Here comes the Sun!

We switched networks today. My wife and I ditched our SMART prepaid SIMs and bought Sun Cellular prepaid SIMs from the Sun Shop in the nearby SM Mall.

Why did we switch networks all of a sudden? Cost.

Lately we have been spending more than 300 pesos a month for calls and SMS messages. If there is one network that could make us retain our texting and calling needs while spending less, we’d take it.

We did a bit of research on Sun Cellular and we are well aware of problems that some users have encountered, as well as the good things that their unlimited calls and texting promo brought about. So far so good, they might have solved those kinks in the network that others have been complaining about.

Now, to inform everyone of our new number…

My First Leadership Book

Friday, after work, I met my wife at Paseo Center and we decided to have dinner at that newly-opened Kentucky Fried Chicken nearby.

I saw a Books for Less outlet beside it so I nagged my wife out until she said “Fine, let’s go there after dinner”.

I was actualy looking for a book on project management. What I found was a lot better.

I first learned about John Maxwell when a supervisor-friend recommended the “7 Habits” book to me. I never really finished the book, admittedly I got bored with it.

Not this time.

Upon scanning The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, I knew this would help me a lot. I immediately bought it, along with the children’s books my wife chose for our son, and went home.

I’ve already went through 2 chapters (so that’s 2 of 21 laws already) and it started to make me think about how I really want to do things in my group. Generally any book that makes me think deeply on a given topic is a good read for me. This one fits that description very well.

I recommend this book to a lot of people, leader or not. It may be able to change my way of thinking to a positive degree, and so it may to others.

A Leader, I Am…

It seems that going from a team player to a team leader is inevitable in someone’s life. In as much as you enjoy being on the front line when going on an all-out battle, time will come that you will have to step back, let others go ahead, and make sure that they do not go wandering about, not knowing what to do and where to go.

Avery Johnson went through that phase — from being the pointguard of the San Antonio Spurs to being the head coach of the Dallas Mavericks. Same with Dennis Ritchie, from being a crack programmer to project lead at that well-known Bell Labs.

I may be going through that same thing right now. It may have been knocking at my senses for a long time, only I wasn’t really willing to accept it.

I have been giving much thought about it these past few days.

Now I accept it. I have to and I must, and now I am very much willing to.

It’s my turn to lead, just as somebody did for me for the almost 10 years I’ve been with the company.

Now I could have a chance to do everything the way I see that it should be done.

Now I could make much more of a difference — not only on a part of a whole, but how that whole is to be shaped and what composes that whole.

Not only in my project could I make a difference and extend my influence — but on my team members as well.

Yes, I am a Leader now, and will be. I will be able to reach a lot more success than I did when I was just ‘one of the guys’.

Alas, a day of rest!

After 2 weeks of working overtime on documentation, planning for our project’s next step, and monitoring my team members, we were able to finish the assigned documentation task on time!

Now I could say that I can have my rest for the weekend.

Hakuna Matata.

Work, work work!

I logged out from work 8pm last night. Lots of documents to review, performance appraisals to complete. Think everything’s over by working OT?

Nah.

I woke up 3:30am to complete a project plan, do some more document reviews and comment on some members’ performance for the last 6 months.

It’s half past 5am now. I have my project plan, complete with individual team members’ assignments for the next two weeks. I’ve reviewed a document — one more to go and everything’s done! (That will have to be finished later.) I have commented on some members’ performance by filling out a form that my manager gave us yesterday. Everything has been sent to work through my email account.

Now it’s time to wake up my wife to prepare for work.

Maybe I’d take a nap while she takes a bath and does her morning rituals.

Ho-hum.

On Satisfaction at Work

It feels great to be promoted — no doubt about it. A higher salary, respect from your peers, getting to be called ‘Boss’, and a lot more. However, there’s one thing I don’t like about getting promoted, and no, it isn’t the money.

As one goes up the corporate ladder (as far as being a software developer is concerned), bigger responsibilities abound. You get to become a group leader, then a project leader, then a supervisor — the number of people below your rank becomes larger. You get to control how a project goes about at a larger scale. This isn’t really a problem for me, as these would pose greater challenges, and I love to be in situations where my abilities get to be challenged. Yet, in the challenges that abound, your managers expect you to give up one thing or another, and this is where the problem starts for me.

