The COVID-19 Effect

photo courtesy of ABC7 Chicago

In just a span of more than 1 week, the less than 10 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 exploded into more than 500 as of this writing. 

It's worrisome. Everyone's moving and trying to cope up with what's happening to the country and to the world. 

We're currently on lockdown and I can't help but ponder about life. Like, we have a crisis happening all over the world. Work has been canceled, flights have been canceled as well. Church services were handled online, as well as schools. Luzon is in the state of calamity and the government continues to improve their actions towards this calamity.

This is definitely alarming and we don't know what the future holds. Early this month, we probably have a plan throughout the month or even throughout the year, I bet many of them were canceled and delayed, moved into a later time. 

The world began to pause a moment to stay home and stay still as much as we can. Even the earth has felt relief from the pollution-less world but we still have people on the streets with no food on their table. 

We may have spent more time with our family and explore our creativity out of our boredom but other people are suffering, we get infected with the deceased, some of them were hospital workers, doctors, and nurses. There was news that some of them already died. 

Aside from donating and volunteering. All we can do is pray for our country. Please don't abandon this nation, please continue to help and pray. This nation has a potential and we're only hoping for the best.

I know that we've been praying for a while now but please don't stop. This nation needs warriors that would pray and act and sacrifice. 

We're not sure about what will happen to the world tomorrow but Lord, please heal our land. 


//theCOVID-19Effect 
//sebajisoka

Salamat po, Sis. Dory

Credits to JIL Worldwide Facebook Page

I was watching a live stream of a funeral service for almost a week. I wanted to listen to the eulogy. Especially the husband's word. 

Bro. Eddie lost his wife, Sis. Dory. 

I don't have plenty of stories about Sis. Dory. I just know that she's the wife of Bro. Eddie and the mother of 4 amazing children, Jonjon, Joel, Joni, and Jovi. But she's more than that, she's a supportive wife and a caring mother, not just a mother to the 4 children but as a spiritual mother for JIL. 

She's been an inspiration. I remember during her late years, in one of the Youth Summits, we were celebrating and dancing and shouting. We were going crazy for praise. She stood up and stop us as we're not in a safe place at the time and she reminded us that worship is not about what we do on the outside. It's an inward manifestation of knowing God. 

Salamat po, Sis. Dory. You have done many great things in your temporary stay here on earth! 

On the other hand, it's sad to see Bro. Eddie lost his wife. I remembered when he told us the story of her operation. You can watch it here: 

https://www.facebook.com/The700ClubAsia/videos/10155407403327032/

I'm praying for Bro. Eddie and his family. God bless po! 

//SalamatSisDory
//sebajisoka

There's no start shift?

Today is the first day of my rest day since I resigned from TaskUs and started as a consultant at a new company. This is the first time that I'll work as a freelancer and I'm enjoying it.

We had training for 1 week in a shared office somewhere in Makati. For the first time in a long time, I can call myself a Makati Boy. I experienced the hassle of working in this part of the metro. 

It was fun. That's for sure and so far, I've met so many good and approachable people. I never met any person with a harsh attitude. 

Everything is different. The facility is good but not as great as with TaskUs. Over the span of 5 days, I feel like I'm already with them for a long time. For sure there was an adjustment but everything's good. 

I remember on the first day, I thought I'm lost. I'm alone in the hallway and there are no other people searching for the orientation. Well, I met 2 people in the lobby. Lyka and Happy, I asked them if we're supposed to be classmates? 

Well, yeah. And it's only the 3 of us. Which is pretty weird. Then, Raj approached us, she's one of the engagement something for the company and she toured us on the production floor, said our Hi's to the team, I met familiar faces, the one who referred me here and one of my former teammate.

Those 2 people with me on the training were kind people. We already had our getting to know each other and as mentioned, with the amazing people at the training department. 

