Trainer on Call

Is Facebook's email feature career-friendly?

2011-06-09T09:33:00.006+08:00

You might have noticed by now that Facebook has new features that enhance the social networking experience. I use social networking for visibility and professional purposes, so the most relevant of the new features for me are: (1) Facebook's personalized email address, and (2) Facebook via mobile phone.

I know a lot of people already use the second feature and I think I don't have anything new to contribute to the discussion. So let me focus on feature #1.

roel.andag@facebook.com - that's my Facebook email. Very convenient, yes, because I am as active in Facebook as I am in Yahoo. But really, would I choose to use this email address for career-related online transactions? Rarely, if ever.

What will a headhunter or recruiter think if a job applicant uses a Facebook email address as primary online contact point? A less serious image is conveyed. The recruiter will note, perhaps mistakenly, that the applicant spends way too much time on Facebook.

And, unless I work for Mark Zuckerberg, I won't want a Facebook email address printed on my business card. That just wouldn't look very professional.

My advise, stick to your Yahoo or Gmail for professional online transactions. Facebook is for fun. Keep it that way.

The world's top banker and the chambermaid - this is not a fairy tale

2011-05-17T18:16:00.006+08:00

Why are certain people unable to control their sexual urges? Do they feel entitled to sexual satisfaction as soon as they demand it? Why do some people (ab)use their position to extract sexual favors?

It is ironic that the penis can cause the downfall of the mighty. The latest to sink to infamy is Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF is the biggest financial institution in the world. It lends development loans to countries, including the Philippines.

Strauss-Kahn is accused of sexually abusing a chambermaid of Sofitel Hotel in New York. Evidence is being gathered. Authorities already have gotten hold of beddings with traces of bodily fluids, and also his cellphone that he accidentally left behind in the hotel room. Police had to unseat him from his first-class accommodation in an airplane bound for France, his home country. He was planning to run in France’s presidential election in 2012 when his IMF stint expires. If proven, his indiscretion will cost him his IMF job and political aspirations.

Sexual harassment can be very demoralizing on the part of colleagues and employees. I should know. I have had the experience, twice over, of having an officemate (one and the same person) who was accused of sexual misdemeanor. The accusations were not investigated because the organizations ignored them. In both cases, the organizations chose to deploy the abuser into new communities. Did the reassignments solve the problem? They just exported the problem most likely.

There are other equally menacing effects at the organizational level. Read Sex in the Office, my past post regarding this topic.

As the saying goes, “prevention is better than cure.” This means that this situation can be acted upon even before it happens. How? By conducting effective gender responsiveness seminars in the workplace.

Feeling fit to freelance?

2011-05-15T11:17:00.011+08:00

This week I was able to read Free-for-All, an Entrepreneur magazine article discussing tips on freelancing.

How hard is it being a freelancer? I didn't ask if it's hard. It is - for the scared. I have been freelancing as HR and training consultant since 2006 – a very rewarding 5-year journey (see Confessions of a Career Nomad - Aug. 27, 2010).

Yeah, sure, there’s the boom-bust, feast-famine cycle. But really the stability of a freelance career depends on the quality of the products or services offered, quality of network, and equal parts daring and drive.

The Entrepreneur article offers these tips on getting through the lean seasons: accumulate savings and engage in self improvement.

May I add to that? Here’s a surefire way to avoid lean seasons: obtain a retainer. Offer consulting service to a company that’s willing to keep you in its payroll for a specified period (the usual practice is 6 months contract, renewable), specified deliverables, and for a fair fee. Some retainers will not require the consultant’s daily attendance. Other retainers will require the consultant to be physically present in the company for specified days.

My retainer with DMCI Homes is the latter type. I report three times a week, six hours per day. That leaves me ample time to deal with other clients, to socialize and to rest. I am also able to cut costs because I live three blocks from DMCI Homes’ Makati office. The distance is equivalent to the length of a standard zip line. I don’t have transportation expenses and I can go home for lunch. Best of all, I don’t have to deal with transport strikes, floods and traffic.

I paid my dues, though, before I reached this point. Networking, self promotion – name it, I did it. Here’s another tip: invest in books and follow their advise. The best books I found are Million Dollar Consulting, Consulting for Dummies, and Guerilla Marketing for Consultants. I still have a lot to learn - my freelancing journey continues.

If you want to build a career as a freelancer and you think I can help you, contact me anytime for free advise.

So, what have I been up to this week?

1. I observed the handover of DMCI Homes’ management trainees from one on-the-job deployment to another.

2. I visited Camp Tipulo for an ocular inspection in behalf of a teambuilding client. And there was sex, too (see 3rd photo).

3. I signed a contract extension for USAID-TB LINC. I am tasked to develop a training module that will be used to upgrade the capacity of barangay health workers (BHWs) as TB treatment partners.

What have I been up to? A lot, a lot!

2011-05-08T16:08:00.017+08:00

I know, right?! I've been away for quite a while, busy doing this and that, barely able to even check my blog. And now I'm back! So what have I been up to?

1. Creativity Workshop. Part of my job as Manager-Consultant of DMCI Homes' Management Development Program is to conduct relevant trainings. On April 18, 2011, I conducted a creativity workshop in connection with Stephen Covey's Habit 6 - Synergize, which is about creative cooperation. The 15 management trainees were divided into 2 groups and were assigned to create something from toobers and zots that I issued to them.

The picture below shows Engr. Brian Paolo Benitez modeling his group's output - a multifunction personal gadget that promises to make professionals more effective and efficient. The other picture shows the other group cobbling a bike together. You know who won the creativity challenge. The laughs we had was priceless.

2. Mayo-Mayohay Festival. Nothing stimulates my senses more than a good challenge. That's why I relish being de facto project manager of my hometown's Mayo-Mayohay Festival. Let me tell you more about it.

Every year, the people of San Julian in Eastern Samar celebrate their own version of the Mayflower Festival to pay homage to Virgin Mary, Queen of Flowers. San Julian is a third class municipality populated by hardworking and fun-loving people who are roused to the excitement and revelry of the Flores de Mayo every year. San Julian Blooms! is the theme this year.

Mayo-Mayohay is probably the Philippines' longest singles’ summer party. The town’s bachelors and bachelorettes are at the forefront of this month-long celebration. It opens on May 1 with a dance parade around town and festival exhibition at the municipal plaza where groups representing the town’s four districts (Campalao, Cambatong, Ibabao and Nonok) compete for the top prize. Opening night is marked by a dance in the plaza where single ladies and gentlemen groove to MTV music as well as to the Waray folk dance curacha.

Saturdays are devoted to street parties hosted by each of the districts. Novenas and catechesis are held everyday at the parish church where girls as virgines and boys as virginum come dressed in white to offer flowers to the Virgin Mary. Mayflower Festival closes on a high note – with a procession and Santacruzan on the afternoon of May 31. In the evening , a singles’ party and Search for Mayflower Festival Queen will be held at the municipal plaza.

This year, we the Andag brothers and sisters, who are the hermanos and hermanas, aim to take this celebration one notch higher by popularizing this time-honored tradition to a wider audience. Despite its long-running history, the Mayflower Festival has not yet captured the imagination of vacationers and tourists. What is now widely known among tourists about Eastern Samar is Guiuan’s surfing haven, Calicoan. Properly promoted, San Julian’s Flores de Mayo and the local beach Liliputan can be a fun summer swing for tourists.

Which is why, we would like to memorialize the colors and the rhythm, the shouts and smiles, the friendly competitiveness that promotes cooperation, the fine weather, and the youthful energy by capturing them in a tourism advocacy video documentary.

This event makes me shore up my planning skills, marketing skills, fundraising skills, relationship skills, and all other skills necessary. And I love every second of it. It's a working vacation (April 25-May 2 and May 28-June 2) that allows me to bond with my family and enjoy the festivity. Hey, I'm still looking for donors. Contact me if you're interested.

More festival pictures later.

3. Look where a broken heart led me. To try mending an aching heart, I went to the Philippine Women's University to watch the Bayanihan Dance Company perform on May 6. 2011. I ended up dancing Tinikling - a finale - after a dancer plucked me from the audience. It was so uplifting I wanna do it again.

4. Renewing Trainer on Call. As freelance training and HR consultant, I need to be competetive in finding projects. With the help of designers, I am professionalizing my marketing materials. Watch out for the 'renewed' Trainer on Call.

5. A lot more, a lot more.

Joining a gym? Abs-olutely!

2011-04-11T12:45:00.004+08:00

I am becoming a gym regular. As in 'daily' regular.

I am a dropout of a Makati-based high-end gym frequented by models and other heavenly bodies that made me sorrier for myself. I felt like I was Shrek being introduced to the lovely people of Far Far Away kingdom - three times a week. My enrolment quickly fizzled because just thinking of the commute dislodged my interest. The gym dreamin' ended shortly after it began. Money down the treadmill drain. Let's just say I know when to quit (smiley galore!).

It didn't end there, though. Because I'm good at keeping commitments - to myself and to others - and I am committed to continue my self improvement, I scouted for gyms in my neighborhood. I purposely searched for a low-end gym that caters to the hoi polloi like me. No more commute, no more obscenely physically blessed gym denizens that don't need to be there in the first place. Also, yes, no more exorbitant fees.

My Bangkal, Makati neighborhood has three such gyms all implementing a pay-per-use policy: one that attracts Mideastern looking muscle men (no treadmill, additional payment for personal trainer who doesn't look that professional), another one that is so musty the windows hardly let sunlight in (no treadmill, use the minimal equipment available at your own risk), and still another one that is to my liking (treadmill, check; personal trainer at no extra cost, check; decent looking, check). I enrolled.

Routine is among the things I consider health risks. I get bored easily. So I hunted for Gym #2 with a pay-per-use policy- my alternative in case I get bored with Gym #1. Voila! There are three gyms in nearby Libertad, Pasay: one with an old man, a very old man, like 60-ish, who told me he'll be my instructor because he has produced 10 bodybuilding champions and showed me a photo collection featuring his prizefighters; one owned by the Pasay City government (annexed to Cuneta Astrodome; treadmill reserved only for use by female patrons; overcrowded, students of a nearby maritime school comprising majority of the gym population and competing for equipment use); still another one conveniently located near the LRT station (treadmill for female customers only, male customers have to pay for treadmill use; extra charge for the services of a personal trainer). I enrolled in the third.

My every-other-day regimen has increased to a daily 1 1/2 hour ritual. I go to the gym at 9 in the morning or at 4 in the afternoon. Knowing that daily exercise helps me perform better is enough to excite me everyday. The initial muscle pains have disappeared.

Last week a fire broke near Gym #1. I was so worried about the gym burning down. Its demise will interrupt my workout program. That's how serious I am about this. Luckily for me, the fire did not touch my newfound shrine.

Aside from the hope of a six-pack popping someday out of my flabby abdomen, the gym inspires with the variety of people I encounter: the old eager beaver-first timer who is shameless in asking questions he ends his sessions learning more than anybody else; the gym superstars with godly musculature, bone structure and facial features - they whose arrivals inspire an unexpressed collective gasp of awe within 10-meter radius, we gawk at them; the lady who tries so hard to flirt with and impress everyone and whose sole purpose it seems is to hook up with any guy; and the gay guy who feels awkward round-the-clock because he pretends to be straight. There are a lot more. I realize I'm a gym biologist. I study the flora and fauna of this sweaty and iron-filled petri dish. I get more than what I come for. I get physical, mental and humor muscles. The gym has enhanced my self-discipline. I have even started regulating my food intake.

By the way, I have Gym #3: the gym that my client company provides to its employees for free. Life is good, huh?

Faceblock: In which I reckon my FB dependence

2011-04-05T07:59:00.009+08:00

I treat Facebook as an effective venue for client relations, for keeping in touch with family and friends, a chronicle of my adventures and misadventures, and a general outlet of my silly self. Facebook helps me a lot. I spend two hours on my account everyday on the average. My hallelujahs about the social networking site wouldn’t have been possible if my Facebook account has not been blocked last Thursday. For me the confirmation that my account was blocked was the disappearance of my Facebook badge from the sidebar of this blog. It was frustrating to be refused entry after several attempts to log in. I searched my mind for possible reasons – obscene content? None. Vulgar posts? Occasional. Have I somehow offended a 'friend' who then had me blocked? No idea. Would I even dare ask IT department? Uh oh. A lot is going on in my life, ergo a lot was going on in my Facebook: training negotiations, and fundraising for an event, among other things. Panicking, I created a new account and started inviting friends to connect me. But I was having a hard time remembering everyone. Through the new account I tried accessing the friends list in my old account. No dice. That account was set in private. I couldn’t get beyond my profile picture. Applying the 80/20 Pareto rule, I tried remembering only 20% of the people in my blocked account – those who give me joy and profits. Even this was difficult because many of them have their accounts on non-searchable setting. Some friends quickly approved my request. Some of them were real worried, asking me what happened. One was even concerned if I was a poser. I have a poser?! What compliment! An hour later, my old account reopened. The Red Sea parted. I am using it again. What of my new account? That's my Plan B. It's nice to be back to normal.

Mastermind: the brain - unli

2011-03-28T06:00:00.006+08:00

When was the last time you experienced a deficit of ideas? How often do you struggle for answers?

Some of you have Mensa level intelligence, but, if you’re a mere mortal like me then I’m pretty sure you, too, experience being stumped from time to time. We feel the limits of our brain, or the limits in how we use our biological CPU.

In the unending quest for brilliance, children are enrolled in the best schools, the youth are exposed to cerebral experiences, and employees undergo creativity and other neuro-sharpening training. As individuals, we take to reading books, solving puzzles, watching educational shows, communing with braniacs, yes, eating peanuts, et cetera, ad infinitum - all in the hope of improving our brain. Investments on brain enhancement run into the millions.

What if all that effort can be synthesized into a pill costing US$800 a pop? With the pill, one can figure out anything, summon stagnant knowledge and acquire new ones at warp speeds. Who would reject the idea of having a super brain? Isn’t it seductively irresistible?

All literature about humans being able to access only 20% of the brain will be nothing but records of a long, dim episode of civilization. Imagine heightened senses, hyperproductivity, excessive creativity – brilliance, unli.

This is the premise of the movie Limitless. An unapproved pill, NZT 48, turned Eddie, a writer grappling with writer’s block, into a financial whiz on the rise. NZT 48 enabled Eddie to access his brain 100%, transformed him from shabbiness to spiffiness, from dull to dazzling, from desperation to uber desirability, from loser to ultimate all-around winner.

Brilliance, indeed, is addictive; profitable brilliance even more so. ‘Enhanced Eddie started doubling his dose, unaware of the enormous drawback of a contraband ‘supplement’. The adverse side effects include warped perception, constantly getting lost, and losing track of his activities. Talk about not knowing your own whereabouts. NZT 48 was the gift that kept on giving until it caught up with him. NZT 48 is the mental equivalent of doping in sports.

There are memory enhancing supplements in the market today. I haven’t taken any of them so I can’t attest to their effectiveness. Until such time when a safe NZT 48 equivalent is rolled out in the market, I’ll stick to my ‘brain-y’ routines that don’t involve drinking anything except water or the occasional soda for the sugar boost. And at that price? I'm not sure. Pass the peanuts, please.

It's summer, take a vacation!

2011-03-21T05:53:00.000+08:00

It’s summertime again, and vacations spots in the Philippines and overseas are beckoning. The beaches, mountains, resorts hotels, casinos, theme parks, hometowns and other venues of relief and enjoyment are irresistibly inviting.

Both the vacationer and the company benefit from vacations. At the individual level, it is a perfect opportunity to bond with those you love. Speak of quality time. It is a time when one can review personal missions and goals to validate alignment. A getaway renews the spirit and recharges the batteries that fuel us to work well. For its part, the company reaps the rewards of the surge in creativity, new energy and reduction in employee’s emotional baggage. Vacations amp up morale.

Ah, if only you have the time, right? Well, under your company’s policies, you, hardworking honey, are entitled to certain days of paid vacation leave. Note that the Labor Code only provides for Service Incentive Leave. It is the company’s discretion whether to grant vacation leaves. However, once a company makes vacations leaves part of company policy, it can no longer reverse that decision.

Depending on the company’s policy, the number of vacation days can range anywhere from 14-22 days computed according to length of service. Ask the human resources department about this and other vacation leave protocols including scheduling and notification. Call center agents schedule their vacations way ahead of time in consideration of peak seasons.

You still don’t want to go on a vacation? Remember that vacations can be non-cumulative, non-commutative, and cannot be monetized. Don’t waste them.

Don’t mistake commitment to your company with being at the office all the time. Passionate productivity is the ultimate indication of commitment, and productivity improves after every vacation.

I’m serious about my career, which is why I’m equally serious about my vacations. At the start of 2011 I already shopped for plane tickets according to my scheduled vacations. So far I have schedules for February, April, May and July. More will be added by May. I spread out my vacations throughout the year. As soon as the year begins I already I take note of holidays, long weekends and potential long weekends.

When you finally come around to taking that handsomely deserved vacation, program an out-of-office email advise that you’re having an out-of-office experience. And email me your vacation pictures – I’ll feature them here. Enjoy!

Photo: Liliputan Beach, located in my hometown San Julian, Eastern Samar

Right click and hit ‘Refresh’

2011-03-14T06:17:00.005+08:00

Courtesy of the priest officiating mass, I learned that yesterday was the first Sunday of Lent. In his homily he talked about temptations, sacrifice and renewal.

I interpreted the occasion and homily from my point of view – which is a career- and personal development-oriented perspective.

Temptations are unhelpful habits including negativism, indulging in time wasters such as procrastination, and, in extreme cases, corrupt practices.

Sacrifice is the refusal to give in to instant gratification when the rewards of holding off are greater. Have you ever faked sickness just to get off work? That’s just one example.

Many of us only consider changing our ways when a cataclysm occurs. I’m sure the earthquake and tsunami in Japan was a waker-upper that compelled many people to mend their ways. Far from such disasters and safe in their temperature-controlled cubicles, employees are forced to evaluate their lives only when work-related emergencies occur – threat of getting fired, health threat due to overwork, and other similar life-changing situations.

Throughout the homily, Habit 7 (Sharpen the Saw) in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People kept flashing in my mind. Its main point being that, in order to be effective, one has to make it a habit to set time for the continuous enhancement of four dimensions: physical, mental, spiritual, and social/emotional enhancement.

Physical renewal includes nutrition, rest and relaxation, and exercise. Mental renewal means cultivating the mind through quality reading, writing and self education. Spiritual renewal includes committing to sound values, meditation and prayer, immersion in literature and the arts, and communing with nature. Social/emotional renewal lies in the effective relationship with others based on personal security supported by correct principles.

I realize that I have fallen short in the physical dimension in the areas of proper diet and exercise and in the spiritual dimension in terms of meditation and prayer. I need to sharpen these saws.

I also realize that New Year is not the only time to make resolutions, the Lenten season is an equal opportunity game-changer as well. After all, isn’t every single day a chance at second chances? A line in the song ‘Home’ from the 1975 musical The Wiz captures humanity’s collective plea: “Time be my friend let me start again.”

Renewal is about recommitment. Renewal demands self discipline. Self discipline leads to inner direction. Inner direction produces peace of mind. Peace of mind results in happiness.

We each have our own ‘refresh’ button. All we need is to right-click, hit refresh and muster the courage to follow through. Wouldn’t that be truly refreshing?

No need for cataclysms. By the power vested in me by the God who created me, I hereby recommit.

Wow working woman! The law is on your side

2011-03-08T07:27:00.005+08:00

March 8 is Women’s Day and March every year is International Women’s Month. In honor of every toiling woman – at home and/or in the office – I dedicate this article based on interesting and innovative work-related provisions of Republic Act 9710 otherwise known as the Magna Carta of Women.

Sec. 4(K) defines violence against women to include physical, sexual and psychological violence occurring within the general community, including rape, sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and intimidation at work, in educational institutions and elsewhere, trafficking in women, and prostitution. Republic Act 9262, otherwise known as the Anti-VAWC (violence against women and children) law, redefines VAW as a public crime. It no longer remains “away mag asawa.” Anyone can report gender-based violence to the authorities. The same law covers violence in a lesbian relationship.

In Sec. 11, the State commits itself to take measures, in the form of incentives, to encourage women leadership in the private sector. Women leaders are well recognized in the country – through awards and public acclaim. Problem is that, the same women are featured year in and year out – umay factor. I know there are women leaders in the private sector but, for some reason, don’t take these awards seriously or just prefers to work outside of the spotlight.

Though the reproductive health (RH) bill is having a tough time squeezing throug the legislative mill at the House of Representatives, Sec. 17 of the Magna Carta of Women actually discusses RH, specifically its 10 elements. The passage of the RH bill, however, remains imperative because there are so many lives to save from the dangers of unwanted and unplanned pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases and other gynecological disorders. Once it passes fogged minds, an RH law will provide life-saving benefits to men and women alike.

Laws exist entitling working women to a maternity leave. The Magna Carta of Women takes this a notch higher by virtue of Section 18 that entitles women employees to a special paid leave benefit of two months following surgery caused by gynecological disorders.

Here’s my personal favorite – Sec. 16(B) 2(C) outlaws some schools’ questionable practice of expelling and permanently barring from reinstatement women faculty who get pregnant outside of marriage. The same provision applies to students. I can hear the hiss coming from un-Christian and unprogressive Catholic schools where Catolica cerrada administrators and teachers are fond of the word ‘disgraciada.’ I say educate the educators! Sweet.

Sec. 22 enumerates the State’s commitment to its obligation to respect, protect and fulfill women’s right to decent work. The State aims to operationalize this by, among others, ensuring that women are able to access “support services and gears to protect them from occupational and health hazards taking into account women’s maternal functions;” and support services that will promote women’s work-life balance in the form of day care centers and breast-feeding stations at the workplace…”

Sec. 23(c) contains the State’s assurance to provide “employment opportunities for returning women migrant workers taking into account their skills and qualifications..and promote skills and entrepreneurship development of returning women migrant workers.” This is very important in the short-term especially in the context of the fallout from the current revolutions sweeping the Arab world; and in the long-term because returning OFWs feel useless when they return to the Philippines because of lack of employment opportunities. That’s a lot of productive energies wasted.

SEC. 24(b) says that the State will ensure gender-sensitive training and seminars. This is already being done in the public sector, leaving the private sector to catch up. Companies need to make their workplaces gender-responsive so as to harness women’s power to contribute to business profitability, and of course to avoid lawsuits arising from sexual harassment and other forms of gender-based violence in the workplace.

Uh oh. Sec. 35 warns that public and private entities and individuals guilty of discrimination against women will be met with the force of the law.

Happy Women’s Day!

NOTE: The author conducts Gender Responsiveness trainings.

