By Rolo B. Cena
Pulp Bits
Dumaguete Sun Star
05 September 2007
“Wait ‘till you become a manager,” said his boss when he was still working as an assistant in a government corporation.
More than twenty years ago, Andrei projected to become a manager when he reaches his age now. He protracted everything: his attitude towards work, attendance, company culture, profession and professional growth. He vowed he should not be identified as a pro-employee neither a pro-employer.
Andrei started as an Accounting Clerk for a rural bank. Despite the fact that he did not graduate, his work performance was noticed by the President’s wife. After a month, the Board sent him a pink slip elevating him to the position of an Internal Auditor which at that time was vacant. The critical department was only manned by his self. Three hard months passed and he recommended to hire two assistants which was soonest approved. He thus became the Senior Auditor acting as Department Head. He would usually and normally represent the department in the management committee and board meetings.
Normal in the course of an auditor’s job, he uncovered a long-practiced anomaly which amounted to almost one million pesos orchestrated in perfect connivance by the branch manager, credit and collection officer, cashier, and bookkeeper. Sensing this, the four personnel resigned one after the other. That catapulted Andrei’s prestige as an auditor.
He thought he already made heaven on earth. One day, in his usual visit to the Office of the President, he was asked to defend his audit findings in the court. Aware of the consequence of presenting any audit reports inside courts of law, he smartly requested for a verification audit to be done by a group of external auditors which was granted. Soon, the opinion of the external auditors was handed and as expected, they arrived at the same figure as he had. The two audit findings were exactly the same. This time, his ego was enhanced and as always, he was flying sky high like an eagle.
Like a Jumbo jet in nimbus, Andrei knew that soon he had to stop flying. One day, he was asked to fill out the life insurance form naming the Bank as the beneficiary. He called his family in Manila for the most appropriate thing to do given the situation. They vehemently instructed him not to sign the form and instead resign. Young and fresh from college as he was, he gave in to his family’s instructions: he resigned. His graceful exit from the bank paralyzed the case for reasons he did not bother to ask. The president and the members of the board wanted him to stay, but since no resignation is subject to any approval, they unwillingly let go of him.
He moved to and joined his family in Manila where luckily he got employed immediately. At this juncture, he already made arrangements for his graduation to at least prepare him for the next step ahead. Not lifting his own chair, he was always noticed as “promotable.” The hang-over he had from the bank plus the comments of his first employer in Manila gave him the urge to apply for a work in a government corporation. By God’s grace he boarded this company which later gave him so much in the same way as the management trusted him so much. He was single-handedly picked out to be trained in London, Hong Kong, and Singapore in relation to his new job. This company made him what he had become now.
The constant change in the national administration and the political instability of the government propelled him to retire from this government corporation after more than ten fruitful years. He enjoyed his retirement pay and at the same time landed on a new and challenging job.
Amazingly, he was offered to be the General Manager of a property / building management business in manila whose gross monthly income was twenty million pesos and with more than thirty employees under his wings. The president of the company believed so much in his experience and training that when he demanded his “desired salary,” the President never had a second thought in giving – plus other benefits. It was during this time Andrei learned the real meaning of “managing, management, and manager.”
Managing has been part of his life. I believe you would all agree that managing is part of our daily routine. There’s no question about that. If managing is an easy tone, management would also be. It was during this time Andrei learned what a manager really is and what it takes to be.
Andrei continued flying high like an eagle in the free and beautiful but tempting sky. As the eagle assuming the crown of being the king of aviation, he proudly held up his head up high like a king in the corporate world. So high as his position was, he knew and thought he was. Honestly, he never failed to manage: he can deal with the business proprietarily, deal with people professionally, and matters with good sense and judgment. He can take good care of the business like a good father of the family.
Coupled with this success in the corporate world or in his profession was somehow a deteriorating relationship with his family. Simply, he just had no time for his wife and kids. Thereafter, Andrei’s eldest began complaining about his time. As required and expected, the manager is supposed to be on top of everything and supposed to be 24/7 on call. This, he believed drained his energy and starved his system. He gave 25/8 to his job and none to his family. He began to feel the losing side of a manager. This situation urged him to resign early from this post and agreed with his wife to move to the province and join her family.
But since Andrei’s resume’ spoke better than what he can say, he believed he couldn’t hide the real him. He could not simply work as an ordinary being in the organization, modesty aside. Conversely, just can’t be a simple staff anymore.
Soon Andrei was hired as an Administrator of all the businesses of a rich Chinese man whose family owns a resort fifty kilometers away from the central city. After staying in the main office for about two months, the president asked him to manage the resort – well, it was expected. He could not say no. First, it was what he applied for. Second, he committed to help. His commitment can sometimes really pester, if not, kill him. He can easily commit without thinking the consequence in the long run. In that resort, he again opened his eyes to the realities of a manager’s life – sensible sacrifice for the sake of the responsibility the position entails.
