This weekend, I spent approximately 7k. 3 days, 2.3k per day.

• Friday – Ponti + Taxi = 700
• Saturday – Grocery + Gas = 2000
• Sunday – Divisoria = 4000

Whataweekend. Payday just hit me and I’m already broke. Somebody keep me away from my wallet. :(

A bit iffy about my new Project Manager. I mean I’m happy we’re no longer outsourcing to Yellowasp (I know they’re really good but they’re a pain to work with). So far I’ve had 4 Project Managers for CCP and yeah, maybe we are a pain to work with too; but 2 out of those 4 I really didn’t have a problem with (the 4th one didn’t work with us extensively so I really can’t say much about working with him). Why? Because of the following reasons:

1. They gave feedback when feedback was needed - especially during emergencies. especially when feedback was needed immediately. especially when I have abso-fucking-lutely no idea what was going on.
2. They explained things pretty well - I’m amazing (and humble too) so most of the time I know what’s going on (nothing like a little Google to help you in times of ignorance). But sometimes Google = information overload. Plus there are jargons to look up so what was originally a one item research usually becomes a 10 item research. So I appreciate a little 101 when there are issues that are not for the kids who did Basic Math in college. Oh and please, don’t use highly-technical words. It doesn’t make anybody sound smarter, nor like you know what you’re talking about. Using big words won’t impress me and make me stop asking questions or pestering anybody.  If you can’t explain it, then it means you don’t understand it well enough yourself. 
3. They didn’t promise anything - In my book, PMs should never ever ever promise anything. Especially since last time I checked, we are still in a world where “anything can happen”. Deadlines can be pushed, Requirements change, Earths quake and a sneeze from the other end of the world can so much as cause a hurricane on the opposite end. So don’t promise me anything. Don’t promise me that the site will be fast and there will no longer be any downtimes. Don’t promise me that you know what you’re doing. Because sooner or later those promises will come and bite you in the ass. And in this team, honesty is always the best policy.
4. They consulted - They didn’t decide to do things on their own. They didn’t change specs just because they thought it would be better. They asked. Because in the first place, it’s not their place to do so without consulting with the business owner first. At the end of the day, it’s my project, it’s my business – I make the decisions (or in some cases I consult with other people who should be making the decisions). Granted that in some cases, your way can be better or it makes more sense – OK. But at least have the decency to consult with me. Coz in the project food chain, business owners trump project managers in the decision making.
5. They were trustworthy - Sometimes it’s all about the hips. There’s a certain aura that is needed for Project Managers. It’s this aura that makes people trust you and trust what you’re saying. When I ask for something, I want to feel that I’m sure I will get what I asked for (on time and correctly). If you don’t think you can deliver it on time, then say so. If you have questions, then ask them. Because when you don’t do any of those and you come back to me late, and with the wrong requirement – then I will never ever trust you again. And when I don’t trust you, I don’t want to work with you.
6. They recognized that I am the business owner - Bypass me and I will wring your neck. I don’t care if you consulted with the CEO (of the other company, to be exact). He doesn’t make the decisions for this project, I do (and by I, I mean after I’ve consulted with our big boss, the marketing head, and the rest of the team involved with the project). So yeah, even if you’ve consuted with him, it doesn’t change the fact that I no longer need to know what’s going on. In fact, I need to know what’s going more than he does. And you need me to know what’s going on, because at the end of the day, I have a say in your evaluation.

So basically my new PM isn’t any of the above. But I’m gonna give him the benefit of the doubt. It’s only been less than a month. If he doesn’t change after we’ve talked, then I will strangle him.

I recently made my list of things to do before I’m 30. I’ll be 30 in 3 years and several months so the pressure is on! I realized that most of the things on my list are travel related.

Some things on my list.

1. Sleeper train across South East Asia
2. Backpack across Europe
3. A month in a different country – or at least a month travelling.
4. Bagel in New York
5. Batanes
6. Japan
7. Volunteer (Immersion style)

These pictures weren’t taken by me (they were taken by Niche Dumlao), but I thought I’d post them anyway because today was too awesome not to talk about.

Madmen and women. 50s mod. Bugsy’s lunch. and beer at 5 in the afternoon. More photos that were taken by other people coming up soon. but for now… we have these.

Introducing the people of 20th floor.

p.s. this post is for my ate who’s not online right now. ate, i think you might appreciate this :)

and the underdressed:

now doesn’t everybody look so dapper? :)

Crappy picture of probably the best people I’ve ever worked with all 5 years of my career (plus 3 ojts hehe and minus a couple of people who’ve gone before me – moved on to other work not died). Spot the girl in the nerdy glasses (that would be me!).