Vacations and other out-of-office experiences

2011-02-22T10:49:00.005+08:00

1. Foremost in my mind right now is my upcoming vacation to my hometown, San Julian, Eastern Samar. It's going to be a whirlwind, 2 1/2-day vacation wherein I will attend four meetings: to discuss our family sponsorship of our town's Mayflower festival; to cascade to officers what our family will decide on; to plan the details of the 2nd annual general convention of our local gay organization; and to iron out inheritance properties. Three meetings on day 1, one meeting on day 2, beach outing on day 2, and leave San Julian at 8am of day 3. I'm making this sound so mechanical but I'm so excited!

2. Part of my job as manager of DMCI Homes' Management Development Program is to conduct learning sessions for personal excellence. I am revisiting Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I am seeing the book with fresh eyes.

3. I am at page 300-something of Kitty Kelley's Oprah and the book is - I hate using this hackneyed word - unputdownable. The revelations are explosive - about Oprah's half-truths and half-lies. Understandably, her power in media makes the mighty meek, which is why I like Kitty Kelley for writing this well researched, unauthorized biography. For the same reason of being ballsy, I love Kathy Griffin for irreverently poking fun at Oprah.

4. An uneventful Valentine's Day passed. Why is there a pressure to snag a date on Valentine's Day? It's so commercialized. Oh, please, just dismiss this as ramblings of an unpaired (thankfully not impaired) soul whose 'special someone' is one plane ride away. My 35th birthday was the day after the bland Valentine's. We had lunch at the office and my friend Aida B. treated me to a post-birthday lunch at The Plantation on Feb. 19.

5. Between the period Feb. 25-July 18, 2011, I already have four vacations booked - all to my hometown. I'd still try to squeeze in a vacation to Palawan, Pangasinan or Boracay, preferably through Zestair's vacation packages (except for Pangasinan). I'm thrilled about this out-of-office experiences!

Not just anyone can train

2011-02-11T12:30:00.005+08:00

As a trainer, and freelance at that, I always see to it that I deliver my training courses in top quality. To ensure that my clients are delighted, I master my slides (in terms of visual and instructional design), give superb delivery (fevers, allergic rhinitis – even heartbreak – can never bring me and my stagecraft down), conduct productive workshops, throw in a healthy dose of humor, dress impeccably and manage time effectively. Every client deserves value for money. Every client deserves my best.

It is perhaps because of the high standard that I set for myself that I expect other trainers to do the same. I may sound pompous but lousy trainers frustrate me mightily. Unnecessary stress, I know. Truth is I feel for the client who obtains service that is quite below standard. And I am being kind here.

This past month I have observed trainer after disappointing trainer inflict themselves on the trainees. In the interest of objectivity, I will merely quote what participants wrote in the training evaluations.

• More time was spent on unnecessary topics – stories about his personal experiences, and attempts to pirate trainees to join trainer’s company. Only 10 minutes of the entire four hours was spent on the training topic.

• Time was not utilized well – discussion of topic started only after two hours of motivational talk and selling their company’s other training courses.

• PowerPoint presentations were overloaded with numbers/figures or unreadable.

• The presentation lacks information.

• Too many slides.

• No handouts were provided.

• Dull delivery.

• An exercised was conducted but was not processed.

• Handout was not in the same flow with the actual presentation.

• Did not explain technical terms.

• Did not provide relevant examples.

• Too many examples.

• Examples are not clear.

• Hard to understand what trainer was trying to impart.

• Trainers were ill prepared.

• No interaction with audience.

• The trainer was speaking to the computer, no interaction with participants. Get a better trainer – someone who will not just read the presentation.

• Trainer assumed that trainers already knew the topic.

• Failed to provide instructions for the workshop/seatwork.

• Exaggerated attention grabbing tactic diverted the focus from and interest in the topic.

• Trainer isn’t good at expressing his thoughts.

• Speaker is not convincing.

Training is obviously not for everyone. It demands passion, correct skills, customer orientation, proper attitude and a certain degree of showmanship. Overflowing interest, bravado and connections are not enough.

No matter how old you are, no matter how many countries you have visited, no matter how many academic degrees you have obtained, no matter the amount of inauthentic praises your sycophants heap on you, no matter how many trainings you have conducted – if, upon honest evaluation, you receive more flak than genuine appreciation, training is not for you. Back off. Training is a profession not to be messed with.

I squirmed in my seat while these trainings were being conducted. Even if they are meant for other trainers, I mined the above evaluation statements for lessons that can help me enhance my training services some more.

Maybe it's my being a freelance worker that makes me hungry for excellence. I can never be complacent, I have to earn my keep. But what’s foremost among my considerations is this: I help trainees succeed.

A reunion of sorts

2011-02-08T09:22:00.003+08:00

Walking through the glass door of RCBC Tower on Ayala Avenue, Makati, yesterday, I thought of the companies that I have worked for in the past that are located in the said building -- the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Chevron. These organizations are behemoths in their own rights. I worked for UNFPA in 2008 to 2010 as programme officer tasked to promote reproductive health in Eastern Samar. I was at Chevron in 2006 to 2007 for various human resources engagements (HR policy writing, and contractors' rationalization, among others). I have built friendships with my colleagues in these organizations.

I was at RCBC Tower yesterday for a proposal presentation to the International Labour Organization (ILO, another UN body). As I was going up the escalator en route to Starbucks at the 2nd floor, I saw Dr. GJ Templonuevo of UNFPA. He was with two other guys. They were going down. We smiled and waved at each other. I managed to mumble: "Pupunta ako dun mamaya." Meaning I might be seeing them on my way to ILO.

At Starbucks, while I was munching on an apple fritter and Aida, my project partner, was sipping her third cup of coffee for the day (and it was only 1 pm), Cay Bautista, my former boss at Chevron came in with a friend in tow. I bolted from my seat and blurted: "Ma'am Cay! Si Roel Andag po." To which she replied: "Alam ko 'no! Nakuha ko yung bago mong number."

She introduced me to her companion, I introduced them to Aida. Formalities over, I told Ma'am Cay: "Chikahin nyo po ako kapag may project." "Oo naman," she said.

I wasn't able to see the UNFPA guys becuase ILO is situated at the 19th floor while UNFPA and other UN offices are at the 30th.

It warms my heart to see friends. I hope to see more of them.

Change everywhere

2011-02-02T13:46:00.010+08:00

First, Ophiuchus reinvented astrology (from Aquarius I'm now in Capricorn). And then Tunisians unseated their president. Now Egyptians are forcing their president, Mubarak, to end a 30-year rule. Change happens everywhere, everyday.

At a personal level, I changed from Globe prepaid mobile phone services to Globe postpaid subscription. All in the interest of saving a few bucks after I noticed my out-of-control consumption of prepaid cards. My postpaid subscription package came with a free Samsung Galaxy S unit. Prior to this I was using a Nokia 2330 Classic. The shift from keypad to touch phone almost made me a wreck. Proximamente destruccion.

I am not a techie and the abrupt change was resulting in the disorientation of my phone dexterity and fingertip muscle memory. Texting was difficult. My stout fingertips grazed neighboring letters. The unit does not have a facility to send text messages to multiple recipients. I didn't experience other problems only because my initial frustration prevented me from venturing any further. I ranted on Facebook, I asked friends for tutorials and browsed cyberspace for tips. Two days of navigation attempts and a software download later, I am now an almost adept user. Proximamente inteligente.

I realized that this minor change demanded that I stretch my ability and actually expanded my brain. Change is good.

I don't care about Ophiuchus. I have long ago stopped reading my horoscope. I hope the new Tunisian government proves to be a better version of its predecessor. I pray for a peaceful resolution to the Egyptian debacle. Change is good.

PS: Pardon my pidgin Spanish.

Busy, busy, bliss!

2011-01-28T06:41:00.030+08:00

The final quarter of 2010 proved to be a very hectic time, with trainings left and right. Some of the engagements were just two days apart. In the same period, I started my consulting contract with DMCI Homes. I am manager of the company's Management Development Program, a three and a half year thrust that grooms young civil engineers, as management trainees, into becoming DMCI Homes' future leaders.

And then Christmas and New Year's celebrations zipped by. I enjoyed the holidays with my family and friends in Eastern Samar, which perhaps had the Philippines' rainiest Yuletide.

The state of busyness extended to January 2011. And now January is ending. Chinese New Year is a couple of days away. I conducted 13 trainings from October 2010 to January 2011. Bliss, right? Right! Thanks to my clients. The work frenzy compelled me to be in top shape and to up my game. I look forward to more projects.

Teambuilding, JMOMPC Feeds, Microtel Inn & Resort, Cabanatuan City, Jan. 29-30, 2011

Presentation Skills Training, DMCI Homes Management Development Program, DMCI Homes Training Room, Jan. 20-21, 2011

Presentation Skills Training, RC Cola , RC Cola Training Center, Jan. 12-13, 2011

Customer Delight Training, DMCI Homes Management Development Program, DMCI Homes Training Room, Jan. 10, 2011

Leadership Training, Katlo (gay organization), Casa Oliva, San Julian, Eastern Samar, Dec. 28, 2010

Teambuilding, Shezura Marketing, Dec. 11, 2010, Ralph's Resort, Los Banos, Laguna

Advocacy-Negotiation Skills-Conflict Management Training (afternoon batch), European Union-Bureau of Customs, BOC Training Center, Dec. 7, 2010

Advocacy-Negotiations Skills-Conflict Management Training (morning batch), European Union-Bureau of Customs, BOC Training Center, Dec. 7, 2010

Trainers Training (Batch 2), European Union-Bureau of Customs, Timberland Heights, San Mateo, Rizal, Nov. 17, 2010

Trainers Training (Batch 1), European Union-Bureau of Customs, Timberland Heights, San Mateo, Rizal, Nov. 11, 2010

Teambuilding (Batch 4), European Union-Bureau of Customs, Sitio Lucia, Sta. Maria, Bulacan, Nov. 4, 2010

Teambuilding (Batch 3), European Union-Bureau of Customs, Sitio Lucia, Sta. Maria, Bulacan, Oct. 28, 2010

Teambuilding (Batch 2), European Union-Bureau of Customs, Sitio Maria, Sta. Maria, Bulacan, Oct. 26, 2010

Teambuilding in the time of typhoons

2010-10-23T20:26:00.008+08:00

PowerPoint lecturettes prepared? Check. Obstacle course tested? Check. Etc. etc. etc.? Check, check and check. Everything was in place for the European Union-sponsored teambuilding of the Bureau of Customs (BOC). A week prior to the teambuilding, I texted my counterparts in the EU to earmark a budget for materials for indoor games just in case the weather prohibits the use the obstacle course, swimming pool and resort grounds. There was initial resistance but I was able to convince them.

A day before the teambuilding, Typhoon Megi (local name: Juan) struck. As advance party, me and my EU counterparts were already at the venue to lay down everything. The rain and the winds forced us to reschedule the activity.

Two days later, on October 21, 2010, Batch 1 of the BOC trainees came to Sitio Lucia Resort in Sta. Maria, Bulacan. Megi’s tailend was still in the Philippines so all the games were done indoors.

Three batches more will be trained in the following weeks. Two batches will be attending a Trainers Training that I will conduct.

Every one of the 18 members of Batch 1 had a great time. EU and the BOC have separately indicated their interest to contract my services in other training engagements. Megi was a gift.

Opening spiel - a trainer's introduction is all important for several reasons

Galaw galaw! Stretching before games begin

Figuring out their steps

Body telegram

Assessment

Stamping my support on Daang Matuwid

The team that plays together works together

Oct. 16 is National Boss Day - say what?!

2010-10-13T06:28:00.006+08:00

On October 16, workers in the United States will mark National Boss’ Day. The same is true with toilers in Australia, India, Ireland, South Africa and the United Kingdom. Boss Day gives employees opportunity to show their appreciation for the top guy.

Having a boss is the one inevitable guarantee in a person’s work experience. Bosses come in a variety of orientations but from the worker’s (our) point of view, there are simply three nomenclatures: the boss that we love, the boss we hates, the boss we love-hate. Let’s discuss them in some more detail.

The boss we love

What is love? It is a feeling of strong attachment that inspires delight, admiration, kindness and devotion to the loved one. What will make an underling love his boss?

We love the boss who:
- Is a good leader and manager;
- Recognizes that we have lives away from work;
- Rewards our efforts in the form of pats in the shoulder and (fat!) bonuses;
- Is fair in his judgment (hell, yes. Especially around performance evaluation time);
- Is available and accessible by way of productive communication that fosters trust and teamwork;
- Supports our professional development and growth; and
- Champions our benefits and welfare.

The boss we hate

Compared to love, hate is easier defined given the 24/7 presence of its emotional triggers. Hate is the feeling of hostility or animosity toward the hated one. What characterizes a boss who generates hate waves from his workers?

- A retard that misleads and mismanages, with gusto. Bullying is his managerial modus operandi.
- A slave driver and taskmaster who expects us to work overtime just because he goes home past midnight after nursing his personal miseries with alcohol inside his corner office. He is The Boss, ergo, he is bossy. No surprise there.
- He grabs all credits for good work but is an equal opportunity blamer when things fail.
- His decisions depend on his moods and whims.
- He is rarely available for serious talk because he is too drunk with power or alcohol or both. Problems fester because he forgets or intentionally ignores to address them. He is a backstabber, too.
- His staggering ego makes him jealous of the worker’s advancement. The worker’s potential accumulation of knowledge and skills is an incendiary threat. His pastime is demoting employees for the flimsiest of reasons, or just plain humiliating them, preferably in public, to pulverize their self-confidence.
- He champions his own agenda of maniacal accumulation.

The boss we love/hate

A love-hate relationship is tricky. For the worker, it is a wild dance of pushes and hugs and whips and feathers. Who is this boss that plants the seeds of emotional ambiguity?

- He is emotionally erratic: sweet upon arrival at 9am, sour at 9:25 am, sweet again at 9:26 am, bitter at lunch and the seesaw goes up and down until he has touched all points of the emotions spectrum by sundown. He is unpredictable.
- Actually, he is a hybrid of the the boss we love and the boss we hate, only that we find him eccentric and we find his eccentricities cute.

Gift ideas

Sure, sure, Boss Day hasn’t reached Philippine shores – yet. But being copycats of our once-upon-a-time colonizers, who knows? It might be soon. And so to begin the unofficial celebrations, here are some gift ideas for my fellow peons:

For the boss we love: a mug saying he’s the best boss ever; gift certificates to a spa/resort/hotel; pizza for everyone; an open letter of appreciation; a laminated photo showing good times in the office; and a lot more. Gift-giving should be a group undertaking so as not to be misconstrued as a favor to be repaid. The kind of love that I am discussing here is, repeat, one that inspires admiration, kindness and devotion to the boss, not the love that makes you want to spoon with him under his oak desk.

For the boss we hate: hand him a copy of your full documentation of his abuses while keeping the master copy to yourself – you never know when it will become useful; the Holy Bible or Koran in the hope that he will find renewal and rebirth – never attempt to become his spiritual adviser, exorcism can be over-overwhelming (if there is such a word); hand him your resignation and give him sore eyes too. Do this as an individual, even better as a group. Oh yes, how about a picket outside the office?

For the boss we love/hate: Let his consistent inconsistency be your guide.

If you’re the boss, what do you think will you receive from your workers?

For further reading:
"The guilty guilty pleasure of boss bashing"
"You owe your bitch boss"

Taking the bully by the horn

2010-10-11T07:29:00.006+08:00

Workplaces teem with various characters, from the thoroughly respectable to the truly absurd. Workplaces are tragicomic territories where sensible workers try their utter best to civilly coexist with workmates whose attitudes and antics substantiate the scientific claim that the human race descended from ungainly primates. In the workplace, the balance between good and evil is precarious. Using strategies both covert and manifest, each side, praying to directly competing gods, tries to advance its agenda day by day, inch by inch.

One such workplace caricature is the bully – an individual with a continental ego who thinks other persons were born to sheepishly submit to his every demand and whim. The mood swings of the bully crisscrosses both sides of the equator without the faintest prior notice. His crazy sense of entitlement makes him think that he rightfully deserves anything he wants.

He feels superior. Those around him are nothing but accidental paramecia and live props. He is excessively manipulative of other people in order for him to get what he wants. He expects everything to be served to him in a lazy Susan, immediately. For him, waiting is a personal affront. If anything falls short of his skewed expectations, his coworkers can expect door slamming, public humiliation and other forms of torture. He is insensitive. He cannot be expected to empathize. His screw-ups increase in magnitude and frequency the higher he gets in the organizational chart.

His volcanic temperament is legend for erupting even when unprovoked. Facing up to the bully can be daunting. He can strike back with ferocity. It takes a person with three balls to stare the bully in the eye and not blink. A great multitude of workers will benefit if these rare mano a mano occasions of parrying the horned beast will be documented.

I was recently reminded about the dark reality that the beast is amongst us. Last week, my friend who is an overseas Filipino worker in Canada stood her ground when a bully tried to mow her to the ground. She chose not to be confrontational. She wrote a beautiful letter to the bully. The letter, which is quoted below in toto, is both literally and emotionally eloquent. It is instructive to those whose daily work ordeal includes being with a bully. Interestingly, she sent the letter to the bully through Facebook. Read on:

“Dear Aubrey*,

“I chose to write you on Facebook because I wanted this to be a personal letter from a friend to a friend and not an official letter at work. The latter would mean getting your Official File a copy and possibly getting the management (Ethics department) a copy and I don't intend to reach to that point.

“First, I have been very vocal about how I admire your work ethics and how efficient worker you are just like some people at work too. I noticed one thing though that when something doesn't get done or doesn't come your own way you get upset and mad. When I work with you and you get upset at something/somebody, you make me feel like either I am causing your frustration. I know of course, as matter of fact, that it's not true and that it's not my problem but just yours. I often wonder though what gives you the feeling of something like a privilege that you can just snap anytime when you want it just because something doesn't or didn't get done your own way. You and me and the rest of the staff are all workers in (name of company). Neither one of us is your property and you have no right at all to treat anybody so rude just because you are frustrated at something. We are humans and not objects.

“There was one day when I wondered what happened when you suddenly just came to me so mad and said "you just don't do..." and you were pointing at my face. Unfortunately I was taking an order from a customer on drive-thru that time and didn't get a chance to get back to you right away. When I was done with the customer you already had another customer on front till and so I didn't get to ask you immediately. I asked Alex and Brent though as to why/where/what happened and they both were wondering as well why you snapped. Brent mentioned though that you asked who reconfigured the espresso bars because as per your instructions it was supposed to be split. Apparently, you asked both Brent and Alex and both of them answered you negative so that probably was the reason why you went to me and eventually said "you just dont...". Sad thing about that was I didn't do it either but you just snapped without even asking me. When I asked you later on what happened, your answer was you were just having a bad day, apparently because Bryan has caused you a bad day. Was it fair then that you will vent out your frustration at people who were not doing something bad to you? What and who gave you the privilege to do that to me?

“Yesterday, on drive-thru, while there was a car/customer who was waiting for his change when he gave you a $50 bill, you asked if we have change in the safe. Wondering if you forgot about the safety and security policy, I got stunned and didn't know what to say right away especially in front of your customer and you got upset again. When I tried to explain to you so calmly and politely (we were both by the sink) you just walked away like I was saying a non-sense thing and not worthy to deal with. I asked myself, was it a British action that you just did? But anyway, just to be fair, I will ask again, the management, in particular, Gladys, about this thing. Maybe the policy has changed and I wasn't informed.

“Another thing: oftentimes, when you don't understand what I'm saying, you also get frustrated. Aubrey, most often than not, I could hardly understand what you're saying but I never elevate myself that I have the authority of languages and I am the highest of the human race. I never have let you feel that it is your problem if you won't understand me. When I remember my work back home, United Kingdom was one of the Official Development donor countries which my division was handling. I got to talk and interact with UK's officials in bilateral consultations and negotiations, meetings and I have always felt that I never had a problem with the difference in accents. In (name of company) we just deal with coffees and teas, and Aubrey, it's a (name of company CEO) company - we all just work with his company. Consider your co-workers as equally as hardworking as you. Please, I particularly, am not an appliance which when it doesn't work the way you want it to work, you can just bang it. My brain is not connected to your brain and it doesn't mean that I don't have the common sense and you are one heck of a perfect individual. Please, I do admire you in a lot of ways but I seriously hope that one day, I won't snap at you and tell you this: I am not your property and my salary doesn't come from your pocket. This letter is a proof that I am close to that though.

“Lastly, I want to be your friend and I love you. I am not hoping that “snapping at you would be an option in the future.

Cheers and hugs.
Marlene”

*Names have been changed.

Wise (and otherwise): 6 online job application booboos

2010-10-08T06:17:00.007+08:00

A recent online recruitment project for a client made me realize how much job applicants still need to learn. Here are the most glaring disappointments I saw:

BLUNDER 1: Incorrect attachment. One application was accompanied by a document acknowledging the receipt of a hefty sum of money. Another came with a scanned passport.

SOLUTION: Proper labeling of goods. When I buy a Coke in can I expect Coke to pour out; I will be jolted if in my first sip my taste buds will tell me it’s Sprite inside. Whenever I attach my resume to my emails I always check that the file name ‘RoelAndagResume’ actually bears what it promises to deliver.

BLUNDER 2: Overwhelming volume of attachments. NBI clearance, certificates of employment, certificates of training, passport, etc. – yes, these are important documents but they don’t need to be supplied unless the recruiter specified otherwise. As it is, the recruiter wades through hundreds of applications that a bulk of unnecessary attachments disorients him. A tsunami of unnecessary documents reeks of desperation.

SOLUTION: Attach only a resume. If the recruiter asks for other documents then by all means supply.

BLUNDER 3: Resume with "track changes" in-line editing marks on every page. The resume was redder than Mao’s little red book.

SOLUTION: The recruiter doesn’t need to see a resume that is literally a work in progress, showing an ongoing beautification project. The end product is the only thing the recruiter needs to see. If the applicant knows how to use MS Word’s “Track Changes” option I am sure he knows how to click “Accept Changes” when he finds the modifications to his satisfaction.

BLUNDER 4: Use of unprofessional email address. dropdeadgorgeous@yahoo.com and luckylover@gmail.com are yes, drop dead. This is not only off putting but a tad too revealing about the applicant’s personality. Yes, this may be a flimsy ground to judge the merit of an application but can you blame the recruiter for thin slicing, which is a default human prioritization function?

SOLUTION: Set up a new email that is simple, straightforward and steady-sounding. Do not automatically accept system-generated email addresses. The “name@serviceprovider.com” format is best. Use your smart aleck email in online dating sites and for other cute purposes.

BLUNDER 5: Submitting an application without a cover letter.

SOLUTION: Take time to write this all-important piece of communication. An application letter is a jobhunter’s first pawn in the impressions game. It can make his application stand out in the growing pile of submissions. Besides, prefacing an application with a cover letter is basic jobhunting etiquette. Tips: highlight key qualifications that match the company’s job requirement; use bullets and eye-friendly font style and size for visual convenience; err on the side of brevity; observe correct spelling, grammar, punctuation use and the rules of business letter writing.

