How Come?

Sometime in January, I was appointed as a member of a special team. The management set up a team to make the employee's rules of conduct and we have worked on that since January. The members came from different units in my institution to accommodate the different interests and to 'hear' the different point of view. There were 10 people in the team and only three were ladies, including me. I am not proud to say that I was silent most of the meeting time. The human resources talk especially the term 'uang pisah', 'uang pengabdian', 'uang masa kerja' not to mention the amount of each by considering the length of service, percentage and other bla bla bla. The talk about academic and small-scale marketing items (which are my specialties), on the other hand, was somewhat new for some people in the team. We basically complimented each others' weak areas and the meeting forum was a good opportunity for learning aspects from different units within my institution.


I have to say that the first and the biggest challenge was not being able to have any contact with the teachers' union from the beginning. The team distributed questionnaires around March asking for input and feedback about last two-year's rules of conduct and some employees enthusiastically responded. I was surprised that the teachers' union didn't. It was not until the draft was ready to be sent to Depnaker (and by the way, it was already approved) that the union decided to agree to meet us. :( What kind of revision did they expect to have when all was ready to be approved by the government? As a team member, I didn't understand. As a once active union member, I was frustrated. Frustrated because I knew that the guys in the union could have been more involved in the making of the rules that could either protect, damage or destroy the rights of the employees. (sigh) :( Perhaps I was aiming too high (See? I am beginning to get your 'virus', Ken... :D)


I guess now that the rules of conduct have been released, there is not a single point to speak about that anymore. But to the guys in the union, the question still remains and the frustration lingers. Most likely, I am not alone, you know.