Rahmah implementation at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS)

Our latest website clearly states that our vision at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) is to be implement Rahmah which is to be compassionate. Although there are still hickups towards implementing this compassionate policy in view of the challenges of achieving the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) of an educational institution, I believe UMS is on the way towards achieve this.

The latest initiative is towards the implementation of the clock-in time for academic staff, i.e. lecturers. Lecturers and teachers are well known to have the highest burden in any profession because they need to work a lot of extra time after office hours, marking papers and do other activities such as extra-curricular and in universities, research and consultation. It is therefore unfair to subject teachers to a strict interval of time every day.

Labour law and common law allows time off or overtime pay for work outside the agreed working time or duration. If the extra work are not well defined, and therefore difficult to quantify, applying for these time-off or overtime pay is very cumbersome. The application process itself creates more work burden that it will be troublesome to apply for them everytime it occurs.

From 17 Feb, academic staff are no longer to clock out, only clock in before 12pm. Today I utilised it by clocking in at 10am. I had to go to TM Point Sadong Jaya to enquire about my Unifi and Tabung Haji accounts on my way to UMS. I departed slightly later than 8 and there is light traffic. Even at Sadong Jaya, it was quiet.

Someone will say that this is for personal matters, so should take leave, but having a good internet connection at home is vital for us to continue working at home. In fact, my internet at home is faster than my office internet. Even my PCs and laptops at home is faster than in my office. Tabung haji is to settle our financial affairs which is important to our well being.

Before this, I need to go to UMS and then later on, go back to Sadong Jaya to settle affairs. It will consume a lot of time. It is demoralising and reduces our productivity.

This flexible clocking in is also vital for UMS to attract professionals who would like to contribute to society by sharing their expertise with students at UMS. They may not be interested in monetary rewards or not, but are unlikely to agree if they are not respected and pressurised to contribute in areas that they are not interested.

So, professionals in Kota Kinablu. Anyone interested in contributing your experiences with students at UMS? It will also sharpen your mind.