High departure of staff

I am a sales agent of NTUC Income for many years and I know Kin Lian for umpteen years. He has been known to be a workaholic and an hard headed person but not a man without a heart. Many people in INCOME know that he is a very compassionate person always willing to help those who are in need. It is a very sad episode that after his departure from INCOME so many things had happened and also had affected so many people.

To begin with, I have nothing against the new management of INCOME but it’s the way things are being done. The first indication from the new CEO was to phase out the part time sales people because he came from a company that do not believe in part-timers. I won’t say he forgot, but he doesn’t understand the root and culture of NTUC INCOME and how it started. Under the leadership of Kin Lian, it has transformed INCOME to what it is today.

It was Dr. Goh Keng Seng’s wisdom to advise NTUC to start this co-operative Insurance as it had the built in advantage of reaching out to different strata of the workforce through the trade unionist and union members. For three decades, these part time sales force also know as INCOME Organisers had contributed tremendously to the success of this co-operative.

Kin Lian’s departure has also caused a great dislocation to the staff. I won’t say its wrong for the new CEO to bring in his own people to support his mission but too many replacements including middle management has caused fear and uncertainty among those who are not chopped yet. Many more staff are in limbo, don’t know when is their turn to go. From the number of postings in TKL’s blog from ex-employees expressing their bitterness is a testimony.

It is a sad thing, that such a thing happens to a co-operative own by the labour movement whose primary objective is to champion for workers rights. I hope the leadership of NTUC can look into this matter to instill some confidence to the existing staff.

I am also very disappointed with some agents who posted in the INCOME forum venting their anger at Kin Lian questioning his motive and calling him all sorts of names. The only reason I can think of is that those postings in Kin Lian’s blog about agents earning high commission and advocating people to buy term and invest will invariably affect their sales.

Justice Pao