Proving yourself

Why would one want to limit their potential by not taking on new challenges?

This co-worker and friend baffled me and our superior by declining a new task assigned to him. He was asked to collate the scattered documents we used when we trained for the account and train the Russian agents before they go live.

His reasons: he's not bred to be a trainer and he's not compensated enough. This guy wants to move up to the TL position, mind you.

Now that really got me confused. In the past, I have done a lot of stuff that weren't in my job description as an agent: trained and interviewed candidates; when I was promoted to the Senior Rep position back in Sykes, I created processes that wasn't really stated in my JD and yet I did it. And look where I'm at.

Geez, I get his explanation but I can't fathom why he wants to limit himself to just manning people. Future employers would want to look how multi-faceted a candidate is before a position is given to him. For some, they even have to prove themselves first while unpaid in order to get to the position they desire.

Why would someone want to move up but would not be willing to learn new skills that will help him attain his goals? Why? Why?

I guess I'll just take that load from his shoulders and probably introduce 2 or 3 of my best agents to this task. I know they'll be up to the challenge.

Har har!

We just discovered a way to go around the banned blogspot shit. I was given this link. It was freakin' fabulous! I can access blogspot sites again! Woohooo!

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I just finished the entire 18 episode of Heroes. I love it so much I can't wait til April 23 for the next episode to show! I love Hiro! I want his power to teleport and stop time. I would've stopped time and made bad things turn out good. Hell, I would even teleport myself to various parts of the world I am just dying to go to!

'Nuff rambling about a tv show..

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10 days to go til the big day.

I'm excited and scared at the same time. This will mark a new chapter of our life together...and I can't wait!

STOKED!!

Blogspot has been blocked here in Beijing!!!

Do you believe that?! I do, especially when I can't access any xxx.blogspot.com site.

Some news said that the government blocked it because of negative shit being posted by people about China. Crazy, huh?

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Last Saturday was the first time we've ever seen the sun at it's brightest even at 7am. Most of the time it's just fog and smog that obscures our view of the sun and clouds.

This was shot near our bus stop. On the left side's our office building overlooking the flyover.

This was shot in An Zhen Xi Lu. Tobal asked me to go with him and take some nice pics while it's sunny outside.

Knowing Thy Self

So now I'm done talking to almost everybody. I'm done talking to one team member I'm most concerned about. Telling her the whole scenario woke her up. I told her that if she wants to go back to P.I., I'd even help her..but she has to stop dragging the team down. That got her thinking.

I've yet to set up a meeting with my boss. She's insanely busy nowadays with a new account launching. I'm still hoping the talk we'll have will give her the message that we don't want to go back and she be inclined to do something about it.

Anyway, I've told my team to have a back up plan if things don't go our way. I know I got mine laid out already.

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Having a blog proved to be many things to me..

It made me spill my heart out regardless if I get comments and advices from people. It made me meet new friends: some I never even got to see. It also made me a few enemies because of a few hard truths I've written down. It also made me famous a few times, both good and bad.

The best part about having a blog is I get to know myself. Reading old posts can send me laughing at myself; at how I've let people and circumstance make me miserable when I know in the end I'll be able to sort things out and emerge as a new person.

I read old posts about me ranting because I wanted to travel or do something new. I was envious of other people having the balls to move out of their comfort zone. I never thought I'd be one of 'em people now. I'm in a new country experiencing new things and discovering my new self. I'm being responsible and making plans on a short and long term basis. It's refreshing, it's overwhelming and scary all at the same time.

No matter what happens, whether I rant or rave about my life and my future; I'll know in the end I'd just laugh about everything and tell myself, "I've had a good life. It was worth all the pain".

Last week we had a meeting with the boss and the VP. It was supposed to be an update on how the team is doing and how we're coping with life here in Beijing.

Then the word "expansion" was dropped - a lot of job openings for the company's HK and GZ offfice. At first we were pretty excited because they were looking for Filipino agents to fill the posts. No, we here at Beijing can't apply.

And then the VP mentioned something about the Vertu team (our team) might expand. That didn't sound well because expanding would mean that there is a chance that the support will be transferred to the Philippines *shock.

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So now I have this burden of sharing this scary news to the team. We all love it here and the thought of moving back to PI and our salaries dramatically slimming down because of the friggin' monster of a TAX is awfully considered a nightmare for us all. After a couple of sleepless nights, I decided on talking to each of my people to tell them this possibility, get their views and tell them my plan.

My plan is for the team to excel in their work. In doing so, I'll have the confidence to ask a big favor from my boss - not to bring us back to the PI. I know it's "asking for much" but I plan to either promote or move my agents to other departments and/or regional offices (HK, Guangzhou); and then help my boss in filling out the empty posts and eventually train new people that will replace my team. It's worth a shot, right? *crosses finger

I've also done some planning for myself and included some worst case scenarios. I can't believe I'm actually doing this much thinking and planning about my future. I guess the thought of moving back home after all these spooks me to death.

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I'm stoked! Cujo will soon be joining me here. He's just waiting to get his English Teaching certification so he can finally book a flight to Beijing.

Can't wait! I know getting him here is only half of the plan but I'm still excited coz I''m finally gonna see him again! Yey!

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We're currently crazy about Tudou.com.

Since there's enough idle time at work, we've been browsing the net for sites that can let us watch movies and series we missed watching. We've transcended from YouTube and Peekvid because it's still slow for us. We've discovered crunchyroll that houses Asian series (Full House, Marmalade Boy, Meteor Garden) and animes (One Piece, Naruto, Initial D). It loads faster compared to Peekvid.

Recently one of us discovered this wonderful link. The site's in Chinese but don't worry because all you have to do is type in whatever series or movies you have in mind in the search field and voila! Movies like Devil Wears Prada, Age of Innocence and Stargate the movie are all there. There's also loads of series uploaded there: Stargate 1 and Stargate Atlantis, Prisonbreak...well, you get the drift. AND it's helluva lot faster to load compared to all the sites I mentioned earlier. If you can't find something you've typed in English, try translating it to simplified Chinese then copy the translated word onto the search field. NEAT!!!

Sorry, we soooo love this link that I had to share it. We already have our own lists of movies and series lined up. I'm such a geek!