Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Going Up WEB
Going Up WEB
Going Up?
Making Right Choices @ Work
Copyright © 2010 by Celia P. Olmedo
ISBN 978-971-009-052-5
1 Reality Check:
you’re a bottom-dweller . . . . . 13
2 Up the Ladder:
the fruit of faithfulness . . . . . 27
5 No Signal?
Gotcha!. . . . . 71
6 Cords of Steel:
the power of working together . . . . . 87
7 Real Riches:
not bought with gold or plastic . . . . . 99
8 Joy’s Anatomy:
establishing a secret place . . . . . 113
9 Fit or Misfit:
in the world but not quite . . . . . 129
A SPECIAL TREASURE?
REALITY CHECK:
you’re a bottom-dweller
Cool, huh?
Guilty as charged
When I entered the workplace I thought I knew it all. I
thought I had it all figured out. I had performed well academ-
ically, so I expected companies to be eager to employ me.
Don’t most of us rate ourselves a little too highly?
Me? Room to improve? Need help or advice? No way!
But a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. I still had
much to learn.
Have you discovered this yet? Were you, too, ready to
take on the world? With your own perspective on life? Your
own rules? Your overflowing confidence. . . expecting to take
the workplace by storm?
“World – here I come!”
Then comes the big thud. “What happened, dude?”
to have this secret sense that we are the center of the solar
system. Until something pulls us back to planet earth.
Reality check
My first job required me to conceptualize and write copy,
scripts for print ads and TV, and radio plugs for the TV sta-
tion’s programs. Having majored in communication arts and
gotten excellent grades, I thought the job would be easy. But
I was in for a surprise.
Discovery one: I wasn’t the hotshot I thought I was —
what we learn in school is just a drop in the bucket of what
we need to know to do well in the corporate world.
Discovery two: As an employee, I couldn’t dictate the
rules of the game.
Companies follow standards and procedures which dic-
tate performance quality, and as a newbie you just have to
abide by them. Some bosses guard the system against out-of-
the-box thinkers who may rock the boat or challenge long-
held corporate values. I never learned that in school. I never
knew “the boss” might even be my main challenger, inhibit-
ing the creativity I brought to the workplace.
My supervisor in the TV station was a veteran journal-
ist. His smile was as rare as rain in April, as they say. But
his mellow modulated broadcaster’s voice had women callers
swooning. If only they knew! This was the man who made
me feel so incapable and unsure of myself.
Close call
My boss reported to a lady manager whom I regarded as the
epitome of sophistication and success. Her mirthful voice
and her laughter were the counterpoint to my boss’ dead-
pan severity. She also appreciated her staff, and passed out
compliments for the accomplishments we turned out. I de-
termined to model myself on her.
She gave me leeway to express my ideas and work with
the department’s artists. Then she let loose the reins, allow-
ing me to get involved in producing station plugs with the
help of mainstay talents and technical staff. Soon I was do-
ing some editing, musical scoring, voice-overs, and even di-
recting for station commercials. Wonderful!
But I still felt restless; I wanted out.
Then early one morning before going to work, I turned on
the radio and got only static. Groups of anxious employees
were milling around at the gate of the TV station. Barbed
wire and uniformed military men prevented us from going in.
President Ferdinand Marcos had declared Martial Law and
all media enterprises had been padlocked.
For what seemed an eternity to those of us in the in-
dustry, broadcast companies and newspapers — apart from
those owned by families close to the administration — were
banned from operating. After the dust, so to speak, had set-
tled, more media enterprises were allowed to go on the air
again. I found myself working for another TV station.
But it was a close call. You don’t realize the value of hav-
ing a job until someone snatches it away from you without
giving you the chance to fight. Let God be the one who de-
cides if and when you should move to another workplace.
A bit wiser
Martial Law or not, life continued. Businesses started to
rebound.
A bit wiser and definitely humbled, I left the broadcast
world and joined a large manufacturing firm as editorial
writer in its public relations unit.
Looking back and reviewing the positions and companies
eventually added to my resumé, I am amazed at how God
steered my path — in spite of my skewed sense of self in
those early days, and my constant whining.
Am I teachable?
Do the opportunities for learning ever stop? Never. What
about the humbling? Those opportunities keep coming too.
The more responsibilities I handled, the more I realized
that I knew very little. But I was discovering that each job
presents opportunities for learning too — different ways of
understanding situations, or people, or even God’s some-
times mysterious ways. Key to making the most of each ex-
perience is attitude, having a teachable spirit. It starts with
acknowledging your limitations. I found I learned more
quickly too, when I realized that what was important wasn’t
my set of abilities — what was important was allowing God’s
grace and gifts to work in me (or you), as He gives us wisdom
to persevere.
Pride-buster
The Bible’s book of Proverbs is full of cautionary lines, in-
cluding two verses I felt I should learn by heart: “Pride goes
before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall,” from Prov-
erbs 16:18, and “The fear of the Lord teaches man wisdom,
and humility comes before honor,” found in Proverbs 15:33.
The Lord dealt with my pride in many ways. Truthfully, I
struggle with it even today. The difference between “then”
Microscopic
“Do not despise these small beginnings,” says the messenger
of the Lord in Zechariah 4:10.
Do not “pooh-pooh” a small role. Sometimes a small part
is our opportunity to learn, or the opportunity that puts us
1
The original quotation is from Martin Luther.