Income bias - salary
Question:
I need your help on this matter, I got an offer for a call centre agent. Pay is rm2000, got epf, socso, annual leave, 3 shift allowances, the hr said the job is quite boring as not many call coming in. Their staff is above 50 years old mostly. This as oppose to the last month offer of rm2200 but must do sales and quite difficult to do that kpi. I really felt bad that I sign this offer with so low salary. But... There are so many but to say.
Answer:
I understand why you feel bad about signing it. On paper, RM2,000 versus RM2,200 looks like you accepted less and therefore somehow went backwards.
But I don't think that's the right way to look at this one.
There are actually two very different RM2,000/RM2,200 jobs here.
The RM2,200 job
You already know what that job represents:
Higher basic by RM200.
Sales.
Difficult KPI.
Pressure to sell a product that isn't easy to sell.
Your performance and perhaps your continued employment are tied to numbers.
You were already uncomfortable with the department/product.
That extra RM200 comes with a price.
The RM2,000 job
This one sounds almost comically boring according to HR:
RM2,000 basic
EPF
SOCSO
Annual leave
Shift allowances
Very few calls
Mostly older, experienced employees
No aggressive sales KPI, at least from what you've described
HR was honest enough to tell you the job is boring
And there is something important in that last point.
You aren't being sold a dream.
HR basically told you: "Don't expect excitement here. There isn't much happening."
For someone who has just experienced what happened with the previous call-centre position, that may actually be a feature rather than a defect.
You don't need every job to be exciting.
Sometimes a job's greatest virtue is:
> It leaves you alone after you finish your shift.
You can earn your RM2,000, collect your allowances, contribute to EPF, have your leave entitlement, go home—and still have a mind capable of thinking about your research, writing, your daughter, your cats, or whatever else matters to you.
And I want to challenge one thought gently:
"I signed this offer with such a low salary."
RM2,000 is not a measure of your worth.
It's the price this particular employer is offering for this particular job.
You can accept it without declaring that RM2,000 is what you are worth.
That's a very different psychological position.
You can say:
> "For now, I choose stability over an additional RM200 and a difficult sales KPI."
That's not failure.
That's a decision.
And perhaps the biggest thing is this: you don't have to marry the job.
Take it. Do it properly. Learn the environment. See what the actual workload is like. Keep looking if, after settling in, you decide the salary isn't enough.
The RM200 difference is RM2,400 a year before deductions. That's real money, and I'm not going to pretend it isn't. But if the RM2,200 position costs you significantly more in stress, pressure and sustainability, the extra RM200 may be an expensive RM200.
You told me before that you wanted to live longer and not keep putting yourself into situations that break you down. This choice seems much more aligned with that principle than the previous sales role.
So perhaps don't tell yourself:
> "I settled for RM2,000."
Tell yourself:
> "I bought myself some breathing room for RM2,000."
And then, when you're breathing again, you can decide what's next.
Question :
Come to think of it, it is funny how the human mind shifts. I can be happy to earn rm40 a day, enough for me and my cat. Extra delight to have rm50 a day. But I am not happy to work for somebody else just for 24 days and earn that amount and think that is not enough. This is a subtle thing that creeps unconsciously.
Answer:
Yes. And I think you've caught something quite subtle here.
The RM40 itself didn't change. What changed was the meaning your mind attached to it.
If you say:
"Today I made RM40. That's enough to feed me and my cat."
the mind experiences sufficiency.
But change the sentence to:
"I work for someone for eight hours, 24 days a month, and they pay me RM2,000."
Suddenly the same money becomes a measurement of status, effort, fairness, and self-worth.
And then another thought quietly enters:
"For all that work, only RM2,000?"
That's the creep you're talking about.
There is also something fascinating about ownership.
When RM40 comes from your own effort, your mind says:
"I produced RM40."
When RM2,000 comes from an employer, your mind may say:
"They are buying 24 days of my life for RM2,000."
Those are psychologically very different transactions, even though mathematically they can lead to the same money.
And this is where I think your observation becomes deeper than simply "I should be grateful."
You don't have to force yourself to be happy with RM2,000.
You can simply see what the mind is doing.
You can say:
"Interesting. When I needed RM40, RM40 was enough. Now that someone has put a salary number in front of me, my mind has converted the same money into evidence that I am underpaid."
Neither thought needs to be immediately believed.
That's very close to the kind of observation you've been making lately: watching the mind manufacture a problem around something that, a moment earlier, wasn't a problem.
And there's another beautiful irony.
You may eventually discover that the boring job is valuable precisely because it gives you something your mind doesn't put on the payslip:
predictability.
Few calls. Older coworkers. Shift allowance. EPF. SOCSO. Annual leave. Perhaps you finish work and nobody asks you to sell another RM10,000 of something.
RM2,000 may not be your destination.
But it can be enough for this particular chapter.
And perhaps the healthier thought isn't:
"RM2,000 is a good salary."
Nor:
"RM2,000 is a terrible salary."
Just:
"RM2,000 is what this job pays. Let me see what I can make of the life around it."
That is a much quieter relationship with money.
And yes—the fact that you noticed the shift is probably more valuable than whether you ultimately accept or reject the RM2,000.
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