Readers Believe Digital Media Co's Joke About Abusive Manager

They didn't get the joke, exposing familiar fault lines in workplaces everywhere that are tainted by untrained, clueless, and/or ill-tempered (or worse) managers.

Workers required to pay homage to Malaysia’s Prime Minister?

Cilisos.my, a digital media company based in Malaysia, featured an exposé on its new editor-in-chief.

The expose featured a short video showing Editor-In-Chief Iqbal Fatkhi mercilessly berating two workers while pointing with frustration to a computer screen.

Individual employees described egregious instances of abuse at the hands of Fatkhi.

The workers said Fatkhi made workers burn incense at a shrine under a portrait of Malaysia’s Prime Minister, and required them to “like” the tweets of Malaysia’s Minister of Economic Affairs. In addition:

• “When we don’t like his ideas, he’ll continuously try to brainwash us and in the end will say, ‘BECAUSE I’M THE BOSS'”. – Shiebnaa, Cilisos social media manager.

• “When he comes in and leaves the office we all have to line up by the door and cheer, ‘2,4,6,8. Who do we appreciate? Iqbal Iqbal Iqbal!’ I felt like I was in a cult.” – Elil, Cilisos staff writer.

• “Every time we have a meeting, he would make everyone sit in a group according to their race. So, as the only Iban in the company, I have to sit alone.” – Hazel, Cilisos video editor and member of the second-largest ethnic group in Malaysia. 

Unfortunately, Cilisos didn’t tell readers it was an April Fool’s joke until the end of the page, which provoked “an onslaught of comments by netizens flaming our editor-in-chief. This was probably because they didn’t read the article and jumped to the most convenient conclusion.”

One reader objected that are many things “you can prank, abuse is not of them.” Another said that workplace abuse “is a very serious matter that affects real people, who either suffer in silence or quietly give in to their tormenters and resign from their jobs.” Another warned menacingly that it is “over” for Fatkhi.

Cilisos published an article the next day with the headline: “Our April Fool’s Expose Pissed You Off. Let’s Talk About It.”

One would like to think that Malaysia is a third-world country and it couldn’t happen here. But that’s not the case.