Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Signs to reconsider your job

I'm pretty sure most -- if not all -- experience burnout at work at some point. When this happens, that's a signal for you to get away from the stress and take a breather... Time to regroup, relax, recollect your thoughts, whatever it is you do to cope with work-related stress.

There are, however, times in which there is just too much stress, your mind and body literally -- and I mean LITERALLY -- cannot take it anymore: lose sleep, lose weight, cannot focus, miss appointments, etc. I guess that's a big billboard saying "CHANGE WORK", "LEAVE COMPANY", etc.

From my experience, the signs that you must look for a new job include, but is not limited to, the following. (Well, you know, work-related stress may have caused me to miss a few points! LOL)


You excessively dislike people at work. In particular, whenever you hear the name or the voice of someone -- your colleague, a boss, or a subordinate -- you have an involuntary response that equates to irritation; your ears twitching, your mouth making that funny shape, one of your eyebrows rising, your eyes roll up, your face frowning, your hands clenching, your feet stomping, etc. Little things like that betray your negative feelings toward that other person.

It is normal to dislike some people at work; there are an infinite number of personalities, some of them -- or some aspects of them -- would likely not be compatible to yours. Hence, you will come across these people at some point.

What's bad is the degree / level of annoyance to that people. How many people do you dislike? How often do you deal with these people daily? Do they consume your thoughts? Are you thinking of many dark and different ways of flaying their flesh and rending their bones? Hehehe.. Okay, I may have gone a little bit overboard, but you get the point right?

Another thing is that your hostility for these people have changed you; could be as simple and subtle as turning away your head slughtly whenever you hear something you don't like , or as apparent and obvious as swearing obscenities when normally you wouldn't.


You compromise your friends/family. How many times have we seen a scene in which the working parent would miss his/her kid's recital, first game, graduation, whatever, all because of work? I remember this ad on the papers the other day: a working mom promised her kid a picnic the next day; then he got called by her boss who wanted her to do extra work on that same picnic day. What do you do?

Sometimes, there really is a need to do some extra work, hence requiring you to sacrifice some time that you would rather spend enjoying with your family and/or friends. The question is, how many times have you sacrificed your time for them for the sake of your job? Between work and family, where do you draw the proverbial line??


You have nightmares about work. If you dream about it, that means your job is ingrained in your subconscious so deeply, that it has become a part of you. Now that's not necessarily bad; that is, if you dream about the "good" stuff of your work or if you dream something that would make you suddenly wake and shout "EUREKA! I've found it!" or something, that's all fine and dandy. This is bad, however, if all you dream about are the stress and the other "nightmarish" part of work. You'll be more restless and susceptible to stress, which gets absorbed into your subconscious, then you dream more about it and it goes on and on and on in a vicious, seemingly never-ending cycle.

Personally, good or bad, I just want to leave work in the office altogether. When the clock strikes 5:30PM, by 5:31PM I should be already be on my way home. I won't let the work consume me beyond that time, unless there is really a need to extend.


You unintentionally miss your lunch and breaktimes. You are rooted in your seat so much that you lose track of time. By the time you remember you have to eat, you have already lost your appetite. Since you haven't eaten, you have even less energy and patience to resist stress and you will burnout that much sooner.

BTW, others see that missing eating times as a good way of saving money... Oh, come on!!!! Whatever you save on food will be spent on your hospitalization/treatments for your ulcer... or worse! So please... Unless you are a creature that doesn't have to eat anything, buy some food, okay?


You cannot focus on your work. You are at your desk, facing your monitor, your tasks for the day is lined up, and you know what to do. And yet, for some reason, you just sit there, stare at the monitor while there are a dozen ideas going on in your 'noggin, but still you have not done or accomplished any of those tasks.

Your brain is probably overloaded with a lot of information. Think of a PC reaching 100% CPU utilization; the PC appears to hang for a while. You are this PC! And your CPU is working overtime such that you appear to be hung, not able to do anything until some time has passed.

So what have you been thinking of, that has got 100% of your brain worked up?


You get a severe/critical health condition. This seems far-fetched, an exaggeration to emphasize effects of too much work; I just wish that this was indeed the case. :( Unfortunately, there really are STRESS-triggered ailments; I know of at least two people who have been affected so severely, they developed irreversible health problems.

This is perhaps the ultimate culmination of the effect of stress and burnout in your body. Don't wait for this to happen to you, okay?

If you are in this situation, either get rid of your condition (if possible), or change your work (change the working conditions, or leave the company outright).


These are all I can think of right now. I know I have missed a few points, but I think this post is long enough. :)

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Philippines in the same boat as the X-Men?

