Thursday, May 17, 2007

Public vs. Private

Reading Dayang's blog, i started thinking of the differences of working in public (government) and private sectors in Malaysia. Somewhere in the newspaper i read, Malaysia has a statistically higher number of private sector employee nowadays. which is kinda surprising to me. But then, it's logical considering that i am a "minah kilang" (factory-girl) and counting MSes (Manufactoring Staff a.k.a Operator) per shift proves it all. here are some major differences i could think about..

1- Salary (& allowances) -
obviously, private sector won basic salary wise. but if u add the allowances up, the amount would be about the same. however, it's a horrible ordeal to try to get loans from a bank if ure working privately since they think that ur job security is very very low (wth??). if u dont believe me, try going to Bank Rakyat or even Public Bank. u will surely charged a higher interest in your loan even u r an engineer (vs. a teacher). sometimes, it came to a point i'm kinda disgusted to watch Bank Rakyat ad on tv. *sigh* and now, all public sector salary will be raised. what about us??? living cost is increasing yet seems like our salary isn't.

2- Workload -
This depends on what is ur job scope. i cant say one sector is less burden (thus less stress) but it all came to how much ure being paid. of course, being a trainee is much more leisure than being a permanent worker, rite? actually, it's nice to be a teacher where u hv a special day to be appreciated.

3- Office Hours -
Most of gov. working hours are either 8-5 or 9-6. like my parents, their hours r 8-5. normally my mum returns at 6 and my dad somewhere around 6.15. as for me.. official hour is 8-5.30 but working time really starts at 9 after b'fast. lol! but as i know, gov have official b'fast, brunch and lunch time where i only have b'fast n lunch time. another common thing wil be us working til late night. the latest i returned home was at 9pm. i'm grateful that i didnt have to stay overnight in the production floor like some others did. but yeah, here only handful of people leave the office at 5.30pm. most will start leaving at 6pm. not that we're rushing for traffic or so, it's just a norm.

4- Holidays -
Aha! Public sectors have way too many leave. "Sudden" leave like Agong's Coronation is granted for Public. since i am supporting manufacturing, we cant take leave since it's incovenient for factory to shutdown.

5- Training a.k.a Kursus -

Gov like to held their training in the hotels or tourism spot. which is a nice break from usual environment. hotels mean nicely fed (5 meals a day), a room to stay. Us? hmm we do have training center. but all meals on ur own expense. the only nice thing is that we can claim mileage. hehee. but here's the thing, i experienced the fun holiday when i was a kid, so i am not really complaining about this.

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when i just graduated and got a job in Intel, people ask me why i didnt apply a job in public sector. for now, the main reason would be the environment. i dont think i can work in the environment that is slow-paced or evryone is 'goyang-kaki'. i'll get bored easily if i have nothing to do. another thing is i dont like to work with people who know my dad! lol ; )

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