Being a junior engineering supervisor requires me to supervise technical aspects of the project — how things are ‘built’, in laymen’s terms. It also requires me to monitor my subordinates and make sure that everything goes ‘as planned’. However, it also requires me to take a lesser role on being a ‘developer’. My superiors expect that I handle a lesser module and concentrate on making sure that others do their job.

This is where the problem starts. I went to this field because I love solving problems — technical problems. I also love tinkering with details — how values are calculated, how to produce an output in the most efficient way possible. I also love doing these BY MYSELF. It’s not that I don’t trust other people’s work, but it’s what I love doing. Letting other people do what I love doing makes me feel a bit bored.

I have one criteria on telling when I should consider a career move — I know I’m happy with my work when I think of it as just play. Once the ‘play’ factor of work goes away, and boredom sets in, that’s when I know I’m not happy anymore, and that’s when I ought to look into other places.

A close co-employee just spent his last day of work for our company last friday, and I remember telling him, ‘It’s not a matter of whether you will resign or not — it’s just a question of when and why’.

Could that question of ‘when’ and ‘why’ be answered sometime in the near future for me?

Up-and-Down Weekend

Things really went up-and-down these past few days. It’s birthday weekend for me, as I spent each day on a different note than the previous one.

I took the day off Friday, my 30th birthday. I woke up, noticing that my wife wasn’t beside me. Maybe she had to do something downstairs (where our toilet is), so I just got up and took a pee (yes, we still have one of those ‘arinolas’, whenever nature calls and it can’t wait till we get to the toilet). Then in the middle of relieving myself, my wife entered the room, singing ‘Happy Birthday’, carrying a cake with 3 candles stuck on it. Needless to say, I can’t react to it! I’m torn between doing my thing and paying attention to my wife singing. We ended up laughing out loud that my son woke up. Here’s something I cannot forget: He got up, smiled and waved at me (as if to say ‘Happy birthday Daddy!’), and then fell on the bed and went asleep in an instant.

I thought things were over then. Boy, was I in for a surprise! I went downstairs to see a poster with ‘Happy Birthday Dadi’ written on it! Outside, I just had this impish grin realizing that everything was planned for the previous days: my wife not working overtime and going home ahead of me, and everyone not letting me touch the refrigerator (and see the cake hidden there). Inside I’m overwhelmed and grateful that God gave me a family to really be proud of.

Unfortunately the high part stayed at that. We waited the whole day for my family allowance to be deposited to my office payroll account. It’s already 7pm and my ATM still reports less than a hundred pesos. I was upset the whole day because my plans for my birthday went all for naught. Adding insult to injury, our phone line went dead since thursday morning, caused by a stupid truck driver hitting the wires crossing the street to our house. I can’t call my friends, nobody could call us at home, no internet. I slept with a heavy heart — this is the saddest birthday I had in my life. My wife even cried — knowing how sad I felt as we went to bed. I consoled myself thinking that this is the first time after I got married that my wife took the day off on my special day.

The next morning, things got better. My wife promised that if she gets her salary on that day, we’d have a dinner party later. She sent me a text message when she got to work that she indeed got her salary, and told me to prepare for later. A little before lunchtime, a serviceman from the phone company came to our house and fixed the broken phone line, and I’m off to surfing the internet afterwards. It turns out that I also had my salary, as well as the family allowance we’ve been waiting for. Talk about the sudden change from having no money yesterday to having a lot that day, and from not being able to push through with my plans the previous day to being able to do them — and more — on that day! We invited both our parents and some close friends to a simple dinner. Everyone was happy — especially me! Finally I got to spend my birthday!

The following day was Mothers’ Day. I took my family to church (with my son showboating the whole time the mass was being held — distracting yet making everyone around him smile). We went to the mall afterwards and had dinner at Dencio’s. The day wasn’t as exciting as yesterday, but still, family time is always a very happy time for me.

Come to think of it, I’ve been living for 3 decades already! Incidentally, at the same age, my father became my ‘Papa’ (so, doing a little bit of math, yes he’s 60 years old right now, twice that of my age). Hey — I’ve one-upped him! I had my firstborn when I was turning 29!