I am not Frog

By Yayes Basares

Question...

Which would you want to be A SMALL FROG IN A BIG POND or a BIG FROG IN A SMALL POND?

The question haunted me for quite some time. I sent SMS messages to my classmates and received their words of wisdom. Very encouraging were their responses that I was tempted to ask them to make the decision for me.

I have been in the HR practice for the past six or seven years, four years of which in a managerial level. I have educated myself in handling labor cases both through experience and in keeping myself abreast with the latest decisions in labor relations. I have acquired that skill of reading behind and between words, spoken and written, as they try to weave lengthy tales of lies during administrative hearings. In conducting interviews, I have learned to look at an applicant eyes and separate the husk from the grain. On numerous cases I have seen employees weep when they lost their jobs and heard their resentment and anger against supervision and authority, most especially when it comes from midgets.

Two years in this bus company and I have seen many SOB’s come and go. In some instances I caused their separation citing just causes. I have suspended many and solicited their ire on several occasions.

The transport sector is often misunderstood by some and despised by many. Yet I have learned to love it. It runs in parallel with my stint in the broadcast media (my first job) in the thrill, excitement and challenges. Here my adrenalin is always at its peak; rushing here and there during times of accidents, heralding the worst animals in the zoo (but hey they may be the worst but they are our animals), picking up loose diapers and nursing grown ups and teaching them how to pee…….

The problem, as I see it, in the transport sector lies on the values and ethics accumulated by each driver and conductor from the road. The transport sector would like to define, as how it suits it best, road courtesy, road safety and the ethical standards of the riding public, and demands for the world to adjust to them. They are kings of the road and expect to be treated with royalty. A very dangerous premise as it will be characterized by anarchy in the street.

It is the same problem I faced day by day in my administrative work. Ultimately though my decision prevails yet what is tiring is that same problem you solved today will resurrect tomorrow and the cycle would go on and on.

I miss the regular calendar. I miss the usual corporate norms and standard. And for sure I am tired.

The temptation to abandon ship and transfer was a daily option I stubbornly refused to exercise. Everyday you face the mirror and start to wonder where most of your hairs have gone to. The writings on the wall get bolder and clearer as the daily and pressing needs not only for yourself but for the family strikes you right in front of your nose.

I began to entertain thoughts of transferring perhaps to a multinational company, not only for the financial perks, but perhaps to follow a regular corporate routine like all those white collared and well dressed guys you see on TV.

I was on the verge of transferring employment after passing series of interview with a Japanese firm based in Carmona, Cavite. It is still in the HR field. I like handling people; identifying and developing their skills, setting up directions, sweeping up dirt afterwards. The pay is generous and above par in benefits. The transfer would entail a lot of adjustments. I would be back to the regular calendar, the eight to five grind six days a week in contrast to my 24/7 duty in the transport sector, new systems and procedures to get accustomed to, start paying for rent and utilities.

I tried to bid my boss adieu expressing my sincere gratitude and appreciation for the trust and confidence he gave me the past two years. He asked me if I am serious and I told him I am. I told him we can no longer run the show on love and kisses alone and retire each night dreaming that tomorrow, like a conjuring trick, there would be bread on the table and medicines on the cabinet, like manna falling from heaven.

Then he said lets talk things over again. And we ended up me remaining where I am now. I did win some blue chips on the bargain table but my biggest prize can never be quantified. These are lessons worth their gems.

Number one is that personality must jibe with your work and vice versa.

I like the rush, the huff and puff; the thrill and excitement on the road; the unorthodox and irregular work schedule and work load, the passion of elevating the level of maturity of a fast growing company, the compassion for every patient you hit on the road, the challenge in carrying heavy torch for the company defending them from the ire of relatives we sometimes hit along the way, the leg work of providing the medical, and sometimes burial assistance all with the end view of showing the heart of the company as a responsible and compassionate corporate entity.

Number two lesson is in order to fly you must have wings.

The wings would be the trust and confidence of your employer of which you must learn to cultivate. Caution though on this regard must be exercised to the effect that one must be contented with wings and never ask for more. That is why I have always maintained that the best person in the HR department is a MAN because women don’t just like wings, they want the whole bird. My boss is a member of the PNP Traffic Management Group and it is under his shadow where I draw my authority and command obedience from the kings of the roads. They fear my boss a lot especially so when he turns ballistic. Decisions must never be subjective and never be based on personal whims and caprices because an erroneous one affecting employees would have them cursing the whole company, the whole organization and the whole group. So far there never was an occasion my boss abandoned me especially in front of angry lions gnawing their teeth in anger or as they wait for me to sleep at night so they could put thorns on my bed and itching powder on my pajamas. Holding me back from transferring employment, after enlargement of the heart was suspected by a doctor whom I am asking from where he learned his medicines, he told me “here I can take care of you, out there you got nobody”.

In my sent SMS messages Junie Taclan said “thrive where you are” Jason Balbedina said “bloom where you are planted, we always tend to be planted where we will bloom” adding “if I am a small frog in a big pond I’ll maximize all the opportunities available”.

Eric Gojar said it better : “I am not a frog”

DEO GRACIAS so am I.

Kokak to that.

Post script:

Sano Dr. Gerry Pura had the kindness to accommodate me and given me the clean bill as a cardiologist. He advised me though to change my lifestyle. You always say yes in front of the doctor, that is the unwritten rule. But my sincere apologies sano doctor I SIMPLY CAN’T. The most I could perhaps do is to go easy on the “daisies” as indeed they tire me too much, perhaps elder would be good enough.