, and disappeared….forever. The same thing happened few times, I was being passed from one person-in-charged to another… and from what I heard from them, all the departments are independent from one another and there’s no cooperation whatsoever. If I were to buy a camera, and a TV, I will have to list down the items by myself and get the best price by myself, and finally, get the final list of items to try and get for more discounts from the store manager.

What’s the difference then, if I were to just go to Low Yat and buy the items separately, rather than buying everything under one shop? The purpose of shops such as Best Denki is to make it convenient for customers to get everything in a single place. I think they got their direction and objective completely wrong.

Of course, I became quite pissed off with the service (and near to 0% discount) and left the store. Today, I went to Harvey Norman to look for the sales guy I know and he settled everything for me. I just told him, I’ve shortlisted few items and I need a camera, an IPOD, this n that, and total up to so and so many items, and I only have this budget. Suggest to me what can I get and which one is actually better than the other. And also give me the best price possible. When I’ve shortlisted everything, I told him to try to discount a bit further so that I can fit few more items in. And he did it after a quick check with the system.

The entire ordeal lasted only for around 2 hours. And the discount was very good.

***** End of rant *****

I settled all my needs in a single place, without any fuss. Problem solved, no hassle and convenient for me. This is how such businesses should be run.

So the next time you want to start a business (or planning what to do with your business), think for the customers. Does your business exist to help them fix problems, or to give them more problems? Erm…if it is latter, then you better close down your business. If it is the former, then you should ensure your business IS practicing the right model – the model which will make your customers happy (fix their problems using hassle-free methods).

Last week, I talked about Malaysians’ tendency to spend a lot during sales in “Have more promotions and Malaysians will buy from you“. Guess what, it’s true. Check this article from The Star Online – Poll: Malaysians have ‘mega sale’ culture.

It seems like most Malaysians are worried about our country’s economy but are not able to control themselves from spending more. However, compared to previous sales, most Malaysians ARE spending lesser, which is a good sign.

At the end of the day, it is important to spend on your NEEDs but it is even more important to know your limit. Always have the right plans which will ensure you are ready for year 2009, which is said to be worse than 2008.

But that does not mean all of us should dig our head into the mud and be prepared for doom. Be optimistic and always hope for a better year ahead. Without hope, we’re nothing.

Have a very happy year 2009 folks.

Even if we’re having a global recession.

I was in 1Utama today and there was an exhibition from Mac City – IPods, IMacs, MacBooks, etc. And gosh, there were so many people there! And they weren’t just browsing. A lot of them were queuing up to pay at the counter.

I thought the economy is bad. Or maybe it’s just me who is feeling the heat? Apple products are not known to be cheap, you know. In fact, all of the Apple products are expensive and in the IT world, they are often considered as luxuries. Yet, so many people are buying those things today.

So if you’re saying that Malaysians are poor and not spending much, think again. To be honest, I think most Malaysians (middle income family and above) still have a very strong purchasing power. You can see this during sales. Promotional items are becoming hot items and are much sought after, even if they’re not cheap. Things like branded clothes, bags, perfumes, IT gadgets and home appliances are still very popular as long as they are slightly cheaper than before.

If you can’t lower down the price of your products, fear not, just add in some freebies like free bags, free memory cards, free this or that. People will still come and get hooked. Just make sure you are giving better values than before and people will buy from you.

So if your products’ sales rate has dropped recently due to recession, then start some promotions or sales. Have it in a popular place and people will buy (unless your products are very bad). Most Malaysians are still not feeling the heat yet, so do it while you still can.

p/s…. or maybe most Malaysians are feeling too stressed up at the moment that they resort to “releasing” those stress by buying items they like, irregardless of the price and usefulness.