BLUNDER 6: Not specifying the job title.

SOLUTION: We are a generation of multitalented, multifaceted, multitasking mammals. We get confused in our intention to multi-impress and multi-appeal. If there are several positions advertised, do not apply to all. You appear unfocused and indecisive. Be specific because each vacancy uses different qualification parameters. The recruiter does not have the luxury of time to engage in a matching type quiz.

How convenient it is to live in a world where resumes can be sent in a jiffy to companies regardless of geographic locations and time zones. This ease, however, is constantly abused. These blunders show the level of applicants’ ~~recklessness~~ carelessness. Their chances at being hired get slimmer and dimmer. These booboos can be corrected, and ASAP please!

PS: I know you spotted that.

Pleasure @ work: personnel masturbation

2010-10-06T06:21:00.007+08:00

WARNING: EXPLICIT CONTENT. GET OUT NOW IF YOU FEEL UNEASY. READ ON IF YOU WANT TO SATISFY YOUR CURIOUSITY AND LEARN A VALUABLE ON-THE-JOB LESSON.

Aaaaaah mmmmmilk…

A farmer ordered a high-tech milking machine. It happened that the equipment arrived when his wife was away. So he decided to test it on himself first.

He inserted his penis into the equipment, turned the switch on, and voila, everything else was automatic! He really had a good time as the equipment provided him with so much pleasure. However, when the fun was over, he found that he could not take the instrument off. He read the manual, but did not find any useful information.

He tried every button on the instrument - some made the equipment squeeze, shake, or suck harder or less - but still he had no success getting out of it. Panicking, he just barely reached the phone and called the supplier's customer service hotline.

The farmer: "Hello, I just bought a milking machine from your company. It worked fantastic. But how can I take it off from the cow's udder?"

Customer Service: "Don't worry. The machine was programmed to release automatically after collecting about two gallons of milk."

Seriously now

In the past (well, even today among the narrow minded), masturbation was demonized and even listed as a psychological disorder. But, come on now, let’s all be adults here. Masturbation is a basic human pleasure – and the easiest manually available to both sexes. It has its health benefits, too. The exhibitionist does it in full public display, with an ejaculation accompanied by arrest. I mean by the police, not cardiac. Most of us do it in the privacy of our rooms.

Apparently, there is also what I will call the “workplace wanker.” I use the pronoun ‘he’ here for convenience and without diminishing the fact that masturbation is an equal opportunity pleaser. And because this actual case concerns Carlos, a heterosexual man whose name is obviously fictitious but whose experience is all too real.

Carlos is in the company as an on-the-job trainee (OJT). His story starts with the irritation of the company janitor who has to clean up after Carlos who has poor aim. He shoots desultorily, with his byproduct landing on all imaginable surface of the restroom, except perhaps on the ceiling.

The ceiling, however, was what betrayed him in the first place. The fluorescent lamps with wide reflectorized frames served as a mirror that beamed Carlos’ activity to anyone curious enough to glimpse at the exact spot overhead. Talk about reflected glory. Because of the janitor’s regimented schedule of cleaning the toilets, he was able to time Carlos’ petting sessions – 10:00 am and 3:00 pm, and at lunchtime occasionally. Carlos is a card carrying frequent flyer.

Let it be said that the janitor is not remiss in his duties. He even expanded his job description by counseling Carlos about his careless squirts. I could understand that the janitor feels less of a man whenever he tidies up after the wanking worker.

Here comes HR

The story eventually reaches the human resources department, which was thrown to an instant tizzy. HR people have mastered the art of handling industrial issues but are ambivalent when the issue concerns an OJT’s libido. These points were discussed:

What is the real issue – is it the frequency of his toilet visits?
Is he inconveniencing anyone? Is this a case of public scandal? Obviously not because he jerks in the restroom. The reflectorized lamps are accidental accessories.
Is it correct to discuss the issue with Carlos? With his immediate supervisor in the company? With the OJT adviser in his school? With his parents? Carlos is no longer a minor. His immediate supervisor shrieked when he (yes, he) was told. Or will everyone just wait for the OJT contract to conclude a few weeks from now?
Is he not busy enough in the company that he finds time to pleasure himself that often?
Is masturbating in the office an offense when it does not scandalize anyone visually and it does not interfere with work? I mean, hello, how much time does masturbating take?
Is this a sign of psychological disturbance?
The engineering department was quizzed about the logic of the reflectorized lamps. Cost-saving, it said. The women in HR warned themselves to be careful when using toilet cubicles with lamps above just in case a voyeaur walks in.
He cannot possibly watch porn in his office computer because the IT department guards the office internet heavily.
This is not a case of sexual harassment.

Blank stares. More blank stares whenever Carlos enters the HR office to photocopy documents. It seems that nobody knows how to handle this touchy feely issue.

It has only been two days since the story broke out. Details will (may) surface as the days go by. I will ask the janitor.

Yes, the muse is a man

2010-10-03T19:19:00.003+08:00

I’m sure purists and moralists were squirming in their seats when Vice Ganda, as Powerade basketball team muse, strutted into the hall in his sequined vest, minishorts and four-inch heels.

I’m not a fan of Vice Ganda. His foul language and uncouth manner turn me off big time. Tonight, however, during the opening of the PBA’s new season, I admired him for the breakthrough of joining a bevy of beautiful team muses.

Or should the credit go to Powerade? I don’t think niether Vice Ganda nor his manager actively sought this publicity coup. It must be the Powerade management who has the balls to pull off this risky and, yes, risqué stunt. For this, my deeper admiration goes to Powerade.

My point is not that more gays should sashay in the hallowed expanse of Araneta Coliseum or school auditoriums or municipal plazas as sports muses (but then again why the hell not?) but rather that the concept “muse” should not be automatically assigned a feminine gender.

The concept of the female muse can be traced back to Greek mythology offering that nine muses turn on the faucets from which creative juices flow. Individually, the nine muses each inspire a specific area of creation: music, epic poetry, lyric poetry, choral poetry, dance, history, comedy, astronomy, and tragedy. Up to today, when we are stuck at what we are doing we invoke our muse to descend and grant us illumination. If it were allowed, we will burn animals as offerings. Fire alarms will be ringing nonstop, prices of fire extinguishers will skyrocket and firemen will be stationed outside our offices round the clock.

I could understand this representation of the concept because the arts are stereotypically (and wrongfully) identified as feminine pursuits. But isn’t carpentry art? Now that is masculine if we insist on stereotypes. But then again, a person of any gender can fashion an artful shelf out of the proper materials and instruments.

Be honest now, your male crush/spouse inspires you to create and be productive. He is your muse. Shall we call him “escort” instead? Awkward.

As of now, PBA has Vice Ganda. No matter the gender bender in his sexual orientation, he is still male. And he makes a good muse as any. I can already visualize purists and moralists calling for a PBA boycott.

I can't email you back, I'm on vacation: the ever reliable Out-of-the-Office note

2010-09-30T15:31:00.008+08:00

On the sending end, waiting for an important email response that doesn't seem to arrive is one of the most frustrating experiences. On the receiving side, the most civilized way of informing email senders that you can't reply immediately is through an Out-of-the-Office message. It mercifully cuts the sender's suspense.

Do's and Don'ts in making effective Out-of-the-Office messages:

DO
1. Mention the duration of your absence.
2. Say what you're doing (if it is mentionable).
3. Commit to a turnaround time as to when you will be able to respond to the email. Follow through on the commitment.
4. Include a contact number as a provision for emergency concerns. Make sure that telecommunications signal is available in your destination. Or indicate the contact details of a staff or colleague who is authorized to receive messages for you.
5. Treat your Out-of-the-Office message as official communication, serious but cool.
6. Make it brief. It's not supposed to be a full-length letter. Two to three sentences will do.

DON'T
1. Overshare. Mentioning where you exactly will be is an invitation for stalkers and other malicious forces to join you.
2. Use your Out-of-the-Office message to brag about your vacation. Telling all and sundry that you're skinny dipping in the Bahamas is salt on less fortunate workers' open wounds. Facebrag in Facebook in real time instead. FB is your friends' cyber hangout.

We will wish you tremendous fun if you tell us nicely next time you're out.

PS: When I'm in a training, I am sometimes tempted to leave this Out-of-the-Office message: "Hi! Thanks for your email. Today (insert date here) I'm out making hay. You will receive my reply within the next two days if I'm still up and running after this fun activity."

PPS: When you leave permanently, as in move to another company, be decent enough to leave a permanent Out-of-the-Office note thanking the company and indicating your personal email address and other contact details. There should be nothing more, nothing less. Don't use this as a tool to exact revenge on the company that you have grown to despise if such is the case.

When coworkers bring their kids to the office

2010-09-27T05:20:00.000+08:00

Sure, children are irresistible giggle bundles. But do they really have to be brought to the office?

We Filipinos are extremely family-oriented. Nobody ever seems to notice that a coworker brought one cute Powerpuff Girl to the office. It’s either nobody cares because bringing kids to the office is part of national culture or because officemates pretend to be charmed by the little human prancing from cubicle to cubicle while fondling every portable gadget, equipment and supplies both company-owned and personal.

I don’t have issue with well behaved children. But the thing is some parents appear to be really successful at their own brat-breeding program. Children in the office destroy property, are noisy and distract their parents and their parents’ officemates from real work. Two words: lost productivity.

The TV show Inside Edition featured a report about an air traffic controller who brought his son to work and allowed the kid to issue directions to pilots handling incoming and outgoing aircrafts. And going by recorded conversations, the boy seemed really nice, even sprinkling his conversations with jokes.

There is a deeper issue than kids’ interference with work. Is the company responsible if something wrong happens to child while inside office premises during office hours? For example, what if the child ingests staple wires or gets trapped inside a faulty elevator? What is the responsibility of the parent when his/her child destroys company property? Will it just be forgiven because it was a child that committed the mistake?

And yes, coworkers' children who freeload at every opportunity (they join in the teambuilding, they are present at office parties, they use the computer, act a little too familiar as if they're inside mom and pop's legacy-to-be, etc.) really make me squirm. It smacks of parasitism. Being Filipinos, coworkers, no matter how deeply they are offended, just grin and bear the family assault.

My stand is for companies to prohibit workers from bringing children to the office except on prescribed family days and in cases of family emergencies wherein the child will be better served when brought to the office. If warranted, the company may also explore the possibility of establishing a daycare center within its premises.

The only occasions when children are welcome in the office are when they are Donald Trump's offsprings Ivanka and Donald Jr. Even then, The Donald brought them in only when they were already well-educated and able to contribute meaningfully to building the fabled Trump empire.

Otherwise, leave bringing-children-to-the-office to Bill Cosby in Kids Say the Darndest Things. I mean, duh, officetime isn't family bonding time.

Children are created to be bundles of joy not nuisances.

Department of Science and Creativity

2010-09-25T18:08:00.017+08:00

Delighted and a bit amused was how I felt when Myrna told me that the client for the Creative Writing Training was the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). “Hmmm scientists who want to be creative writers,” I texted Myrna back. I know that scientists are among the most creative people. Science, after all, demands copious quantities of creativity. But what use will creative writing be for them? Do they intend to create novels, plays and poems? Besides, creative writing is more for Ricky Lee than Roel Andag.

With the back-and-forth of text, chat and email messages between Myrna and me, I decided to give a hybrid creative thinking-feature writing training that was conducted at the DOST central office in Bicutan on September 23 and 24, 2010. Twenty eight (28) learners attended representing the various DOST offices in Luzon.

Though at training time majority of the participants were writing virgins , their final outputs are worth compiling and publishing.

Decoding brainteasers.

Engr. Jerry Mercado drafting his article titled E-Pass.

Hannah Altarejos leads her team in a vocabulary game called Taboo.

Rowena Guzman and Cherry Gonzales partner in the peer critiquing process.

Haziel May Natorilla emotively presents her article.

Boyet Prestado responds to my comments.

A participant laughing heartily in an Improv skit.

Oodles of noodles for afternoon snack.

Your comfort zone is your own prison

2010-09-16T06:46:00.007+08:00

In the zone

Once in a while we find ourselves in situations we consider uncomfortable. I feel queasy whenever I see blood. I become even queasier when there are copious quantities of the liquid. Yes, even the Red Cross type, those hermetically sealed in plastic pouches. Comfort, or discomfort for that matter, however, is relative. Unlike me, a doctor, police officer or Rosa Rosal will not flinch at a bloody scene.

This is the essence of a comfort zone – a general condition where a person feels confident and unthreatened.

Imagine yourself standing inside a circle drawn on the pavement. Assume it is your comfort zone. It is where you feel safe and contented. You deliver satisfactory performance inside the circle. Once you step out of it you become unsure and insecure. You stumble.

Because I am not adequately exposed to such experience, seeing blood throws me out of my comfort zone. My system goes haywire. If required, I may not be able to apply first aid – never mind that I have attended a first aid training and even triage.

How we got here

I don’t know anyone who has decided beforehand that this and that condition will be his comfort zone. So how do we exactly get there?

Each of us is an actor. And we act according to the instructions that the director gives. I should say “directors” for there are several. These directors include our parents, teachers, priest/pastor, non-personal influentials such as media and daily experience, places of origin and residence (including prevalent customs, climate and cultures) generation (Baby Boomers, Gen X, Y, etc.), ethnicity, profession, and sexuality – just to name some.

Directors provide us with scripts, which we internalize as we trudge along life. But each of us also has our own script. Yes, we participate in the writing and rewriting of the script. (Well, some are passive – they just let the directors shape them without restrictions.) We are mostly unaware that this is happening every day.

In the long run, these directors and scripts determine our comfort zone. It can be summarized in this formula:

Lifetime of external scripts (how others see me)
+Lifetime of internal scripts (how I see myself)
=MY SELF IMAGE or COMFORT ZONE

Broadening the zone

We are intelligent beings. We can sense danger from afar. When this happens we click on our “fight or flight” switch. The decision is either to prepare for a head-on collision or to flee. Slugging it out and turning away each have their merits, especially when it is a matter of life and death. And everything has to do with how broad or how narrow our comfort zones are. A danger is something out of the imaginary circle, way out.

It all goes down to exposure. I can imagine that Barack Obama, being the leader of the free world, has an expansive comfort zone. His scripts have in-line texts about Afghanistan, Iran, the recession, Israel-Lebanon, possible reelection, Michelle, Maliah and Sasha, being an African-American, 9-11, etc. Because we, mere mortals, aren’t as exposed as him to these scripts, we may find it utterly uncomfortable dealing with the situations that he faces.

So that we can become better persons, it is important that we keep on broadening our comfort zones, continually enlarging the circle. Let’s not automatically shirk away from things with shock factors. Let’s get ourselves exposed, no matter how gradual. I’m not saying that because drug addiction makes us uncomfortable then we have to start with small doses. No. Let’s choose our exposures. Let’s focus on things that are helpful to our careers, our families and our life in general.

Do away with the scripts! Be self-directed! Take on bolder assignments and challenges. As the circle expands, decide to step out again. Always redefine your demarcation line or erase it altogether. You will be more prepared when the biggies come. Be proactive. Successful people are actively involved in shaping and reshaping their lives.

Whether stepping out of the circle comes as a gentle nudge or rude push, deal with it. Life should be a continuous evolution and growth. Inside the circle you perform okay. Greatness awaits you outside of it. Do two things the next time you feel uncomfortable: One, reflect – but don’t linger, and two, make your move!

Students and the young are my peeps

2010-09-13T08:47:00.006+08:00

While the rest of my fellow working people were enjoying the long weekend (Sept. 10-12, 2010), I was at work tweaking my training modules on the 10th and 11th and running the actual training on the 12th, a Sunday no less. I was just so glad to be working because it was for the benefit of student journalists of St. Paul University Manila. I trained them on feature writing.

I have a soft spot for students. I want to make their life easier. Studying itself is already challenging, and balancing academics and extra curricular activities even more so! Also, as much as possible, I don't want them to experience what I went through during my college and graduate school days when people, especially interviewees and resource persons for my projects, would make my life difficult. Some people played hard to get - I sometimes felt as if I was asking them to join me in a blood compact. That is why, whenever a school invites me to speak, I graciously agree. I find time. In the past I have been speaker in Ateneo, La Salle Taft, my local elementary and high schools during their graduations, and yes, St. Paul University Manila, St. Paul University Quezon City, and St. Paul College Pasig (where I spoke to over 300 teachers of the St. Paul network nationwide).

So there I was yesterday with these student journalists - eager beavers who were all very enthusiastic to learn.

Early morning energizer. It being a Sunday, a day of rest, I had to infuse adrenaline from the very beginning.

I once was a student journalist, too. So, for me, it was a sort of coming full circle.

Interviewing a participant.

Using Sunday Inquirer Magazine to stress a point.

Workshop mode.

A participant presenting her draft. The outputs were really good.

Family photo. Being with the young keeps me young. There were 20 participants - 18 females, 2 males. Gender bias in campus journalism? Hmm...

Bonus: I got to see again my friend Tarra Quismundo of Philippine Daily Inquirer. She was the resource person on news writing. I was for the morning session and she for the afternoon session.

Like losing a vital body organ

2010-09-09T09:47:00.011+08:00

Amputees are said to still feel the pain of the vanished part. For example, a person whose leg has been removed still feels sensations in the leg even if it is no longer attached to his body. It is called ‘phantom pain.’

On September 1, 2010, I experienced phantom pain – mostly in my brain. The cause of my anguish was not a lobotomy but laptop crash. All I did was clean my laptop that morning by wiping it with a cloth especially designed for cleaning electronic gadgets. What happened next was totally unexpected – my laptop did not start properly and a box flashed with a message about NTFS loss of something like that. It was an endless loop of restarting in safe mode after that.

A laptop crash is simple yet utterly devastating. I almost choked thinking about files that I’ll lose – training modules, articles, and photos that I personally prize. My 9/1 experience was doubly troubling because this has happened to me before. The first time was in June 2009 in Davao City where I was attending a UNFPA training. The big boss in the country office was pressing me on a deadline, and I was about to email the document when my laptop hung (yes, this same laptop). Sensing that my nth attempt at ctrl+alt+del was not going to work, I yanked the battery pack out while the laptop was still on and simply put it back. I was not hoping for a miracle because I have done the yank-and-click routine so many times in the past and it always worked. For the first time, my computer quack-doctoring failed me. The laptop screen was blue, deep blue, showing nothing else but blueness. The big boss was already nagging me over the phone.

In Davao I was supposed to learn family planning commodities forecasting but what I learned instead was that there is a computer repair shop located next to Marco Polo Hotel where I was staying. My more important takeaway lesson was to back my files up by using an external drive.

As déjà vu, 9/1 brought flashback images of how I got my laptop - my Compaq was my prize from the 22 Wishes contest of the Philippine Daily Inquirer during its 22nd anniversary in 2008. This gadget confirmed for me the fact that the best things in life are free. My laptop is the gift that keeps on giving. And it helps me stay in business. This is my third laptop. The first one was an HP notebook ‘lent’ by Schering, the second one was an Acer that I bought when I started my consulting career. When I got my Compaq I gave my Acer to someone special – the feeling was similar to an organ donation.

My Compaq is so dear to me, dear enough to have politely declined two clients’ offers to provide me with a company laptop. 9/1 was pure anguish. The anxiety was made bearable by the comforting thought that I have backed up my files in my external drive. I learn my lessons well.

Fortunately, my client Synetcom, which is an IT company, has a stable of technicians. But they are always busy and the CD installer was in the possession of a technician who was in a business trip in Bangkok. Four technicians alternated in diagnosing my gadget-patient and assuring me that everything will be alright – as soon as the technician arrives from the kingdom of Siam. In the six-day waiting period, I have visited a computer repair shop that refused to even touch my patient because I no longer have my CD drive. In those six days I considered myself a cubicle cripple. My deliverance came on September 6 when a Synetcom technician ended my laptop’s near-death experience.

I don't get easily attached to objects, people, jobs, relationships or whatever else for that matter. It is perhaps because of my independence. It is so comforting that I will never become a candidate for that scary TV show called Hoarders. Garbage in, garbage out - that's me. If I don't need it I won't buy it. If I no longer have any use for it, I dispose it. It is so liberating to be unburdened of excess baggage. I am even planning to donate my mortal remains to Body Worlds for plastination when I die.

My necessities are few, my demands are minimal. I know how to live a spartan life. If I were to be stranded in the proverbial faraway island, I can subsist by relying on my skills and on my laptop - with wifi connection preferred.

I have become so dependent on this gadget that, without it, my life will rapidly deteriorate.

My laptop is now better than when I first got it. With the phantom pain gone, all I have to do now is buy a new battery pack.

Commuter Crash: Workers and the daily commute in Metro Manila

2010-09-06T08:42:00.010+08:00

Giddyup

As a commuter in Metro Manila, I have experienced these 'amusing' incidents:

- Sat next to a passenger with dog poop stuck to the sole of his left shoe. The stink made everyone dizzy. The poop guy did not have the decency to alight at the next station, or to wipe off the sickening produce before he came inside in the first place.
- Sat double sandwiched between four friends who kept on talking to one another while bathing me in saliva shower.
- A passenger sneezed right smack into my chest and just managed to squeak a weak "sorry." She was very sick.
- While grooming herself aboard a jeepney, a lady passenger seated to my right slapped me in the face using her still moist long hair. I almost expired. Cameron Diaz's flirty hair flip in Charlie's Angels flashed across my mind.
- My peripheral vision has seen eardrums vomiting brown goo.
- My newly pressed dress shirt looked immaculate when I rode the MRT at Taft station and, upon alighting at Shaw Boulevard station, my shirt was so crumpled from riders' frictions.
- A jolting jeepney brake threw me lurching into a passenger's abdomen, and en route to my rude landing, my left palm accidentally gripped another passenger's intimate part for support.
- I have been overpowered by a seatmate's 'unadulterated' body odor.

Commuting is a part of my life such that I choose to live in locations with maximum transportation convenience.

The commuting proletariat

Every working day, I join hundreds of thousands of workers based in Metro Manila as we crisscross roads and routes from home to work and vice versa. We have the humble choices of riding pedicabs, tricycles, multicabs, jeepneys, buses, trains and the Pasig River ferry. Ah, yes, some even ride the muscle-powered trolleys that ply the PNR railways.

We are so accustomed to commuting such that many of us have developed coping mechanisms along the way:
- Waking up and leaving the house early so as to beat traffic.
- Using the dead time productively by reading something (a novel, a book, free tabloids deposited at train stations, billboards, shirts, palms, Commuting for Dummies, Idiot's Guide to Adopting Stray Anacondas, etc.); by listening to instructional audiotapes (marketing, sales, Ikebana, etc.) or radio entertainment (I recommend The Morning Rush with Chico and Delamar of RX 93.1), by deleting messages in our cellphone inboxes, chatting up our seatmates with the hope that it could lead to something (ehem).
- Sleeping.
- Praying.
- Overnight camping within company premises so as to be punctual for the next workday (Uh-oh. Alright, not this one. Not yet.)
- Relocating to a nearby apartment.

