The Phone

I was half asleep
When the phone rang
Maybe once, twice or trice
But I can't get up
For her memories kept on ringing my head
That I don't know when will stop
from calling---hunting me
I know it was her who called
For the rings seemed
To be endless with
Just little intervals of silence
I am sure she really wants
To hear my voice
Or hear my golden forgiveness
But I really cannot get up
Or
I don't want to get up
Quite contented for her
Stuck in the other line
Thirsty amidst that undying rings

Will I answer the phone?

I have no longer had any strength
To deduce all the possiblities for
silence can yield its powerful
Numbness much more like
My impaired senses, with that
I can't feel anything more
As my heart is now hard and heavy stucked
within these grains of sand
We once called "our bed"
Those were nights we could feel the earth's
Crust where we used to build sandcastles

Not houses.

BANATE

Annotation:
This article is a reflection after being left out by a new friend I met last December. He said he is scheduled to go to Banate Iloilo for a camping which strucked me the most to write something about it.

Change had been in the forefront of our midst. Throughout the centuries, it is still obliterating the mind of every individual whose thirst for machinations seem to be insatiable. This individual equipped with his mundane mind hovered by echoes of spirits and minds of saints now stands in the frontier of modern age. Yet their kind has been constantly wallowing in the depths of mediocrity – with their roots tangled in a consciousness where nature is disdained, neglected, and abused.

But in the place where the minds are molded and hearts are shaped, some remained to be suspects, criminals, and wicked for nature. They always die for power – for money as they believe that technology makes its own way to achieve strength using the environment.

In this era where technology continues to ensnare the minds of their kind, their desire for profit plays a big role. As they continue to purport this mantra, they remain to squeeze up every single part of our dear mother earth. They still want more power, more money, and more abuses.


BANATE, ILOILO- A Korean firm plans the construction of a 150- million-dollar coal-fired power plant in this town amidst all the disapproval of residents and mounting opposition to the project.

Korean Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) has signed a memorandum of understanding with the municipal government to conduct studies for the construction of the plant under a build-own-and-operate scheme. Build-own-and-operate scheme is under the Republic Act No. 7718 Section 2(d). It is a contractual arrangement whereby a project proponent is authorized to finance, construct, own, operate and maintain an infrastructure or development facility from which the proponent is allowed to recover its total investment, operating and maintenance costs plus a reasonable return thereon by collecting tolls, fees, rentals or other charges from facility users: Provided, That all such projects, upon recommendation of the Investment Coordination Committee (ICC) of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), shall be approved by the President of the Philippines. Under this project, the proponent who owns the assets of the facility may assign its operation and maintenance to a facility operator.

Despite widespread opposition from various sectors, KEPCO said the plant was environmentally safe because it would utilize Circulating Fluidized Bed Combustion (CFBC) technology.

But opponents of the project led by the Banatenhon Against Coal-fired Plant and the People's Response for the Protection of the Environment (PROTECT) presented studies of coal plants in the Philippines and abroad, which had caused environmental damage especially to communities near the plants.

Bayan Muna Representative Siegfred Deduro said he would author a resolution, seeking to scrap the project.
Deduro said the project would cause "incalculable damage" to the livelihood of the people and environment of the coastal towns of Northern Iloilo.

The project also faces opposition in the provincial board where at least four board members--Henry Anotado, Bienvenido Margarico, Romeo Palmares and Igmedio Prado--have declared their opposition to the plant.

The X Analysis: There are a lot of adverse effects on the planned 150- million-dollar coal-fired power plant. Studies show that it could harm the sea environment that could lead illnesses and mutations. In short, it would greatly affect the residents of Banate Iloilo.

But the effect is not just limited to the people in Banate Iloilo. This is the reason why so many concerned citizens, students, writers, artists, and the likes are in opposition for this plan even though some of them are not from Banate. We are all affected most especially the business sector.

All the businesses acts in our environment and thus when its environment is neglected and abused there’s no more reason for the business to survive. In strict sense, we can make up to a point that the environment is connected with the business sector. This makes the effect of the planned power plant a big threat in the business environment.

Without even thinking, there are two possibilities – the plant will be constructed or it will be shelved. These two possibilities as all of these are possible leads in different effects in our business sector.

If the plant will be constructed, our government will not necessarily benefit a thing for the project not until the period for the transfer of ownership are due. In fair understanding, the government will own the plant when the Korean firms are satisfied with their profit. Now, if ever project is constructed, the government is not directly involved in the operation of the plant. In this case, the plant will absolutely be free to raise their rates. Since the KEPCO plant serves the entire Western Visayas, all the businesses will be affected. As electric rates rises, there is a tendency of a lesser profit for local businesses. If this happens, consumers tend to buy less for the increases in price of common commodity or in a longer span of time, a limit to their buying habits. As there would be limited buyers, local investors would refrain from investing. This will result to a poor business environment with no such opportunities from their usual customers. In the global aspect, we will expect that there would be numerous offers for the government especially from foreign companies with the aid of the BOT schemes. More will invest to our country as they are sure of having a profit. There is actually a positive impact for these foreign investors NOT for us. Note that the BOT schemes promote freedom for these foreign companies to use our natural environment for business. In this particular scheme

If the plant will be shelved, our local business industry will be at normal operation. No hindrances for the environment, no danger for the Banatenhon, and no added problems to anyone.

The X Recommendation: The only recommendation to this matter is for the government to hear the cries of our fellow kababayans in Banate – that is to scrap off the plan.

The government must fairly visualize and know all the bad effects of the plan by formulating further studies. Indeed that the researches made by the opposition will thoroughly make the government realize how it will greatly ruin the environment. Although we will expect that more foreign companies will invest in our country if we have the plant, we still must not destroy and abuse our environment – our local business environment.

The government must likewise render necessary laws to protect our environment. Protecting our environment will mean protecting our local businesses. They must form different research department to gather more information for any other construction planned by any company. The investigation of different plants throughout the world must also be considered as basis for the effectiveness of any other plan of construction.


X' SOURCES:www.asianjournal.com/cgi-bin/view_info.cgi?code=00002105&category=, Korean Firm To Shelve Coal Plant Without Village Nod.

REPUBLIC ACT NO. 7718, “The Philippine BOT Law”, REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES Congress Of The Philippines Metro Manila

From the Muddy Waters

Conflict can be helpful in making necessary changes within the home or work environment. However, unresolved conflict can result in feelings of dissatisfaction, unhappiness, hopelessness, depression, and other emotions. It can result in behaviors such as physical or emotional withdrawal, resignation from jobs, dissolution of personal relations, aggression, and even violence.” - Mary Rau-Foster

And so it happened. The differences and obvious clashes within us at work have just emerged from the muddy waters.

From this point in time, I learned more about the realism of my workplace and any other workplace in general. You see just this week, I learned that group behavior is totally not the way my former managerial books have conceptualized it. You know, I used to think about employees caring for each other, going out to the beach, chatting all together when its time to go home, sharing laughter, and any smiling faces I often see in most of our HR press releases. I was wrong. Books will just stay there in our shelves just for principles and concepts to reflect but not entirely to follow all its idealism that’s why these smiling faces in press releases, unison of the minds of employees, and all jazz are just kept there to realize that it is all too impossible to achieve consistently. They are just all too far from any book’s idealism that we could always merge in one thought, beliefs, and principles. That is all too impossible. There can still be clashes or contradicting personalities emerging from the muddy waters. (I would call it muddy to symbolize the social world of my workplace in particular).

Emerging from the muddy waters, there are those people who lacks understanding or worse do not let themselves digest and implement what they had understood. There are likewise those people who are illogical, bias, and totally out of context in sharing their view in matters of most importance. Their minds were overruled by being so self embracing more considerate to themselves from the company. Worse, they put work as their dwelling place for their craziness to express more what they cannot express at home. They are going to the extremity of making what should a professional place into a chaotic market-like environment.

On the other part of the muddy waters, there emerge those people of fine tone whom I could trust and put it primarily in my friends list. They are those people who are of most admired through their attitudes and the way they could handle situations. They knew proper etiquette, respect, and the basic lesson of being even. They used their minds more than the physical. That’s why they emerged in the muddy waters clean, polished, and shimmering for their every action is well planned and implemented. They are logical, balanced, and always on their feet closely using their minds before any particular action. They are also company oriented or driven.

There are also those people I would label as “the others” whom don’t have any idea of what is happening around them or maybe they just don’t care at all. They were simply neutral nearly has ignorance of what really happened. Basically, they just don’t want to join in with the clash. They would just remain silent relatively safe from conflicts or they just don’t want to be affected after all. Usually, they wear smiling faces most of the time quite ignorant about the wars on his or her sides.

These are the characters of my workplace which I am spending the biggest part of my career or perhaps my whole working life. My work week takes up five whole days that are planned completely around the job. I wake up at a certain time, dress a certain way, and commute to a certain place for only one reason: face ALL of them at work. It is usually here that a great many relationships are formed. The people around me make up an important aspect of my job, and the stage is set by whatever tones these work relationships have. It is just so disappointing that I am now experiencing a rotten tone of work relationship.

I want it to be fixed – that is, to make everything in order.

I just read an Oracle Magazine, in which I would say is extremely relevant to what I am saying so far in this chapter. I want to share this excerpt from the said magazine:

Where there are people, there is the potential for conflict. And it doesn’t take an HR expert to realize that unresolved conflict in the workplace can be costly—in terms of low morale and productivity, litigation, sabotage, or even violence—which is why organizations increasingly view conflict resolution skills as a core competency for many employees.

