Cordial Response to a Chronic Office Politics

Hi, Sir.

Thank you for your generosity in giving me the updates that I here below found relief in informing the requestors. I waited one month from 'PP' to respond to my cordial requests for status.

This is one month delayed without forecast, although it's not my TAT, overall we are answerable. Thus, I asked permission from you to get updates from the programmers and directly provide them my support should they have questions with my evaluation. You granted my request. So I approached them and obliged myself to ask them if they understand the requests and provide answers as I deemed necessary. They listened very intently and asked me a couple of questions. I had the impression that they do not completely understand the requests, but with constant and patient guidance, the project will pick up momentum.

In the middle of my discussion with your appointed programmers, I was approached by 'LL' and 'PP' that I am 'meddling with their department's mandates and affairs'. They asked me to leave the room even I have permission from you to 'interfere as necessary' as they are on top of the situation. I am not sure if he is aware that the programmer and the web designer do not even have a copy of the SMPR and the screenshots.

As I left the room defeated, I leave the situation up to you. I just hope this project will be completed in two weeks as you committed.

Thanks,

Sun Sison

A Beautiful Family

Dear all,

The cholecystectomy that Mommy had undergone last Saturday was completed successfully. The surgical procedure did not take longer than the estimated 1 hour. They found and removed 3 grape seed-sized stones.

We are pleased – with the outcome of the surgery, and the support we received from all of you.

Thank you very much. We are in your debt.

With Mommy out of danger now and our worries have subsided, as the eldest son I owe everybody more than just the expression of thankfulness. I also wish everybody the best; perhaps most fittingly –the best of health. Along with yours, my prayer is that may we don’t see anyone in our family have to go through the same kind of predicament again.

Thank you – although I could never really thank you all enough: For the prayers that you meaningfully composed and worriedly whispered in your sleep and probably even spoken repeatedly while at work; for the hard-earned money that you perhaps had already set aside to pay the bills or saved for future family needs, which out of kindness and worry you decided to send to us instead, not minding momentarily how it will affect the budget in order to accommodate a loved one’s call for help; and for the different expressions of support and inspiring gestures of encouragement that sent our knees to the floor and our hands in the air in thanksgiving.

I appreciate what you did to help us. As long as I am on this earth – your help shall never lose meaning and value.

I may have exposed my weaknesses and incapability by asking for a financial support, but I did so by assuming your generosity, not underestimating it. I admit that an amount of Php60, 000 may be hard to believe unaffordable for a 12-year engineer like me; and while it is true, as I say it is, I paid a great price for the said admission of limitations, shortcomings, or the obvious poverty – a price appraised so high against the worth of pride. Hence, it wasn’t easy – but pride is a commodity whose value must depreciate during crisis. I swallowed it, even gobbled it up for the sake of a higher purpose – the safety, the life of my mother.

Therefore, more than thank you – I am also sorry if your high expectations of me disappointed you. You may not be proud, but this deficiency is not really a result of habitual inactions or muscled, reinforced mistakes, and definitely not because I’ve been lazy. Undeniably, there have been many setbacks and episodes of confusion, and the economical environment does not provide generous means for quick recovery. But despite life’s unfairness, none of those blows have succeeded in making me give up; I only bended, but not broken. I lost some, I gained more – although not something measurable by the figures in my bank account or the assets I have – but only greater tolerance, an advantage against those not accustomed to pain and poverty.

With poverty lingering in this life, by default, I know that I have to be strong, but at a certain degree I understand I also have to be sensitive. I learned that it is in being sensitive that we better understand the needs we are responsible to provide, or the space that we have to fill in – even if being sensitive is often criticized as a trait of losers. Being sensitive – I learned from more experienced and influential people I’ve read or met – is never a weakness especially in the context of empathy. Conversely, strength is gauged neither by how much force you apply to resist or ignore the obvious miseries seen around nor by how much you can afford nor what you can buy for yourself. Strength – these individuals from books, news, and history teach us – is defined and measured by how much of your life you are willing to share; how much you can give away for things that matter more; by how often you are willing to get out of your comfort zone to meet those that don’t have.

