Oh! Colombo 

The stress one has to undergo when recruiting staff certainly does not bring joy to one’s life anymore and makes one wonder whether it is worth working for any sum of money. Talking about this with a group of people the other day I found that I was not alone in my thinking as everyone who employs anyone in any capacity seems to have the same problem, be it in the food, beauty, design, hotel or any industry, including domestic aides. 

One has to have the eyes of a hawk to check on what antics take place in the work environment. Having CCTV is a joke unless a person is employed solely to monitor the TV. Even if such a person is available, the employees will still manage to do all the hanky panky without being noticed. It is like mission impossible as they will find out in some way to doctor the CCTV camera too. In eating places they will try to cheat with the billing, rob the food, have a no-care attitude towards the working equipment, managing to break even equipment made of iron. In the beauty field they will nick all the make-up, hair dressing gels, sprays etc., which are then used on their private clients, who are actually clients from the establishments they work in, and charge the minimal. Such clients should be ashamed as they are indirectly encouraging thievery. The same happens with restaurant staff, especially the cooks, who are paid to cook a meal in a home for a large party. Designers’ tailoring staff too are summoned by this type of trashy client to do their work privately for a minimal price. Apparently there are also those who visit to their friends’ houses and try to recruit their domestic aides. 

Work has now become a game of cops and robbers, always having to be on the lookout for what is happening around, adding to the stress. One wonders whether the option is to dump everything and meditate under a tree. But then, with the raping of the forests and the cutting down of trees one may not even have the pleasure of doing that either as getting a sunstroke is more likely.