It is such a way of life that it makes us unaware to the ill effects of commuting on our health and on our work. A recent Regus research reveals that regular commuting makes workers prone to experiencing frustration at work, makes them suffer more headaches and negative moods toward the end of the workday. The study found that 20% of office workers worldwide spend an average of 90 minutes in going to and from work everyday.

The cost of commuting

Ninety effing minutes!

In that duration, Henry Sy has already made millions and millions of money and 540 babies have been born around the country. If freed from the commute, imagine what one can do in 90 minutes. And 90 minutes is just an average. Someone who lives in Fairview, Quezon City and works in Alabang, Muntinlupa can spend three hours in transit. One cost of commuting is lost productive hours. Other costs include transportation expenses, salary deductions due to tardiness, medical expenses from stress and pollution-related illnesses, and, ultimately, job loss due to stress-related absences.

Given the situation, minimum wage earners are hit the hardest.

We work therefore we commute

The world of work in inextricably linked to the world of transportation, especially the daily commute. When looking for a job, applicants take company location into account. On the other side, companies try to reassure workers by providing shuttle services and transportation allowance.

Until we (a) decide to buy our own cars, or (b) decide to engage in a home-based enterprise, or (c) stop working altogether, we are bound to join MRT queues that mimic the Black Nazarene procession of Quiapo, to experience sluggish traffic, to grow pale during terrifying rides in vehicles driven by probably drug-addled drivers, and to compete with other riders for seats that acquire prime real estate value during rush hours.

Workplace honorifics and endearments: Please call me Madam, I insist

2010-09-02T10:41:00.006+08:00

Dahling, dahling

Gay fashion designers are fond of calling everyone ‘dahling.’ The young mistress calls her 70-ish benefactor ‘daddy’ while another mistress calls her 40-ish lover ‘papa’ or ‘papi.’ Anabelle Rama calls every female ‘day’ and every male ‘dong.’ Old aristocrats call every younger woman ‘hija’ and every younger man ‘hijo.’

To differentiate, terms of endearment denote fondness and equality (authentic or synthetic) while honorifics indicate power dynamics. Endearments and honorifics have spilled into the work environment. At the domestic work front: The au pair calls the male master ‘sir’ or ‘kuya’ and the female master…well, you get the drift.

Good morning Sir, good morning ma’am

In certain cultures, ma’am and sir are automatically given by virtue of sex. In England, the honorific Sir is reserved for the knighted nobles of the British empire, with Lady as feminine equivalent. In the Philippines, the male teacher is automatically called Sir and the female teacher Ma’am. In the Philippines, too, the male boss is usually called Sir; the female boss Ma’am. Once in a while, a lady boss prefers to be called Madam. I find madame quite silly and pretentious. Whenever I hear underlings call the boss Madam while Madam is not in sight, I imagine an aerosol loving matron with extra poundage and an airy aura. When THE Madam manifests, my guess is right on the money. I declare to myself: Lo and behold! And the mixture of scents of Madam’s parfum, foundation and aromatherapy oils assaults the nostrils of everyone within three-kilometer radius. The Madams may vary in age but the younger versions already bear signs of personality caricature and aspirations for live embalmment and immortality by mummification upon expiration. To many, the Philippines’ only real Madame is the other half of the conjugal dictatorship, she who believes in the fanciful concepts of the good, the true and the beautiful. Next to her, all other madams are phony aspirants.

Aside from sir, the male boss is called a variety of formal and semi-formal honorifics: boss, bosing, chief, tsip, amo. I haven’t yet heard of a male equivalent of madam. And what would that be, just in case? Datu? Lakan? Your Majesty? Okay, okay, Your Majesty is too stiff and Your Excellency is too official sounding. But why stop at monarchical honorifics when he can ‘politely’ insinuate on being addressed as Bathala or Panginoon? Call it corporate self-deification, the apotheosis of the mortal boss.

Endearing and honoring equality

There are offices where everyone calls everyone else Sir or Ma’am. In these instances, overt displays of power are usually discouraged or voluntarily withheld and power relationships are blurred at least to the outsider. There are instances, though, when I feel that calling one another Sir and Ma’am regardless of position encourages mockery and silent contempt. The honorifics become condescending. For, in our ‘credentialist’ and status-obsessed society, how can a manager truthfully call a janitor Sir without internally balking? The more a company professes equality among its employees, the more it announces internal power struggles and power plays.

Endearments, as I said, are our pronouns of fondness, and sometimes, equality. Pare, parekoy, tol, tsong, brader, bro and other such fraternal endearments are common among male officemates. Mare, girl and friend are the feminine equivalents. Endearments cut across the multiple levels of organograms. The omnipotent president can call the on-the-job trainee Pare without condescension. In fact, the president may be seeing his bygone youth in the person of the OJT. But will the OJT be comfortable in reciprocating the Pare? The OJT will remain reverential for reasons of the president’s seniority – in position and in age.

Talking of which, presidents of the republic have made it their practice to coin endearments to make them appear accessible to the masses. Tita Cory, Tita Glo and P-Noy are the easiest to recall. Ah yes, Erap was already Erap years before his political rise and fall. What was President Fidel Ramos’ moniker?

From Malacanang palace, let us visit the beauty parlor where The Madam satisfies her Spraynet addiction. Usually populated by gay workers, honorifics and endearments are hybrids within the parlor. Exclamations of mama (with a Spanish accent), mamu, mamush, madir, girl, girlalu crisscross between the worker and the boss. Workers would also, on occasion, call a customer Madam. Sometimes one cannot really tell if it is honorary or sarcastic (okray). In the font of beauty that is the parlor, papa has an altogether different connotation.

My darling kuya

Terms of endearment rub each person differently. I got goose bumps whenever my client’s matronly receptionist called me darling. As in: “Darling, hintayin mo na lang dumating si ma’am ha?” While it made me cringe, it made me realize that I’m such a darling. But then she called everyone that, except the janitor, whom she called Manong. Well, she alternated between darling and sweetheart. Every time I came to that office I always prepared myself for a surprise group hug. I’m not the honeybunch type.

I also have allergic reaction to the way older officemates call me kuya. It sounds so patronizing. It’s much like a parent who plays cutiepie with her two-year old offspring by calling him kuya. One word: ick.

In the many jobs that I’ve had, I have called my bosses Doc, Sir, Ma’am + nick name, and Sister (there’s just no other way to call a boss nun, is there?). Interestingly, our Indian boss at the United Nations was called Nanay by one and all. Play ‘We are Family’ in the background.

My consulting jobs have at times presented the minor dilemma of what to call my boss. You see, some of them have been my personal friends even before they contract my services. Calling them by their first name during office hours may rub them wrong. I don’t want to act too familiar and to appear as if I got the job on account of friendship. Will I call the boss the way her minions address her? Insisting on being thoroughly professional, my general rule is to ask the boss his/her preferred honorific. Majority would insist that I call them by their first names. Out of deference though, I use the prefix Ms + first name for the women and Sir for the men.

Kayo ang boss ko

There are times when we don’t mean what we say, or when we intention a slur. I know of someone who resents calling her superior Boss because she swears-cross her heart-hope to die feels that she deserves to be in her boss’ place.

Every office has its sprinkling of interesting people. I have some suggestions for secret honorifics. For the incorrigible office alpha male who thinks he is always right, reserve the name Your Holiness. Not because he is as pious as the pope but one pillar of the staying power of the papacy is infallibility. For the middle manager who exudes confidence within his workstation but loses his bearings in the presence of the boss, mentally call him His Royal Highness, The Cubicle Maharajah.

Beneath their cutesy and officious veneer, endearments and honorifics have dimensions of power, gender, culture, position, setting and self-image. If the pop icon will be based in the Philippines, her local staff will call her Ate Gaga.

SWAT and the cost of ignorance

2010-08-29T16:51:00.008+08:00

The Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) unit of the Manila police department demonstrated how ill equipped they were in handling the hostage crisis in front of the Quirino, while the world was watching in real time. So messy was the affair that the SWAT received criticism, to the point that the team was given a new name – Sorry We Aren’t Trained.

Cost-benefit analysis

“Too expensive!” seems to be a cookie cutter response by companies whenever training proposals are presented to them. It sometimes becomes futile for the training provider to explain the effort invested in crafting the modules and the effort of conducting the training itself.

To contextualize training investment, let me first enumerate just some benefits that a company can derive from superb training:

· Values seminars develop correct values.
· Corporate governance training result in stricter compliance with company policies and encourage ethical conduct.
· Leadership training broadens employees’ strategic outlook and polishes their take-charge behavior.
· Management training builds necessary skills in planning, leading, organizing and controlling.
· Teambuilding cultivates company harmony.
· Communication training elevates mastery of internal and external interactions.
· Customer service training promotes brand loyalty among clients.
· Technical skills and operations training optimize the use of production tools and machines and lessen occupational hazards.
· Time management training increases productive hours and reduces stress levels.
· Sales and marketing training breeds pride in the company’s products and services resulting in confident selling.
· Creativity training leads to innovative thinking.
· Stress management training energizes the workforce and reduces absenteeism.
· Work/life balance training boosts morale and retention.

Being mutually reinforcing, the net effect of these 'performance enhancing' interventions is business profitability, sustainability and growth.

Compare that to its flipside where the company is unwilling to invest in training: misalignment of personal and company values, questionable conduct that result in legal battles, leaders who cannot lead, managers who cannot manage, silo mentality, messy communication, customer complaints, mechanical breakdown and workplace accidents, large quantities of idle time (but employees get paid anyway), insecure salesforce, conventional thinking in an ever changing world, haggard employees and rapid labor turnover. Overall effect: hemorrhage and bankruptcy.

If education is pricey, try ignorance

How much investment is fair? I believe that there is a gradation of training providers: Divisoria at the low end, SM malls in the middle and Greenbelt at the high end. Investing in training depends on the company’s ability to pay and its envisioned business results. But by and large, this maxim is true: you get what you pay for.

Here’s a peg: 1 to 3% of the company’s total annual payroll is considered decent training investment. This is based on the 2002 State of the Industry Report of the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD). The report surveyed over 375 major corporations. This translates to US$ 700 (Php36,400 @ 2002 exchange rate of Pph52: US$1) per capita per annum. This increases to US$ 1400 (Php72,800) per capita per annum in cutting-edge companies. The report was made in 2002 but the 1-3% remains the same. Actual amounts per capita per annum, however, need to be adjusted to reflect present value of money.

If formal education is lengthy, stop at Grade 1 and see what happens

How often should the company invest in training? IDC, a technology analysis firm, estimates a company will lose 10 to 30% of its capabilities per year. By year 3, only 41% of its original capabilities are retained and dwindling to only 24% by year 6. This is due to employee movement, process changes, technology changes and the deficiency of knowledge new hires. Competition is never ending and learning is a continuous process. Training should be a sustained investment. Ensure the soundness of this investment by ensuring the growth of the employees and the company.

The SWAT team lost a lot at the August 23 hostage crisis. Their lack of training betrayed them. Invest in training now to avert a major, major human resource disaster.

Confessions of a career nomad

2010-08-27T06:07:00.006+08:00

Photo taken on August 24, 2010 when I hosted a corporate event for Synetcom and Procera at New World Hotel, Makati (3rd from left, 2nd row)

Five jobs in a lifetime – that is the widely accepted average. I’m 34 years old and have held more than five jobs in my 13 years of working. Many of them don’t show in my resume, the brevity of these omitted employments make them negligible to even write down. Other people collect shoes, cars, houses, stamps and what-not. I collect jobs. Or so it seems. Am I merely flighty? Am I just being a Gen X’er who sees a portable job as antidote to career obsolescence? Am I suffering from some form of job-related ADHD?

My first paid job was in the summers of 1996 and 1997 when, as a beneficiary of the student employment program of the Department of Labor and Employment, I was data gatherer at the municipal assessor’s office of the local government of San Julian, Eastern Samar. I assisted engineers in mapping hectares and hectares of taxable agricultural land. I wondered if land area measured in a day was somehow related to the size of sunburn I sustained.

Even before my 1998 college graduation, two newly established colleges in the province accepted my applications to teach. I handled Constitution, Rizal and Economics for a semester. Out of paranoia that my students would question my credibility, I studied the subjects more diligently than when I was a student. But isn’t Constitution for lawyers to teach?

The post-graduation summer vacation that I hoped for never occurred. Weeks before graduation, a politician asked me to direct the local campaigns of the youth arm of his political party. Through juvenile teamwork, we contributed to the election of opposition candidates, including my father as councilor, to the municipal government.

Start up struggles

Emboldened by the euphoria of the election victory, armed with a commerce degree from an unknown college and an overflowing supply of rural optimism and audacity, I travelled to Manila in August 1998 to test my chances in the urban job market. My first job, which I got a week after I arrived in the city, was as proofreader in a huge printing press in Mandaluyong. The company produced cereal boxes and paper wrapped around fruit cocktail cans, among others. I opted for the night shift so I can look for a better job during the day.

Courtesy of a housemate, I got employed by an NGO to man its business center that offered community-based tourism services. Four months into the job, the organization was wracked with controversy that the boss was mishandling donor money. To think it was the boss who inspired me to enrol at UP Diliman to obtain a masters degree in public administration. Unmindful of the fact that I was still in my probationary period, I again job hunted. I felt my restlessness was becoming a bother to my brother who hosted me in his apartment in Diliman.

Another housemate who was employed in another NGO – a stable one – gave me rakets, mostly in the form of transcribing tape records of meetings and conferences. The steady stream of such odd jobs was manna to me. This was while I frenziedly applied for jobs and reported to my fulltime NGO job. No rest for a 22-year old beginner.

My applications resulted in short-term employments, short-term because I didn’t stay long in any of them. First, I worked as English teacher to non-English speaking Asians at a language center along Katipunan. I was already living in a ‘compact’ boarding house in Sampaloc so the commute was terrible and the pay was low. I lasted one week. Next, I worked as writer in a struggling family company that published a one-time coffee table book about the embassies in the Philippines and the countries they represented. The office was in Sta. Mesa so the commute was mercifully brief. The pay barely got me by. I stayed for two months max. Suffice it to say that I was ‘flyering’ my resume nonstop. I showed up at interviews left and right while attending night classes at UP. My neighbor acted as the telephone receptionist for my applications. Given the situation, a cellphone was a luxury.

Lucky break

One unremarkable afternoon, my neighbor-receptionist met me with obvious glee. Do I already have a new job? I asked. Batibot wants to interview you, she chimed. I applied to a kiddie show? I shot back. Yes, as researcher, she said reassuringly. I thought I unwittingly applied to become a mascot. I was losing track of my innumerable applications.

Two of us were hired as Batibot researchers, from a field of 80-plus applicants, we were told. A typhoon was brewing on my first day. I showed up at Batibot’s Cubao office, dripping wet from the waist down, holding a cheap umbrella that the wind turned inside out. It was in Batibot that I first felt that I was in a real job.

While working at Batibot, a former nun who was a consultant at the embattled NGO where I used to work offered me a side job as her research assistant. She was probably impressed with my outputs because she referred me for employment to another organization – the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP). I bade goodbye to Koko Kwik Kwak and the rest of the crew after two months of daily bonding. This was in September 1999, a little over a year since I arrived in Manila, with one year worth of dizzying work experience in the metropolis.

Social relevance

I worked at CBCP starting as researcher-writer. I learned advocacy work. My understanding of social issues took a deeper dimension. I was finally coming of age. I represented the organization in meetings where EDSA Dos was planned. It was my task to mobilize the 80 dioceses nationwide to conduct synchronized activities to support the ouster of then President Joseph Estrada. In my entire life, it was the first time that I felt significant. And yes, I met Pope John Paul II in Rome in October 2004, six months before he passed on. I was made program director for advocacy, research and communications in 2002. Also, with the backing of my supportive boss and five years of the numbing three-hour Intramuros-Diliman commute, I completed my masters degree in April 2004. I loved the job for its dynamism but six years of minding social issues on a daily basis has a way of dulling one’s sensitivity. I wanted a new job.

I started trawling job ads online. A headhunter advertised the need of a multinational pharmaceutical company for a communications manager who will set up its corporate social responsibility program. I didn’t know if CBCP turned me into a prayerful job hopeful but I prayed hard for the job, complete with a nine-day novena at St. Jude shrine near Malacanang. Was I that desperate to pray a novena for desperate cases? With the prospect of career stagnation in front of me, I guess I was. On the day of my first interview, I contracted amoebiasis. I was grimacing in the FX taxi on the way to the headhunter’s office and he actually noticed my paleness. I politely dismissed his correct observation and went right into the interview.

Corporate brat

The patron saint of desperate cases must have heard my prayers. In August 2005, I got the job after a very competitive process where I was pitted against doctors and lawyers. I was unaware that I would be jumping to the other side of the reproductive health fence. Where CBCP, under Church dogma, frowns upon modern contraceptive methods, Schering, the company I was joining, was the world leader in the manufacture and sale of oral contraceptive pills. The irony deepened my appreciation of my basic knowledge of the social doctrines of the Catholic church. I considered my new job as a balancing force to concretize my objectivity about the issue. At Schering I lived the life of a corporate brat, complete with the trappings of yuppie mobility and purchasing power. I was introduced to the principles of Peter Drucker, Stephen Covey, Jack Welch and other management and leadership gurus.

Alas my heady days were to end soon. After only a year with the company, murmurs of an impending merger and acquisition – where Schering was the company to be bought – were driving officemates to panic. Well, I must have panicked the most because, at the initial stirrings of the buyout, I quickly served notice to prospect companies that I was looking for a job. I was once again in resume flyering mode. Unlike my first resume seeding, this time was more systematic – I sent my resume only to top multinational companies. I had a lifestyle to sustain.

Knee jerk reaction? I thought about waiting the merger out and see if I’ll be offered a separation pay or something like that. But I figured I only have a year of service and would probably get a low separation pay, not enough compensation for the daily stress of reporting to a shaky job.

I assessed myself and came with the conclusion that I have what I call the anti-Midas touch. One of the schools in the province where I taught, the NGO, Batibot, and the book publisher all closed shop. And now this. Malas, may balat sa puwet. I was wallowing in self-pity and absolute uncertainty about the future of my career. Richard Bolles’ “What Color is Your Parachute?” was my new bible.

Accidental consultant

All of a sudden Chevron called me for an interview, but not for a fulltime job. The petroleum company proposed to contract my services as consultant who will systematize a collection of human resource policies that has been drafted by several authors and was gathering dust. I agreed to do it. The pay was good and the HR people seemed good, too. I resigned from Schering.

Chevron sparked my accidental consulting career. I got the word out and other clients followed shortly: DMCI, RC Cola, Manila Doctors Hospital, St. Paul University Manila, and Council for the Welfare of Children to name some. I had to set up a home office to systematize my practice. Learning from Jay Conrad Levinson of guerrilla marketing fame, I contributed articles to the Inquirer, accepted speaking engagements and networked like mad to get more and more clients. My ever expanding client roster included NGOs, corporations, universities, government agencies, churches, hospitals, a cosmetic surgery clinic and individuals. My one-man show was into training, corporate communications, organizational development, media relations, events production and career coaching. My assignments ranged from the glamorous to the, should I say, challenging. I once joined a team of World Bank contractors to test the readiness of rural populations to use solar electricity. One site was in a very remote barrio in Samar, reachable only by a three-hour ride by motorized banca and three hours more of travel on foot through thick forest vegetation. So remote was our location that one sub-team was held captive by communist rebels. In the crossfire between their captors and government troops, our teammates were able to escape shaken but unscathed. Having learned the hard way about this occupational hazard, we returned to Manila pronto.

Full circle

In August 2008, the headhunter who scouted me for Schering and later became my friend called me to check my interest in applying for a fulltime job at the United Nations Philippines office. A global financial crisis was aggravating job mortality. I thought a fulltime job made sense just in case a consulting famine ensues because of belt tightening measures. Much like the country’s economy, freelance consulting is a boom-bust cycle, a feast or famine proposition. I told my friend, yes, he can send my resume to his client. I got the job with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). But not the job I applied for. I was informed that I was a strong rank two contender for the position so they decided to offer me another position – one that will require me to relocate to Eastern Samar.

Wait. No Starbucks, no malls, no urbane friends, no nightlife, no fastfood, and a troubled UNFPA field office? I accepted the offer. Eastern Samar after all is my home province. It was a chance to be with my family. This is me coming full circle, I thought. Two months after the headhunter’s call, I started my provincial stint. Promoting reproductive health, gender equality, and population and development proved controversial even outside the cities. Through unrelenting effort, however, our programs made dents here and there. On the side, I established micro-businesses, spoke in my former schools and revitalized a human rights sectoral organization. After a year and a half in Eastern Samar, the call of the urban jungle reckoned once again. I missed the conveniences of the metropolis of my affections. As fulltime consultant, I joined the Philippines’ tuberculosis control program, which is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). My four-month contract with USAID concluded on August 5, 2010. Now I work as consultant for an IT company and a real estate company and offers for training engagements keep on pouring in.

Next career move

My credo is lifetime employability not lifetime employment. And I haven’t been unemployed since the day I started working. Shutdowns, buyouts, mergers, bitchy bosses and the uncertainties of consulting no longer scare me. I have mastered the art of job- and client-hunting. Will I work abroad? Will I engage in business? Will I return to the comforts of a fulltime corporate job? All of the above?

Others collect bric a brac. I collect jobs. But not for amusement but out of necessity to live a decent life, to avoid inertia, and to hone myself continuously.

I took a circuitous path. This has sharpened my skills in coping with change and dealing with different personality and management types. I picked a number of lessons along the way, one lesson stands out from the rest: there’s always a job out there. To get it one needs tenacity, resourcefulness, and competitiveness. Do prayers help? Yes, they calm the nerves. As for work fulfilment, I find immense satisfaction in each workplace. Today, unlike the economic reasons I had in the past, I leave a job only when I feel I have given enough of myself to it. This is my own revolving door policy.

I am well over the five-jobs-a-lifetime standard. I’m 34 years old, quite seasoned in the world of work but with a lot more to learn. I am a career nomad. My journey continues.

Career lessons from Malcolm Gladwell

2010-08-23T08:47:00.008+08:00

Three bestsellers teach career success

Malcolm Gladwell is the author of three bestselling books that offer a number of theories and concepts substantiated by human experience. Though he applies these theories to actual cases including crime rate in New York City, marketing of shoes, health epidemics, marital breakdown, and airplane safety, these theories and concepts are applicable in advancing one’s career. These three books – The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers – impart lessons in networking, personal branding, timing, decisiveness and success.

