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| Integrity versus Corrupted Minds |
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Disclaimer: The article below is written by Ali ERDOGAN. It should be considered as a case study of his experience in Bucharest. Anyone mentioned by name has the right to respond
and deny the statements written by presenting the evidence. Special Dedication: I would like to dedicate this article first to my family for their support on my personal decisions, secondly to the trainees of Bucharest who have experienced similar situations while they are working,� and finally Oana (the Finance controller,) for always trusting me and I will work hard to deserve her trust. INTRODUCTION: My sole purpose of writing this article is to inform people about the reasons I quit. This shouldn�t be considered as an image-destroying article. My intention is not to offend people. It should be considered as a true fact of my traineeship. I wrote this article with my free will and I believe it as a big necessity and opportunity for AIESEC to improve quality in Exchange by analyzing this case as well as other trainee�s cases. As far as I know the other trainees also, more or less faced similar problems while working and most of them quit their jobs for very similar reasons. So for the people who try to change something, I recommend you read about my experience.� For the others, ignore it, it will take too long to read it. As most of you will remember, 2 weeks ago I gave my resignation notice and I quit from RDS-Romania Data Systems. The day I quit, I sent a very simple message to Ro-Voice stating that I had quit and I did not give any reasons why. The reason for that was because there was a request in this direction from RDS and I said to them "If RDS wants to cover up the things in this way and pretend to play the "role model" company, I will not send a detailed message to Ro-Voice" and I didn�t go into details. Now I would like to give all the details, the truth, but just the truth, because of three major reasons: 1.� I didn�t want to cause a problem but I saw that they weren�t honest with me at all.� They expected me to keep my promises, but indeed they never kept their own. Promises should be binding for both parties. 2.� Lots of Aiesecers asked me the reasons because they wanted to know it and I feel myself responsible. 3.� I strongly believe, each individual in AIESEC whether they are responsible or not in this case have the right to know every details of my experience in order to improve the quality of exchange. What was the deal with Ali Erdogan (Turkish Trainee) and Romania Data Systems (RDS) before coming to Romania Bucharest? 1.� I didn�t apply for a traineeship in RDS. They found my Resume through AIESEC and they contacted with me. Till here everything was normal. 2.� AIESEC never contacted with me.� Ionut Tarcea (Marketing Manager) was the one and only person in contact with me. 3.� When I learned that RDS is interested in me. I put my proposal (offer) and I sent Mr Tarcea a message exactly stating the things below: "I am interested in RDS, I would like to accept the traineeship under the circumstances stated below: a)� Housing b)� Price increase upcoming two months c)� Work permit and related services And I added that, If RDS is accepting the conditions above, I am accepting the traineeship, otherwise I can�t come. This is what I call "offer" or "proposal". Finally the answer arrived from Mr Tarcea stating that everything is ok and they accepted the offer. I took this as a promise. Words in Businesses are promises. But I didn�t just take it as a promise of Marketing Manager, I took it as a promise of RDS. They had the right not to accept my offer, but if they accept my offer, I had to right to ask what I was promised for!!! Now I realized that AIESEC didn�t know anything about this offer and conditions. I call this lack of communication. From my point AIESEC should be aware of everything that goes between companies and trainees. Maybe things would have been different if they know about the offer. The Airport was my first contact with AIESEC people and I came to Bucharest without knowing what kind of surprises were waiting for me!!! WHY did I quit? There are three core reasons why I quit� 1.� Lack of Integrity on Top Management For me, Integrity is the core of everything we do in life. When it comes to business it is imperative. People rely on words and trust people. (At least it is like this in my own country and the othere countries I have worked in.) I refreshed the marketing manager�s mind about my offer 3 weeks before my resignation. He delivered the message to the General Manager. Ionut Tarcea did what he could. I awaited the manager�s decision. Then one Saturday morning, the Marketing Manager and HR coordinator met with General Manager to discuss about my offer. Sunday afternoon we meet in the office and the Marketing and HR Manager told me that the General Manager accepted my offer. I said Ok and starting giving more importance to the project that I handled. I met with the management and I explained the strategies of the Web Project. One week after explaining the strategies of Web Design, a friend of mine told me that General Manager didn�t give a decision about my offer. Normally even calm people can be nervous when they face a situation like this. So basically they lied to me in order to have some time. I am not interested in finding guilty part. I am more interested in the action they demonstrated. They said the Marketing Manager misunderstood the General Manager.� Funny!!!! How come, How Possible, Can it be? Who lied to me? The Marketing Manager or the General Manager??? I am not interested�but if they come to me and say this is just a misunderstanding!! I don�t buy that�Come up with better lies� I lost my time, my Power and my motivation with a company lacking of INTEGRITY. 