Noble heart of eatery owner
IF you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
These are the words of Mother Theresa, one of the most wellknown humanitarian figures in history.
And that is the one altruistic gem the owner of an eatery always wears close to her heart.
Shirley Sim said just because she employed people with special needs in her shop – Grandma Bak Kut Teh – there were people who thought she wanted cheap labour.
Still, she keeps hiring these ‘special’ employees anyway – as long as there are suitable vacancies for them.
Right from day one, she has been leaving the door open to people with special needs – including those with developmental and intellectual disabilities – to try and see what they can do in her shop.
It was one way she could contribute to society, she said.
“Others do charity by donating cash and kind. I don’t have much money to donate, so I create job opportunities instead, especially for the handicapped.
“All my workers are paid Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Socso, and given free meals as well,” said Sim, a single mother to a 15-year-old boy.
She knows how hard it could be for people with special needs to get jobs and that motivates her to do her little part to help.
Giving them jobs makes them feel they are not left out but are still useful and this will help them become more self-confident and lead to some form of happiness as well.
Moreover, employing these people not only helps to lighten the burden of their families and caregivers, but also diminishes the stress or frustrations that might deteriorate if they just hang around, doing nothing useful.
“You may be surprised if I tell you that people with some disabilities turn out to be wonderful workers. They can be very honest, and hardworking,” Sim said.
Indeed, working with some of them has given her the greatest joy of her life.
“They may not be the best workers in the world, but they certainly have been the best I ever had,” she added.
Sim noted that giving jobs to people with special needs had created a kind of culture in her shop.
“Everyone sees everyone else has a life to live and each is important in his or her own right and place.
“They can sense the importance of working together and helping one another. They seem to have developed a deeper understanding that everyone counts.”
In some ways, her shop functions like a training centre for people with special needs. After her workers have gained some experience or skills, and if they want to go for something better, she will not stop them.
In fact, her workers come and go just like any normal employees. She used to have more ‘special needs’ workers but many had left.
“I’ve lost count. They left for various reasons but usually, it was for better salaries. Some left due to family matters while for a few of them, I don’t clearly know the reason.
“Today, I have only nine left, and their disabilities are of various forms, including hearing disability, Down Syndrome and autism – and one mentallychallenged woman.”
Sim’s shop has three main sections – beverage, kitchen and ‘Bak Kut The’ – each has two normal staffers working alongside with her ‘special needs’ workers.
This was necessary for supervision, Sim said, adding that in her absence, her sister Jenny would help manage the shop.
On the response to her eatery, she said, generally, people had been very understanding.
The truly empathetic and compassionate ones had become regulars and she thanked them for their continued support.
However, there had also been customers who misunderstood the situation and were somewhat offended by the service and never came back.
One of her ‘special needs’ workers, Peter, has Down Syndrome.
Flashing a big smile, he said; “I am a big boy now. I can make delicious fresh soya bean drink for you!”
Peter, who works in the beverage section, has already been with the eatery for 10 years.
He said he felt proud of himself when first given a job there, adding that he liked what he wss doing including chores such as washing dishes, making drinks and re-arranging misplaced items in the shop.
His work also includes serving food and drinks.
Peter is confident he can work like anyone else, and loves greeting customers.
“I am a working man now. I am very happy with my job here and look forward to it every day.
“I love pay day – I would buy new shoes, new clothes. I can also give my parents money. I love making drinks for people, and I am hardworking,” he rambled, between smiles and hearty laughs.
Next is Ah Hua, who is autistic.
Grinning happily, he said he loved his work because he could make friends.
Ah Hua’s feeling of accomplishment is well deserved. He has built for himself a stable job at the eatery over a period of 10 years and is not showing any sign of leaving anytime soon. His main job is to make drinks.
Sim said she noticed Ah Hua becoming more confident socially after about a year working at the shop.
“He gets great satisfaction from ‘being a professional’ and doing his best, making his fellow workers and boss proud.”
Ah Hua confessed to having low self-esteem before – always very quiet and timid, never had any friends and often kept to himself in his room – apart from the urge to inflict self-injuries.
“I never dared hold my head straight up – always looking down because I was scared to make eye-contact. I was also really bad in my studies – got zeros in all my tests because I left all the questions blank as I did not know how to answer them. But today, I feel I am a different person. I feel very lively and have many friends who are also my co-workers. “We are like a family.” Ah Hua said after dropping out of school in Form 4, he tried to find jobs in coffeeshops but was always rejected because of his disability.
Even when he managed to land a job, it did not last because he would be shown the exit soon after.
“I often felt rejected by society but after working here, I am happy because I feel accepted. At first, I did feel uneasy and insecure, so I often stayed at home and didn’t want to come to work, but my boss came to my home and persuaded me to come out.
“I knew then this boss was different. I found love – by God’s grace,” he said.
Now, he cannot wait to get to work because “this is the only place I feel happy – the only place I have friends.”
Another ‘special needs’ worker at Grandma Bak Kut Teh is Ah Sim. Though he has Down Syndrome, his positive attitude (friendly and motivated) and winning smiles are real assets to his section.
His co-workers appreciate his dedication and readiness to help out although his main duty is serving customers – taking and delivering their orders.
Then there is Anna who is mentally challenged. But what is amazing is that her boss and co-workers all know they can count on her when it comes to cleanliness.
She always makes sure all the glasses, plates, bowls, spoons and forks, and chopsticks she washes are squeaky clean – spotless and sparkling.
Sim said: “Anna is one of those who remain since I employed her in 2005. At first, we had a hard time handling her because she was unable to control her temper. Her behaviour was, sometimes, aggressive but then again, she never harmed anyone.”
According to Sim, in her first year working in the shop, Anna broke a lot of claypots, plates and glasses.
“Every day, she would create a lot of problems for us until my other normal staffers complained to me. But I never gave up on her.
“I also never deducted her salary for the broken items. Patiently, I continued trying to give her positive motivation. Today, she is one of my best workers. I don’t have to worry about her anymore.”
On her business, Sim admitted that occasionally, she received complaints from some customers that the services were slow.
“I can’t blame the customers because I understand what they expect. They pay to eat and drink here and certainly they deserve the best service. So when my ‘special needs’ workers are slow to take or bring them their orders, they naturally get annoyed. Who doesn’t, anyway?
“But that’s because such customers haven’t really understood the situation of this place, including the conditions of my ‘special needs’ people.”
Citing an example, Sim said she had two workers with hearing problems who would just walk away when customers called out to them to take their orders, leaving the latter baffled (often irritated) with the poor service.
“In truth, the workers cannot hear – as they did not respond appropriately, they were seen as being rude.”
Sim said if she were around, she would quickly apologise and explain to customers if they complained.
Most people accept her explanation but there are some who do not care to understand.
So do such incidents affect her business? Sim nodded, but said she always had faith in the goodness of people. And of course, she also had great faith in the goodness of God.
She believed that could be the reason why, despite all the daily challenges, her shop was still surviving.
“I don’t make much profit – what’s most important is what I earn is enough to cover the operating costs.
“The greatest satisfaction I get out of this business is that it is like a service to society. I can serve food and drinks to people, create jobs for people and give people with certain disabilities a chance to be gainfully employed,” she said.