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

Published in 2000, the main idea of The Tipping Point is that a commercial product or new concept can only hit the jackpot when it reaches a critical mass. Tipping Point offers three major theories: law of the few, stickiness factor, and Broken Windows theory.

The Law of the Few states that "the success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts." These three people are Connectors who are excellent social networkers and are able to bring together various types of people, Mavens who have access to vast bodies of information and are happy to share this information in order to solve other people’s problems, and Salesmen who possess excellent negotiation and persuasive skills.

What lesson can the career-oriented person learn from this? It is that he has to have a Connector, a Maven and a Salesperson on his side. This means that his networking efforts, within and outside the workplace, have to be strategic and focused in seeking these types of personalities. What telltale signs should he look out for? The Connector is one whose influence spans across industries. The Maven is privy to insider information and is generous enough to share what he knows. The Salesman has this magnetic effect on people who tend to believe what he says and emulate his actions. Their support will be particularly helpful if you want to attain recognition and prominence. Their combined influence will spark a successful word-of-mouth campaign that will propel one’s career to a higher level. Is it possible for one person to be a connector-maven-salesman rolled into one? Once in a while, we get to meet an amazing individual who possesses all these qualities.

Do not relax even when your team of enablers is in place. Continue doing awesome work, up your game so that you are able to prove your worthiness and make your word-of-mouth team confident in helping you. This is related to Gladwell’s ‘stickiness factor’ or staying power. Only your excellent work will make employees and clients think of you ahead of others in your field.

The Broken Windows Theory tells us that even a small displeasing detail, when left uncorrected, can cost big time. First impressions last – 13 judgments are made about you within the first 30 seconds of visual contact. A casual visual appraisal has the power to make or break career prospects. Cultivating a positive image is a must. This includes manner of dressing, speaking, movement, thinking and attitude, all of which amount to a personality that attracts success.

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

The theory of thin slicing is the central focus of this book published in 2005. According to Gladwell, thin slicing is the human ability to make reliable snap judgments based on very little information. Job applicants are constantly subjected to thin slicing. Recruiters skim over resumes looking quickly for competencies, experience and resignation patterns. Knowing that competition for a single post is stiff, the wise job applicant sees to it that his resume instantly conveys an effective impact. During an interview, the job applicant is again thin sliced based on his appearance and the way he handles challenging questions. This is related to the Broken Windows theory discussed in Tipping Point.

The ability to thin slice is all the more important on the job. Decisiveness is precious in a world that changes at breakneck speed. Opportunities are squandered when fixating on the littlest details.

Outliers: The Story of Success

In 2008, Gladwell released Outliers, a book that explains extraordinary success. He gave examples of extremely successful people, they who defy the normal curve of statistics. Is intelligence the only key to extreme success? Obviously not. Outliers explains that hard work, supportive environment and magnetic personality are key ingredients as well.

In his 10,000-Hour Rule, the author explains that the piano virtuoso Mozart, the iconic Beatles, computer giant Bill Gates and Gladwell himself invested 10,000 hours of constant practice before they were able to become truly successful. Gladwell computes that this is equivalent to 20 hours of dedicated work per week for a span of 10 years. Now the question: Can this be halved to five years, when working 40-hours per week as we do in the Philippines? Of course, as long as the 10,000-hour rule is met. Constant and committed practice results in command, mastery and confidence.

Supportive environment – generation, family, culture and class – is another critical factor. The Net Generation is luckier than previous generations in the sense that they are able to benefit from technological advancement. But are they emotionally equipped for hard work? Children who grew up in a family that supports leadership pursuits have better chances of succeeding later on in life. If this requirement was not met, it is never too late for you to rally the support of mentors. Gladwell says it very well with this statement: “No one – not rock stars, not professional athletes, not software billionaires, and not even geniuses – ever makes it alone."

When one examines Filipino culture, these questions have to be asked in the context of career development: Does Filipino culture reward merit? Does it encourage creative thinking? Does it value ambition? Does it invest in education that teaches practical knowledge? Does it promote hard work and not instant gratification? As for class, it is well established that people who were well provided during their childhood and youth are likelier to achieve success because of the support given to them. Research has proven that children of poor families, though at par intellectually with their rich classmates at the start of basic schooling, tend to lag behind in the succeeding school year. Why? This is because poor families don’t have the means to send their children to summer school where important life lessons are learned. The career lesson here is for the individual to invest in continuous learning to stay relevant and competent.

Charisma, according to Gladwell, completes this formula of extraordinary success. Indeed, in our workplaces that are increasingly mechanized and automated, those who relate productively with people – colleagues, customers, suppliers and various other publics – are the ones who create value and are valued in return.

Gladwell’s books are instructive in our daily pursuit of becoming better individuals. Collectively, they provide a framework of success in our careers and in our lives. I am sure that his latest book, What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures, offers equally important insights that are applicable to the world of work.

Stress: Will you let the daily grind bring you to the ground?

2010-08-19T06:27:00.007+08:00

Perky at 6am, vegetable by 6pm

In Metro Manila, a worker wakes up before the sun peers through the morning smog; routinely takes a bath, grooms self and eats breakfast; rides a jeepney to the nearest train station and squeezes self into an MRT/LRT/PNR coach packed too close for comfort that the intestines of its riders seem to interconnect; takes another jeepney ride and walks two blocks to reach the office; enters building, goes directly to the restroom to retouch self and finally enters the office. Those who have cars navigate choked highways and endeavor to find good parking. (Meanwhile, at the opposite side of the street, a call center agent and a sex worker are competing for a taxi for a homeward ride.) All these happen before 8:00 am.

The 8 to 5 adventure varies according to occupation. A TV newscaster will bark out current events. A salesperson will have client calls. A teacher will try to discipline a gaggle of unruly kids. A security person will scan bags with a twig. A receptionist will take countless calls and screen out visitors who look like suicide bombers. A construction worker will mix cement. A social worker will absorb clients’ dramas. An engineer will measure things. A model will strut her stuff. A traffic officer will ensure that motorists obey road signs. A driver will bring passengers or goods to designated destinations. A fast food worker will take and serve orders and clean tables in between. A factory worker will attain his daily quota at the assembly line. An au pair will take care of the youngsters and see to the orderliness of the household. A beautician beautifies. An embalmer dignifies the dead. A manager will manage. A creative director will create. And on and on. Some of them will get scolded. Many of them will multitask between real tasks and Facebook and the cellphone. Lunch is usually rushed.

At the end of the workday, they will join the reverse rush hour when they start to worry not only of the terrible commute but also of the threat of pickpockets and other side street dangers. By the time they reach home, domestic stressors hit them on the face – the nagging wife, the philandering husband, stubborn kids, bills to settle, money to send to needy relatives. The day’s goings on is summarized in five syllables: “Langyang buhay ‘to!” (What a f***ed up life!).

Stress is inescapable…

Not everyone complains about it but everyone experiences stress, the negative one, which is called distress. A testament to the pervasiveness of stress among the working class is the popularity of pharmaceutical and other products that promise to eliminate or at least reduce stress levels. Stress is part of a worker’s everyday life. The person who says that his life is stress-free is surely a trust fund baby or a yogi who doesn’t have to worry about deadlines and the next paycheck.

Stressors vary: the exhausting commute, noise, obnoxious officemates, the literal weight of things being lifted, family problems, numbing (dumbing?) routine, upsetting change, extreme multitasking, technology overload, unreasonable clients, pressure from the boss, unbridled ambition, frustration over losing control, time mismanagement, mismatch between desired and actual job, and a lousy economy, among others. And I suspect, harboring wrong personal values.
A stressed out employee may lose control and wreck damage on officemates, office property and company image. The well documented August 9, 2010 outburst of Steven Slater, a JetBlue flight attendant, is an example of losing it. Details of the incident vary according to source but what is clear is that Slater lost his cool while preparing passengers for disembarkation at JFK International Airport when he cursed a passenger over the plane’s public address system, activated the slide in the emergency exit, grabbed two beers and glided down the inflated slide. Definitely no grace under pressure.

…and manageable

Is it in the company’s interest to help its people cope with stress? Or can it just say, Stress is natural so deal with it?

Stress among employees affects their fitness to work. In the long run, their performance falters. Chronic stress can lead to physical illness and psychological disorders that can result in absences and prolonged leaves. Or death.

So, the answer to the question clearly is a resounding yes.

Aside from the one-off stress management training and work/life balance training, the company should also institute sustained stress-busting and motivational activities that incorporate fun, creativity, socialization and physical exercise. I have even read about a company that invests in putting up sleeping pods where employees can catch a nap. If the company dares, why not include hypnosis in the mix?

Equally important, HR should spearhead a job analysis for better job matching. Beyond the legally mandated health services and health insurance, psychological stress debriefing should also be in place.

While it can be reasoned that certain industries are more stressful than others, every company is duty-bound to ensure the wellbeing of its workers. After all, minding the workers makes the workers mind the business.

As the company cannot possibly answer for everything, it is also the individual’s personal responsibility to watch out for stressors and stress signals and seek solutions. Clarify values and goals, rest, relax, prioritize, dial a friend, go to the gym, enroll in yoga, learn to meditate, watch a movie, bond with family, visit a psychologist – do whatever is necessary to reduce stress levels without harming others.

When it comes to stress, people are like dams. We do not reflexively react to stress. We hold it in as much as we could. Rashes may show and heart valves may corrode but we rarely lose it ala Slater. But this waiting-to-exhale practice is not a good coping mechanism because when we reach the breath-hold breakpoint the dam explodes and the flooding ensues. And as with floods, the raging waters do not choose its victims.

The daily grind inevitably compounds to an annual grind, and ultimately to a lifetime grind. Give in? Give out? Give up? Take charge! Do not let stress snuff you to the ground.

One last thing: Which is more stressful, having a job or not having a job at all?

Facebook faceoff (Part 2): Facebook’s impact on career prospects

2010-08-16T05:21:00.004+08:00

The tale of Rosabella the Great

Rosabella is understandably excited. The human resource officer of the company that she’s targeting called this morning to invite her to an initial interview tomorrow. As her excitement grows, Rosabella assembles her interview clothes and accessories while mentally picturing how she will dazzle the interviewer with her impressive qualifications and sunny disposition. With time in her hands, she visits a parlor to have her hair and nails done. She instructs the beautician to primp her good for the upcoming interview. For added measure, she stops by the church to ask God for guidance. Rosabella hums an upbeat tune on her way home. She’s not sure if she can sleep tonight, her excitement simply won’t settle.

As she closes her eyes, she doesn’t count sheep to put her to sleep. She visualizes the fat paycheck that she will receive. “The money in my bank account will move two decimal places to the right,” she sighs contentedly. She dozes off with thoughts of the snazzy job title, the office with glamorous interiors and the fabulous corporate wardrobe she will be able to put together.

“This is the day!” Rosabella exclaims smiling as she rises from bed. She takes a breakfast of cereals and fruits, takes a bath while humming Katy Perry’s latest hit, she slips into her interview clothes, puts on makeup to best emphasize her game face and makes sure that not a strand of hair is out of place. She thinks up a fitting moniker for herself: Rosabella the Great. Why not? She feels great! She dashes to the interview with a spring in her steps. A new chapter of her life is about to unfold.

The receptionist ushers her into the HR manager’s office. Rosabella takes in deep breaths and greets the HR manager warmly. The interview begins with standard questions such as “Tell me about yourself” and “Why would you like to have this job?” and “Tell me a situation where you blah blah blah” and so on and so forth. Rosabella tackles all these open-ended queries competently.

And then the HR manager drops the bomb: “What did you do in Puerto Galera last Saturday?”

Rosabella momentarily goes blank. Her sharp memory, however, provides an instant flashback. Images of a drinking spree and off-the-charts mischief flood her brain. "How did she know?" Rosabella asks herself.

The HR manager cuts Rosabella’s recollection edgewise. “You have a very interesting Facebook account,” the HR manager remarks. “I looked at it just before your interview,” she adds. Rosabella's mental recall fast forwards to vulgar pictures that she posted in her Facebook account, with matching naughty captions that invited nutty comments from friends.

At this point, Rosabella wants to throw up, her face pale. She feebly attempts to explain, her words unintelligible. The HR manager shakes Rosabella’s hand and says, “Thank you for your time. We will contact you.”

Rosabella fled from the building, her dejection growing by the minute. Her own one-woman cheering squad abandoned her in the middle of an aerial somersault. A damning Facebook account prevented the opening of the new chapter in the life of Rosabella the Recently Not So Great.

Big brother is watching

In a way, Rosabella was luckier than some. Other applicants don’t even get invited to an interview. HR junks their application outright after discovering “interesting” online facts.

Two years ago, on March 30, 2008, to be exact, the Philippine Daily Inquirer published in its Working People section my article Create a High Impact e-Persona. Facebook was still in its infancy in the Philippines. In the article, I reminded careerists that “HR professionals playing detectives trawl the internet to discover clues about your personality, especially when you are up for job interview or promotion…”

Indeed, the results of a December 2009 study by Microsoft Corp. confirm this:

- 79% of hiring managers and job recruiters review online information about job applicants before making a hiring decision.
- Of those, 70% said that they have rejected candidates based on information that they found online.
- The top reasons concern lifestyle, inappropriate comments, and unsuitable photos and videos.

At eight out of every 10 HR officer, these numbers are high. And, with the growing Facebook mania, I can only assume that these spy statistics will escalate.

What power is at work when an HR officer sleuths online? In his bestselling book “Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking,” author Malcolm Gladwell explains his theory of thin slicing, which is the human ability to make reliable snap judgments based on very little information. A Facebook account is the most accessible and easiest available thin slicing tool.

Click HERE if you don’t want to be like poor Rosabella.

So you still don’t believe that your Facebook account can cost you your job? The Philippine National Police ended the careers of a grand thief auto and a serial killer whose Facebook accounts led to their death and capture, respectively. Busted!

Facebook faceoff (Part 1): Facebook’s impact on company productivity

2010-08-13T04:54:00.003+08:00

Global invasion

There are 500 million Facebook users worldwide. By Time magazine writer Dan Fletcher’s comparison, if gathered in one geographic location, Facebook users will qualify as Earth’s third most populous country. The three most populous countries in the world are China (1.3 billion Chinese), India (1.2 billion Indians) and the United States (310 million Americans).

The Philippines is Facebook nation. While the US, with 128.9 million users, tops Facebook’s list of heavy-using countries, the Philippines ranks seventh with 15,935,880 subscribers. If using Facebook doesn’t require a computer, we will surely outdo our American counterparts. Hello?! We are the world’s text capital.

Hooked on Facebook

That Facebook is addictive is beyond doubt. The popularity of this social networking site is built on its habit-forming properties. Those of us who so love Facebook log onto our accounts even before the breakfast bacon is yanked out of the freezer – and we stay online for as long as there is electricity and as long as we have time

Of course, we always have time for Facebook. We always find time to get updated on our friends’ lives (who’s getting married, who broke up, who farted inside a packed MRT, who found an overseas job, who lost a job, who got robbed, who’s studying voodoo, who has a crush on whom, who’s this and that). We ‘Facebrag’ about our glitzy whereabouts – posting photos of faraway vacations enjoyed, fancy food consumed, society affairs attended. We forecast the fate of relationships. We lambast our bosses. We criticize our exes. We spy on our crushes (some even create bogus accounts to fish for juicy details). We express our passing fancies. We explain ourselves and ask forgiveness. We gloat about our archenemy’s terrible grammar. We network. We sell. We deal. We chat. We comment, we like, we lie, we play, we share and often overshare.

Spillover effects

At work, we flit in and out of Facebook. The distraction can become unbearable – the undisciplined will not accomplish the day’s official mission.

A UK survey revealed the following data:

- 2 million of Britain's 34-million workforce spent more than one hour on social media sites throughout their workday (including Twitter)
- Time lost (1/8 of office time) could potentially be costing British industries upwards of 14 billion pounds or US$22.16 billion.
- Only 14% admitted reduced productivity as a result
- 10% of respondents claimed a boost in productivity

An August 2010 Nielsen survey says Americans spend about six hours a month on social networking sites and blogs.

In the Philippines, it is estimated that government will lose over P103 million in terms of electricity expenses if all the 900,000 government employees use government computers for at least two hours of unauthorized online social networking activities. And that’s just two hours every month. The cost could go up as the hours accumulate. This is the computation provided by Marikina Congressman Miro Quimbo who passed House Resolution No. 184 that seeks to regulate the use of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter in government offices and government-owned and –controlled corporations (GOCCs).

Quimbo reasons that government employees’ unlimited use of the internet during office hours adversely affects their productivity and service quality.

The New York Times June 12, 2010, article As Gadgets Take Over, People Find their Focus Faltering explains that constant bombardment with online distractions diminishes a person’s ability to concentrate. The reduced ability to focus persists even when the extreme multitasker is offline. This unnecessary multitasking also causes stress. The same article reports a research result pointing to the fact that workers who use computers tend to shift among website windows nearly 37 times per hour. The same study established that, compared with light multitaskers, heavy multitaskers perform poorly in the face of distractions. And, compared with the lighties, the heavies take more time switching between tasks.

Doing the company maths

Let’s say you become interested in knowing Facebook’s impact on office productivity. Okay, let’s cover all unofficial online activities including visiting Twitter, Youtube, and other such sites. You can take two computational routes:

The first route is rather harsh and categorical: use the Pareto principle otherwise known as the 80/20 principle. This means that only 20 percent of employees contribute 80 percent of company productivity. Applying this in relation to distracting online activities brings us to the conclusion that 80 percent of employees meander online. The challenge here is knowing who among the employees compose this 80 percent. Well, the IT manager can help you with this. But isn’t this equivalent to a violation of a person’s right to privacy? The company lawyer would know.

The other route is more or less scientific:

Step 1. Pass around a simple survey form, piloting among desk-bound employees, asking them to identify websites, as in all websites, that they visit everyday.

Step 2. Ask them to mark those websites that they regularly visit for official business. This can vary according to the nature of business that your company is in.

Step 3. Ask them to estimate the cumulative time per day that they spend on official online business. Ask them to do the same for unofficial online activities.

Step 4. Obtain the average time spent on official business. Do the same for unofficial online activities. The two results are your collective time spent on official online business and collective time spent on unofficial online activities.

Step 5. Obtain the average daily salary of all employees surveyed. This is your across-the-board average daily salary.

Step 6. Determine a portion of the average across-the-board daily salary that corresponds with the average collective time spent on unofficial internet activities. The corresponding salary is the amount of lost productivity. You simply have to multiply the resulting lost productivity by 20 working days to obtain monthly wastage and multiply the product by 12 to obtain the annual loss.

You can pretty much do the same to obtain electricity cost by using corresponding power rate per kilowatt hour. This can also be applied to determine lost opportunity by computing average hourly sales. Well, why not factor in salary, electricity and lost sales to get a more complete picture?

Unlimited access vs. selective consent vs. wholesale ban

Faced with the Facebook dilemma, what is a company to do? There are three options:

Option 1: Unfettered access

A company can actually allow unlimited internet access as long as it trusts that online activities don’t interfere with productivity. The internet can in fact be helpful in stimulating creativity. Those who work on jobs that rely heavily on creative inspiration (such as marketing, advertising, fashion, and photography, to name just a few) may find the need to stay consistently online. Who knows, a friend’s account may unwittingly broach the idea for the next big thing in human experience? Some companies even set up their own corporate Facebook accounts.

Option 2: Selective consent

The IT person can install various types of restrictions. It can be time-specific (I know of a company that allows access to Facebook only during lunchtime) or site-specific (back in the early 2000s when I was working at the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, a crucified Christ and some Bible quote about temptation appeared onscreen whenever I attempted to open Friendster), or user-specific (only selected employees can have unlimited internet access) or other forms of selective censorship.

Option 3: Wholesale ban

The company will not allow any employee to access unofficial websites during company time. Sounds like a corporate North Korea, surely a mutiny in the making.

Whatever the option ultimately taken, concern for people and productivity has to be considered. After all, addiction feeds on human weaknesses and rehabilitation is usually accompanied with withdrawal seizures.

Part of work evolution

Facebook has its plus side. Careerists network successfully with headhunters and potential employers. Consultants (e.g. me) keep clients and prospects updated. Companies attract job applicants and consumers. Human resources can even tap Facebook as a creative tool for employee communications.

Facebook turned us into active online unflinching braggers, uber voyeurs, eager advisers, couch commentators, relationship analysts, photography critics, applications endorsers and God knows what else. Is it turning us into workplace laggards?

At work and out of it, Facebook has become a vital part of our daily lives. Whether one keeps a job or loses it because of Facebook, one thing is sure: Mark Zuckerberg is laughing his way daily to the bank.

I have a question: “What’s on your mind?”

(Watch out for Part 2 – Facebook’s impact on career prospects)

Photo credit: Meet the Introverts

Lunch can launch careers

2010-08-11T08:08:00.000+08:00

At the strike of 12 noon, thousands of employees who have been enclosed in their cubicles/hunched over assembly lines/squeezing their brains dry over meetings for the past four hours stand in unison and head toward lunch. No matter where or what it is - from the upscale Il Ponticello to the humble jollijeep, from a nearby mall to the neighborhood carenderia, from the frenetic fastfood to the relaxed office pantry, takeout food or packed meal brought in by the ambulant caterer, bought or baon or sponsored, warm or cold - lunch is the one office-time meal that everybody takes seriously, except by the self-starving fashionista who wants to shed off extra pounds, real or imagined.

More than the physiological satisfaction, the office lunch is equally important from a career point of view. Consider these:

1. It is during lunch that everyone is more relaxed than at other periods during the workday. It is accentuated by banter and is of a generally let-your-hair-down atmosphere. The latest Kris Aquino drama is discussed, those who are due for work and personal milestones (promotion, retirement, resignation, birthday, etc.) are ribbed, and controversial office memos are jokingly attacked. Owing to its cordial spirit, the underling may be emboldened to ask the boss about a bothersome issue, diplomatically and face-to-face of course. This is also an opportunity to ease office tensions.

2. Lunch, no matter how brief, is a deserved break after the morning madness and before the afternoon grind. And this may be the only regular period when everyone in the office gets together without any official agenda. This leads to better bonding among office denizens.

3. When an office clique dines out, it is an opportunity for them to update one another about office goings on. Of course, they engage in bitching about officemates they don't like but they also discuss company matters that they feel are important to them. It is often during this office barkada lunches that career plots are hatched ("Let's put up our own business.") and office tsismis are dissected. As a result, the gang establishes a groupthink that helps them weather office intrigues.

4. So as to throw K9 dogs off the scent, the star employee wisely schedules lunch meetings with the headhunter when being pirated.

5. Lunchtime is networking primetime. Remember your former officemates? They might have tips leading to your next job. Meet up for lunch. Neither early nor too late, lunch is also primetime for power brokering. Resulting amounts will be staggering if business deals made over lunch are documented and quantified.