2.� TOP Management Vision In my life I never thought I would quit, because of management vision. But this is the best thing I realized here. Vision in the 21st century is the base of successful management practices. After I talked with Marketing Manager, I wanted to speak face to face with the General Manager but somehow he couldn�t find the courage to face with me!! And used Marketing Manager as a middle person to carry the communication. That was the final point and even in a situation like this I wasn�t being involved in the discussion. I gave my decision went to his office to talk to him face to face. Yes, he was surprised with the way I was speaking and kind of offended.� This may have been the first time in his life someone was so direct with him. He considered my offer as an exception that shouldn�t be.� In his opinion people should be on the same line as it was during the communism. The "we are family" mentality. Knowledge and Expertise can never be considered and seen as an exception not worth rewarding with in a company. I invested all my life in order to learn more and achieve outstanding results. Since the mentality of the company does not believe and interested in higher education, knowledge and empirical approaches for better decisions and for professional business activities�I felt like I shouldn�t work with RDS in 21st century if the management demonstrates this sort of vision. 3.� Promises As I explained clearly before, they didn�t provide the conditions they promised for and this damaged the trust between two parties. I paid for my housing, no increase in salary, No work permit. Frankly I don�t want to be illegal in this country. We don�t have security if we don�t have a contract and work permit. I was ill, I couldn�t go to the doctor, because I wasn�t legal. I wanted to show I was working to my embassy, but I couldn�t because I was illegal!!! (All the trainees have experienced certain types of insecurity because of being illegal in Romania.) Frequently Asked Questions and conclusion Do I hate Romanians? No, I don�t hate Romanians. What I say is, my conditions weren�t good and I had bad experiences. If my conditions were good, I would have had a totally great experience. I have some Romanian friends that gained my 100% trust. (What I mean by conditions are housing, a good reception, and a mature and professional business environment...) Why didn't the General Manager talk with me face to face? and How many times did he talk with me about expectations before I came to RDS? Some people says it is the culture�I say, it is somehow part of the culture but there are also two other reasons why people don�t like face to face communication: 1.� Insecurity 2.� If they are not honest or see they will loose power if they speak face to face The General Manager never talked with me about my expectations. Can this be considered as culture shock? Theoretically speaking it can be, but practically lack of Integrity shouldn�t be considered as a culture. When we analyze the ELEMENTS OF CULTURE (Social culture, Values and attitudes, Language, Religion, Communication), the clashes can be related to Values and attitudes and also communication. When we consider the LEVELS OF CULTURE; National culture, Business culture, and Organizational culture, Maybe the clashes occurred in Business and Organizational culture. Did RDS pay my housing expenses as they promised prior to my arrival? No, It was 150$ and they rejected paying the money and told me that who ever promised me to pay it, I should take it from them, politically pointing the one I was in communication before arriving to Bucharest or AIESEC. Do I want this money now? No, I don�t want the money. There are more important things than money. I will not get it also from AIESEC. This is not fair to AIESEC. Did I break any of my promises that I gave to RDS? Yes, After they refused to pay my housing expenses, I refused to do a marketing research project that I was supposed to do before I quit. What happened next? After I quit, they called AIESEC told them that I have to pay to the company around 300.000lei ($12) for my lunch expense. And they told them that if I don�t pay this money, they are going to charge it from AIESEC. (What an attitude from a big company like RDS!!!) Why didn�t they call me to get 300.000lei and preferred to call AIESEC? SIMPLE�They couldn�t find the courage to call me and tell it to my face, because they know what was my respond and they now exactly the things they did wrong to me. What a shame? For just 300.000LEI (Do I have to take it as a part of culture now?) To put AIESEC in between is such a cheap way of solving problems. Human beings solve the problems by communicating with each other. I will pay that money to RDS. It is not a big deal. Actually it is nothing. The reason I am paying is that I want to take the right path in my journey of Life and will keep integrity as the core of my principles. That is what I was trying to prove in my article: It is a Company worth 300.000Lei in my eyes and I am happy to pay this money with a pride through AIESEC to them to show what they are worth! I quit and am very happy about what I did! Courage and Integrity, that�s the stuff leaders should be made of. |
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ALI ERDOGAN is a former AIESEC LC President and has had international experience
in the United States and Brazil.� He describes himself as a risk taker, self
starter & life long learner.� Any comments regarding this article should
be sent to ALI ERDOGAN, [email protected] or alternatively sent to Ro-Voice.
- Regards, Damien.� |
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