According to Kathy Stewart, vice president of client services for Chorda , which partners with organizations to design conflict management systems, many employees are choosing to ignore conflict rather than resolve it. With increased uncertainty about roles, reporting structures, and power differentials, they fear they could get hurt politically if they make a wrong move.
But, handled correctly, conflict isn’t necessarily negative. It can be an opportunity to solve problems. There are four main ways, Stewart says, that people deal with conflict:

Avoidance. Or just hoping the situation will go away. This is the initial step of a party which relatively concludes that nothing is to be fixed after all. In other words, the other party might be in bad taste already having a reputation of not listening to any form of confrontation.

Avoidance includes division or dissection of the team forming their own groups and peers. In the long run, an individual will not feel good once merge with the other group and vice versa.

Higher authority. Allowing a third party, such as a supervisor or an HR person, to make a decision for the parties. Arbitration and litigation are also higher-authority processes. For, instance, the party will leave the issue to the HR to bring appropriate actions to the one affected.

Power play. Forcing a particular resolution upon the other party—for instance, sit-ins, strikes, sabotage or worse mass resignation.

Collaboration. This process occurs through individual initiative, conversation, negotiation, or mediation.

“The preferred path, or the least costly route for problem-solving, is to use collaboration first, with higher authority as a backup,” notes Stewart.

How could we use collaboration?

Resolve issues early. Deal with problems as they arise rather than allowing them to escalate.
Listen on a deeper level. Try to understand the other person’s position before you speak—and listen to the underlying interests that motivate that position. Let’s say somebody asks you for a raise. Rather than responding, “No, we don’t have the budget for it,” creatively explore all options with that person. Perhaps what the person really desires is recognition, which could be addressed in other ways.

Be conversational, not confrontational. If you’re having problems with someone, approach that person in a non-confrontational way. It is often helpful to disclose something about yourself so that your attempt is perceived as less a confrontation than a conversation. (For example: “I wonder if you can help me better understand how you see our various roles and responsibilities.”) That way, you’re inviting the other person around to your side of the table to look at the problem together.

Build a Kinder Workplace. There are other ways to reframe how you think about conflict. Tom Terez, founder of BetterWorkplaceNow.com and author of 22 Keys to Creating a Meaningful Workplace, would like to see people focus on conflict prevention. “We need to think about how we can build the bonds of our relationships such that we minimize conflict and also so that when conflict does occur, we are equipped to deal with it,” says Terez, who offers this advice:

Pay attention to those first 30 seconds. How you initiate a conversation is critical. If the first minute is negative, the rest of the conversation will be too. Avoid sounding skeptical, antagonistic, or disrespectful. Also, say what you mean instead of playing games. Likewise, if someone else is the initiator, it’s critical that you’re conscious of how you respond to that “bid” to engage. You should turn toward rather than away from the person.

Realize that nobody’s perfect. You can have all the conflict resolution skills in the world, but some people are hard to get along with. BetterWorkplaceNow.com offers advice for dealing with limelight hogs, pessimists, control freaks, and other trying types, in its “Difficult Dozen Help Zone.” But a kinder workplace isn’t built in a day. You have to think long-term and be willing, as Terez says, to “do the heavy lifting of building your relationships.”



In addendum, I have also this 7 commandment in the workplace that I remembered posted in my former office. I just hope that the team will embraced these commandments. I just love these commandments as my former officemates usually recite these whenever we feel future conflicts to arise or there might be some misunderstandings within ourselves during our meetings. :)


Seven Commandments to Embrace in the Workplace

1. We are Solution Oriented, Not Problem Focused. When identifying any problem, we always provide at least 1 solution.

2. We seek to have all of our customers and team members feel “Trusted, Important, Special and Pleased” through respectful verbal and non-verbal communication.

3. We address any workplace conflict within 24 hours or it did not happen.

4. We look for the good in other people, recognizing if we don’t we’ll never know any good people.

5. We refrain from destructive inner-office gossip recognizing the negative impact on our team.

6. We have fun working together and celebrate our accomplishments.

7. We begin each work-day with a positive greeting, recognizing the first 15 minutes of the day often sets the team environment#.

A Poem to Water

Of all the four ancient elements of nature,
Fire; wind; water; earth
You resemble mostly of water
Free-flowing without fixed shape
That you could fit in
With everything.

A humble coconut shell
A fractured one would do
A filthy, rusty drum
It can be cleaned anyways
A glass
A cracked glass won’t matter still
Or even the inferior of all inferiors;
A dam in the mountains
That you did accepted quite
Positively no matter
How people cursed that damn

But then you seem
To be so calm
Sleeping at most
Still vibrant listening accepting
Faults; cracks; curses.

Even on the ocean floors
You still keep tranquility
Reflecting the blue colors of the sky;
A sort of connection
Of how happy you are;
I mean how happy we are.

For when the rain comes
And the sky turned dark and angry
You fight, turning into
That same insane color
A rebellion to
fire; earth; wind
Never letting go
Reflecting and connecting
Any sort of color of the sky.

And there I am
The humble coconut shell;
Filthy rusty drum;
That cracked glass;
An old pugnacious debatable dam;
And that insane sky that
Any of those remaining elements
Of nature couldn’t stand.

You simply are running
Off my unsaturated life form
Touching my life
To create rills and gullies
Filling my small rocky stream bed
With a lot of spirit
Guiding my days
Like a young river
Emerging gradually as a porous steam bank
For when I dry out
You still appear to be
Like small streams
Still obliged to return water
In my capillary spaces in my soil
Giving up to make me exist
Joining gullies
Rushing down mountainsides
Streaming across the hills
Until I realized
I am beginning to gather
And assume the promise of my mighty identity.

With the infinite river.

Bored

Just recently, I read a classic novel of George Orwell entitled “The Animal Farm.” I chose to include this in my blog because this indeed stroked me more this week awakening my senses of trying to know more about how I could really make a difference or if I am really making sense staying here in my current company. I would like to quote these lines from the said book:

“Life is miserable, laborious, and short. We are born, we are given just food by working to the last atom of our strength, and the very instant that our usefulness has come to an end, we are nothing anymore. Life follows the order of nature. It must be. But what happened now? It follows the order of society. Our fertile land is capable of affording food in abundance to an enormous greater number of people. But society built life to imprison abundance; to steal huge part of our labour. It is the root cause of hunger and overwork…”

The above lines were from an old Boar, well a boar; and he can talk! Well, it is not from the mere fact that the boar and the other animals in the book can talk that made me like the book even more but rather the impact of the said lines to me when I first read it. The boar’s striking statement is actually how I am viewing life. For a pig, obviously life is indeed miserable, laborious and short but what I have reflected more to the said line was his world that he grew up with – that is him to be pushed to his job (of eating, sleeping, and be slaughtered…poor fellow) and give more or less a mouthful of food for his survival no matter how would he ever exert effort and try to maximize its usefulness to the whole farm. In effect he is bored, stocked to want change; of rebellion. That is why he took great effort to educate the other animals (which are quite ignorant to understand what he is saying). The middle part of the book states more of rebellion – that all the animals would want to rule the farm for themselves. To kick out the farmer and make the farm as their own – which turned out to be very successful indeed.

The story is quite long but I chose to pick up just this part of the novel to reflect. With the kind of short life that I had, I used to realize if what purpose would I actually give to our country as to make a difference to the society that obviously imprison abundance. Right now, I am actually bored with the kind of environment that I had. I just don’t know if I would stay for so long. Aside from the not so good working culture, I am a bit troubled if I am really into this job. You know I am a marketing bachelor and it is always my passion to market as of my personal goal as to have customer interaction every now and then. I am not actually complaining with the kind of work load that I had and how it makes me have something to eat anyhow. What really is making me bugged out is the way my finances are going.

You know, I rarely sent financial support to my family in the province which is a great shame in my part especially when my Dad was hospitalized just last Friday due to brain seizures. I am out of control that day when I received a call from them begging financial support which in a blink of an eye forced me to send my entire savings for my whole stay in my company. I cannot even visit him in the hospital. What I just made was entirely prayers; or should I say miracles to happen to make him ok.

One day I made a hard conversation with a good friend of mine which works at a well-to-do call center in Makati. He was actually concerned about how on earth am I surviving without even sending financial support to my family before the incident. Actually, I do not know what to say at that moment. I thought of my good trainings at work, the nice treatment of HR, my chosen peers, and the likes that made me think if I would really want to give out these things just for the sake of being financially free. I am not saying that what my company is given me is just enough to make me work to the last atom of my strength. It is just that, I feel concerned about the current situation of my family just recently. I could imagine how my Mom begged money to my relatives and how I am so useless to have of more help in times of need like this. Indeed my usefulness in the project had already gone to the point that I am quite competitive in doing my different functions and how I could already understand them. But what is the sense anyways when I was stocked up in front of the monitor the whole night/day quite discontented with my lousy social environment, with the not that high pay, and unstable working tenure if I know there are still other opportunities hailing for me outside.