Knowing the above reasons, never lunch alone. And don't rush it, lunch break lasts one hour.

Ah, if only the company allows siesta.

Sex and the office: The perils of office romance

2010-08-08T18:38:00.009+08:00

CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo was obviously hyper while reporting breaking news last Saturday (August 7, 2010) – Hewlett Packard’s CEO Mark Hurd was resigning due to sexual harassment arising from his illicit relationship with a former contractor. Hurd doctored expense reports related to the relationship. Bartiromo and her interviewees consistently pointed out Hurd’s excellent performance as HP CEO. HP, however, gives equal importance to brilliant performance and ethics.

Legal measures against sexual harassment in the Philippines

The Philippines enforces Republic Act 7877 or the Anti-Sexual Harassment Act of 1995. Section 3 of the said law states that: “Work, education or training-related sexual harassment is committed by an employer, employee, manager, supervisor, agent of the employer, teacher, instructor, professor, coach, trainor, or any other person who, having authority, influence, or moral ascendancy over another in a work or training or education environment, demands, requests, or otherwise requires any sexual favor from the other, regardless of whether the demand, request or requirement for submission is accepted by the object of said act.”

“In a work-related or employment environment, sexual harassment is committed when the sexual favor is made as a condition in hiring or in the employment, reemployment or continued employment of said individual, or in granting said individual favorable compensation, terms, conditions, promotions, or privileges; or the refusal to grant the sexual favor results in limiting, segregating or classifying the employee which in any way would discriminate, deprive or diminish employment opportunities or otherwise adversely affect said employee…the above acts would result in intimidating, hostile or offensive environment for the employee”

A woman can also avail herself of the provisions of RA 9262 or Anti-Violence Against Women and their Children (VAWC) Act of 2004. The law defines VAWC as “any act or a series of acts committed by any person against a woman who is his wife, former wife, against a woman with whom the person has or had a sexual or dating relationship, or with whom he has a common child, against her child whether legitimate or illegitimate, within or without the family abode, which result in or is likely to result in physical, sexual, psychological harm or suffering, or economic abuse including threats of such acts, battery, assault, coercion, harassment or arbitrary deprivation of liberty.” A dating relationship means that the couple are living in without the benefit of marriage or they are romantically involved over time and on a continuing basis during the course of the relationship.

These laws, however well-intentioned, are nothing more than legal jetsam and flotsam because most women are not courageous enough to report cases of harassment. They opt to keep mum about this ugly experience because of the social stigma that it breeds, the discouraging lengthy judicial processes, threats from the perpetrator (especially when the guy is using videotaped sexcapades as a tool of blackmail), and need for job security. The company perpetuates the situation when it plays deaf and blind, or worse, concocts a cover up, than risk unfavorable publicity.

On the flip side, these laws can even be used as tools of vengeance by the discontented party. It is up to the courts to decide. That is if the accusation ever reaches a court.

Le scandale

Allow me to attempt to categorize office affairs:

(a) According to sexual orientation (heterosexual, homosexual, pansexual);
(b) According to the civil status of those involved (both parties are single, both parties are married to their respective spouses, one party is married while the other is single);
(c) According to company designation (boss and boss, boss and underling);
(d) According to level of exposure (a well kept secret which concealment rivals the Interpol’s confidentiality protocols, and open secrets where either or both parties flaunt the affair as evidence of personal desirability and conquest, thereby mistaking officemates’ toleration as wholesale acceptance);
(e) According to company affiliation (insider and insider, insider and outsider such as job applicant, supplier, contractor, competitor);
(f) According to age (between a cougar/couguy/cougay and a cub or between two persons of the same age bracket).
(g) According to duration (long-running, one-night stand, and repetitive one-night stand, uh-oh); and
(h) According to level of emotional involvement (serious or casual).

One will be able to describe the dynamics of any office affair by combining any or all of the above. Permutations are plenty. Example: Sir A, who is the manager of the Marketing Department and is very much married, maintains a relationship with a supplier. Sir A is near retirement and the woman is 30-ish. They’ve been together for about a couple of years now. They love each other well enough as to carry out their relationship as an open secret.

Except in dynastic family corporations where business and family relationships incestuously intersect, relationships between two officemates tend to be messy affairs. First, emotional involvement can get in the way of productivity by way of absences and high drama that can affect office atmosphere. Second, those involved in this kind of relationship are susceptible to the temptation of using company resources – time, money, company car, among others – in pursuance of the affair. Third, in order to curry favor with or under pressure from the beloved, the lover engages in corrupt practices including granting undeserved promotions, nepotism, and rigging of biddings to award contracts. Fourth, legal issues arise when a wronged party (in cases where a wife or husband finds out that a spouse has an office lover) files accusations of bigamy, concubinage or adultery that may embroil the company in the process. Fifth, the “loved” one may file a sexual harassment case.

Which is why, while they do not intend to interfere, companies are proactive in knowing personal relationships among its employees so as to avoid or address the above scenarios. These proactive measures include something as routine as asking an applicant is he is related with a current employee, to something as simple but creative as a confidential 24/7 ethics hotline, to something as decisive as a disciplinary action, including termination of the guilty party.

Evolution, sex and professionalism

Left unchecked, an office romance squanders company goodwill internally and externally. They may even affect company value – while Hurd’s resignation was beginning to come out, public trading of HP stocks was halted.

Office affairs demoralize staff. I should know. I resigned from two organizations when an officemate had illicit affairs with outsiders but the organizations ignored the misdeed. Yes, I’m referring to one person.

In the light of the fast diminishing currency of delicadeza, we cannot expect corporate perpetrators to do a Hurd, which is to own up to the misdeed and resign. In the Philippines, we live in a macho society that feeds on a culture of silence.

Sex is a natural physiological urge that needs to be satisfied. In fact, it is scientifically established that humans are naturally predisposed to extra pair copulation (EPC), an evolutionary impulse to have sex with several partners – one at a time or in orgy – to ensure the survival of the species. But do we reflexively bang anything that moves? Over time, legal and moral restraints have been developed to maintain civilized workplaces and societies.

Mark Hurd is a cautionary tale. There is a lot to learn from his case.

(NOTE: I conduct Gender Sensitivity in the Workplace training. Contact me should you need a copy of a Tagalog FAQs about RA 9262 or Anti VAWC act. I made the material when I was still with the UNFPA, an international organization that promotes gender equality.)

Networking for consultants

2010-08-05T10:06:00.006+08:00

Consultants are individuals who offer professional advice and services. When working freelance, the constant challenge to a consultant is the sustainability of his practice – the kind of sustainability that results from a reliable profit stream and project pipeline. Professional networking is one of the strategies at his disposal. A combination of knowhow (skills and competencies) and know-who (people in his network) make a well connected consultant.

Here are what professional networking is and isn’t:

1. Purposive

As a consultant, your purposes are to expand your network and generate business. As such, your networking effort has to be focused. Zero in on the industries and companies that you have pre-identified as your markets. The ultimate networking objective is to talk to the decision makers. If this is not immediately possible, rely initially on insiders who can bring you nearer to the objective. Precisely because they have been approached by networkers in the past, insiders may adopt a standoffish character. The key is to know what the company needs. Look at the company website and use Google search to know more about it. By the time you approach the insider or the decision maker, you are ready to make a substantive pitch. Professional networking is not random seeding of business cards, shallow conversations and speed dating.

2. Reciprocal

Don’t call your contact only when you need something. Users are easily spotted and avoided with such fervour. What inputs do you bring into the table? First of all, offer solutions – not necessarily the ones you can profit from. People in your network may have the answers to other people’s concerns. Acting as matchmaker is one way of giving. Promote others while promoting yourself. The next time you need something, people in your network will be more than happy to help. They know they can count on you. A reminder: relying on the patronage or ‘padrino’ type networking will not be beneficial in the long run. You will get mired in undue ‘utang na loob.’ Professional networking is not about exploiting other people and the connections they have.

3. A contact sport

It takes real daring to engage in networking. What will give you the required audacity? It is confidence about yourself and your services, polished communication skills that include empathic listening, raw energy and trustworthiness. Only when you are well equipped will you have the courage to approach CEOs and high-level decision makers. It is a contact sport because you are competing for business. You have to optimize each strategic networking opportunity. You have to be always willing to expand your network. An insurance agent once told me that he makes it a point to meet at least three new individuals each week to build his network. As a contact sport, networking is not only about learning – it is about action and results. Ask for something solid – a follow-up meeting, a chance to present, tell them what you need. Networking is a contact sport governed by business etiquette. An example of which is not giving a person’s contact details without that person’s permission. Networking is not for the faint-hearted.

4. Exponential

The value of a network can roughly be quantified as the potential and actual revenue from each business that the connections represent. Because of its multiplier effects, its value compounds as the network expands. The book ‘The Rainmaker’s Toolkit’ computes that a person with 500 people in his network can make 124,750 matches. That means that you either have a 500-strong network or you get connected to someone who does. Imagine the referrals potential. There is a 400% cost difference between generating business with referrals and without. Tapping into a network means that you cultivate agents and champions of your consulting practice. Professional networking is not merely geometric.

5. A process

Attending corporate events, updating business cards, collecting industry directories and targeting prospects are just but steps in the networking process. Networking involves pursuing leads, delivering the goods, sustaining meaningful relationships, and continuing to be useful. Professional networking is not a one-off event.

The networking-savvy consultant will reap a lot of benefits including solid reputation and business viability.

The guilty guilty pleasure of boss bashing

2010-08-02T07:43:00.006+08:00

Bitch, sonofabitch, devil incarnate, bastard, motherf****r, s**tbag, Cruella de Vil, Baal, Satan – these are just few of the terms of endearment people use to signify their fondness for the utterly hateful boss.

A boss becomes an employee’s object of hatred for any number of reasons: complete absence of leadership and management skills (blames employees for mistakes big and small and wouldn’t acknowledge employee’s contributions), unreasonable demands (tasks the employee to ensure that sun shines during a company event), mixing business and personal affairs (asks the employee to arrange a mistress’s vacation in Pyongyang), involving underlings in illegal activities (making the employee a bagman or drug mule), emotional ineptness (resulting from a traumatic childhood), or even repulsive fashion (non)sense. This list is endless. Perhaps the hatred is mutual.

Majority of aggrieved employees vent their anger by telling someone else about their sorry excuse for a boss. Boss bashing is a fun pastime. And convenient too! What with Facebook’s chatbox and countless telecoms promos. An affected employee sends copious amounts of invectives about the bitchboss to family, friends and colleagues. Duh, he may even sponsor snacks, lunch or dinner just so he can meet “like minded” people to whom he can personally share his misfortune of working with a persona non grata. Boss bashing is often done to generate sympathy, to let out steam, and to feel a sense of revenge. It is a guilty pleasure. Boss bashing serves a purpose – it builds the employee’s resilience. This can anesthetize him from taking offense of the indignities that the boss hurls his way.

Venting verbally is the closest an employee can get to, God forbid, bashing a skull with a laptop. Awful awful!

I can’t tell what it is with me but I seem to be a preferred sounding board for friends and colleagues who complain about their bosses’ badmouthing, backstabbing and general lack of goodwill. Make no mistake about it. I can also be a whiner when the situation warrants. I have protested about bosses who are creativity killers, who are obsessive compulsive about results but do little beyond endlessly talk in a shrill voice, and who are generally unsupportive. I uphold the confidentiality of my friends’ and colleagues’ boss bash and I confide my own to my brother and sisters who work in industries different from mine. I cover my tracks.

I’m wondering if an entrepreneur has already thought of making a business of a boss bashing hotline that listens to rants and dispenses sensible advice. The lines will be always clogged with calls. Talk about truly irate callers.

The boss from hell makes the workplace, well, hell. But does that mean that an employee can boss bash no-holds barred? No. Even wars between countries are governed by rules of engagement. I suggest the following boss bashing etiquette:

1. Make sure that you are not just being oversensitive or balat sibuyas. The boss's wrath is directed your way perhaps because you are a non-performer in the company, a liability rather than an asset. Introspect. You may be the larger part of the hate equation.

2. Never let your temperament loose. Office rage is not a pleasant sight and the aftermath – legal and possibly medical – can be financially and professionally costly. Never ever snap. Unless you're working in Iraq.

3. Be careful with your disclosures. Hate text and hate emails are often unintentionally sent to the hated boss. If this happens, the experience will haunt you for a long, long time. Also, choose the ones you share the venom with. Talking to HR about this can be very unwise. As I’ve said, cover your tracks. Leave no evidence behind – no Facebook posts, no Twitter tweets, no blogs, no unattended cellphones or diaries on your desk.

4. Attend and learn thoroughly from conflict resolution trainings. Enough said.

5. Resign if you can no longer bear it. But before this, have you talked with the boss about your hate-hate relationship? And by talk, I mean in a dispassionate manner. Lay out your cards, not in the hope of reforming the incorrigible boss but to unload yourself of the emotional burden so that you won’t dump the garbage at the next workplace.

6. End the anger. No, do not have the boss assassinated. What I mean is to not carry the anger on. End it when you leave. Don’t do it to your employees when you become the boss. Do everything you can to avoid becoming your hated boss’s clone.

Be rational, be calm, be discreet, grin and bear it, leave. But make sure that your soon-to-be former boss does not have the clout or petty ego to ruin you in the industry or at least to your future boss. If it’s any consolation, Hitler committed suicide. Karma does come around.

Looking, prospecting

2010-07-28T11:22:00.007+08:00

My consulting contract with my current client will end next week -- on August 5, seven days from today to be exact.

I've been with USAID-TB LINC (that's United States Agency for International Development - Linking Initiatives and Networking to Control Tuberculosis) since April 5, 2010 as fulltime consultant. I'm contracted to facilitate the government's National TB Reference Laboratory (NTRL) in producing its first ever strategic plan.

This stint taught me a lot, it being my first time to work with doctors and medical technologists, and on TB. The technical terms alone, especially in the context of laboratories, were more than enough to grapple with. Aside from what I have learned technically, what I also value is that this job doubled my previous salary. And the people I work with are nice. Most important, I credit USAID-TB LINC for plucking me out of my previous job as programme coordinator of UNFPA's field office in Eastern Samar where I was growing increasingly uneasy, career-wise.

Which brings me to THE END -- that is past approaching. What am I doing in in this situation? Panic? No, I'm preparing myself for more graces to pour in. I'm busying myself with the following:

1. Sending out feelers, like this one, to potential clients. Contact me anytime if you need my services.

2. Brushing up on my consulting skills by reviewing these books: Million Dollar Consulting Kit by Alan Weiss, Guerilla Marketing for Consultants by Jay Levinson and Michael McLaughlin, and Consulting for Dummies. Nothing replaces sharp skills.

3. Improving my existing training modules and creating new ones. I regularly review my modules to see what can be tweaked so as to effect better learning. I'm also crafting new modules in anticipation of client needs. This is enjoyable because training is my passion but the preparation of materials requires time, creativity, patience and undivided attention.

4. Embark on a service roadshow. It is during lulls like this when I can speak in schools and to groups. The purpose is to reach more people and create networking opportunities.

5. Revisit my existing network. The 1 1/2 years that I spent working in Eastern Samar gave me very little opportunity to keep in touch with my Metro Manila network. God knows I barely even touched this blog during those 18 months of rural adventure. Well, that has changed since I arrived four months ago. I have reestablished some professional and business ties (and here's hoping to create new ones) that I hope will lead to profitable projects.

6. Update this blog regularly. Ah, this is therapeutic.

7. Rest in between these endeavors. I'll take advantage of this chance to recharge. There are movies to watch, perhaps one beach to visit, friends to see, songs to sing and food to eat.

So far, I have received some feelers. But this is too early to celebrate or even disclose. I look forward to work, fulfilling work.

A very revealing, pro-labor SONA

2010-07-27T08:11:00.007+08:00

The State of the Nation Address (SONA) is a very important speech in that it summarizes the State’s state of affairs and contains policy pronouncements by the executive department thus setting the agenda for the ensuing period.

President Noynoy Aquino’s first SONA was very revealing, pregnant with meanings said and unsaid, and decidedly pro-labor.

Revelations

The President started his SONA with revelations that are explosive and are likely just the tip of the iceberg. His speechwriters employed a problems discovery-solutions approach, and a name and shame tactic addressed to MWSS officials.

Appeal to workers

In my blog article yesterday, I enumerated certain labor-related facts and expressed my hope that, through his SONA, President Aquino will give attention to the labor sector. As it turned out, his SONA had a labor and employment theme.

>> By his greetings “My fellow workers in government,” the President places himself at the level of government employees, and by extension, to all of us who are tasked to serve.

>> He revealed that each MWSS trustee receives a monthly salary of P98,000, an annual grocery allowance of P80,000, a per meeting honorarium of P14,000, and bonuses. All these amount to P2.5 million every year, plus company car. The President masterfully contextualized this mind blowing perks by comparing them to those received by ordinary workers. He appealed to the delicadeza of the MWSS officials concerned. Sadly, delicadeza is a rapidly vanishing commodity among government officials. This reveals a lot about our values and how we apply them, consciously or otherwise, to our jobs.

>> The President reported imminent public-private partnerships that he projects will redound to income for government that will then be invested in human resource development.

>> He promised that his administration aims to do the following: stimulate tourism, agriculture, and transportation; improve tax collection efficiency; cut the bureaucracy that hijacks the momentum of build-operate-transfer initiatives; simplify business name registration; improve the education system by, among others, adding two years more to basic education (this may mean the introduction of Grade 7 in elementary and 5th year high school); pursue peace in Mindanao and solve the insurgency problem (this will enhance investor confidence by ending revolutionary taxes, stabilizing the volatile peace and order situation, and putting a period to the burning of satellite towers and other such tactics of harassment); ban cartels and monopolies (this will broaden laissez faire and free market forces); and strengthen whistleblower and witness protection policies (this will have wide implications in government and corporate operations as it will curb pyramiding, insider trading, money laundering and other corporate abuses).

>> The Aquino administration also promises to end extravagance and wastage in goverment.When all of this will be done, their cumulative effect will be the empowerment of the labor force and creation of jobs. I just hope that it will not take too long for these dreams to become reality.

Spoken and body language

The SONA was straightforward and simple. The start-to-finish use of Tagalog captivated the masa audience. This is consistent with his inaugural speech where he used the term wangwang. This time he used “tongpats,” which is sidewalk talk for bribe or padding.

The President’s body language revealed that he is still learning on the job. This, after all, was his 26th day in office and his first SONA. He showed hesitation when he rose from where he was seated sandwiched between Cong. Sonny Belmonte and Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile. At one point he squinted at the direction of the teleprompter but his eyes were extra expressive whenever he talked about the anomalies of the previous administration. There was also at least one point when he paused, seemingly waiting for an anticipated applause, which did not come.

A glass of water was waiting readily on top of the lectern. If reports are true that he practiced his speech at his Times St. residence during the flashflood that temporarily submerged parts of Metro Manila on July 25, this means that the thirst was anticipated. The thirst obviously caused by the hurried pace with which he delivered his speech. This evidenced in several mispronounced words and the undue stressing of re-ko-di-pikasyon. This word must have been a bump even during his rehearsals.

Used strategically, hand gestures are very effective in emphasizing points. I may be mistaken but there was not one moment that I saw the President’s hands, except when he took that much needed drink. Where did he put them? In contrast, former President Arroyo was a vigorous hand gesturer, what with all the props both human and technological. What I noticed about the former president is that whenever she rested her right hand, it was a firmly clutched to the side of the top of the lectern.

As for the body language of Arroyo’s defenders, I’m sure they were squirming in their seats. Including the turncoats who abandoned their former master.

Final appeal

Nearing the end of his speech that was punctuated by 32 rounds of applauses, the President appealed to Filipinos to demonstrate pakikipagkapwa, which is our collective value of empathy and mutual support. He said that pakikipagkapwa includes the act of helping the less fortunate obtain education, education that will help them join the labor force, with their income turning them into consumers who contribute to the national economy.

He parted with a statement saying that the climate is ripe for being ambitious again, that the Filipinos can dream again. Hopeful, it seems, is the overall state of the nation. This was seen in his electoral mandate and the high trust rating that the President continues to enjoy.

As a worker, am I inspired? Yes. As a Filipino, am I motivated? A bit, for now. Parang may kulang. What's sure is I’ll be watching how these promises will be translated into reality. I will definitely watch how the presidency grows into him. Only when I am satisfied will I be able to say YES and YES! At this point, I give my enthusiastic Yes to the President’s haircut.

A President to inspire the workforce (SONA 2010)

2010-07-26T07:54:00.005+08:00

8.06 am - Majority of us will be glued to the TV today – watching President Noynoy Aquino deliver his first State of the Nation Address (SONA). I’m sure his speech will contain a lot of things and analysts will have a field day interpreting every sentence and paragraph. Personally, I listen to what a leader says and does not say. More than the words, body language convey a wealth of meanings. On purpose, there were SONAs I ignored. But for those that I watched, my attention is focused more on labor or employment for the singular reason that it has everything to do with the real state of the nation -- poverty reduction, economic growth, agriculture, good governance, environmental protection, women, the youth, and many other things beside.

The following statistics define the labor situation in the country today. This is the backdrop against which President Aquino is delivering his first SONA and starting his presidency:

> 2.83 million Filipinos were unemployed in 2009. This worsens the poverty situation.

> There are more jobless women (19%) than men (16%). This means that the economy is not able to benefit fully from women’s potential to contribute to it. Perhaps this can be remedied by the passage in 2009 of Republic Act 9710 or the Magna Carta of Women that contains provisions to address women’s right to decent work. But having beautifully crafted laws is one, implementing these lovely laws is another. It would really be good if the new administration will take policy implementation seriously.

> The 2006 Labor Force Survey showed that 1.5 million kasambahays, most of whom are women, work in households all over the Philippines. They contribute 13.73% of total wage employment in the private sector. Domestic workers contribute meaningfully to the economy despite the fact that many of them do not receive the decent treatment they deserve.

> Unemployment persists especially among the youth. Of the 2.83 million unemployed in 2009, more than 50% were 15-24 years old. Yes, yes, it’s illegal to employ those younger than 18, that’s child labor. The 15-24 age range is how statisticians segment our population. I’m sure, however, that children continue to work in order for their families to make ends meet. The country’s idle youth are prone to engaging in risky behaviour, both sexual (teen pregnancy, and vulnerability to sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS) and non-sexual (drugs, smoking, suicide, etc.).

> 3,000 Filipinos leave the Philippines everyday to work in other countries. The economy benefits greatly from the billions of dollars remitted by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) whether they are legal or undocumented – all of them are vulnerable to occupational hazards including employers’ abuses, medieval justice systems and homesickness, among others.

The private sector is doing all it can to alleviate the unemployment problem. Enlightened companies create new jobs, build better work conditions, give legally mandated entitlements and benefits, some may even extend microloans for entrepreneurial ventures. Of course, some companies are better than others at minding the welfare of their employees.

