Learning To Say No

from livewriterepeat.com

One of the hardest thing to do as a Filipino is say NO.  Let's face it.  We have been groomed since we were young to be kind and accommodating.  To a fault.  As much as possible we want to please everyone.  We don't want people to nurse feelings of 'sama ng loob' (hurt feelings?).

Maybe it's a cultural thing.  Unfortunately if left unabated, it could get us into trouble as we grow up.  More so as we mature and turn into professionals.

As a work at home professional, I work US hours.  Actually it's a compromised US hour.  I start my day at 3pm Manila time and finish my shift at 12midnight.  Translated to Eastern Standard Time (EST), I work from 3am to 12noon.  However, some of my colleagues would set up meetings way past this hour, or afternoon their time.  This leaves me feeling very conflicted.  Since I am already at that stage where I don't receive overtime pay, there really isn't any benefit for me should I decide to extend my working hours.  In which case I always have a couple of standing questions I ask to help me decide whether to accept a meeting invite or decline;

The first question is:

Are we racing against a very tight deadline?  If yes, I then ask myself, do I play a part in meeting that deadline?  If again I get a yes, then there's no escaping it, I have to attend that meeting.

Work At Home Professional Update

photo from mommynotions.com

It's been almost four years since my last post! Gad how time flies! And yes, I'm still working from home.

Over the past three years, I've let go of a lot of my internet real estate. I was taking it easy. I worked really, really hard when there's work, and really take time to enjoy when there's none. It's great that my work at home job is project based. Which means, I don't have any daily deliverable.

 My company however has gone through unbelievable changes, we've been acquired, some of my colleagues dropped off, bosses changed one after another, but I'm still here; rocking the pajamas, but more often, the boxer shorts. Lol.

 There was a time when I was really worried that my group would be dissolved but unlike before (as in previous employments) I'm more on the profit center side of the business so unless the company doesn't want to grow, my department would be eased out. But what company does that. I do work my butt off though so I guess I'm a little bit secure that when the reorganization hurricane comes, I'll be like the little piggy comfortable in his house of bricks.

Typhoon Sendong and The Politics Of The Unprepared

One of the fatal flaws that we have as Filipinos is our lack of preparation, much more preventive preparation.  The tragedy that befell CDO, Iligan, and Zamboanga was something that could have been mitigated had their respective local governments saw fit to prepare its citizens for the eventuality of floods.  One local newspaper headline had the Mayor of CDO saying that nobody warned them of the typhoon and thus they were not prepared to handle it.  I thought it was a lame excuse for the city's top executive.  Typhoon Ondoy is still fresh in everyone's memory and every city and municipality should have already put in place a plan communicated to its citizens on what to do, and what to watch out for in case there is a typhoon.  Without this critical guidance from the local officials, the citizenry were practically sitting ducks when the typhoon waters rose bringing along with it illegally cut logs that rammed into their homes wrecking havoc to property and claiming lots of lives.