Life is supposed to be following the order of nature or rather by society up to this point of time that our country remained poor and still unhealthy brought by exporting its brilliant skilled workers abroad. But what sort of image it now created. Labor seemed to be so stiff in the country that nobody is quite satisfied with what they earn – er with what I earn. Our fertile land remained to be vacant; unproductive with lack of human hands to be motivated to start a living. It is just because, our huge part of our fruits of labor were always being stolen by society to build us as their very own human hands creating profits to pay our foreign debts; or rather they prefer to want more of these profits down to their pockets. And yes indeed. We are far from the Boar’s view of having a rebellion for changed knowing that the president is entirely satisfied seeing our currencies go higher for lots of remittances from abroad. A dollar would probably cost less than 50 box here but still we have hungry, overworked, and underpaid citizens left behind in this beautiful country.

I am incredibly going crazy with my words that I just left it this blog. I think I am getting out of tune if I elaborate some more of my candid statements. Anyways, just like what I said in the past chapters, I am not resigning now but rather just thinking about it. It is just, I am becoming to be very financially driven this week when my Dad was hospitalized.

A Reflection

I am thinking of resigning.

I know it would be an absolute shock that a blog would contain the word “resigning” from a mere budding employee. But however you may scrutinize such a word it is still just my unfounded mood of my thought as of this week; a not so much important word that had just pass on one of my messy reflections. The thought of resigning is actually pulling me out of my sleeves trying to predict if I really belong in this highly different society of people out of my imagination to exist in a workplace. Yes, there are a few that I liked the same way as they do like me in a broad spectrum. However, these “other” sort of people I stressed is far more than like the folks I rarely imagine to pass HR's difficult application process. I understand that I am being so irrational with those words but that is exactly what I am feeling for the entire week of reflections regarding my existence at work that I am confident enough to express it to unload a part of my heavy mood.

Clashes do happen. Thus this leads to miscommunications up to the point of ignoring each other building humongous barriers – walls that separate social interaction between us inside and outside work. Things aren’t go always the way we want it to be (and so do I). That’s why it is normal that there are disagreements, clashes in our personalities, beliefs and principles that’s why there is conflict. Conflicts can be an indicator of a healthy working environment that’s why I am not saying that we must do away with it. What I am referring here is the so-called “intense conflict”. This is not the journalistic jargon of the worse situation in Lebanon of a bloody war but rather a far more related war in the minds of “planted” hatred that had result to lousy social interaction of all the people involve. It is coined as “a war without an end”. I really understand it very well as most of my books way back in college about Organizational Behavior told me lots of it.

To build a variation of explaining these “intense conflicts” in the workplace as well as giving solutions, I would like to share an excerpt of a radio broadcast from Good Radio. My ears were registered from this radio broadcast in an instant, hearing words like “mediation” and “conflicts” every now and then. I made stenographic notes to run through their words that I suppose to be of relevance to share.

[start]

Moderator: What are some of the most common types of conflict that people have to mediate in the workplace?

X: A lot of conflict in the workplace has to do in general with miscommunication. Something somebody thought they heard and didn’t check out. Rumors that are spread, that sort of thing. Often times, we’ll find that a supervisor sent an email and then the email was misinterpreted by somebody…..

Y: [Sometimes] it’s a clash of expectations, unexpressed expectations. “Well I thought you knew that…” or “Why didn’t you tell me that?” And rumors are a way that people have of filling in the blanks when they don’t know what’s going on. [They make up stuff like] “we’re going out of business or she got the advancement because of…whatever.”

Moderator: What happens next? Do people just get madder and madder or are people ignoring each other? How does it turn into a conflict?

X: One thing that happens is that people gang up. We go out and try to find colleagues who agree with where we think things are and end up bifurcating the workplace. There’s actually a phenomenon called bullying that’s occurring in workplaces – people feel picked on or outnumbered. People can just hold in their resentment or their fears until such time that they have a little explosion.

Y: It’s sort of like junior high. There’s a fight. So people start to take sides. They start gathering evidence. They begin ascribing lots and lots of motives…”because they’re cousins, because somebody paid off somebody, because, because, because…” People become labeled and stereotyped and categorized. Then pretty soon, people who should be [talking] are not talking. People who shouldn’t be talking are. The amount of information goes down and the amount of rumor goes up. People get upset. The initial cause gets lost. Certainly nobody has stopped to find out what really happened.

Moderator: What is mediation and how does it help?

X: Mediation is a voluntary confidential process. One or two mediators who are third party to the issue at hand, who are objective, fair witnesses, who are sworn to confidentiality, and who are neutral, actually facilitate communication between the folks who are involved in whatever brought them to the mediation table. It’s an opportunity for the ones who are directly involved in a conflict to be the ones who directly resolve the conflict. The mediator doesn’t tell people what to do, the mediator isn’t a judge, the mediator isn’t there to figure out who’s right or wrong. The mediator’s really there to help them have a conversation about whatever it is that’s going on. People can leave the table with a mutually satisfactory resolution to their issues.

Moderator: How can folks improve their communication at work?

X: People really need to listen to one another without judgment if they can pull that one off. We tend to take things personally, we tend to hear the other one as attacking us. Instead, it’s better if we can listen seeking to understand where they’re coming from rather than becoming defensive immediately. Because when we feel attacked, we generally either choose to defend ourselves or attack back and defending ourselves usually sounds like an attack – we blame. “If only you had listened to me, you wouldn’t be asking that question….” People generally make assumptions. “I think I know what you mean but I don’t want to show my ignorance, or whatever, so I’m not going to ask the question. SO we make an assumption over what we think you mean and we’re almost always wrong. And on the other side of that, I think most people don’t say clearly what they mean. We generally cover that up a lot of times...for good reasons we think. We don’t want to hurt somebody. We don’t want to be vulnerable. I’m not going to tell you what I really mean because I don’t want to make it worse. So instead we end up talking about things that we don’t really mean.

Y: How to say what’s so, how to speak the truth, without blame or judgment is a key.

X: The key is really in accepting that for each person, their value structure that they’ve come to is right for them. And that’s kind of a challenge in our culture for many cases for us to be willing to say, “Alright, my way of looking at this is good, and your way of looking [at it] is good for you.” And maybe we can even grow by recognizing that there’s two ways of looking at the same thing.

X(still): This isn’t rocket science – to use an old cliché. This is about honest and open communication and most folks realize that’s what’s supposed to be happening. We don’t really even understand ourselves why we don’t do that. So there’s something pretty wonderful about watching people just sort of be willing to do what they want to do in their relationships and communication and give up some of the programming that somehow or other we’ve all gotten. We need to recognize that conflict in the workplace is going to happen. This isn’t about stopping all conflict. This is about changing the way we think about it, changing the way we look at it and then being willing, and then being brave enough to change the way that we talk to each other about whatever it is we see as differences between us.

Y: I see mediation in the workplace and elsewhere as an opportunity to create a space for people to be able to say what they need to say, so that others can hear, so that they can create the kind of future together that they want.

[end of the excerpt]

For this week, I realized that I have now move a bit forward for my realization that what would really make me feel committed and work effectively is the positive culture of an organization. I don’t care about the not so high pay or any high standards of the HR services to its employees. What really matters to me is the bright and shining “professional culture” evident in my counterparts. They mustn’t be just like drunkards beside Aling Nena’s sari-sari store, not like mere uneducated lads of the streets, not like those indecent groups in a cheap karaoke bar, but as respectable individuals of society. And of course not like those “ignore I exist” and backfighter humdrum individuals inside and outside the office. I cannot anymore elaborate what sort of idealism I had created from this point but then it is of great distress to witness a certain organization plutonically far from this bright idealism. How could this had happen, I just don’t know personally but this is actually happening.

Well, I cannot say that I am such a perfect fellow finding faults to some of my counterparts because I might as well have personal faults in my performance. I cannot also say that they’re the mere reason why I am so temperamental with the condition of the team or why I exhibit such a well-reserved personality. It would be the reason that the company brought me at a package. Or maybe their respective signals doesn’t really match with mine that my horizons of people that I would be proud to call close-encounters are few. Even so, I dislike being called as reserved because naturally I’m loud as anyone would think of. I would say that with this attitude I wear most often just show my sense of being even.

I am writing this not for reform but just as a realization based on how my mind assess the situation eminent at work. I may not really take this blog entry seriously after a few weeks in time because I feared (or happy?) that I would be like one of them in the future. I am still going to stay for long because I am still valuing the good training that my company had taught me. It is also because of my extreme loads of patience continually shelled inside me. As you know, I have stood far more than a year already without seeing my family back in my province. I do stand ensconced to the ground with how hard it is to live alone without any known relatives to call when I am on hard times. It is just that I am well equipped to accept life as a challenge – as a competition to fight my life’s villains named as “hardships and trials” for even once I haven’t yet felt defeated or even won anything. It just always that I am left in the middle of the way hanging within the grounds of trying to know what really is my endpoint and what really will make me motivate to work to the extremity of my capacity.

I am not resigning right now for if I do I cannot stand to call myself as a chicken. I might stay here for good. I just don’t know.

I am just thinking about resigning.

Excellence

I am striking a pose to shoot at Excellence as our main peak at work. We may define it the way we top achieving the highest stats of receiving rewards for 100% audit scores in our job tasks. Well, sad to say we are not really excelling at work but gradually building our roads to success. I am not contradicting this concepts because they may go hand in hand in nature that we finish are respective accounts but sometimes we are completely building to center our attention to success rather than being excellent. According to an essay by J. Hampton Keathley entitled: “The Pursuit of Excellence”, the pursuit of excellence is "not to be a quest for superiority", and is not about "competition" or about "outstripping others", which is "usually done for one's own glory or significance or for the praise or applause of men". Instead, he quotes differences between success and excellence at work:

"Success means being the best. Excellence on the other hand means being your best.”