As for the SONA, I hope to hear the administration’s plan to stimulate the economy so as to create employment opportunities. I would like to see a President Aquino that is less of a whiner and more of an optimist, most especially in these less than ideal times. I would like to see a President that inspires the workforce. After all, workers are the lifeblood of a country’s economy.

R.I.P., Creativity?

2010-07-22T07:52:00.004+08:00

Creativity is comatose

Creativity rarely gets front-page news treatment -- those rare moments oftentimes occur when celebrities get overly exposed “for the sake of art.” Ehem.

But, seriously, when creativity (the serious type) hits front page, I really take notice. Take for example the July 19, 2010 issue of Newsweek announcing the near-death of creativity in the United States. What?! But aren’t Americans fortunate, too fortunate even, to possess all the opportunities to cultivate creativity?

The article The Creativity Crisis explains the decline of creativity in the land of milk and honey and prescribes steps to resuscitate the near-dead.

It reasons: a lifetime of creative accomplishments (examples are books, patents, inventions, lectures, music compositions, policies, ad campaigns, etc.) are largely based on childhood creativity than on childhood IQ. That’s CQ versus IQ. But here lies the irony – as American kids get smarter, they become duller. Each American generation grows more intelligent but at the same time becomes less and less creative. The article reports that the creativity crisis is worst among American kindergartners up to sixth graders. This trend started in 1990.

So, I surmise, America’s 25 year-olds and those older are more creative than its 20-year olds, those that are starting their careers.

What is creativity, anyway?

What is creativity really? Is it about painting? Singing? Sewing dresses? Designing buildings? Conceptualizing ad campaigns? Whipping up orgasmic recipes? If these are the only domains of creativity, then a lot of people will join me as outcast. My drawings are limited to my mind maps and doodles during meetings. Yes, boring meetings "inspire" me to draw palm trees, flowers and concentric goemetric shapes. Heck, I even write my signature over and over again I can consume a sheaf of paper if permitted.

The Newsweek article offers a definition: Creativity is “production of something original and useful…and to be creative requires divergent thinking (generating many unique ideas) and then convergent thinking (combining those ideas into the best result).” There. Generating and synthesizing are the essence of creativity.

So what’s killing America’s creativity? Education by memorization and limited time for creative undertaking are among the major culprits. Surprise! That’s very much like our system in the Philippines! So what solutions can be undertaken? The article suggests the broadening of creative activities in schools – including in science and many other fields of study that require problem solving.

Application to the world of work

Workplace creativity is extremely important. The article quotes an IBM survey wherein 1,500 CEOs identified creativity as the topmost leadership competency. Any employee can become creative when trained. Yes, creativity can be learned through training. Will trainees be taught to draw? Why not. But the focus is on stimulating the brain to become creative in discovering solutions.

Who needs creativity training? Everyone. A workplace that encourages and rewards creativity will prove more productive than one that operates in a restrictive environment. For one, allowing employees to unleash their creativity at work will significantly reduce stress levels resulting in elevated productivity and reduced absenteeism. Imagine the benefits derived when employees offer creative ways to approach job situations and challenges.

One tool that is used in training for creativity in the workplace is Tony Buzan’s mind mapping technique. It promotes creative planning, decisionmaking and solutions-finding. Its usefulness extends beyond the confines of work.

Kill me first before you kill my creativity

That is my work credo. I have realized long ago that there is no joy working for a company or boss that censors creativity. Reviewing my resume, I can sense a trend: I stayed longest in companies where my creativity was put to good use, and I realize that I derived the greatest pride in my creative outputs.

This is why I flourish in careers that demand endless creativity, namely, training and communications, which are very much the same. They both require immeasurable wells of creativity – to capture the attention of the audience, to effectively convey key messages, to impart the necessary lessons, and to stimulate action. Add to this the dynamism of being a freelance consultant. I serve multiple clients at the same time, each one with a different requirement and set up. I'm pumped up to be creative on the fly.

Rust

If you think you have rusted, you are correct to a large extent. The bad news is that, without constant application, our creativity disappears over time. The good news is that we can reawaken our creativity anytime. Creativity can be learned. Relearned, I mean.

We are inherently creative. If we reminisce our childhood, we will recall that we played creative games and engaged in prolonged daydreaming. And we can find inspiration everywhere. Let’s translate inspirations into creations, not necessarily of masterpieces but of things that make us happy and are, thankfully, useful.

By the way, when was the last time you doodled during a meeting?

The customer is always right, right?

2010-07-18T18:59:00.006+08:00

The cost of bad customer service

Let’s get back to that question after stating some evidence-based premises:

> 25% of customers are dissatisfied with service in any given business
> 70% of those whose complaints are not satisfactorily resolved will not continue doing business with that organization
> Each dissatisfied person will tell, at an average, 10 other people about a negative experience

Apply the data above to ABC Company that has a projected 10 million-peso annual revenue from 2,500 customers spending an average of P4,000 each. Owing to attrition from bad customer service, ABC will lose P2.25 million at the end of the year. And this does not even take into account the cost of acquiring new customers and the potential lifetime value of lost costumers.

Horror stories

Majority (if not all) of us have customer service horror stories to tell.

I have been “sized up” by a sales clerk of an Esprit boutique inside a mall in Manila. I asked for the price of a jacket. And she condescended to haughtily reply “P2,500,” complete with slightly raised left eyebrow. I was shocked, not at the price but at the attitude with a capital A. I concealed my reaction and just walked out. I went to another store where the sales clerk was more humane. I bought a pricier suit and a tie. And I swore never to buy anything from Esprit. Ever.

Robotic sales clerks (mechanical greetings such as “Good morning ma’am/sir!” “Yes, sir/ma’am”), slow government employees (clerk 1 receives the papers, clerk 2 wields the omnipotent rubber stamp and clerk 3 endorses the rubber stamped papers to the boss’ secretary, and so on until your papers reach the boss after eight weeks), overzealous suggestive selling (Sir baka gusto nyong magdagdag ng A, B, C, D at E?), shortchanging (Ma’am okay lang ba kung kulang ng 50 cents ang sukli?), tellers who are busier chatting with one another than attending to the customer, hairdressers who behave too familiar, tinderas who refuse to replace a faulty product – the list goes on and on. Wait, is shortchanging part of staff training to increase sales? Hmm, I wonder.

I have a mental list of no-go establishments.

Train everyone!

This is why successful companies invest seriously in refining their employees’ customer care aptitude and skills. This is commendable. The fault, however, oftentimes lie at the choice of employees sent to the training. Management thinks that only frontline personnel need to be trained in customer care.

Customer behavior experts have coined the term “moment of truth,” which is defined as “any instance when a customer comes into contact with some aspect of your organization and has an opportunity to form an impression about the quality of service you deliver.”

Heck, yeah! That pretty much covers everything from the reception desk, to the parking lot, to the president’s office, to the security guard, to practically every surface of the business. Therefore, everyone in the company should be thoroughly trained in customer service.

Imagine the wonders effective customer service training can do. You can plug the customer attrition.

Which brings me to an important question: How does a company assess the effectiveness of a customer care training? There are a lot of ways but I will suggest one creative mechanism – mystery shopping. Ask someone or hire a team to experience and assess a “moment of truth” at the business. Mystery shopping is a systematic approach complete with rating cards.

Funny incident

Once upon a customer service training I conducted not long ago, I stayed in a hotel where I had to ask four different employees just for a glass of water. I was endorsed from one person to another until I reached the kitchen itself. This to me reeked of customer disservice.

Lo and behold, two of the hotel’s staff attended the training the following day. I recognized them instantly. Fat chance! But I did not berate them about my experience. I in fact did the reverse – I was all praises for their “terrific service.” After all, as trainer, one of my duties is to make every training a pleasant experience for everyone. (Note: I do not train people to give customer satisfaction. It train them to provide CUSTOMER DELIGHT!)

The combination of the training and reverse psychology worked wonders. The hotel staff treated me like a king that night. I just hope that the transformation stays long-term.

It is said that Filipinos have high tolerance for poor customer service. We are generally submissive and are not likely to raise issues. What we do is dinadaan sa tsismis (like this blog :D) and hinihintay na mapuno ang salop ntil we experience spontaneous combustion. This should not be the case because there are a lot of ways to complain nicely.

Rewind to the question posed at the beginning of this article: The customer is always right, right?

I don’t know about you but for me, the customer is not always right. But the customer is always the customer. Customers are the lifeblood of the business. It’s customer’s money that keeps the business going. Thus, every moment of truth should be milked for whatever it’s worth by delighting the customer.

Dennis Rodman said it best in the celebrity edition of The Apprentice: “Make the customer happy.”

Customer delight training conducted for the Legazpi City Tourism Council - March 20, 2010 @ McDonald's Daraga

Disaster response training a must for companies

2010-07-15T08:51:00.004+08:00

Natural disasters are commonplace in the Philippines. Bagyo is the most common -- an average of 20 typhoons lash at the Philippines every year. Typhoon Basyang, the most recent howling visitor, downed electricity and other conveniences along with it - telecommunication signals went haywire and internet access was limited. People lined up at the charging stations at Waltermart Makati, Starbucks electricity outlets became precious public domains, and lines were snaking inside 7-11 stores where customers bought mostly beer and junk food.

Of course we complained! We were roused from our sleeps on Wednesday evening when air conditioners and electric fans fainted. We were sweating despite the wind and the rain. The wild wind threatened to strip our roofs. And floods were a certain possibility. The trauma that Ondoy caused is still fresh in the minds of many. Basyang drove people uneasy.

Typhoons are very destructive to lives, livelihoods and properties. I am well aware of that. But despite this awareness, I can sleep through any typhoon. Milenyo has not completely exited the country yet but I drove in my car to see the aftermath starting from Evangelista in Makati. Just meters ahead of me at the Quirino end of South Superhighway, a tree went falling, falling, falling. Vehicles were on a counterflow, and I was heading straight into the first oncoming vehicle, which was a firetruck. And, yes, I reached Sampaloc safely, and returned home safely as well, in complete darkness.

I was away when Ondoy struck. I was in Eastern Samar, my work station during my employment with the United Nations. Incidentally, Eastern Samar is my home province, and that is where I got my resilience to typhoons. There is something about being raised in a province that faces the Pacific Ocean and that serves as welcome party to many of the country's typhoons that desensitizes one's feelings about this climatic disturbance.Now, in relation to the world of work: What can companies do in relation to natural disasters?

1. Pre-disaster

a.) Make disaster education and preparation part of the mainstream training. The training can involve acquisition of coping skills (e.g. what to do when disaster strikes while you are at the office) and first aid. There are institutions that specialize in such trainings. Remember: Treat normal times as pre-crisis periods.

b.) Create a crisis committee that will spearhead disaster management efforts.

c.) Formulate a disaster response manual that details the company's emergency plans (including communication, relocation, medication of injured personnel, back up operation, etc.)

d.) See to it that all employees are aware and thoroughly understand the disaster response manual.

e.) Assemble individual "run bags" which are emergency backpacks that contain basic necessities such as instant food, blanket, medicines and hygiene supplies (soap, towelette, sanitary napkins, etc.). The run bag should be light enough to carry on the run and its contents should be useful for survival for up to at least three days.

2. During disaster

a.) Implement disaster response manual and activate crisis committee. The committee should keep tabs on the whereabouts of employees at regular intervals.

b.) Activate the employees' hotline.

3. Post-disaster

a.) Check on the whereabouts of the employees and determine their needs.

b.) Respond to the needs to the extent that the company can humanely afford. Beyond the material response, these responses should include psychosocial trauma debriefing if necessary.

c.) If the company weathered the disaster relatively well, it should, as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) organize response initiatives to aid communities and populations who have been badly affected.

d.) Evaluate the effectiveness of the company's disaster response plan and revise accordingly.

Disasters occur frequently in the Philippines. Preparation is vital.

The life-sustaining and life-saving values of media training

2010-07-13T08:21:00.004+08:00

It is commendable that Pres. Aquino required key people in Malacanang to undergo media training. The training, along with the formation of the communications team, is the most effective way to address the faux pas where Sec. Edwin Lacierda made media people wait for hours while giving an exclusive interview to ANC – both no-no’s. Just like the rest of us, media practitioners are sensitive about punctuality and fairness.

I should know. At various points in my career, I have worked with media people:

First as advocacy officer of the National Secretariat for Social Action-Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) wherein one of my responsibilities was to organize press conferences. Working with CBCP’s colorful personas including the ever quotable Bishop Oscar Cruz was exciting. From time to time I would also find myself in the panel being interviewed. It was easy organizing these media events because majority of dailies (except for Business World, Business Mirror and the Inquirer) are based in or near Intramuros where CBCP is also located.

Then, as Communications Manager of Schering, a multinational pharmaceutical company (now Bayer Schering Pharma), I helped put together the media launch of Celebrity Clean House, an ukay ukay fundraising involving artistas. Media people were invited to lunch at Pepato at Greenbelt 3. Ogilvy helped organize the media event.

As freelance consultant, I organized a series of weekly roundtable discussions (RTDs) about Charter change or cha-cha. Heavyweights including then House Speaker Jose de Venecia and Prof. Jose Abueva were among our guests. The first RTD was held at UP-NCPAG and it was a flop, which we attributed to the location. We then moved the events to the Sulo Hotel for the convenience of TV reporters whose offices are located in Quezon City. The RTDs were widely reported by TV stations, broadsheets, tabloids and AM radios, and were effective, to the point that my project partner received death threats from a congressman. It was during these RTDs that de Venecia broached his idea that later became known as The Final Push for Chacha.

Shortly after, I organized various media events for weight loss and skin expert Dr. Joel Mendez. These events where held at the Mendez clinic Robinsons Ermita branch. That time, I hobnobbed with showbiz reporters. And I can say that they are an interesting group.

Here I'm hosting a presscon for Dr. Joel Mendez and Pauline Luna

At almost the same time, I was organizing media events for St. Paul University Manila. First there was the Roberta Rust piano concert (only 1 TV station showed up. Yikes!) and the unveiling of a huge just restored Botong Francisco mural, which was heavily attended and received decent media coverage.

As social responsibility, I volunteered to do organize a media event for the shrinehood anniversary of Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine in Makati. At the request of a morning news show of a TV station, the procession was scheduled earlier than usual. Nobody from media showed up. It was the day that former Pres. Estrada was sentenced for plunder. Politics trounced Our Lady of Guadalupe that day. The media lunch with press conference also obtained modest attendance. Good thing I oriented parish officials beforehand about what we were up against. Also, in anticipation of the highly likely event that all media people will flock to the Estrada sentencing, I arranged pre-event publicities for the Shrine - 1 TV appearance and a brief paragraph in a faith-oriented column in a major daily. My foresight saved the day.

All in all, my media experience taught and reinforced in me a lot of things including punctuality, honesty, self reliance, resourcefulness, and creativity. From the CBCP events I learned how to write effective press releases, how to invite news media, how to construct sound bites, how to be a member of a speakers’ panel and how to monitor media coverage. From the Schering event I learned how to treat lifestyle media. From the Chacha RTDs I learned from my partner how to handle death threats. From the Mendez events I learned how to deal with entertainment media and how to deal with gatecrashers (industry insiders call them gaka). From the St. Paul University events I learned how to deal with the culture media. From the Our Lady of Guadalupe event I experienced first-hand what I already knew about timing. But a Shrine's anniversary is immovable, right?

From all these experiences, I gained friends in the media and still maintain a reliable media directory.

The media training for Malacanang’s key officials, which couldn’t have come at a better time, should turn the trainees into media savvy individuals. The importance of cultivating their media skills cannot be overemphasized because, inevitably, whenever they communicate they reflect the views of the President on issues of national interest. And mass media, despite its limitations, is the ointment that reassures the public that they have access to all levels of government.

Media training can be life-saving too. The Ampatuans come to mind.

We can’t hire you, you’re gay

2010-07-11T16:47:00.003+08:00

Discrimination and the Law of the Negative

On any given day, hundreds of career opportunities are lost because of discriminatory employment practices. Doors are slammed on otherwise competent individuals who have the misfortune of being the wrong age, gender, school or body type. Discrimination festers despite legal breakthroughs and best intentions. At the personal level, discrimination deprives the individual of his right to work and debilitates his self-esteem. At the macro level, it worsens unemployment and aggravates poverty. Discrimination is a reality that is otherwise avoidable. The following are stereotypes behind workplace discrimination:

1. Sex or gender. Certain professions remain either male- or female-dominated. Companies prefer to hire men because they are perceived to be tougher or women because they are equipped with emotional intelligence. But women get pregnant and the company bears the cost. Some companies are averse to hiring homosexuals whose gender orientation and lifestyle are considered questionable. Sexism makes gender-insensitive companies forfeit the potential of greater creativity and variety of ideas that diversity breeds.

2. Age. The ageism frame views yuppies as professional brats. All of a sudden, youth becomes a liability. All of 34, some people I meet often tell me that I’m too young to be a consultant. They do not bother to know the improvement I continuously go through and the quality of result I consistently produce to be considered an effective consultant. On the other hand, individuals of advance age are deemed less productive than their younger counterparts.

3. Ethnicity and geographic origin. Indigenous people, even the educated ones, are considered inferior. The Visayan accent is a source of jokes and disdain. Depending on their home province, Filipinos are tagged as voodoo practitioners, nocturnal horror creatures and war freaks. Promdi is a derogatory word describing the provincial origin and sensibilities of an individual who tries his luck in the cities. This slur does not take into account that people from the province derive pride from their identity and are by nature resourceful because of the harsh realities of rural life.

4. Disability. The disabled, or differently-abled if you may, recently found inspiration in South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius, a double-leg amputee aided by specially designed prosthetics. Emboldened by his consistent record-setting wins in the Paralympics, Pistorius petitioned the Olympics committee to allow him to compete against able-bodied athletes. The committee rejected his petition because his performance threatens to shatter records established by anatomically complete Olympians. The Olympics committee overturned its earlier decision. Pistorius competed in the qualifying round of the 400-meter sprint in the Beijing Olympics. Challenges in the workplace can be of Olympic proportions, and handicapped employees can hurdle them.

5. Appearance. Certain industries are particular about appearance. One’s physical image is a dealmaker or deal breaker. The Halo Effect – the human tendency to associate beauty with everything good (good looks = good performance) – though utterly unreliable, is very instructive. Impressions do count. While looking shabby is inexcusable, superficial judgments are indefensible. If all workers who are fat, dark-skinned, cross-eyed or gawky will stage a one-day work boycott, the world of work will screech to a crippling halt.

6. Education. If graduates of colleges of lesser calibre climb walls to get a job, undergraduates scale mountains. Only a few under-credentialed individuals ever find lucrative jobs. What’s worse is that more and more Filipinos cannot afford quality education because of worsening poverty. Obsession with credentials and exclusion from education do not bode well for the labor force. Bill Gates was once a college dropout (not because of poverty). Today, he can’t be dropped from the list of the world’s most successful individuals.

7. Religion. When one applies for a job, he records his profile in the company’s prescribed personal information sheet. One space says ‘Religion’. There are religions that arouse undue interest. Some faiths are branded as breeding grounds of radicalism. Others are believed to prohibit members from joining labor unions who are then preferred by companies that are concerned with peace in the workplace. Atheists are godless extremes.

8. Politics. One’s political leaning and stand on issues can endanger his career prospects. He better be careful if his political color does not match that of the boss. From a discriminator’s point of view, the applicant who was a university activist is a corporate rebel in the making. He will disrupt workplace peace; his pro-this and anti-that sentiments will make him too opinionated and extremely argumentative.

9. Civil status. Married workers will stay forever in the company because of family obligations that the salary helps fulfil. But married couples take a lot of leaves of absence to take care of those obligations. Single employees are trader-uppers, eager to jump at the next opportunity of career ascent. Straitjacketed morals dictate that employees separated from their spouses are irresponsible and emotionally unstable individuals leading messy lives.

10. Socioeconomic status. Those who come from poor families are too ambitious but lack more complex competencies. The rich are difficult to manage and lack the hunger for excellence. Those from middle class families aren’t aggressive enough.

Meaningful employment reinforces human dignity. Discrimination does the opposite. I have this theory that when they finally find employment or get promoted, those who have been discriminated against in the past operate under what marketing guru Al Reis calls The Law of the Negative. It states that outcasts tend to exert more effort to prove their worth. They transform the negative into something that is positive.

The discriminated person should know that discrimination is unfair and illegal. It is convenient but unwise to blame discrimination for one’s miseries. Discrimination continues pervasively. What you can stop instantly is the victim mentality. Have the courage to confront discrimination. Demonstrate that the cause of discrimination is not an impediment to peak performance.

On the part of the employer, seek ways to gradually reduce and eventually eliminate discrimination. Examples of enlightened companies abound, such case studies are helpful to those that want to follow their lead. Hire and promote on the basis of merit. Apply competency-based differentiation, not discrimination.

Optimize OJT as talent pool and CSR

2010-07-09T14:02:00.003+08:00

All year round, college students enter companies as on-the-job trainees (OJTs). But the fact is that only a few companies view this curricular requirement seriously. Some would even consider OJTs as occasional nuisances, interruptions to daily routine. Companies, however, should optimize this opportunity both as fertile ground for talent-hunting and as corporate social responsibility that focuses on grooming future leaders. Here are some tips on how to optimize the company’s engagement with OJTs:

1. Implement a formal policy explaining the rules of engagement. This policy should define code of conduct, work hours, use of company properties, reporting arrangement with the OJTs’ school, disciplinary action for erring OJTs and other necessary details. This formalizes the company-OJT-school relationship.

2. Formal onboarding. Conduct an orientation for the OJTs. In the orientation, discuss the company vision, mission and goals; its organizational structure, its history and corporate highlights. Provide OJT kits. The kit should contain basic information about the company, OJT ID, timecard and other necessary documents such as the latest annual report.

3. Provide a job description. This will explain the company’s expectation about the OJT’s stay. Based on the job description, require the OJT to submit a work plan where he will spell out how he plans to accomplish the tasks assigned. The designated manager, supervisor or buddy will review and approve the work plan. The work plan will be the OJT’s and the company’s guidepost in assessing the progress of the OJT’s work. Together, the Scope of Work and work plan are the covenant between the OJT and the company.

4. Assign them to meaningful posts. Do not condescend on OJTs by giving them only thoughtless tasks. Giving them token tasks will only cultivate mediocrity. As its name implies, the purpose of on-the-job training is for the student to learn practical skills and lessons that are useful in their future workplaces. Whether office- or field-based, assign appropriate tasks. For example, do not confine an civil engineering student to files management. Explain to the OJT his potential contribution to the company. A creative way of imparting skills and lessons is to let an OJT ‘shadow’ the assigned manager, supervisor or buddy during an 8-hour shift so that the OJT will have a snapshot of what happens during a workday.

