Credibility and Work Effectiveness

It is better to work with someone you dislike but has credibility, rather than someone whom you like but do not have credibility – this was what I have been taught since young. For the past one month, I have been in Thailand settling various issues regarding my condominium in Thailand. And credibility and work effectiveness is far more important than what many realise.

This post does not generalise any particular group of people, rather it simply described what happened to me. I have also decided to summarise only the core details so that the post does not get too lengthy.

Background

My condominium unit in Bangkok was bought some years back. However due to my hectic schedule and geographical distance I was unable to manage it myself. Out of necessity, I decided to engage property managers.

My unit was first managed by a Thai from the in-house property management team who did his job badly and I had to spend money to clear up the mess in the house due to his incompetence. I sacked him after a period where he was unable to secure new tenants. Although it does not achieve anything, I still gave him a good scolding.

The second property manager was a Chinese part-timer. She was an honest lady who worked her dues but unfortunately had limited capabilities and was unable to resolve certain issues well. While I had my frustrations, I wanted to continue to engage her as she did the majority of her work to my diligently and honestly. However, she migrated to the US.

Credibility

The third property manager was a Chinese couple doing the property management business full-time. They were capable but were extremely greedy and dishonest, charging expensive prices for repair and cleaning work which they did badly so they could pocket even more money.

I had figured out their dishonesty midway but was too busy to fly to Thailand then. When the contract ended I made a surprise trip down and took back the unit, seeing the full extent of damages in my house which I paid good money for to repair but was not done well.

In summary, I initiated a deduction of nearly the full 2 months security deposit against my German tenant who just moved out. The Chinese couple were surprised and asked about the deductions. I told them I paid huge money to repair and clean my house, and since they claimed to have done so, any damages incurred were to be attributed to the tenant. As expected, the German almost immediately wrote a letter to me and was prepared to take the legal route to protect his rights.

Seeing that both the German and I were willing to escalate further and drag him into it and make their business suffer even if we had to suffer a loss, the Chinese couple brokered a compromise where I successfully made the couple cough back out a portion of the money they had charged earlier, the German tenant paid for his part of the damages and a little more, and I lived with the part of the damages that should have been repaired but was not. This is one of the better outcomes we could have hoped for as practically speaking, it will be difficult to go for a full victory.

Admittedly, the couple still got the best out of the whole affair. They had fully intended to swallow up as much money from both the tenant and I as possible, but failed to realise that all 3 parties are foreigners in a foreign land, where none of us have territorial advantages. And when dealing with Western counterparts, there are certain groups of people, including me, who are willing to go to a big extent to ensure our rights are protected. I cannot allow someone to walk away freely after playing the smarts and taking advantage of me.

Credibility is a big thing outside.

Work Effectiveness

This whole thing made me realised that if I want to get something done properly, I have to either spend more money than average for a hands-off approach or personally manage the whole thing.

From my observation there is another Chinese property manager who seem to do good work. I am unable to verify it as of now because I have yet to engage her. But she charges higher than average and after the previous experiences, I am hesitant to let others manage my stuff fully. I prefer to be in control now.

In the end, I hired a Burmese university law student with a much higher than average hourly salary. Because in Thailand the Burmese are the more efficient and effective group of workers. I have enough of people doing sloppy work which I have to repeatedly come back to manage.

I will be remotely controlling everything and she will do the tasks I assigned her, which will range from running errands to doing administrative work. Of course, getting a higher salary meant that she has to produce a higher quality work. This links back to the credibility issue which I mentioned earlier.

Conclusion

Credibility – something which takes a long time and a lot of work to build but can tarnish easily. But once you have achieved that, people are willing to work with you, even if you are more expensive, even if people may not like you. Credibility is the core of anything we do.

People who think are dishonest and like to play the smarts, who think the others are stupid enough not to know what they are doing, are doomed to lose customers over time and not grow big enough.

寧可和你討厭但有信譽的人合作，也不可和你喜歡但沒信譽的人共事 – 這是我從小就被教導的道理。過去一個月，我在泰國處理各種關於我公寓的事項。而信譽和辦事能力是比很多人想象的更加重要。

此貼不概括任何群體，純粹描述我的經歷。為了不讓貼子過於長，我也只概括重點。

背景

幾年前買了泰國公寓，但因為忙碌加上地理距離，不能親自管，只能僱中介打理。

一開始是交給物業的團隊管理的，但是負責我公寓的泰國人辦事不行，最後我還得出錢為他的無能善後(打掃+修房子)。這還是他好一陣子沒找到新租客後，我受不了辭退他後發現的。雖沒用，但我還是狠狠地臭罵了他一頓。

第二個是個兼職做房產管理的中國小姐姐。她為人老實但能力有限，導致我偶爾抓狂。但因為她辦事老實勤奮，想繼續用她。可惜嫁去美國了。

信譽

第三個房產管理人是個中國來的夫妻隊，全職開公司幹這行。有能力，但是貪得無厭和極其不誠實。收了高價的清潔和修理費用，卻只做一半，然後把剩下的錢私吞。這事我中途發現了，但因為過於忙碌，不能親自飛去泰國處理。合同到期後，我突然飛去泰國拿回公寓，才發現一堆拿了錢但沒解決的問題。

最後，我直接扣押了剛搬走的德國租客幾乎全2個月的押金。夫妻隊驚訝地問我怎麼回事。我就說，既然我付的那麼多清潔和維修費你們說都給辦好了，那麼現在屋子的慘狀就是租客的責任了，必須扣。不出我所料，德國租客馬上準備走司法路線，但還是先禮後兵，通過中介發個信給我。而我這一邊也不怕事鬧大，即便花錢也要把這夫妻隊拉下水 + 影響他們的生意。

最後夫妻隊妥協了，各方讓一步。我成功地讓夫妻隊吐出他們之前收的一部分錢，德國租客承擔了他該承擔的部分和一些額外費用，而我就只能接受那些沒修好和清理好的部分。這種狀況很難獲得全勝，現實狀況中這結果算是不錯的了。這夫妻隊企圖兩邊通吃，但忘記了我們三方在泰國都是外國人，誰也沒有優勢。而西方人是非常願意花資源去維護他們的權益的。包括我在內，我不能允許有人對我耍小聰明後，拿了我的錢走人。這錢必須吐出來。

在外面，信譽是個非常重要的東西。

工作效率

這整件事讓我明白一個道理 – 如果要求工作做的好，要嘛花大價錢允許自己撒手不管，要嘛親力親為。

據觀察，有另一個中國小姐姐口碑似乎不錯，工作能力也好。就是太貴了。經這事後，我覺得還是親力親為比較好。最後，我聘請了一個在讀碩士的緬甸小姐姐幫我跑腿打雜。因為緬甸人是在泰國裡辦事比較可靠的群體。雖然她的時薪要的有些高，但是一分薪水一份工作。我會遠程操控一切，而她也得把事情給辦好。這又回到之前我說的信譽。