The tale of the broken …

Today is another one of those uneventful days where I find myself lulling in sick thoughts and contemplating on making my life as simple as possible.

I had a drink the other night with some employees, one of the benefits of having a bar in the building, and it gave them the opportunity of discussing shop matters with me. My Korean friend and golf pro was telling everyone to change topic since he saw me the other night turn ugly when the talk turned shop and I threw a couple of beer bottles for stress relief.

But the night was entirely different, since I felt that it would give me the opportunity to explain my side to the people most relevant in this organization – the employees.

And explain I finally did. It felt good and gave me a bit more motivation to hang on and serve my time. Time that may never come, but I will nevertheless wait.

things I hate …

When someone says “you know my style”… I want to honestly say, “yes, it’s called the stupid style”

When a manager refuses to follow the rules and regulations… simply because they haven’t read it yet – they should be reminded that ignorance of the rule excuses no one, especially managers. Ignorance equals stupidity

When people don’t keep their word

When someone says, “I made this”, as if they really did

When someone says, “I know how you feel”, as if they do

Setting things right…

IRAC, meaning the Independent Republic of Amazing Cebu, was what I have christened Amazing Show’s Cebu branch last night while having beer at the MFC bar with some of my staff. And why not? It seems apt that they adapt that name since they seem to be, in their minds, an independent entity from the Manila office.

I’ve not set foot in the Cebu branch since the day my counterpart VP said that I won’t need to visit as often as the Chairman made me promise to everyone. And for this, I hope that the Cebu employees understand the situation and that it is not to my liking, but as always, I will confine myself to headquarters to prevent any more tension. Or until I see them washed away…

It is rather hilarious as I see, that as an analogy, flies who has stood on top of the carabao’s head for too long tend to think that they are taller than the carabao.

Several weeks ago, I prodded my production director to finalize the list of those people who are entitled to increases and recognition based on the evaluations. I have reviewed the people on the list and decided to omit only one name. It took this company several weeks to finalize the memorandum because no one wanted to break the report to the Chairman and it took my very simple prodding to everyone that it is not the employees’ fault that we are hard pressed these days so give them what is due them.

So why is everyone in a state of flux? Because they should be, we all should be. Stability can only be achieved by an organization if we possess a strong leadership system that will allow people to move forward well supported and endorsed by our leader. But there is none.

I am not ignorant… neither am I secured. I should be the most insecured being in this organization, but I am not. If a man has nothing to look forward to then the insecurities stop. Hell, what’s anyone looking forward to these days anyway?

Several days ago, I asked my admin director to prepare evaluation reports on senior managers so that I may right what is wrong before I call off this dead-end career of mine. I’ve just about had it with everything as my patience has thinned out faster than my hair. If I ever stay in this fight, then it would be for the wrong reason, I swear.

As to the words of one of my directors, “they only know how to complain but they don’t have the skill or the intelligence to do anything”.

Happy Anniversary!!!

Eight years ago, two Korean investors and visionaries decided to put up what would be the Philippines' Premiere Theatrical Family Show... the AMAZING SHOW.

Happy 8th year company anniversary to the men and women of the Amazing Show Family!

my de la salle buddies

I had a blast last night with my former co faculty members from the Political Science Department of De la Salle University. We had dinner at our Korean restaurant and some mild drinking at the coffee shop. It was good reminiscing all those years where De la Salle gave some of my best and worst experiences in life that shaped me into what I am now.

I specially missed Virgie, our very loyal department admin assistant who I must say has helped me through a lot of things. Kiko Magno who was my professor and my friend is the guy who never seems to age. Louie was there and so was a German girl named Joanna.

Afterwards, I drank with some Korean friends with two guys from Hanjin. It was unfortunate that after some talk turns shop, my mood changed towards the negative given the ill-sentiments I've been hoarding all this time.


with the Amazing performers at the lobby

play time, amazing style

with Korean drinking buddies

...

"There are three ways of dealing with difference: domination, compromise, and integration. By domination only one side gets what it wants; by compromise neither side gets what it wants; by integration we find a way by which both sides may get what they wish."

Mary Parker Follett

I had a face to face with the Chairman last week after not having seen him for ages. I looked at his face and saw that familiar uneasiness and unresolved expression of helplessness. So I sat there quiet, occasionally asking questions of little relevance to what I wanted to express.

It is called sensitivity…

A day in my life…

I started the day today miserably with a phone call from my executive director informing me about a miscommunication issue that happened between a test product we were suppose to put in the coffee shop. I kind of sensed that the rest of the day would be rather bad for me. I was on the phone all the way to the office to settle some issues and iron out the miscommunication bit and as I approached the entrance of the building, I had a big grin on my face seeing that the signage has finally been completed after the longest wait. I settled in and waited or my staff to explain the mini fiasco that made us appear foolish earlier.

So we finally had the chance to discuss matters and clear expectations with regards to our clear and present dangerous situation. We have a non-scheduled major rehabilitation project on our electricity lines that’ll cost us Php3.8M, we have an impending problem with the sound system that would set us back about Php130,000 and of course the everyday problem of keeping the inside of this building dry.

Given the situation, I decided to take the guys out on an impromptu inspection of a place I saw earlier last month so that we can check the financial and practical viability of a move-out. Of course, the final decision will have to be made with much consideration. On my part, most especially because I have an emotional attachment to this building as this represents mostly blood, sweat, tears and a tub-full of patience.

By night fall, my marketing consultant comes in with four sets of product samples all of which are sweets and has that potentially lethal effect on me. But we had to do some pastry, brownie, cup cake and cake tasting to determine which of the four companies we can accommodate into the building. I ended up downing two tablets of my maintenance drug and a terrible back of the head and nape pain to boot which I had to shake off by perspiring in screen golf.

If I wasn't diabetic, the pastry, cake and sweets part would have been a great part of the day.

Found Pictures

Amazing Show Cebu 5th year anniversary outing and celebration held last year sometime October.