5. Keep them motivated. People perform well when they are motivated. There are several ways to motivate OJTs: provide a modest allowance, free ride in the company shuttle, gift certificates or other forms of material motivation. Non-material motivation can come in various forms: encourage them to pitch their ideas, monitor their performance, acknowledge jobs well done, make them attend relevant training, allow them to sit as observers in regular company meetings, and provide career counselling.

Likewise, creating face-time with the company’s decisionmakers can do the trick. Set up one meeting with the company bigwigs. Allow OJTs to freely interact with them during the meeting. This will inspire the OJTs to emulate them.

6. Provide performance feedback and be objective in grading them. The grade depends on the grading system set by the school. Through a one-on-one session, explain to each OJT the basis why he or she obtained a certain grade.

7. Conduct a formal group debriefing or individual exit interviews before the OJTs leave the company. A “graduation” ceremony may be organized where awards and recognitions will be given.

8. If warranted, make a job offer or inform the OJT that the company will keep a close eye on him and to expect a call right after graduation.

Following these recommendations will result in a win-win situation. The company will solidify its image as an excellent training ground so that in the succeeding OJT seasons, on-the-job trainees will actually compete for a slot and the company gets to choose only the best candidates. On the other hand, the student completes the 5-unit curricular requirement and will be proud to record in his resume the 250-hour experience with the company, using it as a ticket to a real job.

Training high

2010-07-08T11:22:00.004+08:00

Training has an allure that I simply cannot resist. It could be any or all of the following reasons:

1. It is an opportunity for me to impart what I know.

2. It challenges me to do better each time.

3. I like being with people especially in an active learning environment.

Suffice it to say that I really really love training. It gives me a high. It is my PASSION! (Oprah bellow here :D)

My latest training project was with JMOMPC in Cabanatuan City. It is a company that manufactures, markets and sells animal feeds. There were 40 participants - CEO, managers, supervisors, technicians, administrative staff, drivers and janitors - a dynamic and diverse personnel cross section that I enjoyed because it challenged me to use words and examples that everyone can understand. The training, held at the Acropolis North on June 26 and 27, 2010, were on Values Formation, Leadership and Communications. Everyone had a good time. They enjoyed the lecturettes, diagnostics and games. See photos below.

Driving a point about the importance of congruence of individual and corporate values

The human centipede illustrates trust and mutual support

Giving instructions before a game

Acting workshop that emphasizes the interpretation of body language

Balls and blindfolds

With preparation...

2009-03-24T10:50:00.005+08:00

... your senses are heightened. Your focus becomes sharper. Be warned when you already feel you have practiced enough. That's complacency setting in.

... training becomes a breeze because you have mastered the strategic use of time and of the materials.

... the games and activities produce the desired results because they have been pretested.

... staff at the venue are able to respond better to requests. Facilities and equipment have been tested.

... buy-in among the trainees is high because they received adequate notice prior to the training. As a result, turnout/attendance is high, they arrive on time and participate with enthusiasm. Resistance is lessened.

... the training aide/assistant provides optimal help because he has sense of ownership of the training process.

... the training achieves its objectives.

... confidence soars. You as the trainer becomes more confident in handling the training, your nerves are calm. Participants become confident that they will learn what they have to learn. The client will be confident enough to contract your training services again.

3 rules: plan, prepare, practice

PS: I'm busy preparing for my graduation speeches.

Pre-training preparations

2009-03-17T10:31:00.003+08:00

For a trainer like me, preparation is the key to a successful training engagement. It is my practice to spend a minimum of two (2) days of preparation for every hour of training. Meaning, an 8-hour training would cost me 16 days of preparation. And the days I invest always pay off.

What preparations have to be made prior to the training?

>> DATE - Are the training date/s set? Are the dates tentative or fixed? Do they fall on weekends or holidays?

>> VENUE - How near or far is the venue from your place? How much travel time will it require for you and the participants to reach it? Is the aircon working? Is there adequate ventilation and lighting? Are there enough facilities and equipment for outdoor games, breakout groups and plenary? Are there enough electricty outlets and extension wires? Where are the restrooms located? Is there an emergency exit? Is there a first aid kit? Conduct an ocular inspection as early as two days ahead of the training schedule. Provide participants with a location map.

>> FOOD - Oftentimes, the venue provides food and refreshments. Have you confirmed the arrangements? Are there participants with food restrictions?

>> TRANSPORTATION - Has the company arranged for transportation? This is especially applicable for out-of-town training. Does the venue provide adequate parking?

>> TRAINING ADVISE - Has each participant received a training advise? Whether it is through a memo, text or email, it is important that participants are well informed about the training. I will discuss this in greater detail in a later post.

>> MATERIALS - Are the PowerPoint slides ready? Are there enough number of handouts? Are the tools appropriate? How about the props for games and other activities? Is the LCD projector working? Is the laptop working? How about the training kits that contain nametags and writing implements? Has the attendance sheet been printed? Have the certificates been printed?

>> SUPPORT - Will you need an assistant? What qualifications will you look for? Will he have to demonstrate games, help you facilitate or provide solely administrative support? How much honorarium will you be able to give? Has he been contacted? Do you have a Plan B if the assistant backs out at the last minute?

>> CONFIDENCE - Yes, you are the trainer, which is why it is important that you are confident. How? Master your material. Do not memorize. Master!

Preparation demands patience. I take it easy. Preparation has its rewards. Hindi munggo ang itinatanim ko, mangga.

Next post: The advantages of being prepared.

Dillema, now

2009-03-10T09:10:00.004+08:00

Late last year, the campus magazine of the local university sent its editor-in-chief to interview me for a feature. Come graduation time this year, I will be guest speaker at the graduations of the elementary school and one high school.

Is this an affirmation that I am successful? Naku, define success and use it in a sentence. And it would be preposterous to think that schools are going gaga about me. I have come up with an apt description: "New Kid in Town Sydrome." After 10 years of pursuing a career in Metro Manila, I am back in my province to represent a UN agency. Well, okay, I was not a lout either when I left my hometown.

That's the only explanation I can come up with so that I could understand the attention.

Meanwhile, I am drafting my speeches. And trying to penetrate the minds of 12-year olds and 16-year olds. First of all, what will be my objective in addressing these youngsters? Will I be able to steer them to a positive direction? I am still in touch with my rural roots at all? Will I not alienate them with my mindset? So there's the age factor and the urban-rural culture factor.

I am the animal blinded by a 10-wheeler truck's headlights. Roadkill candidate?

When resistance strike III – Handling Resistance

2009-03-05T09:42:00.004+08:00

As a trainer, you do not pounce instantly on the resistor. You can be proactive by responding even before the training starts. Here’s how:

1. Instrospect . To avoid later regrets, ask yourself these questions: Can I confidently deliver this training? Am I thoroughly prepared? Do I understand the nuances of the topic? Am I not being a charlatan? Will I be able to adopt an attitude that supports the objectives of the trainees? Am I not being arrogant or feeling superior?

2. Know the trainees. Include in your pre-training preparation your familiarization with the trainees. How? By asking for the participants’ profile. This tool will give you an idea if you are going to train rank-and-file employees, managers, CEO or a mixed audience; or if they are newbies or industry veterans; male or females; from which departments of the company, etc. audience homogeneity and heterogeneity are critical factors. Also, issue a Training Needs Assessment (TNA) tool that asks the participants what makes a training session meaningful. Take their answers into account when designing your training design and in your actual delivery.

3. Provide space. Make sure that the training design has adequate avenues for trainees’ participation. Take hint from the word ‘participant.’ Build in Q&A/forum time, group and individual exercises, mental and physical games that will enable participants to feel involved and engaged. These exercises can become outlets to which the resistor can channel his unhelpful attitude.

During the training:

1. Deliver the training in the best way you can.

2. Actualize No. 3 above.

3. See eye to eye. Left unchecked, the resistor can disrupt you and the other trainees. Spend some time observing the resistor. Then, call his attention in private. Do this during a break. Ask him what he feels about the training. The objective is to understand the resistor, not to embarrass him or to put him on the spot. Listen to the resistor sincerely and ask him to cooperate. Do not give him special attention during the sessions. This might embarrass him or inflate his ego.

4. Show him the door. If all else fails, and you think the resistor is eroding the progress of the training, send him out. Again, tell him in private that he is being destructive and you want him to exit. Before this, call (take note, call, not text) his superior and consult him about the situation. Obtain clearance.

5. Administer the feedback form.

After the training:

1. Study the accomplished feedback forms. It will give you an idea if there were other resistors who were just silent and suffering throughout the session.

2. Prepare for your next training engagement.

(P.S. This post should have been here earlier had a glitch not interfered. Only one sentence appeared when I published it. The thing is I type directly on the blog so, except for the opening statement, everything was gone. I was dismayed. No choice but to compose this again. This time in MsWord ;-))

When resistors strike II - Understanding the Saboteur

2009-02-27T08:41:00.003+08:00

So, you have spotted the resistor. Or, more appropriately, the resistor has spotted you. You already know the telltale signs. But why does a resistor behave the way he does? This question is crucial to how you as the trainer responds to the situation. Call it pseudo-psychology but it is important that you know what's brewing inside the resistor's psyche. Without this knowledge, you can become easily distracted from you training. The worse thing is that the resistor (more appropriately - saboteur) can sway 'symphatizers' to his side.

Again the question: Why does a resistor behave the way he does? It could be for a dozen of reasons:

1. The resistor may have undergone a similar training in the past. In this case, he will feel he knows the topic better than you do.

2. He was sent to this training when he was very busy beating a deadline. He views the training as a nuisance because it uprooted him from what he perceives as his real priority.

3. He feels the topic is irrelevant to his situation.

4. He recently underwent a traumatic experience, e.g. death in the family, ailment, demotion, etc.

5. He is anticipating a potentially damaging experience. Hello!? Companies are now downsizing because of the recession. Your resistor may be feeling that he is candidate for decruitment.

6. There's friction between him and his boss, and his resistance in the training is his way of rebellion.

7. Unpleasant experience during a past training, e.g. he was made an example of undesirable workplace behavior. Training programmes make him paranoid from then on.

8. He is suffering from psychological disturbance, e.g. ADHD.

9. He is bone tired having just finished a project. He would've wanted to take a vacation not attend a training.

10. The training venue is uncomfortable.

11. Other participants are annoying him.

12. You really aren't good at your topic. Or you are plain boring.

There could be a lot of other reasons.

Now that you know the 'why', it's time to know the 'how.' My next post will be on how to handle resistors.

When resistors strike

2009-02-25T10:25:00.003+08:00

Imagine yourself going to a training, as the trainer, of course. What are the worst things that can happen?

> Arriving late

> The car conking out

> Gnarled traffic

> Losing your laptop

> Losing the training's PowerPoint presentation to a nasty virus

> Coup d etat

> The laptop acting up

> The projector malfunctioning

Okay, granting that you surpass all these, the next worst thing you can possibly encounter is a training resistor - the one person or group who makes the training hell for you. They are obnoxious by way of:

1. Excessive questioning with the purpose of insulting you.

2. Whispering his comments to his seatmate.

3. Refusal to participate in tasks.

4. Body language that screams "I want out!"

This situation can become extremely frustrating for you as a trainer. The resistor can demolish the whole training activity.

My next blog entry will contain explanations on why resistors do what they do.

Words that sell

2009-02-20T08:38:00.006+08:00

Ever wondered why you have varied reactions to different words? It's because words are powerful, with some words being more powerful than others. Whether written or verbal, words can delight, inflict pain, puzzle, confuse, enlighten, and a whole range of other feelings. Words appeal to emotions. Which is why there is the perennial reminder for us to choose our words well.

Words have special meanings to a writer who has to make articles come alive, to a trainer who has to capture the attention of the trainees, to an actor who wants to be remembered for an iconic scene (You're nothing but a second rate...!), to a saleperson who uses verbal persuasion to close a deal (Laway lang ang puhunan), to a jobhunter who needs to impress the interviewer, to an employee who wants to be noticed and promoted.

Strategically used, words can do and undo magic.

Here are words that sell. I sourced them from Zig Ziglar in his book Secrets of Closing the Sale (OMF Literature Inc., 2005) and Harry Mills in his book The Rainmaker’s Toolkit (McGraw-Hill, 2004). Those by Ziglar, which have been proven to work in telephone conversations (telemarketing), are marked by asterisks. When two asterisks are seen, it means that the word is cited by both Ziglar and Mills.

Achieve
Advise
Align
Amplify
Announce
Assure
Boost
*Comfort
Command
Commit
Compel
Compete
Control
Convert
*Deserve
Design
Develop
Differentiate
Discover
*Discovery
Discriminate
Distinguish
Dominate
*Easy
Encompass
Engineer
Enhance
Expand
Focus
Forecast
Foster
*Fun
Gain
Grow
*Guarantee
*Happy
*Health
Improve
Influence
Insure
Integrate
Invent
Lever
*Love
Minimize
Mobilize
*Money
Motivate
Multiply
*New
Outdistance
Outlast
Outperform
Overcome
Pay off
Penetrate
Persuade
Pinpoint
Position
Predict
**Profit
Program
Protect
*Proud
*Proven
Raise
Reap
Recommend
Redefine
Reduce
Relieve
Renew
Restructure
*Results
Revitalize
Reward
*Right
Safeguard
*Safety
*Save
Solve
Streamline
Sustain
Transform
**Trust
*Truth
*Understand
**Value
*Vital

Here are words that unsell (Ziglar):

Bad
Buy
Contract
Cost
Deal
Death
Decision
Difficult
Fail
Failure
Hard
Hurt
Liability
Liable
Lose
Loss
Obligation
Pay
Price
Sell
Sign
Sold
Try
Worry

Work the words that sell into your communications - conversations, resume, presentations, articles, proposals, website, everything - and see the difference. Avoid the words that unsell.

Master your delivery and confidence. Exercise word power!

Accommodations

2009-02-19T08:58:00.003+08:00

Only the world of politics can rival the hotel industry in terms of providing accommodations.

With the interest of acquiring political support, i.e. votes, an incumbent, or an aspiring politician for that matter, will entertain all sorts of requests for assistance - in all sorts of activities spanning an entire lifespan, from birth to funerals. In the area of hiring employees and appoinments, there are aspects that are beyond the influence of the Civil Service Commission. It doesn't matter if the applicant has the know-how required to fulfill the demands of the job. What matters is his "know-who." This is the blood compact that binds the politician to the favor-seeker. When the favor-seeker gets his wish, it's time for him to pay tribute to the favor giver. Either party can switch roles of favor-seeker and favor-giver anytime. It perpetuates the padrino system that is vehemently denied but nonetheless very evidently practiced. To the detriment of many, rules are bent, with gusto.

The words cooptation and compromise come to mind.

The curse is not confined to the realm of politics. After all, there's the phrase 'office politics.' Volumes have been written about the topic they can fill entire libraries.

Politics is prevalent, yes. But its prevalence does not mean we have to be desensitized from this dark practice. Politics per se isn't bad. It's playing politics that is.

--------------

Speaking of another kind of accommodations, my friend Ferdz Cruz and I are looking for a decent and affordable place to stay in Bohol during the Holy Week. Please let me know if you can endorse some. Thanks in advance.

Rock and roll

2009-02-12T09:45:00.004+08:00

If there's a rock in my way, move the rock. If it's immovable, move around the rock.

This is my guiding philosophy when obstacles hinder me from achieving my objectives. I have put this to test time and again. And this hasn't failed me so far.

Examples:

1. Salary dissatisfaction - I requested for an increase

2. Job burnout - I got myself headhunted

3. Company buyout - I resigned, reinvented myself and looked for clients

4. Feeling a bit down - I inflate my ego hehehe

5. A person weighs me down - I stop contacting him/her, making the person feel that my relationship priorities have changed.

Emphasis on number 5.

As programme manager, I find it frustrating that heads of offices refuse to cooperate because I happen to hate corruption. I have tried moving around these rocks. My solution? Ask the mayors for replacements. Success! Neknek nyo!!! Rocks uprooted.

I am fully attuned to my fight-or-flight instinct.

Latest trainings

2009-02-05T10:40:00.003+08:00

Client: Manila Southwoods Golf and Country Club. Date: November 2008. Topic: Presenting with Impact. Audience: 60 managers and supervisors

Client: Asiawide Refreshments Corp (RC Cola). Date: 25 October 2008. Topic: Management 101. Audience: 20 managers and supervisors

PS/BS: Pansin ko lang, isang jacket lang ang ginagamit ko :-)

Labor pains

2009-02-04T09:13:00.004+08:00

Upon learning of the financial crisis that is mercilessly hitting the labor sector, my first instincts were to (a) feel pain for those losing their jobs, and (b) feel relief that I have a stable job. It was only later that I felt compassion for the families of those losing their jobs. I imagined that if one breadwinner gets terminated, the loss would translate to four more family members. Government statistics peg the average size of a Filipino at five members. Not a very good scenario given the escalation in the prices of basic commodities.

Over the weekend, my musings were directed to the college graduates of batch 2009. It would be tougher for them to find jobs. Yesterday, the Philippine Daily Inquirer gave substance to my suspicions (click this link to read the full article

http://www.inquirer.net/specialreports/jobs/view.php?db=1&article=20090203-187093).

Here are the maths:

900,000 - prospective college graduates this year
500,000 - estimated number of jobs that government will be able to create this year (way below the 3-million target)
800,000 - number of workers in export-oriented industries that are vulnerable to the crisis
60,000 - estimated number of job losses in the IT sector alone
200,000 - estimated overall number of job losses from January to June 2009 (DOLE)

These numbers don't bode well for fresh graduates. Job creation doesn't always cater to the unexperienced.

More labor pains ahead, I guess.

Should training continue in a recession?

2009-02-03T08:28:00.004+08:00

There is a global financial crisis. Everyone is feeling the crunch. Companies are resorting to drastic cost-cutting measures just to stay afloat. The crisis is forcing companies to learn to prioritize. In the order of crisis-defined priorities, wherein employees sometimes claim they come last (a sentiment triggered by the ongoing mass layoffs), should training be treated as an unnecessary expense? Should it fall under the axe? Should it be reduced?

A company incurs massive costs in training its employees: venue, food, supplies and materials, transportation, trainers’ honorarium, hours that the employee/trainee spends away from work thereby resulting in diminished productivity for the duration of the training. To monetize training costs, it is equivalent to at least 3% of the payroll. Do not be deceived by the single digit as the actual amount can total to a million pesos or more – not exactly negligible in the face of the raging crisis. Back to the question: Should a company sacrifice training to cut costs?

To contextualize the question, it is appropriate to review certain benefits of training:

Training empowers. The crisis is dampening moods across the board. There is widespread demotivation and demoralization. Employees who are asked to participate in a training program will feel that they belong, especially given the current situation. Training motivates, it can help keep employees loyal and satisfied. It makes employees feel valued.

Training optimizes the use of skills and knowledge. This time more than ever, it is important that employees give their best to the company. Training will help guide employee how to sharpen their skills and how to focus their energies on making the company perform better. Training enables all levels of personnel to function in the most cost-effective and productive manner.
Training ensures that nobody gets left behind. The crisis is making the majority of us paranoid. Training gives each employee an opportunity to improve and excel. No matter if, as a last resort, it decruits people, the company can honestly claim that it gave adequate training to its employees – training that equipped them with skills that can be used better elsewhere. But hey, don’t use training as a sugarcoat when decruiting employees.

In the end, training may well prove to be the company's redeeming value. Training is not a cost. It's an investment, a very necessary investment during these trying times.

So, should a company sacrifice training to cut costs? No way.

Recession-proof your career

2009-02-02T10:40:00.002+08:00

Jobs are being lost left and right as a result of the global economic meltdown. We don’t have to look to the United States, Europe or elsewhere to see unnerving massive layoffs. Headlines scream the ugly truth – a multinational company closing its operations in the Philippines, a Department of Labor and Employment official estimating 200,000 jobs will be lost just from January to June 2009, and companies letting go of its employees because of sluggish production. At this rate of job loss, unemployment, underemployment and poverty levels will escalate.

The situation presents opportunities to employers. This may be the best time for government to proceed with its employee rationalization programme. Employees found to be redundant will be laid off. The same is true for private companies that need to excise fat from its operations. Non-performers will be sacked.

Don’t end up as collateral damage. Ride out the recession with these career moves:

1. SWOT yourself. SWOT analysis is a planning tool that will help you determine your strengths and weaknesses (within your control) and the opportunities and threats present in the environment (beyond your control). The global crisis is the foremost threat. Identify opportunities such as government’s increasing support for entrepreneurship. Recognize your strengths that will help you respond to the threats and opportunities. Determine your weaknesses and eliminate them so as to reduce your risks of losing your job. Write down your SWOT results in a large piece of paper and post it in a conspicuous location at home. This constant reminder will cement your commitment to improve.

In addition, do some scenario building. Think of best and worst case scenarios. The best scenario, for example, is to get promoted in such a tumultuous time. The worst scenario is losing your job without a fallback. Handle this exercise well. Don’t scare yourself silly or you’ll end up paranoid. The key is for you to work for the best while being prepared for the worst.

2. Shine. This is the best time to get noticed. This is the time to be bold. Demonstrate your commitment to your job not only by putting in extra hours but by showing solid results. Take in projects that demand extraordinary effort because, when you win, the rewards will be great. Do not confine your glow to your workplace. Network more expansively than before. Become more available, accessible and useful to your contacts. You never know who will give you your next job.

3. Update what you know. The crisis is here. This is not the time to learn business-as-usual stuff. Get trained or coached in career crisis management and career change management, among others. Only with the proper knowledge will you be able to deal with the tide of firings and freeze hiring. At the same time, sharpen the skills that you already have. Acquire only those skills that you are sure will be very useful given the situation. You may lose your current employment but always enhance you employability.

4. Have options ready. If you think your tenure in your company or the very existence itself of the company is shaky, you should already be looking for your next employer. This will not be very easy even if companies need your expertise. It’s the economy that is dictating recruitment decisions. Except, of course, if you rule your niche and are truly exceptional in your field. If you think you are indispensable, think again. Even the best companies in the world are shedding off workers. This is happening across industries, across continents. So, while doing your best to keep your job, activate a job hunting campaign. You can also generate your own employment via the entrepreneurship route.

5. Restrain your urges. The crisis will punish extravagance heavily. Have a buffer to see you through these trying times. Conventional knowledge tells us that we should have money equivalent to six months salary. This, however, is a crisis. Defy convention. Exceed the six-month rule because you can never tell when your job hunting will conclude or when this crisis will end. Beware of splurging. If you have to spend beyond necessities, do so by investing on skills enhancement. See tip number 2.

Can any good come out of this? Yes. Ultimately, at the personal level, the crisis will force employees to perform better, to demonstrate that they are worth keeping. Only the fittest will excel. The battle is half won with proper preparation.