In this part of the globe he saw men of varying and different nature: ill-mannered, refined, sophisticated, educated but not intelligent, intelligent but not educated the real intelligent guys, the real educated ones, and simple men. Others were, he knew very elementary and self-explanatory. Educated but not intelligent is simply a person who has the ethics and etiquettes but doesn’t have the academic excellence to boast for. That is, he is simply “mannered.” On the other hand, intelligent but not educated is the type who can boast of his “brains” and what’s inside, his degrees and his academic excellence but the one who doesn’t have the “manner.” One lesson for being a manager here is: he learned to deal with people objectively regardless of who they are.
It was supposed to be a “paradise-lost-now-found place” but it did not attract his body and soul for a longer period of time. He was kind of attracted at first, or at least during the time when he was writing his stories and poems. Later, he got bored. A sacrifice about the attitudes of the management, the owners, the staff, the guests, and everybody – made him decide to quit managing. He re-considered the thought of joining the academe once again. He did enroll in the Post Graduate Course.
Then luck became his when he was invited to an interview for a managerial post in a newly opened BPO company in the city. Just got lucky he guessed and he got the job. Thereupon he soared high again. The eagle in him took off from, this time, a nobler field, taking sky high without limits to where he is now. It was in this heaven made on earth that he fully comprehended the manager’s life.
Some says a manager’s life is easy: gets into the morning late, read newspapers, check mails, check emails, drinks coffee, signs documents or even checks, then does his real works. Takes occasional lunch meetings, attends to functions on official capacity, then goes back to office, drinks coffee or juice maybe, according to what is prepared by the beautiful secretary, checks the emails, then leaves the office. Does some work out or play tennis or badminton (or maybe golf) with some colleagues or friends. How he wished this is life; but it’s not it. This is not the way managers live, and this is not the way he lives.
He reports for work as early as seven in the morning, checks his mails and emails, responds if required and necessary, signs documents, and does the check up rounds like a medical doctor. After doing the ocular inspection, he goes back to his office and starts working. He works until he forgets about lunch break; somebody has to remind him of this. He eats his lunch late most of the time, and goes back to the office. He works and works, does some important phone calls, attends meetings and official functions, entertains guests, does some marketing. When the day is almost over, he goes out into the production floor, talks to production people and after they leave, that’s the time his real work begins. He works and stays late in the evening – sometimes till midnight, one or two or three or four or even five and six a.m. the following day. Well, who cares, it’s what his job calls for. Goes home, then takes a fifteen-thirty minute nap and takes a quick shower. Forgetting sometimes to take breakfast, he frequently leaves the house to meet the seven o’clock habit.
Most often dates don’t ring a bell anymore. One time, it was the birthday of his kid, and he seemed to forget that he must be home early again to be with his family, at least during this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to dine. He doesn’t even remember their wedding anniversary, or his wife’s birthday. There are times when he wanted to cry but he can’t. The reason is simple: he cannot afford to show to the people that he is actually weak inside, or simply affected. Oftentimes, when managers cry, it is done with a big “bang” over the situation. Worst, if they don’t, they land the ICU of the nearest medical center in town. Yes, this is one life of a manager; and this is Andrei’s life.
Not all managers’ stories are success stories – I mean, they can be in terms of financial rewards, fame or prestige but on the human side, they are not. Managers are sad. Because they can never please everybody, the manager usually works on this principle: work honestly for the employer and God and everything else will be fine. The manager is the most hated man in the company. When his decision becomes unpopular, the entire team would ask for better; when the decision favors the masses but endangers the Business, the Management or the Board attacks. Worst, if the manager decides for the people, he loses his fortune. One thing is sure in management: managing is not a popularity contest.
This can be just one side of the coin. Of course, there are times when managers are happy. They play tricks, games, and mingle with people who like people – people who are true and who like true people. Why? Because in business, I learned one dictum: as long as one needs and uses you, then he is a business friend. If he does not need you in your business, he is no longer a friend. True! We long for true people in the neighborhood. While most managers cannot most of the time be true to their business associates or contacts, some of them really wants true links, true hearts. You can count Andrei in the pool of true colored-managers.
Yes, we usually take the highest and the most outrageous of flights in our lives that we sometimes forget we have to come back to the place where we take off. It’s inevitable and pardonable. It happens to everybody. What matters is we learn from this. In the flight where only managers are allowed to pilot, everybody in the plane must count on them. Managers are equipped to lead. If they can no longer lead, then managers cease to live.
Who wants to take the place?
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