Thanks to the newsreel at this site, I've been able to check what's going on at home. Just read the following report from the Inquirer. Below are the excerpts from PNP setting up more ‘spy cams’:

MANILA, Philippines -- Amid accusations it has been installing surveillance
cameras to trace the movements of Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr., key witness in
the national broadband network (NBN) scandal, the Philippine
National Police (PNP) said Friday more closed-circuit television (CCTVs)
would be set up all over Metro Manila.
....

"Our people in Metro Manila
need not be afraid of these CCTV cameras but rather feel safer that with them,
our children are far more secure in our streets and other public places," said
Bartolome.

In case you're not familiar, the recent (not the latest) X-Men story goes as follows:

Mutants have always been feared by ordinary humans, the non-mutants, homo sapiens (whatever you want to call them). The government has been tolerant about the existence of mutants, but there are militant groups that would rather see them die than co-exist with them and would go to any length to see to it that they do so.

Recently, mutants were reduced from millions to just about two hundred, due to the reality-warping powers of one Scarlet Witch. Fearing persecution from both civilians and the government, most of these remaining mutants sought sanctuary at the Xavier Institute, the home and base of operations of the X-Men. The grounds literally became a refugee camp; tents pitched up, foods rationed, campfires, etc.

With a large concentration of the remaining mutants, the Institute has been frequently targetted by a militant group, the Sapien League.

In response to this, the government sent troops and human-piloted Sentinels that patrol the grounds of the Institute in order to protect the X-Men and all the mutant refugees.

This brings me to my point. Have a read at the following scan of a page from X-Men #179:

--- start ---
Cyclops: What did you call the Institute now, "A reservation for mutants"?


Valerie: It's security, Scott. Maybe that costs a little freedom.

Cyclops: That's how it begins,isn't it? Give up a little freedom in the name of security...
Cyclops: ... then you're asked to give up just a little more freedom...

Cyclops: ... and then a little more...
--- end ---


I dunno, the news just brough a funny feeling of familiarity. Like the "I've heard/seen this before" , dejavu-type of thing. Hehehe.

Then again, maybe this is just me rambling, bored, and obviously tied up with my reading of comics. :)

I hope Philippines will not go down that path, is all I'm saying, see? :)

Cheers everyone!

High Score in Ouendan!

After weeks of practice, Che got the S Rank! Now, unless the world shifted overhight, I think S rank is great! I think this is the "Over the Distance" stage (the one with the ghost guy).
Weird thing, though, is that I can't find this when I review the saved stats... ???
Fortunately (or unfortunately, depends on how you look at it LOL!), I am now becoming an DS "convert". Actually, more of an Ouendan convert! Hahaha...
Ah what the hell... Linda Linda! Linda Linda Linda-aaaaahh! It's one the songs in there and the only lyrics that I can repeat the first time I heard it! LOL!
Rock on!

Friday, February 22, 2008

Saving with Kinoko!

Kinoko is Japanese for mushroom. Shown below is our collection consisting of four of the Super Mario Brothers Mushroom coin banks. :-)

Based from the New Super Mario Brothers (N-DS), these mushrooms are:

MINI-MUSHROOM (blue & white)
SUPER MUSHROOM (red & white)
MEGA-MUSHROOM (yellow/orange &red)
1UP MUSHROOM (green & white)

These are actually "sound" coin banks; everytime a coin is dropped, it will sound off one of three, uhm, "traditional" Super Mario sounds (the coin sound, the super mushroom sound, and the question box sound).

Anyway, the plan is to fill them up with one-dollar coins (from loose change, donations, finders-keepers, whatever). Then everytime we hit 100 dollars, we exchange the 100 one-dollar coins for 1 one-hundred-dollar bill from our good, nice neighbors. We then deposit that hundred-dollar bill -- along with any other savings that we have -- to our bank account.

Back to basics for us! Somehow, it's actually working great for us. We already saved one hundred dollars this way within the first two months we tried this and we are now well on our way of earning our next hundred!

What can I say? I like the sound they make! There's something nostalgic about the SMB sounds. Since we're saving money, we might as enjoy it, right? hehehe :))

Sunday, February 17, 2008

POEA suspends memo for Direct Hires

Much to the delight of many Pinoys, the POEA Memoramdum Circular No 4 Series of 2007 (aka Guidelines on the Direct Hiring of Filipino Workers) has been suspended for the meantime. Details on the infamous memo and the new memo which suspends the former are found in the POEA site.

The provisions in the memo enraged both overseas Pinoy workers and those who have plans of going abroad, chief among them are the following:
  • Certificate of worker coverage under a performance bond equivalent to the worker's three month salary and secured at no cost to the worker.
  • Certificate of worker coverage under a repatriation bond in the amount of US$5,000 or its peso equivalent secured at no cost to the worker.
As you can see, this apparently means additional cost required from the employers. Not sure if this is actually how it goes (heard from a friend briefly about how payment in bonds work), but I guess many people see it that way as well which, not surprisingly, caused alot of "noise" and confusion.