“Success means being better than everyone else. Excellence means being better tomorrow than you were yesterday.”

“Success means exceeding the achievements of other people. Excellence means matching your practice with your potential of sharing them to others."

We may be successful but it doesn’t necessarily mean that we are being excellent. I want the team to reflect to achieve both concepts yet still prioritizing excellence on top of our heads like a cherry on an ice cream cup

The Seven Dwarfs (or Dwarves; whatever)

I thought of the word “group behaviors” which have been taught to us from college under the subject corporate management. In fact I already read a couple of articles about these. Most of them are quite far from my likings of digesting more of it up to my brain. They’re quite in a broad spectrum and not really that spectacular to share. Let’s just say, I am really sick and tired of reading any other corporate management books or maybe I am just getting my head off even just reading the word ‘corporate’ and ‘management’ together just in the cover. But something just broke in the monotony of my itsy bitsy scanning of ‘ukay ukay’ books on sale. It is a book by Executive Solutions Inc. I think they are a group of people that focus studies of personal behaviors of individuals at work. The book although quite old and somewhat outdated, simply just tells the personalities of the Seven Dwarfs. (The plural of ‘dwarf’ should be dwarrows. I don’t know why language through the years just accepted the plural to be ‘dwarfs’ based on this Disney classic. Tolkien likewise contributed to the confusion as he created the word dwarves to suggest a much more antique-sound plural name.) Well this is out of our fairy tales or any cartoon stuff we often spared more that half our lives when we are kids. The book literally enumerated several attributes of the attitudes of these seven dwarfs in the workplace. I was totally dumbfounded when I read their respective unique descriptions.

I made a summary of the whole text and try to reflect a bit from the long descriptive see of gray of personalities each individual dwarf possess. Naturally, each one of them is unique and has its own weaknesses and strengths. Their characters somewhat clutter if you would try to mix them up in a certain crowded place. Again, they clutter. They are what it seem to be different forces of nature so to speak. And I believe that each one of us has a character from one of these dwarfs.


THE SEVEN DWARFS OF A WORKPLACE

BASHFUL.

Generally at Work:

Bashful always looks shy
Bashful may actually blush when spoken to
Bashful also may avoid eye contact, look down, bow their head a little bit
Bashful may avoid looking at group leader, hoping not to be called on.
Bashful may try to hide in the middle of the group
All Bashfuls are generally quiet
Bashfuls wait to hear others' views before expressing theirs

In a Meeting:

Bashful speaks in a muffled voice; it's hard to hear
Bashful will not express opinions unless called upon
Bashful expresses incomplete opinions and allows others to finish sentences
Bashful waits to hear everyone else's ideas and then may change what is written on their paper (seeks to conform)


Why are they like that?

Bashful may be afraid of being exposed and/or humiliated
Bashful may have some socially unacceptable secret
Bashful-dwarf type may feel ashamed
Bashful may not have had enough experience being listened to carefully. May have grown up in an environment where their talk was not encouraged. Feels it is inappropriate to talk or take center stage.

How team leaders must manage Bashful?

1. In the initial go-round, ask an easy question which guarantees a correct response, "How long did it take to get here" What's your pet's name? How many siblings do you have? This creates a quick sense of confidence in being able to give the right answer.

2. Pair them with another person - they come out of their introverted style somewhat when they are paired up with another person that they have to help

3. Give them time to jot down their reactions before calling upon them (so they can prepare a non-embarrassing response) Ask them to read what they wrote (vs. paraphrase.)

4. Ask them what they have observed in the group (since they have probably been busy collecting facts).

5. Give them recognition for their attention to detail and recall of facts

6. Avoid asking them to respond in an impromptu manner

7. If you can anticipate that your target will have a number of Bashfuls, you might consider giving them a homework assignment so that they can think through the subject at hand before attending the research.




DOPEY

Generally at Work:

Dopey tend to be quiet and reserved, and difficult to get to know well but are very flexible, have a simple sense of humor which they use in tense situations.
Dopey is resourceful and take care of the group by neutralizing tension.
Dopey is good attention payer.
Dopey is very aware of his senses, the way things look, taste, feel, and smell.
Dopey dwarf people are kind, gentle, and sensitive in their dealings with people.
While they come across as being carefree and lighthearted, they actually take life very seriously, although they are uncomfortable with theorizing.
Good at looking for practical applications.
Dopeys have no desire to lead or control others, but feel compelled to interact when people they care about may be hurt.
Dopey tends to show his concerns through actions rather than words.
Dopey-dwarf type tends to be artistic.

In a Meeting:

Dopey looks interested but only speaks when called upon
Dopey tries to hide in the middle
Dopey-dwarf person parrots the expert
Dopey smiles self consciously
Dopey may try to crack a self deprecatory joke
Dopey says, "I don't know," "I'm not sure," or "maybe"
Dopey tries to get away with never registering his own opinion
If writing responses, dopey will try to scratch out "wrong answer" after hearing answers

Why are they like that?

Dopey is afraid of being blamed
Dopey is unwilling to take responsibility for his ideas
Dopey has fear of being called "stupid"
Dopey tends to put down his own ideas internally
Dopey would really like to be seen as having worthwhile thoughts but too frightened to risk it

How team leaders must manage Dopey?

Let dopey know that the results of the work in the group will have practical applications and benefits to others.
Give him freedom to respond to the questions in his own way on paper. All answers are good answers
Let dopey dwarf draw his ideas on paper
Laugh at Dopey's jokes, if at all possible



DOC

Generally at Work:

Doc dislikes seeing mistakes repeated, and have no patience with inefficiency.
Docs naturally have little patience with people who do not see things the same way as they do.
Doc-dwarf people are naturally born leaders
Docs make decisions quickly
Doc-dwarf people are very verbal about their opinions
Docs are driven to accomplish
Doc can be a forceful, intimidating and overbearing individual.

In a Meeting:

Doc announces his expertise very early in the meeting
Doc sits opposite the leader
Doc tries to take over leadership
Doc answers every question, reminding group of his status
Doc calls for consensus from others on his views
Doc asks rhetorical questions
Doc is intimidating to other group members
If there are other docs in the group, it creates a competitive atmosphere
Doc avoids talking about feelings
Doc only willing to discuss pure facts
Doc-dwarf people interrupt other meeting members
Doc talks loudly and aggressively
Doc is contemptuous
Doc is often nitpicking and perfectionist

Why are they like that?

Doc feels inadequate. That's why he's always "on" and needing to prove himself
Doc afraid of being found out - he thinks he's not really smart/informed
Doc feels compelled to perform
Doc wants to be loved for who he really is
Doc would just like to relax and be accepted without having to work so hard

How team leaders must manage Doc?

1. Create a well organized meeting where definite guidelines are set
Engage doc-dwarf people in creative problem solving
2. Let them know that their input will help control and perfect whatever the results are so that things will run more smoothly
3. Allow them to express their opinions on paper first and call on them to read their response when it makes sense to you as leader
4. Maintain focus in the group NOT on Doc but still appreciate Doc as well as giving credit to other group members (and other dwarf-types) as a creative, hard-working team
5. Ask Doc for his advice in how to solve any problem in the group by jotting down his thoughts about it, and then calling on him to share it later.
6. Acknowledge his special expertise
7. "Take pressure off him" by saying: We don't want to give Doc our jobs by counting on him to answer all our questions
8. And ofcourse, call on him last.



GRUMPY

Generally at Work:

Grumpy likes to see things running smoothly and systematically with their eyes constantly scanning their personal environment to check it again and again
When bogged down by stress, Grumpy often feels isolated from others. They feel as if they are misunderstood and undervalued, and that their efforts are taken for granted.
Grumpy values competence, efficiency, and likes to see quick results
Grumpy charges people, knowing what he expect and having no tolerance for those who don't give it to him
Grumpy is self confident and assertive
Grumpy-dwarf people need to know what the standards are for any assignment so that they can meet their expectations

In a Meeting:

Grumpy often disagrees or says, "No"
Grumpy may sit with arms crossed backed away from table
Grumpy looks annoyed, mild sneer, raised eyebrow
Grumpy is negatively critical or judgmental of whatever is being tested as well as other group members' ideas
Grumpy is suspicious and distrustful
Grumpy may be argumentative and hard to control
Grumpy avoids expressing real thoughts and feelings because he is too busy arguing.
Grumpy makes others feel uncomfortable about their opinions
Grumpy overpowers the group

Why are they like that?

Grumpy is afraid of not being liked
Grumpy wants to be seen as a "good boy"
Grumpy desperately needs attention, but afraid to give over control or power of rejection to another person/authority
Grumpy longs to be part of the group but afraid of being engulfed
Grumpy defiantly asserts his independence

How team leaders must manage Grumpy?

