In Denial?
So I was covering the news break of Satyam’s billion-dollar fraud and how its Singapore operations are affected, how employees are reacting etc… and that included a visit to the firm’s site at the Ultro Building at Changi Business Park.
[The company's latest televised statement by its interim CEO can be found here.]
Most of the reactions I got were suitably appropriate, involving shock, surprise, lament and regret. One particularly reaction I got, however, completely stupefied me. I had asked this woman whom I ambushed at the fifth floor toilet about how the latest news will affect employees, and she actually looked at me with disdain and said, and I quote word-for-word, “what’s the big deal? The market’s not that bad. Don’t think it will affect the company.”
I wonder if she reads the same news site as we do. Or perhaps she was reading some form of Onion News. Your company’s share price has fallen 80 per cent, your chairman and founder has resigned, your balance sheet has a US$1 billion gaping hole, and “the company will not be affected” ???
I was at a loss for words. I guess some people choose to remain in denial when the crisis hits hardest. I wonder how many more unscrupulous corporate deeds will get unearthed in this economic and credit crunch.
My guess is as good as yours.