I’ve had my share of bad days, complaints about work and bosses and seatmates, but my 3 years stay with IG has been filled to brim with fun, laughs, alcohol, how to deal with difficult people, how NOT to deal with difficult people and a whole lotta learning (and loving going on – a cookie to the person who can get the musical reference)!

But the people I’ve worked with – they’ve taught me to always try to be the best at what I do. Go for the gold or die trying. And my boss (all 3 SPMs and 1 Director and 1 MD) have taught me that nothing is ever good enough if you want to be the best and seriously for a slacker like me – that was a hard lesson to learn. But it made me love what I do and made me strive to be better everyday.

Aww mush mush.

Goodbyes are never easy. And since I’m just a few blocks away – I could always drop by for lunch.

So now… on to a new adventure. :)

Today – the Internet tomorrow… THE WORLD!

I’ve been working for a little more than 5 years already. While most of my peers are still with the companies they’ve joined right after graduation (some are with their second), I am already at my 3rd – and in less than 2 weeks, I will be moving on to my 4th.

My first job was a total disaster. I hated going to work to everyday. I didn’t have any friends there at all! I had to wear a uniform to work everyday – and look like an overweight teacher on crack. I got reprimanded once by the CEO’s secretary for wearing slippers on my lunch break. I didn’t have much to do so I pretty much just stared at the computer screen all day. But I did manage to learn PHP and MySQL from scratch during my 6 months stay there (Thanks to G and Eumir) well enough to build a CMS for their site and an online enrollment system for their clients. Of course it was crude, and I’m pretty sure it was very buggy but the love for anything web-related was borne from there. As well as the realization that a spark of interest can go a very long way. On my 6th month I resigned. I couldn’t stand being there anymore. I was lonely. I felt like people didn’t want to talk to me because I was different (my music, my books, my casual Fridays clothes, even the way I react to things, etc). The only person I got along with was my boss but that wasn’t enough to make me stay. Plus the pay sucked.

So I moved on to a Swiss-owned non-profit company. The pay was great (especially the non taxable allowances), and I could pretty much forgive the uniforms we had to wear too since they weren’t that bad and casual Fridays were allowed (although I got into trouble a couple of times for being too casual on casual Fridays). And the friends I made there were pretty much awesome. The work was web-related and there was a lot of interaction with people from multi-cultural backgrounds so it was pretty interesting… at least at first. After getting used to doing the same thing over and over again, editing copies, deciding which keywords will work, I decided that internet marketing, though pretty challenging, was just not for me. It was too much of the same thing over and over again. I realized that I needed to be constantly learning, doing different things at the same time (not just editing different sites at the same time), and pretty much allowed to make decisions for myself and for the work I am doing to be able to feel some semblance of a career fullfillment. So a few months after I turned a year old in the company, I left. I appreciate how my bosses tried to find a way to address my concerns when I told them why I was leaving but I was already looking forward to moving on to my 3rd company and the prospect the job they offered me promised, to consider staying (what a long sentence).

So come August 2007 I joined Information Gateway as a Jr. Project Manager. The title itself made my chest swell and my head filled to the brim with possibilities. My job title had the word Manager in it! Of course it had the word Jr. too but that’s irrelevant. And for 3 years I worked more than 8 hours daily, did more work than what my job description required, got frustrated a lot, wanted to kill workmates, celebrated project success, enjoyed perks brought about by reaching revenue targets (got more bonuses than I ever expected, an iPod touch, and a trip to El Nido and Hongkong both paid for by the company), got drunk at Christmas parties, been glued to the computer and to my office phone even during weekends because of a project, had to spend the night at the office before a project launch, did more Math than I ever dreamed of doing after swearing I’ll never touch numbers again all 4 years of my college calculus life – and more. I’ve also gottten drunk during weekdays after office with my friends, read awesome books, listened to new music, and watch movies and series (that I’d never find out if not for them) they’d recommend and generally made friends with the coolest people I could ever hope to work with. I’ve learned a lot from my bosses – passion, eye for details, thinking out of the box in an industry where you feel like you’ve done everything there is to be done, which battles to fight and which to avoid, persuasion, standing your ground, flexibility, and more! And from my peers? I’ve learned that a team works better when you are all working towards the same goal, with equal passion and with equal desire to be number one.

I only realized I’ve been with IG for 3 years a couple of months ago. It always feels like I just started last year. Even if I’ve already had 3 direct supervisors (am already on my 4th one), I’ve seen team mates leave, I’ve seen teammates get married, had babies, and some – even pass away. IG is not perfect. It’s just like all the other companies out there. There’s politics (way too obvious sometimes), there are difficult bosses and co-workers who complain more than they work. Sometimes the pay sucks. But like I said – you can find these problems wherever you go. It’s all just a matter of priorities. And I think one of the reasons why I’ve managed to stay longer here compared to the other 2 companies I’ve been with – is because everday, I keep learning something new be it work-related or not.