1. Create a situation where they will see logical results
2. Grumpy-dwarf people make great leaders of debate teams. Utilize them as a resource to marshal support for a particular argument or sales pitch.
3. Enlist Grumpy's help/give him a task like handing out paper
4. Give praise
5. Restate Grumpy's hostile question or comment and open it to the group
6. Stand to his left
7. If necessary, anchor silence
8. Decrease eye contact


HAPPY

Generally at Work:

Happy always laugh even nothing is really funny
Happy is very likable, warm, and energetic
Happy is supportive to the leader, group members, and task at hand
Happy responds quickly to request from leader to do an exercise or help out
Happy completes any assignments given unbelievably fast
Happy nods affirmatively and expresses positive interest
Happy smiles a lot at everyone, particularly the leader
Happy frequently tries to catch leader's eye, and tries to maintain eye contact with leader
Happy takes seat to the leader's right if it is available
Happy generally agrees with the leader

In a Meeting:

Happy is overly cooperative
Happy likes everything; gives high ratings all the time
Happy says, "Yes, I agree, me, too!"
Happy tries to guess right answer and complies with imagined correct response
Happy is focused on leader vs. materials or others in the room

Why are they like that?

Happy has fear of abandonment
Happy wants to show self as unique
Happy is terrified of rejection same time
Happy is afraid to risk loss of love to assert his ideas


How team leaders must manage Happy?

1. Reconfirm interest in divergent responses - for example: "You can only please me by helping me do my job, which is to ensure that all opinions are expressed. We need the whole picture even if there are some aspects you think might be insignificant."
2. Remind group of the value of the individual
3. Praise difference of opinion
4. Move away from him to give him freedom to disagree
5. Maintain approving eye contact


SLEEPY

Generally at Work:

Sleepy is attracted to motorcycles, airplanes, sky diving, surfing, etc. or anything far from work.
Sleepy do not believe in or follow rules and regulations, as this would prohibit their ability to "do their own thing".
Sleepy is rational and logical
Sleepy uses understanding in a hands on way (making great mechanics or having strong technical skills)
Sleepy values privacy as well as adventure

In a Meeting:

In a meeting sleepy dwarfs may be daydreaming about being out on a motorcycle, in an airplane, skydiving, or surfing. Because they become bored rather quickly their reveries are about these types of escapes.
Sleepy is unresponsive
Sleepy acts bored
Sleepy daydreams
Sleepy stares out the window
Sleepy sits back from the table
Sleepy tries to hide in the middle
Sleepy yawns
Sleepy eyes actually start to close
ZZZZZZZZZ….


Why are they like that?

Sleepy feels isolated
Sleepy is afraid there's no room for his feelings
Sleepy doesn't expect anyone to be interested
Sleepy becomes passively aggressive - sleepy and bored
Sleepy wants to be important and recognized
Sleepy hasn’t got enough sleep.

How team leaders must manage Sleepy

1. Energy circle
2. Stretching
3. Remind sleepy that ‘unconscious behavior’ at work will not help you solve the problem
4. Ask sleepy dwarfs how a new problem-solution design would work in front of all.
5. Try asking questions about lively, sensational activities (skydiving, race car driving, mountain climbing, etc) to gain their attention. When successful it provides MORE energy and enthusiasm to everyone in the group
6. Point out connection between sleepy and other member, "Sleepy, both you and _____________ seem to feel___________"



SNEEZY

Generally at Work:

Sneezy is always sick and want to undergo sick leaves as always however they are organized and methodical
Sneezy has strong sense of duty so follow through on tasks assigned
Sneezy takes pride in his loyalty and faithful dependability
Sneezy is very honest and respect the rules of the group

In a Meeting:

Sneezy sits to the moderator's left
Sneezy might look sick - red nose and eyes, droopy
Sneezy lets group know how bad he feels
Sneezy disrupts by constantly coughing, sneezing, blowing his nose, clearing his throat
Sneezy interrupts with complaints about environment - - too hot, too cold, too drafty
Sneezy says, "Yes but..."
Sneezy is usually absent because he is sick.

Why are they like that?

Sneezy feels powerless
Sneezy cannot get needs met directly
Sneezy is afraid no one cares about him
Sneezy is unable to express anger or disappointment
Sneezy manipulates with illness or problems to be noticed or taken care of

How team leaders must manage Sneezy?

1. Be clear about the rules and guidelines for the group
2. Give rewards for those who don’t use their sick leaves.
3. Since they are great at remembering facts and details, refer back to them about those particular aspects for clarification
4. Avoid asking them about their usual sickness
5. Give them some responsibility in the group
6. Let them be the leader's helper
7. If appropriate, put Sneezy in front and make him review past meetings
8. Let him know that you care about him


Conclusion:
I know we are still a diminutive but fighting people with our little mining stuffs at work. We all want to feel important, to be accepted as unique individuals to be valued and loved as part of the working team. Nevertheless, as we all slowly marching in with heigh ho’s to work everyday, there are still instances that our own imperfections thrive to come out of our closets; decelerating our work habits, affecting our own little selves just because of those individual wayward attitudes of our team mates.

We are indeed different in our own little ways. We have our respective principles and personal perception of how we view life as a whole. And what more in our respective work stations. It is in great way out that to uphold our little selves we tend to seek for our acquaintances, form groups that would be like gaps; divisions to a united seven dwarf –contained team. However let us still work together with our axes, shovels, and other mining stuffs like real professional dwarfs who made it to beat the evil Queen.

We must just continually strive to accept and embrace our differences using our own little beating hearts.

The Week of Mayhem

This is such week of hectic a mayhem. After 11 long years, a typhoon visits Manila. This typhoon called Milenyo came to be a nightmare for the capital city and much more for me. Flood lined out my entire route to Buendia. There’s power outage that makes my apartment trapped with no water motor to give us enough water to use. And I am totally stuck living in the darkness. I cannot even take my bath. Much worse, it is just so horrible that one of my windows gave up forcing me to use my savior called “trapal” to prevent me from getting cold or anything worse that what my sinusitis is telling me all throughout the day.

I cannot go to work that day.

And it is not just for the reasons that I stated above. It’s just that I do not want to take my life at risk. PAG-ASA might have been leveled-off the typhoon signal in Manila from level 3 to 2 at 4pm but that’s not a good reason for me to pack up myself (without taking a bath because there’s no water) and walk all my way with all the floods in my way to work. Indeed that Makati is such a modern city with all the streetlights, concrete roads and billboards all over. But what more this modern city would do when nature strikes. Streetlights might fall off, tress might be uprooted, concrete roads might be very slippery and worse than all, billboards might end up my life.

At the end of the day, 18 people were ‘reported’ dead in Manila alone, two of which is in Makati:

“In the Makati business district, the steel frame of a billboard fell on a bus, a van and a taxi, killing the van driver and injuring the driver of the taxi, police said.” PDI, Typhoon batters Metro Manila…09/29/06

See how risky it is during that day no matter what I’ll ride on, a bus, a van, or a taxi with those ‘monstrous’ billboards along the way. There were load of ‘em actually along EDSA that I need to pass and I don’t want to catch them all when they fall.

Sleeping at Work


While I was befriending my computer while at work during night shifts, it is a usual occurrence that I will find myself suddenly struck with a very severe affliction of the 3 to 5 am syndrome of yawning. Much more if you are here seated in this all too remote humdrum, solemn, and floating place we call call center. You’ll definitely feel your eye ‘balls’ drop bouncing a couple of times until you realize you have erroneously done something to your customer's account. And this yawn syndrome” seems to be spreading like an epidemic infecting all of us in just a split of time.

Mapping out the syndrome or should I say, this yawn epidemic before me, I knew something had to be done. Or do you have any reserve energy left to do anything when you’re down like a rotten vegetable in front of your computer. Your competency drops, your concentration weakens, and your eyes will be heavier that you ever felt before. The free coffee at the pantry just gave up on you to give the waking energy. Your world became silent. You became slow and weak. You now have to press ctrl+alt+del and stop working. Your productivity slope drops instantly. You lost the war. You are sleepy. That’s while company's clock is still running.

So, you would absolutely just take a nap. Or later, you will then extend for a couple of minutes of stealing more naps which will turn out to be a nice goodnight long sleep.
Alright. So that’s just the way it is – you are still on the clock sleeping in a nice dark unnoticeable spot, under the cubicles perhaps just beside the toes of your closest team mate. You will then think that this is such an innovative way of having an adequate napping/sleeping spot within the premises of the call center area with no one to realize someone is napping in the grassy warm carpeted floor. Hidden behind that ideal nest, in a dark spot, the location exhibits a soft bed-time experience plus an advantage if you specifically position a working toe at you back - which is an excellent medium to receive alarming kicks for any approaching team leader.

Then suddenly, someone just kicked your back.

Yes. The team leader is coming. And then you tend to wake up briefly quite unaware what is happening with your red teary eyes blocking your view of what is really happening outside until your closest ‘toe friend’ told you that the team leader is looking all over for you. Now you are completely in great trouble.

In the very near end. You arrived at your working spot again; quite comfortable. Your productivity slope goes back in its increasing rate. You are refreshed. You would think that you survive the war after all. Or have you?

I would like to share a reading from a business consultant named “Mistersix” from Contact News Magazine. He pointed out the term “Sacred Responsibility”. It is defined in the article as “a truthful, religious, and unselfish deed quite indistinguishable far more than as a point of personal instinct of doing the right thing even when nobody’s looking.” This is quite a conceptual definition though that it is somehow difficult to apply in a real time scenario where we know that some company don’t have any necessary tracking devise if some point in its time you get out of the premise and spend some time someplace that we would rather not be, and that is to sleep while on duty. And if you are flying high to the clouds while asleep when everyone else is working, you are actually falling outside the criteria of Mistersix’ definition.

