Old Friends Meet Again

Allan, Chris, Rico and Sunshine at Audric's First Birthday Party
at KFC Banawe

It's seldom that you meet friends who you would want to be friends with for a long time and if you do happen to find them, you try your best to keep them with you until you grow old together.

I am fortunate to have such friends. Our friendship has lasted for more than 20 years now--almost half of our lives. We were a bigger group before brought together by our love for gaming. (Actually, I knew nothing about it then but when one of them took me under his wing when I was a College freshman, I was hooked.)

That big group of about 8 have now trickled down to 4 (sometimes, 5). Some have moved to other countries while others have pursued different interests. I'm glad that we still have this core group that gets together during special occasions--such as the first birthday of Allan's youngest. We don't see each other as much as want, moreover since two of us are already married and with kids, but I always look forward to meeting them when time permits.

There are still 2-3 of them that still meets to play and someday, I hope we can have a spare day where we can have one serious role-playing game. I miss going on an adventure with these guys--even if the adventure is just in our minds.

Multiply Sync and Double Posts

To those who are first-timers to my blog, my apologies for some of the double-posts especially during the period of 2006-2008. When Multiply shut down, it gave us the option to merge our Multiply content to whatever site we have. Unfortunately, I've forgotten that I share some of my Blogger posts with Multiply and vice versa. So please give me time to sort things out. I have not been taking care of my blog as much as want this past year but I hope I'll have more time to do this soon.

A Good Manager Is...Part II

In 2008 when I was a unit head with another bank, my management skills were sorely tested then which you can read about here. Five years later, my skills were again put to the test. After the first incident, I knew that I can handle anything else but it never made it easier.

Back then, I had to make a decision to transfer people to another unpopular unit. This time around, I had to deal with an erring staff who went against our company's code of conduct. Fortunately, I had another colleague with me to help me through it and made the unpleasant task more bearable.

I love my team. I consider them my children--all 58 of them. Like all relationships, our work was based on TRUST. I trust my team to do their jobs and they trust me to take care of them. Unfortunately, this person broke my trust as he managed to find a way around the controls that we installed. Moreover, he still persisted even the previous times that we warned him. That what got my goat.

I asked him if I was lacking as his manager but even before he answered my question, I knew that there are some things that are out of my control which I cannot blame myself for. Nevertheless, that does not stop me from doubting my skills as a manager and think whether I'm good enough for my team.

I've always believed that a team is reflective of the manager. If the output of my team is trash and they are disorganized, it will reflect on me. That's why when I first came in, it was a dictatorship the first few months. I instituted different controls and check and balances. I was aiming for better quality of work and I truly believe that it should stem from discipline. I strictly monitored attendance and overtime and checked their process and productivity standards. I was known then as "The Hulk" as I was the type of person that you would not want to anger ("You won't like it if I'm angry"). Further on, I learned to relax and let go and accept that some things I cannot change. But this type of blatant disregard for company policies is something that I cannot tolerate.

I truly hope that everything will be settled for everyone soon--including me. There's a local saying that goes, "Trabaho lang". But I am still a person who still feels emotions and I cannot help but feel pity for the person.

Oh yeah, I will never take CCTVs for granted ever again.