Ball re-enters the workforce

Ball – former supermarket egg-seller, and coffee shop worker - is about to re-enter the full-time workforce, this time as a security guard.

His mother knows a cleaner at my condo, who knows someone at a serviced apartment opposite. She has recommended Ball for a job.

She used her pull to get him work there as a guard. At 7am today, he was to present himself for an interview - a mere formality thanks to the intervention of his mother’s friend.

The job is already his, though that is as far as the good news goes.

‘At the new place, I will work a 12-hour day, starting at 7am. They deduct the cost of my uniform from my wages. If I can’t make it on a particular day, they deduct a penalty fee,’ Ball said.

How much will he get for his 12-hour day? The measly sum of B300.

He will work for a company which hires security guards, and contracts its services to condos and serviced apartments.

Ball worked at my own condo complex as a security guard, several years ago when he first left school.

‘I swear I never fell asleep at my post. But the work was monotonous. Most of the guards are old men...they employ few people my age, so I met few friends,' he recalls.

‘The tenants, even some of the staff, look down on us because we are guards. If the tenants don’t like the way we treat them, they complain to the juristic entity which runs the place, just to make trouble.’

Ball recounts a tale about a wealthy tenant who turned up in his Benz one evening in pouring rain. He had just picked up his daughter from university.

‘I was sitting in the guards’ booth, trying to keep out of the rain. But this guy wanted me to take an umbrella to the passenger door of the Benz and escort his daughter to the front door of his condo, so she wouldn’t get wet.

‘He didn’t care that I would have to spend the rest of my shift sitting in wet clothes,’ he said.

My busy day with Ball’s family started in late afternoon, when Ball’s Mum invited me to her place.

She had asked a couple of women friends over, and was shouting them drinks.

‘I want to encourage Ball to drink beer at home, which is better for him than ya dong,’ she said.

I turned up in early evening.

I met Mum’s two guests, including Ning, works at my condo as a cleaner, and is the one who found Ball his new job.

Ball's Mum was playing hostess to say thanks for getting her son work.

Ball himself, however, had headed outdoors for the night.

‘Drinking at home is dull,’ he told me later.

Mum and I went in search of Ball. We found him at a new ya dong stand close to the local 7-11 store.

Idle Lort, the partner to Ball’s mother, now drinks here rather than at carer R’s ya dong stand nearby, as he owes carer R money, so rarely dares show his face.

We spent 15min at the place close to the 7-11, but decided it was too noisy. We were also missing carer R, so decided to meet at his shop instead.

I was to spend the rest of the night there, punctuated by one brief trip home to see the boyfriend, to make sure he wasn’t getting lonely.

Maiyuu spent the night in the company of the TV, as usual. He seemed happy enough. I spent 15min there, and headed back out again.

An hour later, Ball’s Mum re-joined us at carer R’s stand.

She sounded bitter about the security company which has hired Ball. It made me wonder why she wanted her son to work in such an awful job.

‘We need the money. He can no longer just sit around at home,’ she said.

Lort is a taxi driver, but rarely bothers to ply the streets looking for work.

‘In the morning, there’s too much traffic, and not enough passengers to go around,’ she said.

‘Forgive me for saying so, but that sounds like an excuse. Lort simply isn’t interested in working,’ I said.

I regularly criticise Lort when I talk to Ball’s Mum. She seldom replies to my barbs, but I know carer R, at least, enjoys my outspoken moments.

My intervention fails to change anything at home, of course, but I want Ball’s mother to know what this farang thinks.

Ball, meanwhile, was working himself into a small state of anxiety.

His girlfriend, Jay, had finished work at a local supermarket but when he went to pick her up on his motorbike, she refused to accompany him home.

He left his bike by the ya dong stand. Every half an hour, he would head off to find her.

Jay, however, wanted to stay out with her friends.

This upset the Enchanted One, who worries she has found a new man but just not told him yet.

He made three trips to get her before she would agree to come home. ‘Her friends laughed at me when I demanded she get on the bike,’ Ball told me bitterly.

By the time he headed off a third time, he was so worked up he wanted to hit her. I spoke reassuring words in his ear, rubbed his face and his back to cool him down.

On her return, Jay joined us at the ya dong stand, and the two spoke in a huddle for 20min.

After quizzing her about what happened with her friends, Ball forgave his girlfriend, which was a relief.

‘Do you have any books on English conversation which you can lend me?’ she asked me politely.

‘I do,’ I said.

‘Why do you want them?’ Ball asked.

‘Some of my customers are farang...I want to know how to reply to their questions,’ she said.

Ball looked at me proudly. ‘My girlfriend was good at school...she’s smart,’ he said.

I was delighted to see that Jay was back in Ball’s good books. The pair argue often, but fall back into their old habits as a couple just as quickly.

Ball could do with studying a little English himself, as the place where he will work is stuffed with foreigners.

I offered to buy him lunch, and take it to him at the condo.

‘I know the job sounds a bore, but just think – this could be the first day of a new adventure,’ I told him.