All Hallows Eve 2006

I've been out of touch... again. Been there, done that and I'm gald I had the chance. To start off, I went on a mini-vacation to my brother's house in Bulacan and played the role of a dutiful tita to my adorable niece and nephew. I even took them to taekwondo practice but, I fell asleep on the chair (hehe). Those kids won bronze and gold medals for their first-ever competition! Also, I had a chance to hang out with my cousin and his growing family at SM North's The Block. The place was cool with lots of stores and everything else the mall is famous for. Yep, it was a nice breather and I enjoyed my short stay, including marathon Dream Cable/TV shows.

Now, I'm back to reality. Back to ICS this morning at 4:00am. It was nice to see familiar faces again and meet a really awesome girl. That's the word: awesome. We also had call sims which was a pick-your-number kind of thing. My number? It was #1...and obviously I had to go first. I gave it my best shot, was given encouraging feedback and because of that, I will be taking live calls tomorrow for timeshare (for half-a-shift or roughly four hours).

And for a bit of sad news...just read on.

Human nature is really complex. Sometimes I tend to use that as an excuse for untoward behavior, individual differences or as a conversation opener. Today, it's a good topic for this blog entry. I don't know if there's any connection to human nature and to the event which took place early this morning at ICS.

Sixteen agents made a not-so-graceful exit and even gave a press statement against ICS. One particular agent (I don't know who that was.) said over the radio that ICS is not paying their salaries, not giving their demands, etc. It's just sad because the molehill became a mountain, the issue became a local source of news. Well, a person has the right to be heard but it shouldn't have come to such a drastic measure when all one had to do was to talk it out with management in order to clear up the mis-understanding. When asked by the management if there are concerns or problems they'd like to address, the said agents replied in the negative. I'd like to believe that the owners/management are good people. It's the least I can say about those who put up this kind of business here to be able to provide work when they can easily go to Manila to do business. Since the company has been operational in less than 8 months, it's still learning its way around. Sadly, the noble idea of wanting to give work backfired. Another good intention gone wrong. Even our city mayor was baffled by all these since the owners are good business people. He asked one of them to clear up the issue.

I'm not taking sides here. Sure, it's still business but hard work is needed to make it thrive. Sacrifice is part of hard work. So is patience. It's of prime importance to work together and reap the benefits (read: monetary rewards) later. The irony of it all is that the business deals mainly with communication. Why was there a communication gap between the agents and the management? Is human nature a valid excuse for what took place? Could be.

Moving on the lighter side...

I was asked by a guy as to how I would react about this scenario. "What if you have a friend and you've got to know him/her on a personal level and you like what you've discovered so far. However, some well-meaning people who know you only have mean things to say about your personal friend?". Hmmmm...Personally, I told him that it as a friend, I'd take time to listen to what other people have to say about him/her. Weigh if what they're saying is true or not. Don't be affected by the negative comments. And most of all, I said that it's ultimately up to him to make the choice of continuing the friendship or not. (That's my two cents worth of advice. Now, it's his decision to take it or leave it.)

BTW, this blog entry's title has nothing to do about All Hallows Eve. Except that today is Oct. 30.