What's the buzz?

Well, a lot has been happening in my life since 2009 started.  First off, my Dad passed away - on New Year's Day, no less - after having been in a coma that was caused by a heart attack that struck him down on Christmas Day.  

Now that was a really crappy way to start a new year, and that's seriously an understatement since I've been missing my Dad ever since he migrated to the US to be with Tita Flor, my stepmom.  You see, when my Mom died in 2000, my Dad and I became really close; we shared a relationship that was just more than that between a father and his son; we became friends, but perhaps more importantly, we treated each others as adults.  I guess that was really the turning point in our relationship; that I was no longer a child in his eyes, but a man.  Of course, having Dana and Dylan refer to Robin Williams' Teddy Roosevelt in Night at the Museum and a moustachioed and bespectacled Mr. Potato Head as 'Lolo Angel' makes me miss him even more since my kids - his grandchildren - would never know just how much a kind, loving and funny man their grandfather was.

On the job front, although I loved what I was doing for my clients, Personal Friday, and perhaps most importantly, the client that I served with exclusively for almost a year, Pandemic Labs, the company I was connected with - Open Access Marketing (OAM) - quickly lost its sheen to me.  The Google-like atmosphere I dreamt the company would have turned out to be just that - a dream - as the senior executive management were quick to wash their hands off of their disgruntled employees and left it to the local senior management to deal with them.  And to think that the one who facilitated my hiring and appraised my overall performance with the company that prompted them to regularize me as their very first Senior Writer didn't take the time to address my concerns or even just send a simple reply to any of my e-mails.  Well, to be fair with them, their open-door policy was great since you could approach any one of them to air your concerns - just don't expect them to act on it or even give you a simple reply.  To tell you the truth, talking to a concrete wall would've been better because at least you can hear your concerns being echoed back at you.

But what's even worse is OAM's local senior management.  With them, everything is black and white, and I mean EVERYTHING.  There are no greys to them, no middle ground; to them, it's either you did something wrong or not at all.  

You see, OAM has an attendance policy that asks their employees to call in at least 2 hours before the start of their shift if they can't report for work for that day, supposedly for staffing purposes, so that they'll have enough time to find someone to cover for your absence and some other illogical excuse, particularly in my case since I was their ONE AND ONLY Senior Writer at that time.  Well, in my particular case, I wasn't going to be absent, I was just going to be late, but still, I informed them 2 hours before my shift started that I was going to be late since Rachel, my wife, went out to fix something regarding her land's paperwork at the Manila City Hall.  Again, knowing that the red tape in government offices could significantly delay her progress and leave me to take care of our kids for much longer than necessary, I informed them of my dilemma.  My client had an assignment for me that needed my attention, so instead of calling in as absent for that day, I opted to still report for work, just so that I wouldn't leave my client hanging.  So, problem solved - or so I thought.

As it was, I thought incorrectly.  I came in 17 minutes late, but then, since I informed them ahead of time that I'll be late, thus following the company-set policy to the T, I thought that I was safe from any repercussion.  But lo and behold, the following day, I get served with a 5-day suspension notice, saying that I violated the company's policy of coming in late "for a total of 15 minutes or 3 times, whichever comes first."  I sent an e-mail to OAM's senior executive management asking for some reconsideration since I couldn't very well leave my kids alone at home just so I can make it to work on time but I didn't get a single reply from any one of them.  As for OAM's local senior management, they wouldn't even hear me out, saying that no concession could be made and that they're just following company policy.

Now, if I came in because it was of my own doing, like if it's because I got up late or I took my own sweet time to go to work, then I would've readily signed the suspension notice.  As it is, since I did tell them ahead of time that I'd be late, only to be figuratively slapped in the face by being served with that suspension, that was the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak.  The way I see it, I would've been better off calling in as absent for that day.  Since I'm hardly ever absent, that would've made me safe from their oh-so-strict, black-and-white policies.  Now that really demoralized me to the point that I started job hunting again, knowing that I'll be leaving behind a good paycheck and some good people I call as friends since my days in PeopleSupport.  After all, if I came in late again, and since OAM's local senior management are such sticklers to the black-and-white company policies, the next step - again according to the black-and-white company policy - was that I was going to be terminated.  So when a good job opportunity came knocking just as I was looking for a new one, I didn't hesitate.  I did the usual interviews, and thanks to my having worked with them on a freelance basis before, I got the position.  Of course, I told the company that was hiring me that I had to give my then-current employer my two-weeks' notice which they (the company that was hiring me) were cool with.  So the very next instance that I came in late, I came in armed with the two-weeks notice of my resignation.  And honestly, it felt good doing that; sort of like beating them to the gun and sticking it to them when they least expected it.

And so, with my resignation taking effect yesterday, that makes today my first day of being in-between jobs literally since I'm now effectively resigned from OAM while I still have to facilitate some paperwork needed by the company I'm moving to.  Like I said in the social media sites I'm a part of, leaving OAM is a bittersweet feeling.  It's sweet because I'm free from OAM's oppressive shackles of misguided authority yet I'm bitter because the company's executive management and local senior management teams' minds are too closed to what I'm doing for them, how my clients - their clients - only had good words to say about what I've done for them, and yet, as anal-retentive as they are to their black-and-white policies, they would rather suspend me and leave the clients hanging for 5 days rather than just look in the grey area - if there is one - in their precious company policies and look the other way instead.

And that's also another thing that got my goat in OAM -  they're rolling out and enforcing their new policies but yet they still have to inform OAM's employees what exactly are the new policies.  Essentially, what they're doing is putting up a new set of rules and yet they're leaving their employees blind because they, the employees, have no idea what rules are being followed now.  And that's no joke because I've asked some of the local senior management people and to their knowledge, the old policies are the ones still being used.  But when you ask OAM's administrative department, they'll give you a different answer, that it's the new, still-unknown-to-the-rank-and-file-employees policies that are being used - SERIOUSLY.  It's like OAM's is taking the whole "ignorance of the law is no excuse" precept to a whole new level.  And if you ask me, although I'm no legal expert, while that may be acceptable as a general law of the streets, in a corporate setting, that's just downright illegal, and I mean against-the-Labor-Code-somebody-better-get-in-touch-with-the-National-Labor-Relations-Commission illegal.

So, what's in store for me outside of OAM?  Well, I'll let you know once I start my first day at work with the company I'm moving to.  But let me just say this - it certainly feels like I've reached the 'Summit' of things as I help the company I'm moving to by contributing my experience in writing exclusively for the web to the new 'Digital' arena the company is eager to start on.  And with the way things are going, I'll certainly strive to reach the 'Top' of my field, bringing with me my experience along with all the things and other 'Gear' I've learned.

Oh, and after 5 years of not having gone inside a movie house since the last film I saw was the premiere showing of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King when Rachel was still pregnant with Dana, I finally saw a movie again courtesy of Azrael Coladilla's Pop Machine Media bloggers' group.  Catch my review of Jim Carrey's Yes Man here.

Stay tuned for more developments soon...