US Trip to Keep

There will always be two sides of the coin; it depends on which side you look at it.

About two months ago, I decided to apply for a new role. Some people scrutinized my decision upfront, and some did in their own subtle way through gossips. Some people gave their genuine support for doing so, and some did in their own simple way through liking my status on FB.

Living and working in the Philippines can be tough, not on workloads though but the people you work with. Filipinos are known to be artificially-polite but the BPO industry has changed this a little. Vice Ganda made a huge role in changing this attitude, too. Increasing number of OFW family members and immigrants impacted this change, as well. I used to be a trainer, and I have seen this change first hand; I find it interesting. Our company was recently acquired by an Asian company and faced a few changes in after that acquisition. It created negative feelings for some, in fact a few friends left because they thought our company is closing down. Majority though stayed because we believed in the acquisition that it will strengthen and even increase the value of the company’s assets; however, a few of us changed path. When you are part of a change, you want to learn more of that change. You simply can’t adopt change without the full grasp of it, right? So our stakeholders sent us to our headquarters in Lexington to be trained and fully immersed. Of course, a few members in our company raised their eyebrows and raised a few questions: why do we have to go there as a team, is web conference be the solution to cut costs, what’s so special about our team that we all have to go there, since I’m the former trainer, why can’t I be sent for training alone and do an echo-training back in Cebu, a few members in our team are new to Lexmark and there are more than a thousand employees in Cebu who haven’t been sent out for training, why them and why now that even merit increases to employees are not that constructive anymore because of the cost-saving.

Those questions were valid but as what I stated, there will always be two sides of the coin. Life is like getting a tan under the sun; you get free tan but you gotta sustain the pain from the heat; free travel and training but you gotta live with doubts from people. It’s life!

Our team chose to accept life, embraced every challenge we went through from visa application until living by the hashtags #masuyamadeads #kirig, etc. Our manager, bless her heart, even reminded us not to post a lot of photos of our enjoyable US memories and try to be a little sensitive about how other people feel, yet we chose to be real and that is flooding of our friends’ respective walls with notifications. Why? It’s life. Whether I post photos or not, it wouldn’t change those doubts. I personally ignored those people who are constantly talking about me or my team behind our back because they are right where they belong – behind us.

People see overseas corporate training as paid vacation. Behind the smiles and blogger poses on FB are people who left their lives temporarily – kids. No paid vacation can equal to the concerns these employees go through every day for 30 or more days. No paid vacation can equal to the concern if my 16-year old turned off the AC or locked the door when she left for school or has eaten her breakfast or dinner considering that she lived with my parents for nine years in a different island and only last year we started to live together. No paid vacation can equal to my teammate who left his promising job in Singapore to be with his two lil boys and will leave them again for a month? No paid vacation can equal to my manager who left her dog who is her princess and source of happiness, and we all know how helpless these furry friends can be. What more can you do than appreciate what you have #ATM! After a training day, eat steak and burger, go to places, visit friends and families, or you can stay in your hotel room and skype/facetime with your loveones, cry if you feel like doing, scream “I miss you” and “I love you” for all you care, and cook after. It’s life.

So it’s my final day today in the land of possibilities. So much to remember but I can sum it up to a few words and bashers can suck it all up – I am trained; I have ROI to face; I had fun.

Thank you Lexmark, OCM Team, GSO, families in the US, and thank you Jumerica!