I want you guys to read on the exact words of Mistersix in the article and reflect on it completely. He states:

“Work time is not nap time--no matter how you cut it or rationalizes or even argues that you have already done your job, it is still an inappropriate behavior in the work place; a disservice to the employees who are focused on work and it is likewise will be a muddy dirt for a company’s image in the long run…”

“With sleeping while on duty, you are actually stealing your company’s financial compensation budget. I am not talking about the spontaneous naps we have during breaks because they are not paid for but only those silent thieves who sleeps at work then stating that he already have done so much already for its entire shift already. I have no idea what’s his responsibilities are, and I don’t care what are those even though he made it to finish his work faster than anybody else or made it to the topmost list of fastest track and field athletes in Olympics. Why do I care? He’s outside the criteria of sacred responsibility. At the head on the onion, you are being selfish for not offering your hand to your other team mates, and worse, from a strictly ethical point of view sleeping while being paid is stealing.”

Ok. So what is work then in the first place?

Work is simply a productive play of sacred responsibility and it should be personally and financially rewarding, validating and, if your lucky (and perhaps diligent) being part of something greater than yourself treating it as your most valuable property - an asset that needs to be develop.

And any company don’t want to work with a dull, idle, and sleeping/stealing property.

Professionalism

I’d like to share an article from an old business magazine I just read entitled “Being a Professional Being @ Work”. This is written by L. Ron Hubbard. What strikes me most in the article is his thorough and eye-opening definition of Professionalism. We might be thinking that it is just a plain serious way of how we should Team Leaders, clients, and office mates in general like how those busy well dressed people in the higher end corporate world face each other. Well, according to Hubbard, it is not just like that. According to him, it is how we act at work that determines whether you are a professional or not.

It is rather a sad fate for us not to understand the real nature of professionalism. It is true because according to Hubbard our society in itself does not emphasize its importance.
Maybe that’s the reason why people tend to be stocked and satisfied that to believe that being a less professional person at work or Hubbard named as “being an Amateur” is normal and will still be accepted by all as to how our society had built us. We tend to hate people who says “trabaho lang walang personalan” or despise for having such an attitude. Or worse we tend to personally say that he is O.A. or ‘feeling boss’ when we hear them talk about work in a very serious way. Many employees just then accept less-than-good results. I mean, they don’t make their own special way to innovate and improve their usual outputs. And many more amateurish scenario anywhere and anyhow. For instance, some schools let their students graduate even though they knew they still don’t know how to read; there are still evident corruption in our government funds, powerful accused senators and other officials don’t appear in court hearings; a plenty of government employees still sleeps during office hours; there are still fraudulent elections; and some others that may not fit this page. And what society does? Society tends to balance the off-putting result of these scenarios in a way to give more or less out of the worse results.

Are we getting to our goals with their dumb amateurs games @ work?

According to Hubbard, at the time that there are amateur players at work we are actually losing out a way of a better result. We are delaying progress. We are preventing ourselves to improve. We are being selfish. Moreover, those amateurs have a so-called a “Just getting by” attitude to face the world. Bahala na. We are satisfied by how the world is created. We tend to gamble and leave things as it is like joining in with the flow.

Well, what exactly are Hubbard’s differences of being a professional from being an amateur?

A professional learns every aspect of the tasks. An amateur skips the learning process whenever possible

A professional carefully discovers what is needed and wanted for the team. An amateur assumes what he needs and wants.

A professional keeps his or her work area clean and orderly. An amateur has a messy, confused or dirty work area.

A professional is focused and clear-headed. An amateur is confused and distracted.

A professional does not let mistakes slide by. An amateur ignores or hides mistakes.

A professional jumps into difficult assignments, of a more challenging task. An amateur tries to get out of difficult work.

A professional completes projects as soon as possible. An amateur is surrounded by a lot of back logs.

A professional remains level-headed and optimistic. An amateur gets upset and assumes the worst.

A professional handles money and accounts very carefully. An amateur is sloppy with money or accounts.

A professional faces up to other people's upsets and problems. An amateur avoids others' problems.

A professional uses higher emotional tones: Enthusiasm, cheerfulness, interest, contentment. An amateur uses lower emotional tones: anger, hostility, resentment, fear, and victim.

A professional is focused and purposeful. An amateur is scattered and confused.

A professional persists until the objective is achieved. An amateur gives up.

A professional produces more than expected. An amateur produces just enough to get by.

A professional produces a high-quality product or service. An amateur produces medium-to-low quality product or service.

A professional earns the same pay with an amateur and he is happy with it. An amateur thinks he earns low pay and feels it's unfair.

A professional is okay when his salary is deducted with taxes. An amateur thinks a way how to avoid them.

A professional has a promising future. An amateur has an uncertain future.

A professional faces his office mates with respect. An amateur don’t care criticizing them.



I hope all of us will embrace professionalism. Amen.

What’s in a name? You know I used to think that a former employee of a bookstore wouldn’t likely ring a bell here or in any place especially where all of the best people in town are collected and trained. Well, now I realized that what I believe before was wrong. I now know a miracle of how to burst out his potentials by connecting the name “X” to another known company (that I cannot tell you what).

Moving In. I was hired last June 19, 2006 (the 145th birthday of Rizal!) amidst those brain draining qualifying exams and those intimidating job interviews that I swear I never expected to pass. It’s just that maybe I lack confidence that time or perhaps I don’t believe much of my capacity to be competitive. Maybe the Gods are with me so I passed everything. So I am now confident enough to say that I am one of the best people; the chosen few who rose up in the middle of a jobless crowd.

WORK. My progress at work was greeted by loads of information far from what I know as a former marketing assistant. I realized that I moved in to a very confidential job. Hearing the word confidential in itself is really appealing to my senses because it gives me the feeling of a person working in CIA or one of the agents working for Sherlock Holmes. Sounds great isn’t it?

The word ‘business process outsourcing’ on the other hand was then defined to us more clearly as a business hiring people outside of their country for cheaper labor costs. That’s why we are actually working for a client from miles away via remote connections to analyze and solve their loads of business problems. This is totally different with the call center industry although they might be also called as BPO people. Well, my job is much special than them. We fixed errors. We help the companies with their business. We help the customers.

The thought of helping customers is really challenging in my part because learning the entire process is totally difficult. It is not just learning Calculus but I knew it is more than that. As all of us newbies actually, was totally overwhelmed with loads of information to master. But then, it’s a good thing that we manage to survive all of it.

Learning behind all the process that is really difficult to digest at the start of the training I realized that it is such a very exciting job after all. And this is what really makes me a happy employee. Intellectual skills include my ability to think quickly on my feet, research and evaluate information, reason, and thinking “outside the box.” With these skills obviously evident in my actual work here makes me really happy. It structures a better me.

A Closing Entry. Making errors is normal. It is with these errors that I learn something. I know there are still loads of errors that I might commit in the following weeks but then I still need to move on. As what a famous celebrity said: “I still will move on to fail my way to success.”

Lastly, I would like to share a poem that I saw hanging within the walls of my former office. I am always feeling good when I am reading it. I wish that the poem will also be posted in our working place in the future.

LOVE YOUR WORK

If you don’t like your work
You’ll need three times the energy
To force yourself to work
To resist the force,
And finally to work

If you love your work
Your desire to do it will be like a wind
To propel you ship
With much less fuel

If you like your work
You work no more
For work, when you like it
Is work no longer
But sheer enjoyment

If you enjoy your work
You’ll work and work
Without counting the hours
And you’ll reap and yours
More earnings as well.

Rain

Here comes again
Those raindrops
From the outside
Of my window
It is this same rainy
Morning that she
Gave me that
Quick last kiss
Her conclusion
To our bind
That never ties

When will I ever
See her again like
Those raindrops
From the outside
Splashing freely from
My open window?

Quickie

Naglalaro ang
Mga kamay sa
Madilim na kawalan
Na walang
Matang makakatanglaw
Tanging makintab na sahig
Mga paa ng mga silya
At mga nangagsisipaggapang
Na mga langgam
Na abalang
Nag-iimpok ng
Malansang likidong
Biyaya mula sa taas
Sa isang lamesang
Naabot ay langit

It rained.

I harvested
My wet clothes
Inside my room.


How cruel
The world is
Keeping me away
From the rays
Of the sun
The same way
It keeps her
Away from me.

It's raining harder
In my mind.

I don't want to eat
or don't eat at all
but wait I'll starve
I'll starve to death
the death like my grandpa
which i never noticed
in that very same night of August
wen I'm wide awake in my room
in my dreams of trophies and medals
A sad past of him that
I couldn't clearly recall
Just his strong and hard stick
which always hit me
everyday when he sees me
until i became what i am today
without his strong and hard stick
But still in my mind
A torture.

Remembering the Trojan Horse



Troy remained unconquered for years.

The city that exhibits undoubtedly strong information security chain with its surrounding concrete walls, numerous booby traps on the grounds, thousands of armored warriors, and tight security at the entrance, is quite impressive. But not until the Trojans came along to the scene with their Trojan Horse. The humble statue that made even the most secured information security chain down.

Information Security

No one could tell all the possibilities of an intrusion to a certain information security system. Nor can anyone predict and eradicate all risks from unauthorized use of a company’s confidential information no matter how it is well established, highly equipped with advanced technology, or even being a top organization in the world.

