WANTED: SLAVE. IMMEDIATE HIRING

Dear Corporate Friends, I was impatient and a little desperate that's why I accepted this pseudo promotion as a Sales Officer. I regretted it. In fact, I regret quite a few decisions I made in the past. Maybe the most cliche saying "patience is a virtue" was not compose for nothing. Now I'm in a disaster. I brought myself into a position where I have to walk on thin ice thinking that it would crack and I would go sliding down without safety gear. Yesterday, my manager called me for a casual meeting. A one on one, but before that she heard me answered a telephone inquiry. I answered it with the facts I've learned about the culinary school I am working for. I answered it in the most polite way I possibly could. You know the type where you have to catch your breath after you recited your scripted line. It's a thank-you-for-calling-this culinary school-good morning-this is my name-speaking-how-may-I-help-you kind of telephone practice. I remember saying few 'okays' and 'yes sir' during the conversation then I ended it with 'you're welcome after the guy on the other line said 'thank you'. Now here comes my manager, petite with a face so sweet like an angel. "Who was that?" "An inquirer," I said. " Remember this, never never end your conversation with ‘ok’ unless you already built a relationship with them. We have to be professional. You're image represents our school." "huh...aaah I said "you're welcome” actually when I ended the conversation." "I heard you said ok." She walked out of the room and headed to the fine dining area of the school while I was leftcaught in confusion with my mouth open. It's as if I committed a mistake so grave deserving a cuts of thousand death punishment. I suddenly felt incompetent after serving almost two years in recruitment business of the same company. I felt like a child learning how to walk but reprimanded when I use my left foot first instead of right. She asked me to follow her. I walked behind her with imaginary ball and chain around my feet and neck.

We sat down and went back to the same issue holding back both our emotion and controlling the tone of our voice. She presided the meeting. She started it by stating my faults. She went on and on. She told me she heard some feedbacks which I'm pretty sure came from the site operations manager who's resigning on the last week of this month, the admission officer who thinks she's cute by dancing the robot dance when an urge strikes her, the operations training officer who is identity-confused and dreamt of proposing while in a plane. These 3 key personnel had been in the institution for 3 or 4 years before I joined the "team", the term they fondly use to address the group as working colleagues. And so I joined the "team" one month and 8 days ago. Within this month I was under training for two weeks and still learning the logic of business and its procedure. You know the right forms for the right request, contracts, training agreement, clients, event order, who's chef has a bigger ego, who's good in demo and all the nitty gritty in hospitality industry. Going back to these 3 key personnel who were the ones I closely coordinate to on a daily basis of my corporate enslavement. They kept telling me do not hesitate to ask if ever I have questions or needed guidance. Apparently, during my meeting with my manager, she mentioned that too much asking is irritating. She added that she expects high from me because the company also pays high. And that’s also what I thought, but last time I checked, the figure that I was receiving from my previous work in recruitment was the same figure reflected in my atm. So what is she talking about? She also expects me to close three(3) shipping lines and(not or) three(3) schools as new accounts within my 3 months evaluation period, which has a disclaimer that it could be extended to another 3 months and this is all part of my KPI (key performance indicator). She laid this down on the table when she also said that it takes 3 months to work on a single account before you actually close an agreement. So I am not really sure where she based the number of accounts I need to bring in. Maybe she thinks I'm dumb or I look like somebody who can't add 1 plus 1.

Ok so now I am working within a "team" of double-face using doublespeak language. Perhaps they just find it easier to talk about other's flaw when they form a tête-à-tête "team" over sliced spam and hot pandesal. In fairness to them, they were pretty friendly by inviting me to join them sometimes. In their perception, they were better people than the other member of the "team". For me we are all equally worthless just like Gunnery Sergeant Hartmann said towards the new Marine recruits, "you are like the lowest form of life on Earth. You are not even human fucking beings. You are nothing but unorganized grabastic pieces of amphibian shit!" It's the same in corporation. At least when you join the Marines, you know who is the enemy and you know when you need to fight for the battle. You know who to aim and when you will fire the gun. My manager made it very clear. I cannot use the word "ok" to a first encounter client because I have to act and speak like professional. I am the representation of my company. I wonder what else is inside her mind aside from this minute detail. I wonder if she also thinks about the role of the elite bankers who okay the finances of the corporation we are enslaving for and why after being enslaved for 3 years maybe 10 years or more, very little has changed while business owners choose what color of porche they are going to purchase this year. The "team" continued to enjoy their breakfast ritual and heard them burp as they pour stains to other's coffeecup. They were full and consumed that they failed to see the smile on my audience faces when I made a successful career talk before 50 students from Foundation University of Dumaguete. It was engaging. The students were interactive and look like they were having fun. I wished my manager had seen it because she was not around, but Jack, our utility noticed my effort. "ma'am, ang galing mo kanina. tuwang tuwa yung mga estudyante," she said. Maybe managers and teams are paid high to control quality by finding faults. I was lucky Jack was around to keep my spirit high. Maybe she was paid minimum wage because she didn’t see my faults. My handwork and effort surfaced in her eyes that she gave me a rewarding remark. I slave. I work. Same thing. Expectation.... high. Workload....high. Disappointment...high. Appreciation...low. take home pay...lower. Yours truly, Corporate Slave