A good article on Phsyorg discloses some anecdotal evidence to describe what kind of dangers lurks behind public wi-fi. Although in Singapore, you have a personal wireless@sg account, this does not mean your data is by any means secured. Wireless traffic is open and unencrypted and one should ensure sufficient protection is enabled on your computer like a valid antivirus software with a firewall.

This is by no means 100% secured. As long as you share a network with people you don’t know, your wireless data can always be sniffed, regardless if you have a password or not. So the wireless router must be encrypted, which is hardly the case for most public wi-fi. But even when someone has free access, anyone can see your information over the air once they’re inside the network.

How much time should you spend on public wifi? As little as possible. So if you’re outside, get a mobile broadband device or tether the internet using your iphone. This reduces the chances of being sniffed on because you need to pair the device before anyone can use the connection. Although 3G networks is still an open one, and cracking your 3G broadband is like tapping a phone line, you’re less likely to fall prey to someone trying to crack into your phone waves than on a wifi one.

After a week of re-launching the Verbeter site, this would be the first time I would be posting a blog entry in here. This blog serves to convey to readers the philosophy of the company, and its evolving traditions and ethos as it begins its journey towards business excellence.

I’d like to share a little history about this company. When we started out, we were penniless folks. To be honest, I was still gainfully employed when I created Verbeter. I wanted to experience an entrepreneurial journey before I find myself tied to family commitments and take bigger risks. But I did not have much money to spare. I couldn’t wait 5 or 10 years to save enough for myself to do this, because it was uncertain how a decade would turn out for me. Certainly, I know that I’d want to be settling down at 25 or 28, and by the time I’m 35 or 38, the attraction to build something for myself would probably wither as I’d rather build a proper retirement income and save for my children’s future, and a financial risk at an untested idea would not be a wise move.

While employed in a web developer’s job with a foreign-owned SME, I experienced a lot in an employee’s capacity and observed how working culture today is filled with brown-nosing and office politics and a refusal to innovate and allow criticisms, thoughts and ideas to flow freely. I was a disruptive worker. I came up with enteprising ideas to build better internal systems when the task of rebuilding the corporate intranet was tasked to me. I was ultimately responsible for 3 large web-based systems and only 1 other developer to work with to build an intranet that had features like a facebook-like staff list, a task manager in the style of rememberthemilk.com, a staff diary, a Google Calendar clone and a resource manager. Further, I was tasked to develop a customised CRM system that had over 20 modules and improve on a trouble ticket manager application which I had built earlier for the company. I had to develop, debug and launch all this within 10 months.

I spent about 1.5 years in the company before being asked to leave with immediate effect. Apparently, my boss said I had dropped my productivity levels. But it was a ridiculous reason for an immediate termination of employment. I asked my boss straight-faced if he was unhappy with me. Quickly, he said no. I’ve never heard of a boss asking an employee to leave with immediate effect without being the least bit upset at him. So clearly, this was a case of politics and certain colleagues just did not like my constant demand for professionalism. When I bid farewell to each colleague, a senior management officer told me how she has never felt so sad to see someone leave. I was very nice to my Filipino tita who was a ball of joy to be with. She was professional in her work, and I always thanked her for doing a good job with our payslips despite being a junior officer.

Another manager that worked with me was shocked at my dismissal. He found my work impressive and professional and was able to respond with his requirements. I remember telling him once, that I like him because he was detailed and precise in what he wants, and I honoured that by giving in return good work.

I regret only at not being able to say goodbye to the cleaning auntie who kept the place spick and span. I guess, despite being a junior employee, I carried myself like I owned the business. I worked hard, even spent the night at the office and fulfilled my goals at least 90% of the time.

Within 2 weeks, I was offered similar jobs with a better pay at 2 of Singapore’s most famous web development companies. I decided to forego those opportunities to take a freelance job at a company where I did my first polytechnic internship almost 6 years before.

It was a job that gave me some freedom with my schedule, and I had more time to build my business. I still had nightmares about my last job for about a year. But eventually it ended when I finished my first year away from proper employment with far more pay than if I were to continue somewhere else. I spent 2 years and 8 months in that gig. Eventually, I decided to go and build my business full-time, and I prospered, earning more than I did before.

It has now been nearly 2 years since I ventured full-time. It has not been easy. I don’t get sleep very regularly. And I’ve long not been able to join in my weekly rugby with my friends. But despite that, I work on my own schedule, and the freedom I enjoy to spend more time with family and my loved ones offsets the inability for me to enjoy in a hobby I love.

Unfortunately, I realised that I was working myself to the grave. I may have been earning more, but I don’t think I became any closer to the ideals that I wanted for myself.

Recently, after experimenting with a 4-day work week for months, I properly installed it as a company policy. It forced me to become far more productive and work more with less time. And I get 3 days off a week to recover and rest, and indulge in the activities I want to do, or perhaps spend more time to build other businesses.

It is definitely not easy because no one else in Singapore works 4-day weeks. And so, there is a challenge to not perform any business on Fridays where a lot of last minute emails come flying in.

We are still working on properly disciplining the schedule, and we hope that all the adjustments could be completed by September. By then, we hope to become more and more productive.

You see, my philosophy is about improvement, and my experiences have made me realise that the biggest factor of success is not always the product. It is you and your staff. We’re about nirvanising business and finding balance between work and life, and that work friends are life friends too. We hate office politics and corporate brown-nosing, and we don’t pretend to be a family like other SMEs try to with their attempts at building HR programmes to improve employee happiness.

The only way for a company to grow, the only way for us to provide good service and make great products is to ensure our team are happy. And so I’d like to usher a new era in business IT services, led by a company that knows the true meaning of Improving Internet Experiences – Verbeter Group.

This will always be a work in progress but rest assured, we will always be in the forefront of business happiness and hopefully, just like karma, our customers will be happy too.