Monday, June 16, 2008

Reflection on Work (Both Past and Present)

The other day, I was talking to Joyce about support work. I was telling her a lot of stuff that I did not like about support work and how America is controlling poor countries like the Philippines. Here are some of my reflections on the two subjects: Support Work and America.

- Support Work
After working for HP as service management (SM) for 14 months, here are some of my insights regarding service management work. To be honest, when I entered HP, I did not know what service management meant. I just thought, "Wow! I'm going to work in HP and it's my dream company! I'm really excited!" Though my dad did not really approve that I work in HP, he still gave me his approval to work in HP because he knew that I wanted to work in HP. To be real honest, I did not really like support work. Firstly, it was because of the weird times that we were required to work. Since WOM is a global application, we work on shifts (Asia shift, EMEA shift, and NA shift). It ruins your body clock, especially NA shift. I really, really hate NA shift. You can't really have a good decent sleep if your on NA shift. Because the whole Philippines is awake and you're the only one sleeping. (Poor people working in call centers.) Even though the compensation for working on shifts is good, but your health would still deteriorate. Would you give up your health just to work on shifts? Well, that the question is really up to you to answer. Secondly, if you're working as SM and a page comes along, you would have to cut short your lunch. That really sucks! You really deserve a break time to sit down and eat dinner. But you couldn't because you got work to do. Yeah, people would tell me, you can still have your break later on. But what if you're eating out with your friends and you're the Duty Manager (DM) for that shift? You would have to tell your friends that you have to go because you have work to do. And the incident depends on the impact or level of the incident. Lastly, service management seldomly offers opportunities for travel. One of the main reasons that I chose HP to work to is because of the opportunity to travel. Sadly, for WOM, there was only one travel for the year 2007. Just imagine, only 1! I really envy my other batchmates in other teams that they got the opportunity to go to other countries for work. I really love travelling, and it really sucks that I did not get the chance to travel to another country. Well, that's life.. :)

- America
My point of view on America is really on the negative side. I don't know if I became anti-American nowadays or what. But these are just the things that I noticed about them. During meetings, they would often schedule a meeting that is convenient for them. Let's say, they would schedule it 8 am or 9 am in the morning. For them, they're already sacrificing because they have to come to office one hour earlier just for the meeting. But come to think of it, what about people in Asia? It's night time already here in Asia! Didn't they think that some people have been working since 9 am in the morning and they would still schedule the meeting 8 pm or 9 pm Asia time? That's really inconsiderate of them. Just like what Joyce told me that other day. She was in the office since 9 am and she has to stay until 3 am in the morning just for a conference call. Wow! Talk about being considerate! More or less, you stayed in the office already for 24 hours! That's tripled that work time required for people right? Shouldn't work be 8 hours a day only? In addition to that, those people in America are just there sitting pretty. When it comes to conference calls, they just talk and talk. They don't really do the work. Poor countries do the work for them (outsourcing). They just talk and tell people what they want to be done or want to achieve. They don't really do any work. Well, there are really many factors behind that. Such as colonial mentality, low labour costs, etc. Back in grade school and high school, you would really read in books that America is a great country. Especially in the Philippine history area which talks about the Spaniards, Americans, and Japanese. Guess who among the three, according to the book, gave so much contribution to the Philippines. Yup! You are right! The Americans. Also, the cost of living in the Philippines is relatively low. Just imagine, the salary of a CEO in the Philippines is just equivalent to a white collared or a blue collared regular employee in the Philippines. That's how low the salary of a non-American in a poor country is. Talk about discrimination!

