I’m just wild about Hary

By: Joe Writeson

We were on a Topside Module fabrication job based in a construction yard in Indonesia, building oil process and production units for a large tanker being converted into an FPSO (Floating Production Storage Offloading) facility. I was the Client’s company representative and was assisted and supported by a good crew of Indonesian Engineers and Inspectors. We had all been working together for almost a year and everyone knew each other’s foibles, capabilities and responsibilities, we had enough personnel to cover every eventuality and everything was going fine, so I wasn’t too pleased to be informed that a new ‘Senior Inspector’ was being appointed for the last three months of the project. I didn’t particularly want this bloke on my team, I didn’t need this bloke on my team, he was sent from another job where he was ‘surplus to requirements’ and some idiot had given his Singapore agency a six month contract so whether he was used or not my company had to pay for him and with typical Singaporean mentality concerning anything financial there is no way anyone was ‘getting away with that’ …..so like it or not……..I was stuck with him.

His English was good, he was a Christian and technically he was acceptable…but his attitude stunk from the second he arrived on site and managed to irritate our engineering administrator without much effort. Myrna was smart, industrious, vivacious, fiery and very very busy so the last thing she needed was a smartarse ‘ordering’ her to get him a cup of coffee as he dumped his laptop and knapsack on her desk. She resisted throwing them on the floor and told him to get it himself like everyone else did. Mr. Haryanto or ‘Hary’ for short did nor like this one little bit and informed Myrna he was the new senior inspection engineer and she had better show him a bit more respect. Myrna was very well educated and had picked up a lot of English phraseology over the years, she told him to **** OFF…..which displeased him even more, but before he could take matters any further she grabbed her safety helmet, gave him the ‘finger’ and stomped off onto the job.

Hary was a pain in the butt, Hary wanted a desk on his own, Hary wanted an internet connection, Hary wanted an email address, Hary wanted a hotel room, Hary wanted transport, Hary wanted new overalls, Hary wanted new boots, Hary wanted a new torch like the rest of the team had ….in fact that’s all he did……want want want. He had annoyed Myrna within minutes of his arrival; it took him about an hour to alienate the rest of us.

He managed to p*ss me off with his initial demands, especially the hotel room, no one was on an accommodation deal, we were all either resident in the area or made our own temporary arrangements. It was up to his agency to provide this, somehow that was not getting through and he seemed to think I should be ringing around getting him fixed up.

He informed the rest of the crew that he was on a Singapore contract and therefore on a Singapore pay-scale, which was much higher than theirs, or so he seemed to think. Why he thought he needed to impart this information nobody knows, but if he’d checked he would have found out that everyone was on a Singapore agreement, and some of the senior members were on a vastly superior day-rate to him, nobody could be bothered to correct him though because no one was remotely interested in getting into ‘mine’s bigger than yours’ contests.

Hary seemed to be of the opinion that all he had to do was sit in the office and the world would revolve around him, he treat the younger members of the team like minions at his beck and call and the older ones with disrespect implying that they were not as ‘switched on’ as he was what with his ‘Singapore contract and rates’.

Varying opinions were held, but on one thing we all agreed, Hary was an ***hole.

He took a two hour lunch on his first day claiming he had ‘got lost’, then he wanted to leave early because ‘the manager’, i.e. me, ‘had not found him a hotel room’. I called our Project Manager to ask if I could get rid of this disruptive element, but he had far too much on his mind ‘just deal with it somehow’. Well I didn’t have to, Hary dealt with himself.

Over the first week his lunch-breaks were getting longer by the day and he was reported on his return to be smelling strongly of beer, I hauled him in, read the company booze policy to him and gave him a verbal warning. He denied the accusations vociferously, demanding to know who had reported him. He wasn’t drunk but the signs were there that he was knocking on the door. I decided that the following day I would insist he reported to me at one o’clock precisely supposedly for a ‘meeting’, but obviously to check his condition, he didn’t turn up. Not at the meeting anyway, two thirty and I was called urgently on site to control an ‘incident’. Hary had presented himself on the job absolutely legless and proceeded to bawl and shout at the subcontractors on duty. The men were getting angry, their supervisor, a Chinese Singaporean, had first of all tried to calm the situation down and when this failed, informed Hary that he was making an official complaint against him for verbally abusing his staff and being intoxicated on the job.

Hary responded by getting right in his face and threatening all manner of repercussions, including calling immigration, the supervisor turned to leave but Hary wasn’t finished and grabbed him by the shoulder trying to spin him around. Hary says the supervisor hit him. The supervisor said he was trying to maintain his balance and accidentally struck him. Eyewitnesses said Hary just fell over. Whatever the truth, by the time I got there Hary had called the Police on his mobile phone. Rule number one in Indonesia avoid uniforms at all costs, especially the boys from the brown stuff, the Singaporean supervisor obviously knew this and had already made himself scarce, leaving me to face the mucus.

The next five days were pure comedy and farce, anyone who has had dealings with the Indonesian legal system will know exactly what went on; the Singaporean jumped on a ferry home and in the absence of a suitable ‘suspect’, I was detained in his place. Hary took himself off to hospital and emerged covered in dressings and with an arm in plaster. The worksite was shut down and an ‘incident team’ arrived to take photographs and statements, the local newspaper was contacted and featured an article entitled ‘Foreigner Assaults Local Man’ and as I was being questioned, everyone just assumed it was me, and whilst it certainly wasn’t me, had the opportunity arose I would have cheerfully given Hary a few smacks.

Reams of red tape piled up alongside mountains of manure until finally justice was seen to be done…or not actually ‘seen’, i.e. money changed hands; my company paid up to ‘make the problem go away’.

The agency Hary worked for had their contract terminated, much to their extreme annoyance. Hary was informed his services were no longer required, like the idiot he was he had claimed that he could not work anyway because of his ‘terrible injuries’.
A replacement arrived for the Singaporean, we all went back to work and that was that …or was it…

Hary had booked himself into one of the big chain upmarket hotels in the area and I received a call from them asking when someone would be down to pay Mr. Hary’s bill as he was checking out.
“Not our responsibility, we made no prior agreement.”
“He says it was all done verbally.”
“…and that’s your company policy is it, to extend credit on a guest’s verbal guarantee?”
“No, of course not, but the guest was adamant that your company would contact us with regards to payment.”
“He’s lying; we have no agreement with him or you.”
“But sir, the room service billing is very extensive and he claims he has no money or credit cards…we may have to call the Police.”…and the thing was, Hary was obviously of the opinion that we would just pay up without question, room service and everything…audacious…brazen…misguided…stupid? Yes to all four and add the confident localized belief that all foreigners are reckless with money and it is ‘nothing’ to them…most people would call it cheek, disrespect or impudence, in the North East of England where I’m from, we call it ‘taking the p*ss’.
A quick decision was in order….it was Friday lunchtime, I had a few days holiday that I had stockpiled, there were no major activities scheduled…
“You will call the Police if no one pays his bills?”
“Yes we don’t want to …but…”
“Do it!”
“He may be arrested until his account is cleared…or even charged with fraud……...you really don’t want that do you?”
“Yes, do it….call the Police, call them now……..we are definitely NOT paying his bills.”
“We may need you as a witness….err where can we find you?”
“I’ll call you later and let you know, I’m going for my tea bye.”

I switched off my cell-phone and four hours later I was enjoying the sunset on Legian Beach, Bali……. sipping a Long Island Iced Tea.

I hope Hary had a nice weekend as well……