Category Archives: personal

WEANING FROM FACEBOOK and CHRISTMAS IN TRAFFIC JAMMED BAGUIO

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Facebook is toxic. It’s no longer a fun place to be and I realized I can no longer express myself fully there, hence, the need to revive my blog. I plan to do several reviews (I have a number in the pipeline) of products I just acquired or services I availed (and these are not paid reviews, mind you).

Anyway, my family spent Christmas with my mother and sisters in Baguio at Manor Hotel in Camp John Hay (CPH) They have been doing this for years and this is the first time we joined my mom and sisters for the holidays.

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It was a new experience for my girls and they loved Santa’s Village and that kept them entertained for a while. But costly for me since activities like horseback riding, go-carts, and jumping on trampolines are at least PHP 100 per 15 mins (for horseback riding).

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If I can have my way, I would just have stayed in bed and savored the 15-19 degree C temperatures. But if you have kids, you can’t. Sigh. Procuring food is a bit of a hassle since stores and restaurants in CPH either run out of provisions or are closed, since, hey it’s Christmas! Give the Baguio people a break. I recommend that you bring lots of food with you when you get there because it’s nearly impossible for you to go downtown because of the horrendous traffic jam caused by tourists like us. The traffic jam inside CPH is already que horrible.

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Families listening to live Christmas carols early evening.

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Rooms overlooking the garden

 

Because

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“When someone with depression or anxiety or any mental illness for that matter tells you they are having a bad week or month and actually trusts you enough to tell you why, they aren’t doing it because they want you to fix them. They are telling you because they believe you are important enough to them to know why they are not feeling a hundred percent that day. Respect them for doing that. Because they clearly respect you.” — Nikita Gill

ANGER

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Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. (Proverbs 4:23)

If there is one thing that this new administration has inspired, it is anger. And I am not immune to it. My anger has been a long-burning one that caused me to banish temporarily people from my vision (i.e. unfollow on Facebook).

I lost it. I’m losing it.

Dear Lord, save me from my anger.

 

Silent All These Years

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So a good friend shared this on my Facebook wall.

 “So you found a girl
Who thinks really deep thoughts
What’s so amazing about really deep thoughts

Boy you best pray that I bleed real soon
How’s that thought for you…

Years go by
Will I still be waiting
For somebody else to understand
Years go by
If I’m stripped of my beauty
And the orange clouds
Raining in head
Years go by
Will I choke on my tears
Till finally there is nothing left
One more casualty
You know we’re too easy, easy, easy…”

THE CHANGING TIDES

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photo courtesy of lunarland.com

I’ve been having this work-related conversation with a friend who is having a hard time motivating himself after not getting the expected rewards for hard work the past year. I told him that I remember my older sister telling me this: in the workplace (this particular workplace that I was supposed to go to) bawal maging bibo (don’t show you’re smart). Why? Either they will 1) dump more work on you; 2) idiots will feel threatened by you and sabotage your work and reputation; or 3) completely ignore you and not reward you for your hardwork and sacrifices. Better just as do what is expected of you; nothing less, nothing more.

I know it’s really a bad principle to adopt but it really makes a lot of sense. That is the reality and have seen it several times in my career. It’s idealistic to expect that the company will value you as you think it should but that is not always (or never) the case. It’s normally how you project yourself (face value/packaging), connections, and how thick your skin is that gets you the prize. Sadly, I’ve seen that several times over the 16 years of my professional life.

So what did I tell my friend? You can seethe and rant all you want and your only recourse now is to resign OR scale back on the work load and take it easy. Perform and do what is expected of you but don’t overdo it again. Save your hide. No point in giving your soul. (Another friend ranted to me one time “Ano pa ba ang gusto nila eh nakuha na nila kaluluwa ko?!” But that friend had a happier ending than this first friend of mine since he got a high double-digit raise.)

So why did I say “changing tides?” Well, I heard a number of people in the company where my friend works are now looking for other jobs. One even had four job interviews in one week. That’s how bad things are, how badly managed the company is. They don’t know how to value people.

I’ve read an article somewhere that people leave because of bad managers. True. I stayed with a job before despite the crappy pay and all because I had a good boss/mentor. In the case of my stark raving mad friend, the company is badly managing people and is rewarding the wrong people (the deadwoods).

If the Facebook memes are to be believed, it was Sir Richard Branson who said that companies should value its workers first before customers. Pay attention to your own people before chasing the profits. Sadly, only a few do. (On a related note, read “Can Small Businesses Afford To Adopt Sir Richard Branson’s Approach to Employee Benefits?”)

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So what are we to do? We should work for ourselves then. But that route is not for everybody.