Indeed. The possibilities of intrusion are endless. It keeps on coming to destroy. It is because Information Security System is not necessarily watertight, foolproof nor perfectable. It is an imperfect form but effective part of risk management. It is in the system that we try to avoid loss of confidentiality to a company/client’s documents that may be used to attack and destroy a company’s reputation to result financial loss, degradation, and closure.

The Entrance to Troy

We are always in the notion that computer systems either it is password protected or anti-hacking enabled make us safe from intrusion. That is not totally enough. It is important to note that Information Security is everyone’s responsibility. This includes from the top-line to the down-line list of employees no matter how low or how high your salaries are. The involvement requires us to facilitate and cooperate with the rules being implemented and report any means of actions that we saw or about to see in the future.

To have a secured entrance to Troy, employers must also exhibit the ‘trust’ aspect of information to its employees. The company’s level of trust to its employees to have integrity and stewardship in all the things that he is doing is dependent on the way they will educate them for such issue. They must be familiar with the rules and the jurisprudence in general. Moreover, employees must be know what are the things expected for them like not to share passwords, pass confidential information from unauthorized person, etc and know all possible disciplinary actions.

The Weakest Link: The Trojan’s Target

It is always such a laugh for a company leaving all its information security measures to its password protections, advanced computer systems, and other computer protection softwares. Yes. These tools are more or less effective but disregarding its employees and clients as the ones who are also responsible for protecting those confidential information, the company will only provide a false sense of security. This is a misconception that most companies do by taking Information Security not as a system but as a technology.

Let me take you back to the City of Troy.

The city (a company) has over thousands of warriors (employees). It has a well-protected territory. It has surrounding walls, and other security tools that they believe would prevent unauthorized intrusion. It also emphasizes more on putting more anti-intrusion traps and tools surrounding the city (has tight and secured information security technology not system).

A clever lad (a hacker) studies the situation and asked: how could I get in this land?

The clever lad knew that going to the walls and any forced intrusion by himself through its entrance would take him time which was not willingly to spare. The clever lad used some of his friends living in the city (lack of integrity of employees). He then realized that the people of Troy were the weakest link.

He led his men to make a giant hollow wooden horse and filled it with his warriors. Near the territory of Troy, they left the horse. A spy convinced the Trojans that the horse was a gift despite the warnings of other people. The people of Troy accepted the horse being a sacred animal of Poseidon in the myths.

It was a celebration for the Trojans that the warriors hidden from the horse emerged when the city was in a drunken stupor. Once inside, they opened the city gates to allow the rest of the army to enter, and the city was pillaged ruthlessly —all the men were killed, and all the women and children were taken into slavery.

Why was the attack successful?

If we do always depend on our computer systems we could possibly miss the fact that information security system goes beyond the use of any type of computer technology or in the case of Troy, in their tools. We must be aware that people is always the weakest and strongest asset depending on how they are educated or how they could participate in our information security system.

Firewalls and other computer tools are effective but it is not a good idea to include it in the system as a priority for its formulation. It only exhibits a security for the computers but not the totality of security for the real organization. Therefore it is of great importance to elevate more from software and hardwares to employee education schemes in any Information Security Policy.

This should be the actual system for any organization to be prevented from any possible intrusions that would result to company’s closure and distruction like the City of Troy. And we don’t want that to happen to us in the future.

I am getting addicted to the internet lately. And I am ignoring how much I am spending everyday while I am sitting on the humble internet cafe near my boarding house. Once I sit on the commercial public PC, I conquer my time. I don't even care for time actually. I don't even also care about those people around me logging in and out from their respective chairs while I am still busy researching for any relevant information to be added in my brain cells and chatting to my closest friends.

Indeed it is now becoming my world.

You know after my 1030pm to 630am shift I usually wait for the shop to open and when it does my cyber world commence. My nerves feel it too as if wanting some nourishment from the electronic mails, chats from msn messenger, and updates from my closest friends. And I get excited when I received those. I read their mails and messages a couple of times and print it along with all my other hard copy files in my room for future reading. This is to boost my emotional health to a higher level especially when I am alone.

And I am afraid to be alone.

Re-reading those materials makes me feel otherwise; lifting me and make me feel that in some place not so far away there are still some people who are still interested in conversing with the empoverish and humble person such as me. Those materials protected me from doing harsh acts; maybe commiting suicide or perhaps killing myself of inhaling too much cigarette smoking. They are my protectors and one of my topmost security for personal development and to mark a happy face somehow. That's why it is my great purpose to add more of those documents in my drawer. Lots of those that would update how many good thoughts I had when interacting with those guys and gals that I call friends.

The thing I didn't have here in Manila.

Abortion

5 am
Before school
I should sharpen up
My pencil touching it
With a soft grip
Gently squeezing
It at a constant friction
Until it reached a point
That is enough
To bring sweat
More than the sweat
Of my usual
Jolens and text games
Or sipa and patintero
It is a quick relief
To burst out
A drop of joy
To trim down
That poisonous lead
Memory Teacher John
Planted in
My mind.

And so we danced

In the soft stage

With laces and ribbons

We conquered

That small space

Dancing the rumba

Horizontally

I resigned.

The sad there was... uhm let me think. Oh well, there's nothing sad for it afterall! Haha! No more force overtimes and restless days. No more adapting to the 'brats' in the office that I don't really know how to mingle with their restless actions. No more hassles in the Taft Avenue traffic jam. Plus no more break-even lifestyle (the state of being nearly poor!). All those stuffs makes my resigning event a very happy and fulfilling one.

Got a new job right now but sad to say I cannot share more about it for confidentiality reasons. All I can say is that, I am now relieved and satisfied with my current job and I am sure I will stay and grow in this new company I am now calling home.

Haha!

I celebrated my birthday with a bang. BANG! Ouch! I almost die about how humongous my spendings are! Starting from my morning routine of buying pandesal (12 pieces x 1.25 each = Php. 15) for breakfast and the morning paper (PDI-Php.18) my cousin and I pack up to the Libertad market. We rode the usual public utility jeepney (7.5per head x 2 = Php. 15) to our destination. Ok. So we are at the middle of the trade of all the raw goods I am planning to serve on my birthday. We started to buy 2 dressed whole chicken for the chicken marinade (Php. 260). We then move on to the beef section. It's totally a very hard decision if we are going to buy ground beef for the Spaghetti of just a plain corned beef instead. I realized that it would be better to buy ground beef due to my animalistic instinct that the taste of the sauce might suffer. So ok, we bought 1/2 kilo of beef (Php. 85) and asked the vendor to grind it for us with no extra charge. We then bought onions of about 1/2 kilo (Php. 22.5) and a sachet of pepper (Php. 5). My cousin said that I might be considering to add additional menu for my birthday like buying extra beef for a beefsteak. Hmm, the sound of the menu made me realize it would be a nice idea but how many kilo of beef do we have to buy? 1/2? 1 kilo? Well, again we toured the beef section passing the old lady stall where we bought 1/2 kilo of beef until we suddenly stop at a nearby stall where we see the existence of a red and fresh beef. We asked the vendor in charge.

my cousin: "Magkano kilo ng baka?"
vendor: " 220 na lang sa inyo!"
my cousin (shocked): "Ha? Ang mahal!"
vendor: "200 na lang ayaw niyo pa rin?"

We leave the place laughing and discussing how high the price of the beef the vendor is offering until we had found a stall selling beef for only Php. 160 per kilo. We got the beef sliced as a steak in no time. We saved about 4o pesos.

We also bought a pack of salt for 5 pesos and a plastic juice container for Php. 150 on which we negotiated for a bargain from a price of Php. 220. well, I still feel that the regular price is lower than what we really be expecting.

Next stop, is my haircut. I have to go to the cheapest barber shop within the market in order for me to save lots of money. Within the insides of the wet market, I shell out Php. 25 for a barber's cut.

Same goes again with the process, We rode a jeepney all the way to Fahrenheit (THE MAY DAY BIRTHDAY VENUE). This is just to leave all our wet market purchases and make necessary initial preparations of all the menu. Of course, the chicken should be well cleaned and the other ingredients should be well set.
We walked our way to the nearest grocery store in our place which is the "Cash and Carry'. The store actually has an image of being "high prices" but still I have no choice whatsoever because I have no time to find any cheaper stores. Alright, here are my shopping purchases:

1 kilo Beefies Hotdog -114
1 kilo Spaghetti Sauce -109.7
1 Fuji Apple -23.1
Reno Liverspread @ 2 -25
Axion Lemon -24.95
1 Orange Fruit -22.35
Sprite 1.5 Liters -31
1 kilo Tomato Sauce -56.4
Bread Crumbs -26.25
Pineapple Orange in Can -84.9
Loaf Bread @ 2 -52.2
Olsen Loaf -35
1 kilo Spaghetti -53.1
Pineapple Sliced -50.2
UFC Catsup -21.8
Chicken Marinade -42.5
Minola Cooking Oil 500ml -32.7
Eden Cheese 500g -72.9

It's a very difficult part for me shelling out money in that grocery store that we really spent our time comparing prices. Some goods are actually priced lower but then with lesser weight! That's a nice strategy alright but we cannot be fooled. I bought also one Gilbey's Gin for my Punch. After the extreme shopping experience we hailed a sikad (Php.15)and I let my cousin to ride her way together with the goods to Fahrenheit while I walk my way back to my boarding house to take my bath and fix up for the coming birthday bash. I grabbed my new set of clothes: a green shirt and a humble pair of jeans.