Finally, when I was interviewing for a job here in Hong Kong, when asked, "What work did you do in HP?" I could find the words to describe my work. When I tell them service management work. They would ask me, what is service management work? I told them I do support work, meaning post-production work, and we have clients all over the world. They would tell me, so it's like a call center. I told them, something like that. To be honest, there are only a few differences between service management work and a call center work. In service management, you don't really get to talk to clients directly. That's the main diffence. Otherwise, its almost basically the same. Also, I remember what my cousin told me. What your work is right now would really impact on what you do in the future. For example, if you're currently a security guard, the next job that you will find would still be a security guard because that has been your experience, and you already know the ropes, the not-to's, etc. of being a security guard. In other words, no matter what kind of job you do, you'll basically do the same kind of job again in the future. Unless, you would choose another career path, which would basically mean starting again from scratch.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

My Friends 朋友 - Dedicated to My HS Barkada

Lately, I've been playing and playing this song again and again and again... Currently, I think this is one of my favorite songs. Below are the lyrics of the songs:

這些年一個人
All these years, alone
風也過雨也走
The wind has passed, the rain has gone
有過淚有過錯
There were tears, there were wrongs
還記得堅持什麼
Things we hold dear I still recall
真愛過才會懂
If you've had true love, then you would know
會寂寞會回首
There is loneliness, there are goodbyes
終有夢終有你在心中
There are dreams, always there is you in my heart
朋友一生一起走那些日子不再有
Friends walk this life together
一句話一輩子
One word, one life
一生情一杯酒
A lifetime relationship, a cup of wine
朋友不曾孤單過
With friends you won't be lonely
一聲朋友你會懂
Lifelong friends, you'd understand
還有傷還有痛
There are wounds, there is pain
還要走
Must go our separate ways
還有我
Always there is me

This is a great song about friendship. Chinese words really have deep meanings. I did not translate this. I just lifted it from a website. Haha! Also, I really, really hate it when they translate the words, especially to Tagalog. It really loses the essence of the meaning of the words or songs. In short, nagiging skwater pakinggan! Especially the Kim Chiu and MYMP song. Yuck! Don't mix two languages together in one song please! Anyways, this song is dedicated to my whole barkada: Joyce, Sheena, Lawrence, Louise, Kesmin, Jumie, Mary, Tim, and Andrew. :) Miss you guys! :)


Monday, June 09, 2008

Countries and Cities Where I've Been

Saw this in a website.

No Work Today - One Day After Tuen Ng Festival

It's great that there's no work today! Got to rest for one more since considering that I have five and a half days work. I really like this day because I get to really enjoy the holiday. Unlike when I was working in HP, even during holidays, we have work (which really sucks, but you can't do anything about it.) Woke up at around 9:30 am today, watched game 2 of the NBA finals. Referees in the game are so stupid! Ticky tac fouls are being called against the Lakers, but the obvious fouls against the Celtics aren't being called! It's like the Lakers were up against two opponents (Refs and the Celtics)! Anyway, the Lakers made an amazing comeback, but fell short (which is too bad). Had lunch with my cousin, Lloyd, grandma, and grandma's church friends at a Chinese dimsum restaurant near our place. In the afternoon, I just slept and woke up at around 5 pm. Got work tom. I'm want an extended vacation, and did I mention that I hate Saturday work???

Saturday, June 07, 2008

Black Rain in Hong Kong

This is the first time that I experienced black rain in Hong Kong. Rain was falling non-stop and some of the streets in Hong Kong are already flooded. It seems that they separate the signals for rain and wind. For rain, it's yellow rain, red rain, and black rain. Yellow, I think, classes are suspended for the kindergarten level and primary level. Red, for high school and college. Black, for all of Hong Kong, meaning people who are working. For the hurricane signals, I'm not quite sure of the number. But the worst that I've experienced was signal number 8. My umbrella was being blown away. Wind was very strong, and I mean very strong. Offices were suspended and people were asked to go home. It was very crowded in the MTR. People kept pushing each other. Made me reminisce my experience with the MRT in Manila. Actually, people in Manila who are riding the MRT always push each other around. It made me think if people here are more disciplined than the people in Manila. But according to my dad, Hong Kong people are scary which is why people don't push each other around. Well, I got home that day safe, but I won't forget that day. That was the only time that someone pushed me inside the MTR (other than the MRT in Manila). Well, I get to rest today. No half day work on Saturdays! :) Yehey! Monday is a holiday too. So, I get more or less 3 days vacation. Which is great! :)