My Bungled Up Weekend

Sensitivity

It is apparent that we go through things over and over again in life, much like a moron who tests the heat from an open fire and does it again hoping or thinking that it won’t hurt as much the next time, the weekend that was offered me no less than being a pissed off guy from things that I probably had no control over.

The golf tournament I had to attend to was the worst game I’ve ever played… but I guess that that’s all normal for me. Anyway, I was supposedly home after lunch to pick up my wife for a visit with my in-laws but since it was a tournament, I had no control over which flight I would be in. and since there were only two of us playing together, the organizers would have to put two more players in the same flight and that meant waiting for another two-man team. The wait was long and by the time we teed off, I was already pissed off, tired and had my mind off the game.

I was in the shower by two and was heading out of the golf club by half past two and remembered that the main road would be officially closed for the government-sponsored anti-drug rally where the President would be in attendance. So to a snail’s pace, we inched our way through the detoured traffic, dropped off my staff and got home late afternoon… and my wife was pissed off as hell.

Point? It was an official tournament where my organization sponsored the first hole. I should have been there in the first place until the end of the event and witness the awarding ceremonies but I skipped it. For what? Ok, it was for something important, but I also missed out an opportunity for the company to mingle in with some very important people. Not to mention that my staff who was my flight partner won 1st runner up but we weren’t there… that would have been a good cause for a celebration and more elbow-rubbing opportunities.

And she’s pissed off? Hell yeah, but I was in no mood for an argument. I already stopped talking about work a long time ago to prevent myself from hearing solicited comments where the circumstances and parameters are unclear to her anyway and I’d probably end up absorbing more stress. Hell, the traffic ain’t my fault either. Government could simply close a major road, waste valuable fuel for everyone, mess up everybody else’s schedule, grind business activities in the area to a stand still for a few political gains to earn for 2010. I and my guys didn’t take breakfast and lunch since we had to go back home… she’s pissed off? Hell yeah.

Opportunities were wasted that day. Need I explain? And I will not explain, this is my world and I won’t expect second-hand sympathy since that is something I won’t need anyway…

So to sum it up, congratulations Jay An, you have proven yourself a good golfer. To bad we didn’t stick around so you’d be able to ceremoniously receive your award. I had unfortunately domestic obligations I needed to attend to.

Part 2

So with all the hoola-balloohs over and done with, I had to take my rest after sitting in the car the entire day for a trip to our branch in Cebu for the ship’s stage major renovation. My phone is already dead by that time and I missed like a gazillion calls from my boss.

I picked him up from his place early in the morning for the flight and another adventure begins.

More sensitivity issues…

I travel light, that’s the general rule. A day before this trip my finance director already informed me that I’d have to haul a small box with me. It was simple… I heard “small” and it was. My secretary was already in the office when we got there, puts the box in the car and she comes with us to the airport.

First insensitivity… the box had no handles, makeshift of what not. That means I had to embrace an ugly box around with my short arms, lug it around like Igor and walk around the aiport. I didn’t check it in because that would be a waste of time when I arrive in Cebu. That’s despite the fact that I had to argue with an airport personnel about hand carrying this box.

It was done, we have arrived and I had a “hell” of a time lugging it around and finally, I was curious as to the contents and ALAS, several business card boxes, a relatively small flag and a gun-tucker… all of which could have fitted in my bag! Talk about unnecessary suffering!

I was already pissed-off that time that I excused myself from lunch telling the chairman I had a heavy breakfast. We headed to the site afterwards; I checked in with the boys about the work in progress and gave some small talk about our style. “tour de force”, a little less than 44 hours to complete the project.

I noticed that although the progress was quite impressive, I wasn’t quite sure we’d beat the deadline. So I gave money to my associate director so that he’d buy me something to wear while working since I'd have to literally get down and dirty… I specifically mentioned that I trusted him on his taste of outfit and I ended up wearing floral designed shorts for a day… huuhuhu…

A major sensitivity issue…

If you’re going to ask people to work in excess of the normal hours a human being is supposed to outside of sleep, then they would have to be fed properly. Apparently, they were not so I asked one of the boys to buy some barbeque chicken and rice for everyone and that got us going the rest of the day.

Days before sending my key people from Manila to Cebu, I specifically mentioned things needed to be done and materials needed to be purchased. Some of them were turned down by the branch manager because he “thinks” that they were unnecessary.

My major gripe…

How can someone with no experience in construction and stage development be entitled to an opinion? Or for that matter, how can someone with no experience at all be entitled to an opinion?

I tell you, this is a moronic organization. No wonder he has already developed a pet name from the staff. And this is the second time he has bungled up on something. First was the ceiling that he did not have cleaned and washed down because he “thinks” that it’s not going to turn out well. It took an ultimatum for him to work on it and did it work? Hell yeah! The ceiling is 2000% better looking. Three months after my order.

He wanted to request for new air conditioning units. I simply said that the ACs were never maintained by qualified people for the last five years so he simply has to have the ACs serviced and it’ll be fine. He took the advice and did it work? Hell Yeah! For Php1,200 three ACs were serviced and they’re all working better now.

This attitude already borders with insubordination and I will make sure that I put it on a memo.

So with his “opinion” he has managed to waste precious time and resources, managed to piss me off and almost compromised the objective of my visit to Cebu. And that is why I shall continue to turn down offers of the presidency of this company for as long as the culture of “accommodation” remains. It’s either my way, or no way. At the moment, I am content of having to answer to the Chairman as his Vice President.

As work progressed the rest of the day and night, I was on the floor and working while the branch manager looked on unable to physically contribute to this project. By midnight, I asked for beer bottles be opened and asked everyone to cease working because we were snail-pacing from exhaustion. I gave money for a hearty lunch the next day. A few beers and we called it a night.

The bottomline…

The project was completed… not on time, but photo finish. We would have met the 3pm deadline was it not for the f&%*@# up indecisiveness of the branch manager. And this has been the problem that has pervaded this company for the longest time. My gripes in Boracay were the same and there seems to be no end to it. Like some special child, we just do the same mistakes over and over again. I actually now refuse to be associated with this stupidity…