Financial Freedom SG

10. Your boss tells you to print less paper, drink less water, switches on alternate ceiling lights to save some money. If possible, use candle sticks. At the same time, the boss will walk around the company to switch off lights that are left on.

9. The company goes on an 'Economy Drive' to cut costs from company. The cleaning lady who earns the least is the first to go. The directive from the top 'Everyone clean their own desks and space' and a timetable is done to make each department clean up shared areas on different days.

8. The boss treats you and your car like they are company property even though you claim no transport allowances from the company. "Send XXX to ABC company", "Can you drive me to the meeting at XYZ", "I need you to fetch my son home"

7. While people travel business class or first class, your boss orders budget airlines and fly you in at weird timings like 1.30am to save a bit more money as those kind of hours are cheaper still. Your boss waits and waits and wants the best rates, but fails to realise the later you book the more you pay actually.

6. If you think 7 is bad, this boss rather spend the money on getting a 14inch CRT monitor so that you can connect it using internet messaging software and do a cheapskate version of teleconferencing. You can barely see the other person you are meeting as the camera image is pixelated as it was recycled from cameras that other people have thrown away as the 300k digital camera becomes passe.

5. While the bosses so far are bad, this boss number 5 will ask you to-- get this-- take a bus to the destination, as she claims that you take about nearly the same time traveling by plane. I wonder what type of plane she is thinking of? Toy remote control types?

4. On top of this, the boss in point 5 asks you to carry heavy documents from the office to bring over and she 'generously' asks you to do it two times a month to carry heavy documents over to her. She either never heard of courier service or thinks that it is some dirty word to strip her of more money.

3. To top it all off, the same boss gives you an 'overseas' allowance of US$3.73 or S$5 for daily expenses as the country in South East Asia has low cost of living. She feels that maybe that is too much and asks you to

2. Not stay at a hotel as they are unsafe (where the hell are they thinking of putting you? the red light district?) and you should stay with her. However, she only has one room, but her bed is King size, and but again her bed is those Japanese futon kind so you are effectively sleeping on the floor.

1. The one that takes the cake is the boss from points 5 to 1 is a true, real life account and is responsible for hiring a part time 'account executive or accountant' who was hired because she was the only one probably willing to work for the kind of wages only a boss from points 5 to 1 will offer. A low one of course.

This same accountant made such a mess that at the end when she left before internal auditors came this year, the company suffered a loss of over US$200,000. How do I know? My wife works for this company and she was the one who discovered this accounting irregularity and she is the one who had to suffer through points 5 to 1.