Ironically, the more we recognize our weaknesses, the more we would feel empowered. There are times I would just marvel at the seeming obviousness of God’s presence, and my hopes have never been high. Thanks to poverty – for once again I have proven that if taken in the right context, poverty itself is really a very good source of delight, and of strength. I am glad that despite the hardships we are going through, my wife Annie and son Julian are more than just cooperative. They learned to be resilient themselves; always cheerful despite the need to be extra resourceful. Like me, they are doing their best to live life to the fullest with the blessings that we have. For the three of us, God is generous and mild.

Having said all this, though, I really cannot commit that all my future decisions and actions will be correct or certain. But the lessons are clear, and I understand very well that it calls for nothing less than a better understanding of my responsibilities, and the proper adjustments of all my priorities. That is how I intend to complement the support you provided us.

Thanks to all of you again – for in the midst of this all, you all remained. And during the dangerous hours my mother was in great pain – you gave your best as well. We received calls – I heard cheerful voices; we received text messages – I read comforting words; we met friends – they tapped our backs with a sympathetic smile on their faces. Recording them all in our bank of gratitude, I just know, and I think everybody should also realize, that what binds our family together is thicker than what drifts us apart, even thicker than anyone would secretly admit to himself; that we have the quality of a beautiful family – although not immune to heartaches, quarrels, isolation, unhealthy comparisons, and misunderstandings – they do heal, in a rather difficult but amazing way.

Yes, in our family we have a facility for healing – ears that are always ready to listen, members possessing wisdom and tolerance – but only available for those whose wounds and heartaches they are willing to share and speak out. Therefore, this doesn’t mean that in our family there is no work to be done or no issues to resolve, mistakes to be corrected, habits to break, or phone calls to make; the dangerous assumption that our comfort or struggles, togetherness or isolation can be easily taken as they are and say “I am okay”. I think we must not let that assumption breed indifference. To make and convince ourselves that our family is strong, there is no denying that each member of our family has a reaching out to do; regardless of the comfort or security that we enjoy in the warmth of our own homes, or from our individual accomplishments – still, no man is an island.

I hope my plea for help and my admission of shortcoming sends a message of better understanding of the goodness of our family, and the importance of family in general. For some of us, we need to reach out more so it could be enjoyed to the fullest; and for many, this means lowering down your wall or opening up your door.


Sanny Sison

Executive Summary - Lifecycle Management

Concerns over the negative effects of IT system deployments being unable to meet deadlines have particularly been raised several times by both the management and the users. The process and the manner that new systems are deployed or implemented have been reported in many occasions as very slow and inefficient. Quantifying the effects practically or literally, translates into highly significant losses in terms of service disruptions, loss of productivity, and soaring overhead expenses such as increased employee overtimes. It is also observed that while IT employees’ overtime is at an all-time high, the quality of technical support provided to normal or daily requests is greatly degraded because of the very demanding nature of additional deployment tasks.

Since the need for system distribution, patching, and/or upgrades is a cycle perpetuated by the bank’s business requirements to stay competitive in the market, the strategy by which IT deployment is executed must be superior, or at the minimum, does not cause delay, or can be completed in a very reasonable time. At the same time, the schema should help achieve IT reliability, maximize IT staff performance, and reduce operational costs.

A general principle being considered to help achieve these goals is to apply a certain level of automation in order to simplify all tasks and be able to do similar tasks simultaneously with fewer interactions and interruptions - an independent solution that will complement and maximize the capabilities of Active Directory.

This report hopes to explain very clearly the different factors that determine the success or failure of IT deployment specifically in the production environment of East West Bank; and also to provide insights and recommendations as to how future projects can be better executed.

Note: This report received praises for its depth, details, and the way it was presented. However, the purchase of the KBOx was not approved due to other ongoing projects.

