Powerless, Literally

About a month ago, we received a notice at our door saying that several bills were past due including maintenance fee, water bill, and others. The notice says if the balance owed hasn’t been paid by November 30th, they would turn our water off. So the next day after I work I take this notice into headquarters to let them know. One of the ladies in accounts tells me to consult another lady who works there because she is our contact with the renting agent. The condo is actually owned/lived in by a family who has gone somewhere and rented it out to my company. This process and the attached bills are handled by some combination of the owner, my company, and an agent that my company hired. I’m not exactly sure how it is supposed to work. I don’t know if the owner is supposed to pay the bills and my companies pays him back a fixed rate or if the company is supposed to pay him a rate and handle all bills, etc. All I know is that they told me upon arrival that they would “take care of my housing” so I expect it to get handled. I talk to the lady they refer me to who is like “Ok, I’ll talk to the agent.” When I follow up, she hasn’t spoken to the agent at all because she has been busy with work. This is a higher priority to me than them, so even though I’m disappointed by this, I understand how that can happen. She gives me the number and I talk to the agent myself. The agent is saying that in their terms there is some stuff that the agent has to handle, but not others and that the company is responsible for most of what they say is owed. So we speak back to the accounts department at HQ, now I’m pushing the issue because that deadline is almost upon us. They say “fine, but we need an official statement to write the check.” In the back of my mind, “so you couldn’t have told me that before instead of trying to bounce this to the agent” but whatever I have to do what is necessary to avoid them cancelling our water. So I go to the mailbox (full of bills and notices and such despite the agent telling us that she checks it weekly for these things), I go to the management office, go everywhere I know to go and gather up everything I can. At the management office, the lady tells me “Don’t worry, your water won’t be cut off right at the end of the month, you will have more time to settle before they actually take such action.” This eases my mind a little; I still want it handled though. The next day or so, I hear that handling this has now been delegated to our new human resources lady, who’s already garnered a reputation as a bit of a shrewd despite only starting a few weeks ago. Once again, my mind starts working “why are they trying to bounce this thing around so much?” But I assure myself it’s cool because one thing uptight people are usually good for is handling things in a timely manner. The 30th comes and goes, water is still on, no more notices. I’m relaxed, I don’t inquire anymore about the issue and go on with my life. On a day where I was fairly annoyed at work, which also happened to be one of the hotter days we had in a while (there are no seasons here, so despite being December I could easily be working in 85-90 degree weather), I return home to the apartment anxious to engage in my usual routine: I walk in the house, walk into my room, switch on the air conditioning and lay at the spot in the bed it points to for a few minutes before going about my evening. I unlock our gate, unlock the front door, in stride towards my room I hit the light switch; nothing. I try another light switch, nothing still. I look on the ground and see what must be a “cut off” notice; I’m not entirely sure because it’s in Malay. The notice we received mentioned maintenance fees, water bill, and some other jargin, but it didn’t mention electricity at all. My Filipino housemate opts to stay in the apartment but I can’t sit stewing in a dark room. After a somewhat stressful day, I want to shed the day’s troubles and relax, not sweat off pounds of water weight as if I’m a boxer trying to make my division size limit. The entire time I’ve been in Malaysia, despite working 6 days a week at a job which can be very stressful at times, despite my frustrating lack of independence as far as transportation goes, despite missing family and friends and a traditional holiday season, one thing I always have had complete confidence in is that my company has been taking good care of me; paying me good, exposing me to some things, taking care of my housing and transportation. For the first time, that confidence was shaken a little bit.