I enjoyed the week and I learned so many things. I never really missed my former company, except for this one time when I logged in to the company's email. If your company has an email address made for employees, most of the time, your login would be firstname.lastname@company.com, right? That's the case here and in TaskUs. So, when I'm typing in my email address. I mistakenly wrote in, @taskus.com. 😢

It was a tiring week but it's fun and there's no start shift.



//TheresNoStartShift
//sebajisoka

Meow

I'll miss your faces whenever you hear the intro of "Di ko kayang tanggapin" and you all know that it is I who requested for it.

I'll miss the meowing cats midway through the song "Too Much Heaven" and anything Moira. Sometimes, it's so random without any music as long someone decided to meow somewhere, sometime. The floor will go crazy and nothing can stop us.

I'll miss those explosive laughs with no momentum.
I'll miss our office group chats and those funny tickets.
I'll miss sneaking to the lobby to steal some creamer, like 5 spoons of it. 
I'll miss the leaders, those issues and the never-ending rants.
I'll miss your stories while trying to figure out how life works. 
I'll miss the joy in your faces whenever there's system downtime. 

It's been a week since my last day and I'm still thinking about you guys. 


//Meow  //sebajisoka

End Shift.

This is my last day of employment with TaskUs and this is one of the hardest decisions I had to take. I've been with them for more than 4 years and it became my second home and found my second family. 

Though this is just the second company that I've been with, I know that this company stands out among other BPOs.

I always say this but if not for money, I would never leave. I met many good people with the company. Well, we had our amazing CEO and President but they also hire great teammates. But this is a decision I had to take, I had to grow and I'm about to go to a different chapter in my life something bigger and more important.

I'll miss a lot of things. I'll miss sharing my stories with you guys. I'll miss arriving early while seeing you enter the vicinity one by one. I will never go to BGC without thinking that you're just a few meters away. 

I will miss our Frankie's and our unlimited planning that none of it gets done, the Happy Hour with guest bands and all the food trips we had.

Thanks for the memories and the laughter that we shared. 

5.. 
4..
3..
2..

Miss na kita baby hindi ko na kaya

1..

End shift. 

1503372 signing off. 

//EndShift
//sebajisoka

Be Ridiculous

I'm with TaskUs for 4 years and 7 months and today, I bid goodbye to this wonderful company. 

These are the TaskUs core values and I tried to live by these as it is a really good value to live by. 

Inspire others by believing in yourself

For many many years, I don't believe that I'm good enough. I even thought to myself that it was luck that got me hired. I never had this "Kaya ko 'to" attitude and I keep trying things just for the sake of.. well, trying. 

This TaskUs core value glorifies believing in yourself, not just because of what believing in yourself does for yourself but what it does to other people who see your success and that attitude.

During my tenure, I became a teammate to an SME and an apprentice in the finance department while having no experience in finance and only having an associate degree in computer system design and programming.


Do more with less

Doing more with less trained me to be creative. It's maximizing the resources in front of you and expanding its potential. 


Work hard, have fun

Celebrating success is overrated. We want to celebrate it with everyone. 

Exercise emotional intelligence

This is probably one of the best core-values. We live in the days where emotions are commonly and massively uncontrolled. It leads to broken relationships between teammates, leaders and business partners. 

We react negatively to things that we heard that's completely out-of-context. We failed to know and understand that whole story. We pick what we hear and choose sides instead of fixing the issue. 

If we train ourselves to be emotionally intelligent, I believe that our lives will produce less stress and more positivity and a wider view of what's happening. 

Always strive for excellence

We were told that in everything that we do. We do it at our best. Every ticket or call, every situation, every work. Big or small, excellence should be our mindset. In TaskUs, even if it's uncomfortable, standards are being raised from time to time - reasonably. 


Continuous self-improvement

I joined TaskUs only knowing the =SUM or =A1+F6 to compute numbers in Google Sheets. Now, I learned to create the campaign ticket trackers, I automate the computation of work hours and payment for the security guards and was one of few go-to-guy when there's an issue with Google sheets.