Here at IG I’ve finally found something I was good at, something that I could potentially be great at. And I wanted to keep doing it despite the stress, the work hours that sometimes included weekends, the frustration with targets, bosses and even workmates. And I say, finding that feeling in a company you’re in trumps whatever negative aspects you might find in your workplace (be it your boss, your seatmate, your pay). Because you’ll always find something to complain about wherever you go but you’ll never find that satisfaction you get from doing something you like that easily.

Besides, only IG has ever made me feel that a “WHAT DO YOU THINK?” from one of the big bosses in the company, means I’m more than just a peon but an actual stakeholder in the project I’m handling. haha.

(So I feel bad for all the complaints I’ve had against my work, my bosses, the company since they were all petty and  immature but more on that in a different post. )

So why am I leaving if it seems like I’m in a good place right now? I got asked that same question during an interview by my would-be boss. Believe me it wasn’t an easy decision to make but I’m going because I feel like now is a good time. A company I look up to has hired me for a position that will allow me to take all the “technical” skills  I’ve acquired  from all 3 companies I’ve been in and roll it into one position in an industry that has always had me inspired. And my gut says I should go for it. And honestly, most of the skills that I’m taking with me to this new job, are skills I’ve learned with IG. So I actually have IG to thank for getting me this job hehe.

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Instead of cutting the budget for pantry food, or not giving salary increase to those who deserve it… let’s just terminate those who take up space, waste resources, make a lot of noise, add to air pollution – but don’t contribute anything to the company aside from its repository of office complaints.

It’s a win win situation. You don’t need to pay them their atrocious salaries so you get to save. The morale of employees left will boost since they’d stop hearing “the management is unfair” campaigns plus they’d be able to concentrate on work because the noise level will go down. Focused employees result to improved work and could lead to increase in revenue. You’ll also get to save on energy since they won’t be using the computer anymore. Less people will result in cooler airconditioning – thus no need for the air con to be turned up high.

With all the good results that can be gotten from terminating useless, loud, annoying employees – we have happy management!

And we all know that happy management gives awesome bonuses and salary increases.

Just think of it as having less icing on your cake than you’ve expected or have gotten used to.
You whine in between bites about the icing that’s not there… but you end up finishing the cake anyway.

Anyway, I don’t know which is better. Not getting any good news or getting a confirmed bad news? They’re both not as good as getting word of something you’ve been expecting for the longest time right? So it doesn’t really matter which sits better with your ego.

At the end of the day, you’re gonna have to live with whatever news you got.
Drink water if it leaves a bad taste in your mouth.
If it doesn’t work, you can always just brush your teeth.

No thanks to Senator Enrile, business hasn’t been as good as it was. NTC, and our Telco Clients have become stricter and it’s been most difficult selling our products.

Because of the above mentioned situation, the company has been forced to make budget cuts recently. And the first to go is the budget for pantry supplies.

One of the reasons I took this job here at my present company is that there’s free food in the pantry. For nearly 3 years I’ve enjoyed chips, pancit canton, candies, pop corn, cereal drinks, iced teas, etc for FREE! And now, it’s gone. :( ALL GONE!

I am now forced to buy Turon on afternoons when my stomach calls for it because there will no longer be Cupcakes in the pantry to quell the hungry beast. And no longer will I be able to live on Pancit Canton and Instant Noodles on nights wherein I have to work late (and that’s usually every night).

Yes, it is the end of my budget meals world.

I hate to think what will go next should the company feel the need to tighten its belt once again.

See this, Senator Enrile? See what you have done to us poor hungry fellows?

It’s not a totally alien concept to have workmates you just want to strangle. I’ve had quite a lot of those in my 5 years of work experience. But I’ve never had the privilege to work with friends whom/who I just can’t stand during office hours.

Types of people I don’t like working with:

1. People who don’t have a sense of accountability. – they lead the project, but when something goes wrong – it’s somebody else’s fault. ALWAYS.

2. People who like to take credit for something they didn’t do – pretty self-explanatory.

3. People who complain a lot – Yeah I complain too. On a daily basis. But when complaining takes much of your time – when you complain more than you work, it affects everybody’s mood. Worse when you slam drawers, nearly punch a hole through your desk from your violent typing – you’re making too much of a ruckus!

4. People who keep saying they’ll just quit this job – Go do it already. It’s annoying when you say it all the time and yet you’re still here.

5. People who don’t know how to ask nicely – pet peeve. you’re not my boss. don’t demand.

the list will go on if only i didn’t have to go home in 5 minutes.