Anyway, going back: do the math; Pinoys are competing with other countries (such as India and China) for cheaper labor -- and this memo does not help any of the Pinoys -- kahit yung mga nangungurakot hindi matutulungan kung wala ng OFW!!! hehehe... But kidding aside, Filipino workersjust got a bit more expensive in the eyes of foreign employers, which makes us a little bit undesirable.

Not sure if this is true but I've heard rumors of a group of nurses whose work offers abroad have been withdrawn when this memo came out. Can somebody confirm this?

Aside from the above, there were also concerns regarding how these new requirements would affect the existing Filipino workers abroad. I remember going to the Philippine Embassy in Singapore several days before February 1 -- for the first time, as one of the employees there put it, the Philippine Embassy was overflowing with tons of people. Around a thousand people are crammed into the Philippine Embassy grounds which could only hold about a few hundred.

Well, the suspension of the memo was a good sign; it may have meant that the government is in fact listening to all the concerns in the petitions of the workers -- either that or they're worried with the amount of money they'll lose if there were lesser Filipinos abroad! Hehehe!

If I understand correctly, this is just a SUSPENSION of the memo; it is not yet totally abolished. So we might be faced again with this issue sometime later, after the POEA has "reviewed" it. If ever they do implement that again, let's hope that the provisions are clearly explained and is fair for all parties involved.


TIMELINE:

(Well, I always liked stories, so I might as well include how this saga went on.)Just some important dates relevant to the issue. Any other dates I've missed? Please PM me so I can update. :)

  • December 18, 2008- POEA released the Memorandum Circular No. 04 Series of 2007, aka Guidelines on the Direct Hiring of Filipino Workers
  • February 1, 2008- implementation of the MC No. 4, series of 2007 in Singapore (i.e., the documentary requirements for applying for an exit pass )
  • February 14, 2008- POEA released Memorandum Circular No. 01 Series of 2008, aka Suspension of the Implementation of MC No 4 series of 2007 (Direct Hire Guidelines

Links:

Guidelines on the Direct Hiring of Filipino Workers / POEA MC 4, series 2007

Suspension of the Implementation of MC No 4 series of 2007 (Direct Hire Guidelines) / POEA MC 1, series 2008

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/antiOFWcircular/index.html

Friday, February 15, 2008

FLASHBACK - Pinas pictures

Because I have a nasty habit of forgetting stuff, I'll post these pictures now! :)

Us with the newest member of the Aguilar clan: Keisha!


With Kiara and the family


With SPI guys



Dinner with Mike, Amy, and Mitch (maraming absent!)

Me with "Timberlake" guys
See you guys again! :)

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Valentines Day work

Well, still busy as a bee here but I have just enough breather to do this one post.

Work is piled up as usual, as I receive tasks more than I can finish. Pretty much the story of my whole professional life! Hehehe. I remember the time when I closed up 30 cases in a week (one of the largest volume of weekly case closures I got back then), but found out I had received 31 cases! So by the end of the week, my total backlog increased by one! Hahaha! Those were the days... :)

I just noticed that Valentine's day is not widely celebrated here in SG (unlike the Cinese New Year last week). Hopefully we can use this to our advantage so we can have a nice dinner somewhere without worrying about other couples; PDA (public display of affection, not the gadget!) is pretty much a given here, but I hope the finer/nicer places and hangouts are not that jampacked.

Happy Valentines to everyone out there! Couples, singles, lonely-hearts club, whatever. :)

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Back from the Holidays

After a week, we've finally returned to Singapore and resume work.

It felt like my first day again. I've forgotten many of my usual work routine. Good thing I didn't forget to login! :)

So here I am, using the small window of opportunity to post here while the rest of my mind is thinking work-related stuff. Wow, I didn't imagine this is the amount of work that was waiting for me! 61 new email messages -- on top of the 10+ email messages I left hanging when I left for the holidays! :)

Hahahaha... Yeah, this is gonna be great! :)

Friday, February 01, 2008

We're baaaaack!

And after three months in Singapore, we're back and we've never been happier to see Manila! :)

Like many Pinoys there, we've taken advantage of the fact that Chinese New Year is a two-day holiday in Singapore. With February 7 and 8 falling on a Thursday and Friday, we have an extremely long vacation; very ideal conditions to fly home, in spite of the increasing concerns of overseas Pinoy workers regarding the stricter rules imposed by POEA.

The downside, though, is that we cannot maximize the extended weekend vacation. The airlines took advantage of the situation; all flights on February 9 and 10 (Saturday and Sunday, respectively) have soared; more than 3x the usual cost of flights. Hence, we had to book a flight before that.

Still, home is home and we're glad to be back! It's gonna be a busy week for us here and we\ll enjoy every single second of it!

Yipee! We're home! :) :) :)