Not only that, even outside of work, they want to glorify this core value and what inspires me in TaskUs is how they showcase our differences with our passions and purpose. We even have a multiplier for our increase if we shared how we improve with our passions and how we contribute to society. 

Teamwork makes the dream work

I don't know how it happens but we don't compete with each other, the whole campaign is our whole team and we always help each other. Asking other people even if that's not our teammate and find it important to discuss different things. 

Incentives are always base by the team. Goals are always made for a team. 

Be Ridiculous

This one of the best core values. It's all about considering and talking about the craziest idea thrown. 

Who could imagine a company supporting your passion by providing an increase? By having sleeping quarters, a gym, a common area for relaxation, a dietician, a psychiatrist?

These amazing facilities?

  
The People

I've worked with different people. I met those bad ones and I got the good ones and I love them deeply.

One of the best people I handled. They're so sweet and amazing! 

My first team in TaskUs. I'm blessed to be with them. Imagine, there were times that we're having our lunch for 2 hours. 

Team Loi of course. This is the team that made me stay in TaskUs. Our bond is unbreakable until that big decision happened. 

Team Bes ftw. Hahahahah. 

Team Loi again with our OM while we're playing bingo in the production floor.

Team Loi Christmas Party!

Team Jello - this is the next team that I fell in love with.

There's so many ups and downs with them but I truly enjoy their company. 

So many team lunches and milktea.

I don't know many of them but we love taking photos and going to seminars.

My current and last teammates in TaskUs - this is during the kick-off party

This is Judi. One of the craziest and one of my favorite people in TaskUs. She opened my mind to different and controversial stuff on earth. It's always fun being with her.

Bosx JP yan ih tska Bim. Matic

This is Maine. I don't know what to say about her but she's one of the best people I've worked with. Her and Bim. We have this crazy bonding over the years.

Mahal na mahal kong TL Chloe. Wala na kong dapat sabihin pa. hahahaha

Team Jello on the flo

Syempre andito din tong mga hakdog na to.

The Songs

I don't like all the songs here but I happened to memorize some of them. This is our team's playlist.




//BeRidiculous //sebajisoka

Ellamazing

A few days ago, Ben&Ben announced that they will be having a free concert in BGC Amphitheater soon, together with Liza Soberano, Jane De Leon, Ella Cruz, Julian Trono, and SB19.

Me and my teammate, Bim, got excited and since it's our day off that they, we decided to go. I also invited Jas, so she can meet Ben&Ben. 

Jas has some stuff to do. I arrived hours early in the concert grounds just roaming around. Later on, I'm with Bim. We chatted and all and searched for a good spot to watch this mini-concert.

So, the show started, everyone is just promoting the Samsung Phone. 

Then, Ben&Ben the show's final act, singing their beloved songs and serenading us with their wonderful music. They even introduced a new song, the first time that they played.

You can watch it here:




It gives me chills and salt water in my eyes. 

Pipiliin ka, araw-araw.

Our hearts were full. Me and Bim separated our ways. I went to Mercato to buy some food for Jassiee. Then I went to 711 to check for some other food, too bad. There's no food that interests me. 

While thinking of some other food options, I noticed someone about to cross the street. I doubted myself at first, I thought to myself that it's impossible if it's Julian and Ella because they were just at the concert with me. 

I walked near them and confirmed everything. I followed them as they cross and my heart is pumping hard and I have to make a decision, without second thoughts, I excused myself and asked for a photo. They responded and we took this photo, and told them that they were good dancers!!! omg. hahaha

Kaget labe ang labanan.

Sobraaang cute ni Ella tapos sobrang baet ni Julian. Hi Jas! hahahaha. Kainis. Fanboiiing ako sa kanila kahit ang lake lake ko. Hahaha. 

I only wished to see them on stage or miraculously bump into each other in some way but I never thought about this manifesting. We may have a pretty bad January but my February has been good so far. 


//Ellamazing //sebajisoka