Thursday, May 19, 2005

they say cash awards aren't the only way to motivate your workforce. getting a piece of rubbish perk award with tens of stickers on it or a mug with a company logo in it probably isn't enough to keep an unhappy employee from quitting.

but nowadays who wants a mug? who wants those cash vouchers? all we want at least is a salary increase! no one can't debate for the fact that raising your salary will also reflect the workload in your department. the boss will always be the boss. pointing out this and that are all just her bunch of crap. it's ridiculous!

as we follow the property's philosophy, 'if you treat your employees well, they will take care of the business', seems to be a bit exagerrated. we follow these philosophy for years. aren't we people get tired of working too hard and get little in return?

this week, we celebrate associates appreciation week. it serves as the focal point for recognition and rewards - just a big rah-rah time events. a celebration of the feast of foods. the entire cafeteria was decorated with cheap balloons, there's a big THANK YOU slogans written in italian, chinese, english, japanese, thai, and... nothing in tagalog? i approached one of the HRD staff sitting at the corner of the tiled walls, she said, "filipinos are considered an english country, so you belong to the 'english'". forraminute, i don't know if that's flattery but i realized that filipinos aren't really recognized as FILIPINOS. how sad is that?

the first day buffet was an all italian cuisine. can you imagine how much food i scooped? it doesn't matter how much portion of food i shoved, but the moment i gobbled those salads, it made me smile. maybe because, i'm satisfied with the tastes of the green olives & tomatoes and maybe because, these are not the kind of recognition i wanted to get. all in my mind was, "this food is our salary, this food is our bonuses, this food is just...." well, absolutely yummy. i can't complain to the fact that maybe, i was really hungry yet so focused on my lasagna bolognese, and forget the whole shit in my mind before i choke myself up.

but really, getting recognized is not easy. recognition of somebody involves a person's feelings, and that's a hard thing to gauge. if someone has done something worth the level of recognition, a manager/or employer should be aware of it. is my boss really aware? i tend to disagree.

so comes friday, a filipino cuisine will be celebrated along with the thai foodies. so all of us filipinos at work are looking forward for the chicken adobo, kare-kare, kaldereta and the halo-halo special for desserts. one would even come back for work just to eat. if only j were here, she probably know who that person is. on the contrary, it reminds me of the cash vouchers worth HK$800 the HRD has yet to give me. see, recognition should always be spontaneous.