WARNING TO FUTURE EMPLOYERS

Dzul received a $3,000 advance 'security deposit' (so that he would feel secure without a contract) along with his job offer.  He promised to start work "in 4 weeks", but actually started after 6 weeks.  While working for me, Dzul worked online for other clients, and showed very little enthusiasm for his training.  He started disappearing into town for entire days -- and a night -- and then booked a trip to visit his family in Malaysia without asking me first.  After just 9 days of "training" (in fact, only 6 part-days), Dzul left for his '1 week family visit' with all 40-50kg of his luggage (every single item), never contacted me and has now been in Malaysia for 6 weeks (and counting).  Three months after hiring Dzul for this position, I still have NO EMPLOYEE and Dzul has not returned the $3,000 advance security deposit that was intended to give him security in this job.  He has not responded to numerous email, Yahoo Instant Messenger messages or cell phone texts.


Long form of the story:

• In April I advertised my position.  Dzul applied with great enthusiasm, contacting me daily via email, Yahoo Instant Messenger and cell phone.
   
• I traveled to Angeles City, where Dzul worked, and interviewed Dzul towards the end of April.  I was impressed by Dzul's apparent professionalism and character.  He was offered the job, and accepted.  Dzul visited a few more times before the end of April to become more familiar with the system, and was paid well for his time.
   
• On the last day of familiarization, Dzul told me that he had a job interview scheduled with another company.  He asked, "Should I go to this interview, or can you guarantee that you will hire me?"  I offered to pay him a two-month advance 'security deposit' of PHP100,000 (US$ 2,000), which he could keep if I did not keep my word.  (Note that this was double his previous rate of pay of P25,000 per month.)  Dzul was not satisfied, and asked for PHP150,000 (US$ 3,000).  I was somewhat surprised, but I paid him the requested amount as a sign of good faith.
   
• Dzul promised that he would start work at the beginning of June, since he had to work one final month at GM.  In early May I returned to my home in Palawan and waited for Dzul to arrive.
   
• Dzul went completely quiet over the next 6 weeks, which was very unusual since he had previously been contacting me daily with enthusiastic messages.  No more daily text messages, no more daily emails, and he was never visible on Yahoo Messenger any more.  In other words, he was logging into Yahoo in 'stealth mode'.
   
• On May 16th I sent an email asking Dzul if everything was alright.  Dzul responded in under 1 hour, saying that he was not in contact because (a) his work computer - at General Motors - was unreliable, (b) his home connection was also unreliable, and (c) he only had "4 hours of Internet access each day" because of this.  Apparently 4 hours a day on the Internet was not enough time to send even a single short email to his new employer.  Angeles City, where he lived by the way, has multiple reliable Internet Service Providers including ComClark, SmartBro, PLDT, Digitel etc. etc. and a hundred Internet cafes.
   
• Dzul contacted me on June 5th (4 days after he had promised he would start work), saying that he would arrive on June 14th.  He did turn up when he said he would; he would stay for around 2 months for training, and then be free to work wherever he wanted to from home.
   
• Upon arrival at my house, I showed him the new computer that I had bought for his training.  The very first thing he did on his new work computer was to install a project management/timesheet system from oDesk.com, an outsourcing web site that would allow him to work for other clients.  Instead of his work with me, other clients were apparently the first thing on his mind; I asked him why he had installed this program, and he told me "force of habit, I guess" (a lie, since no one installs programs out of habit!)  I asked him to uninstall this application; he then installed it on the laptop that he had bought with part of my 'security deposit'.
   
• Dzul spent 9 days at my house, and worked seriously (for 6 hours) on just one of those days.  For two days he was completely absent, and on the other days he trained for maximum 2-3 hours per day (he was on full salary during his two months of training.)  Dzul was never enthusiastic; he spent most of his time with his laptop in his room or on his cell phone; mornings he would walk up to the training computer at 10 or 11am (long after I had started work already), and would always leave me to finish up at the end of each day.  He never once asked questions such as, "When do we start tomorrow?" or "Should I help/watch you finish up tonight?"
   
• On his second day he went to Puerto Princesa "to look around", insisting on taking the bus alone even though I offered to drive him and show him around.  We never heard from him, so that night I texted him to find out if he was OK.  He replied to say he had decided to stay over night "with a friend".  This was somewhat odd, since Dzul had never been to Puerto Princesa before in his life.
   
• Dzul decided, without asking first, to return to Malaysia in two weeks' time for a short visit with his father who was ill.  Since he had his ticket already, I told him it was alright to go.  He then decided (again without asking) to move his travel date forward by 10 days.  On his 8th day of "training" he again went early into town to change his flight date.  There was no communication at all from Dzul that day, until 8pm when he sent a text message "I need you to open the gate" (to let him in.)  Uncommunicative, unenthusiastic, uncommitted, unreliable, unfriendly.
   
• That evening Dzul had the nerve to come to my room and ask for his "salary".  I pointed out that (a) it was not the end of the month; (b) he had barely worked at all since he arrived; (c) I had already paid him $3,000 in advance and (d) he was going to leave the next day for Malaysia!
   
• The next morning I drove him to the airport.  Before we left, I checked Dzul's room and noticed that he had packed EVERYTHING (every last sock, shoe, book, toothbrush, etc.) into his suitcase for this "1 week trip" to Malaysia.  It required 2 men to carry his suitcase to my car.  On the way to the airport I asked Dzul why he was taking 40-50kg of luggage for a "short visit" to his family.  Dzul's response was, "I wasn't thinking."  I asked him if this really would only be a 1-week visit, and Dzul promised it would be.
   
• Dzul went to Malaysia "for 1 week".  For the first 12 days I heard nothing from him at all.  So I contacted him to ask if there was some problem.  After 2 hours and 1 minute he responded, saying that he was "having trouble getting to the Internet", and that is why he did not contact me... but in the SAME MESSAGE he asked me if he could start working for 8 hours per day on the system (which he was not yet trained in.)  In other words, he was having "Internet problems" again, yet he responded to my message in 2 hours and was ready to work (online) for 8 hours per day!  Dzul was lying.  Again.
   
• On July 9th, 16 days after he had left for his "1 week trip", Dzul told me, "I do want to get back the soonest as I really need to earn money".  It seems that he had already managed to spend/waste the $3,000 'security deposit' (which was not actually his, since he didn't work yet.)
   
• It is now August 5th (6 weeks after Dzul left on his "1 week trip"), and Dzul has not responded to a single one of my email, Yahoo IM or text messages.