Office Stuff

Company Outing

This coming Saturday, April 16, we will be having our company's summer outing. It will be held at the Club Punta Fuego located in Nasugbu, Batangas. To know more about this place, click the Fuego link.

Our itinerary will be like this:

TIME ACTIVITY REMARKS/DETAILS
FROM TO

0545 0600 Waiting Time & Assembly Philamlife Tower, Valero Side
0600 Departure for Nasugbu
0600 0630 Arrive Petron Station, San Pedro
0630 0640 Purchase Breakfast Meals
0640 0915 Arrive Club Punta Fuego
0915 0920 Shuttle Ride to Lower Beach
0920 0935 Deposit bags in lockers; Welcome Drinks
0935 0945 Radio Taiso
0945 1000 Obstacle course
1000 1030 A.M. Snack
1030 1100 Kayak Race
1100 1130 Sack Race
1130 1150 Tug of War
1150 1155 Shuttle Ride to Main Club
1200 1300 Lunch Buffet, Main Club
1300 1600 Free time
1600 1630 P.M. Snack
1630 1645 Assembly Lower Beach
1645 1650 Shuttle Ride to parking lot
1700 Depart for Makati
1700 1930 Arrive Makati - Philamlife Tower, Valero Side

Looks boring? Maybe. But I am sure that it will be very exhausting because we will only be staying there for a day. I was not actually planning to join but officemate Jill told me to go, for the last time before I leave the company. I agreed and thought that since we have a new ED, I am expected to show courtesy by participating in the company's activities.

Sometimes I wonder if working in a much bigger company is more fun than belonging to a handful of directors and colleagues. It is a summer outing and it is supposed to be fun, right? We will see.

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5S Day

This coming Friday, April 15 has been designated as 5S Day here at the office. The whole day will entirely be dedicated to implementing the said 5S Program. In Japanese settings, 5S means 5 easy steps in shaping up the workplace. I am actually aware what 5S means ever since I assumed a post at the technology transfer department. Basically, I learned this concept among other things as the basic of all management processes and procedures. I am not sure what transpired among the management to decide about conducting this thing on Friday. But I once mentioned the observation of one of the Japanese technical experts I was with when he visited our office. He asked me how come that our company promotes and espouses the concept and program of 5S and yet our company does not practice what it preaches? In turn, I asked that to our AD and less than a day, the management had reached a consensus to have it carried out the whole day on Friday. Hopefully, the tech transfer dept do not have any pre-scheduled executive meetings or else I will not be able to dress down. Hmm.

The 5S Program as translated to the English lingua:

Step 1 - SEIRI (clearing)
Step 2 - SEITON (organizing)
Step 3 - SEISO (cleaning)
Step 4 - SEIKETSU (standardizing)
Step 5 - SHITSUKE (training and discipline)

In case any of you are interested to have a PowerPoint copy of this, please do send me an email or your fax number and I will send it as soon as I am available.

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Office Equipment and Furniture

A while ago, our AD emailed us that the management would be disposing some equipment and furniture in the office. I was not particularly interested because there was really nothing interesting.

Everybody was gathered in the stock room except for the directors and me. After a few minutes, curiosity got the better of me so I checked them out as well. Well, there was one item that was standing nice at one corner. It was the tv cabinet though it could be used for another purpose I have in mind. I was told there would be a bidding and the minimum bid was placed at 300 pesos since the item was a little bit, no make that very old. For that item, there were only 2 bidders – a new colleague and me. I placed mine at 400 pesos while she bidded for 501 pesos. May butal pang piso ha. Hehehe. Anyway, guess who won? Me! Why? It was because of one rule in the bidding process. Priority was given to seniors in the office and I am much senior to my co-bidder. When I thought I lost because my co-bidder had the higher bid, our AS remarked that I would still be going home with my coveted item. I then told her that that was sort of unfair for the new employees in the office since they were also allowed to join and thinking about it, technically they did not stand a chance to win anything no matter how high their bidding price would be. She explained something but still it still did not sound right to my ears.

Anyway, I am also having doubts of taking it home because I have no idea how to transport it back home. I have no car and it is quite big for a cab. Meantime, I have to ask Bert to measure the length and width of that tv cabinet.