It's really hot and I don't even think of walking along with the heat so I rode a jeepney instead (Php.7.5). Arriving at Fahrenheit I bought 5 gallons of water (Php.40), 2 packs of ice cubes (Php.20), 2 Eggs (Php.8), Film (Php.79) and 2 Batteries (Php.40).

ALL IN ALL I SPENT 1, 969.55 PESOS.

But to sum it all and ignoring my worries regarding how my wallet got so thin after the 'MAY DAY' I really had a very wonderful time. I am in fact happy that I experienced celebrating my birthday with my closest relatives for the first time. You know, I already been celebrating my birthday way back in the province but it's just so simple as having a menu of pasta and drinks just enough for the whole household. Even though I would want to invite guests, I still couldn't for they are miles away from our house or perhaps I don't have any close friend after all. It really sounds dramatic but it is true. And please don't think that I am again beginning to pity myself for such a situation because I don't even think about it. Let's just say that during those harsh time nobody wants to join me in celebrating my birthday except my family.

How happy I was during this day I call "May Day". Indeed I am happy. That's what money can't buy.

“A hero is the fruit, soul, and love of a country. A country without a hero is like a tree without any fruit, a body without life and a heart without love “ "Un héroe es la fruta, el alma, y el amor de un país. Un país sin un héroe está como un árbol sin cualquier fruta, un cuerpo sin la vida y un corazón sin el amor" – JOSE P. RIZAL

I first heard about Rizal when I was just Grade 1. That was the time that I didn’t knew anything about him or even knowing that he is the greatest Malay ever born. All I knew, Rizal was the pambansang bayani with pambansang ibon, pambansang punongkahoy, pambansang bulaklak, pambansang hayop and other pambansang stuffs teacher usually taught us.

In other words Rizal serve as just one of my required data to be memorized because my teacher might hit me with her chalk or worse forced me again to stand by the blackboard all day long if a failed to answer her so called recitation. It was indeed a silly experience that a fellow like me was being treated like that. There was also a time when my teacher got mad at me due to very serious offense and threw an eraser right at my head. That would be the usual thing that might happen to me when I would say that her lessons are boring and doesn’t make sense. Even the deepest times of our Grade one lesson, I really cannot visualize Jose Rizal as our national hero. His picture was beside the sampaguita and the maya. That’s all I can remember. In fact, what’s the sense of knowing Rizal as our pambansang bayani, maya as our pambansang ibon, narra as our pambansang punongkahoy, kalabaw as our pambansang hayop and sampaguita as our pambansang bulaklak. Will I be able to play more at the park?

My travel experiences with my Mom during our visit to my Lola in Manila just before I graduated elementary, gave me a chance to visit the neighbors of maya and sampaguita. The pambansang bayani was at the monument and mysteriously being guarded by immovable guards. The simple existence of those immovable guards at the monument amaze me and realize how this pambansang bayani is more than maya and sampaguita.

The monument likewise served as my opening sight of how Rizal died because of a serious crime on which my mother said “due to his love of our country.” My heart leap a bit when I knew he just didn’t die but rather killed by gunshots – a thrill that made me remember my favorite action films I used to watch. But then when thinking about the old book, I wondered what the kalabaw, maya, and sampaguita did to make it our national celebrities.

FRUIT. When I stepped high school, my mind as expected broaden some more knowledge of Sciences, Mathematics, Music, Economics, English, and History. It is not a single doubt that I excel in most of our subjects except in History. My teachers usually gave me just an average score for not memorizing the years and inputs from the required text of reference.

Amidst my weakness in History, I met another two books of Rizal – the Noli and the Fili that served as a requirement in our History lesson. This is the time I knew more about our national hero. He was such a genius and I named him as “ekselente!” in most of our group studies. Honestly speaking, I was indeed touched by the books. It brought me numerous flashback memories and insights about my grade school teachers who in most of my readings resembles to the personality of the wicked teacher of the novel.

Through those books, I likewise imagined how Rizal changed my life as a person and opened my mind on what principles in life and education should be. Indeed that our hero serves a fruit right intended for the proper methods of teaching, to bring human right awareness and right for education.

His famous saying that “The youth is the hope of our fatherland,” stored in my memory not just a part of my quotation collection but also a part of my life of realizing my importance as a person who pays tax in our society. I then quit on thinking that I am useless. I knew that I could make a difference and contribute even in my most simple ways. Even my boss said that even just paying taxes and following the law would be relevant enough for the country. Indeed that the country needs me and the country needs me too. I am not just a mere player of the country but a hope for the society.

SOUL. The UP education gently brought me to a higher pitch of learning the man behind the Noli and the Fili. Aside from knowing again that he was “ekselente!.” I realize that for the past years of reading his brilliant works and writings, I neglected the fact that he is still like a normal person that commits mistakes, fails, and acts like the way I do. He has emotions and also cries. That made me to know that we are similar in some extent. The only one that differs is our intellectual capacity.

In my personal realization, because of Rizal, I had touch a part of my brain to prejudge a person for doing a wrong thing. Rizal was a gambler in his days and a “chick boy” material although those points were still debatable nowadays but those points were not a mere reason to make him a lesser person and not capable of being a hero.

The real personality of the person is not by his behavior but by his soul – the one that our national hero possesses. He has a soul for our country that continuously floats into the air that he slowly let it to be offered as part of our country’s life. It is not about the wines, the tobaccos, the women, the looks, and the behavior. What matters is the way a person floats for his principle and not for others. Standing in my own belief would be the greatest lesson Rizal had taught me. The lesson is about voicing out my concerns if I knew I was left out or maltreated in any situations. Ignorance to reality is the way I always avoid. Making myself informed and familiar with my environment is the way I used to do now. As a journalist and as former member of a campus paper, I ensure that my floating soul would be of work to let people well informed and proactive rather than reactive in various issues concerning our country. I really made a legacy to make me a way for the general public to visualize where they are and what are the things happening in their location that may affect them.

LOVE. Indeed that my history is full of Rizal-inspired stories that made me realize how Rizal shaped my life as a responsible citizen of this country. But how my life shaped won’t be like this is also due to those similar stories of my kababayans that also became part of my life being a Filipino citizen. They also possess fruit, soul, and love ingredients of being a hero. I am inspired. They were also inspired. There are these government employees that continue to be of service to the people. There are those industrial workers of the city to give us the food we eat and survive. There are those utility workers who keep the city or barangay clean amidst the rain or excessive heat of the sun. There are those vendors in the market who serves the people all day with fresh fish and vegetables. There are those teachers and professors who guide their students and let them gain knowledge. There are those parents who continuously develop their children's minds for the future. And lastly, there are those like me who work at a certain bookstore to pay taxes every 15th and 30th of the month, and writing stuffs in this blog who is just like Rizal, a hero.

Somalia

Mula sa tigang
Na buhanging pinapangingas
Ni haring araw,
Nangagbulagta ang
Mga murang sikmurang
Pinagdamutan ng
Tinapay at tubig.

Bakit pa nga naman
Sila maglalaro
Ng taguan o trumpo,
Eh katumbas naman
Ito ng lakas
Ng kwarentang
Mga tulo ng tubig
Mula sa mga gripo
Ng mga edukada't edukado
Ng Aprika?

Tama ngang kumurap
Na lang sila ng kumurap
Na katumbas lamang
Ng lakas ng
Isang masarap
Na pinatuyong dilis
Kaysa gumastos
Pa ng iilang lakas
Na katumbas ng
Sobra pa
Sa kwarentang
Mga tulo ng tubig
Sa pagpagpag ng mga
Nangagpiyestang mga langaw
Sa mga galis nilang
Nananatiling basa
Sa kabuuan ng
Maladisyertong Somalia.

I'm confused. What really is the work of a true marketing assistant?

I used to think that I am not really performing to the best of what I am capable of doing. You know, I've been a marketing assistant of central books for 6 months already and I seem to be ignorant with the real-time concept of the field of marketing. Or am I really in the field of marketing? Take for example my recent job as a jack-of-all-trades multi-tasking highly skilled sales/administration employee in Glorietta and main branch in Quezon City. My job description is totally fully general in its sense that I often end up idle in a spot waiting for customers in Glorietta or trying to search for anything to do in Quezon City (just to tell the hidden cameras that I am such a hard working freak). I do act as a sales staff and converse a bit to tell tales to customers about how our books are clearly printed and perfectly binded aside from flooding them with different sets of brochures and offers. I do also computer reports and other typing jobs since (sad to say) my co-employees had limited knowledge for such technology. Alright. Marketing might also mean handling sales and doing the verbal flowering conversation with different sorts of people, but where can I go aside from that? I thought of a marketing assistant as formulating strategies and working with a team of marketers to boost sales and increase the image of the company. BUT and another BUT I know that what I wanted to happen is not applicable in my company. Why? It is simply because there ARE only 2 marketing employees existing and it is me and my boss.

Yup.

So you might as well digest my point. Is being a jack-of-all trades person equates to being a marketing assistant?

Maybe I am not supposed to be called as a marketing assistant but a mere assistant of the assistant. It is just that I am called as a marketing assistant for the sense that I am under the marketing manager which I do assists giving leaflets to law schools, marketing our publish on demand, editing marketing articles and manning book fairs and exhibits.

Wait.

Let me think.

[hypothalamus] ----- [thalamus]

Ok.

I cannot think for more. It's just that I want to be a script writer instead.