I found God in the Blog Age

Forget about the Ice Age and the Information Age. I think we are now in the BLOG AGE.

It's funny, nice, and interesting that nowadays everyone seems to feel better sharing the "stories and sorties" of their lives in a form of a blog than writing on a diary. In a blog, you can freely tell the world about anything you'd love to share and have the choice to hide your real identity. Good thing - if you know you are in a good circle, you don't have to. And if this new technological developments endangers the diary, then one of the few good things left that we do alone is Praying. In that sense, it is very good benefit of the Blog Age; people know better how to express themselves yet will likely have more time to talk to God because he or she will likely be asking or thanking God with what he or she had written. It's hypothetical, I know, but don't you think it is very good to imagine that people are making good use of technology in that sense.

Anyway, since this is kind of my second entry to my blog site, at the onset what I only wanted to do is just to be able to write something that would somehow make sense to everyone or just allow my fingers to type whatever comes out of my head; it doens't matter though, it's just a blog, so they say. But there is this just one thing that has been echoing in my head; it is indeed manifested in the things that had happened in my life in recent years; what I consider the greatest and most important lesson I learned in years. Since I think it is important, I thought it is worthy to be written. And it goes a little something like this:

It started probably when I worked at a call center. I accepted a job I didn't like and was not proud of. It was a great deal and serious job that I had to do even I was not proud of. But you know, doing something you don't like but you just have to could teach you something. Let me just call it SACRIFICE.

It matches, right? But that's not it yet.

Sacrifice, as I have found out, is but the first step to truly understanding the mysteries of God's plans. So, since I was not proud of what I was doing at the call center; I hated it (but I loved the friends I met there) - I gave it up. I resigned because professionally it is not the right job for me, but It was the one job that gave me financial edge. Oh, that was true. However, it was there that the difference of material success and spiritual success became more obvious and distinct to me. I begun feeling indifferent. I quit to my friends and family's surprise. But I had no regrets. I'll tell you why.

Financial crisis begun. Many times from that time on, I would run out of money even to buy lunch; I would count coins everyday if I had enough money for my ride home; there were times I had to call my wife just to tell her I cannot come home early because all my officemates had left and I had no one to borrow money to buy our dinner. Tough and stupid you would say - but then came the flashy realization of what I truly exchanged the good salary with - finally a good reason to back up my decision to resign: It was then that I truly felt being in the "Refiner's Fire". Although I would admit that I got there in a rather stupid way.

But hey, listen - I haven't told you yet that the call center life was eating my life away; I wasn't enjoying; I was learning a tough culutre I couldn't take; at that same time, my friends who are not in the call center have gone farther away in their careers.

So, I thought it was already the toughest time of my life, but then it was with that emptiness that I learned something new about trusting God: I learned more than just to trust - I learned to "cling". I clung to God like a pest and believed that tomorrow would be a better one. Little by little I got used to skipping meals and walking long distances to get home from work. I appeared like a real loser to many people, but they did not see what I called "Only God and Christ-like humans will see" even if I don't tell them; I learned another thing -- IT WAS APPRECIATING THE BEAUTY OF POVERTY.

Well, of course, poverty isn't literally beautiful, but there is something beautiful about it: that "something" is what I learned from this Saint by the name of Therese (of Lisieux). She said, "If God is to fill our emptiness, then poverty becomes a source of delight". First, I began to understand those words by simply knowing that I had no choice but to "swallow" that life. But then, slowly I noticed that the more humiliation, hunger, emptiness, and exhaustion I felt, the more I would feel "assured" of God’s presence in my life. I loved it! And I said "Wow! This is something!". And so I embraced it "like a brave warrior would" and hoped that my life would stay that way. It was still confusing sometimes if I try to think of how I came to that conclusion, but I just said - It really felt good being in the Refiner's Fire - who is none other than God Himself. It really feels good to know or find out that God is shaping you. Yes, I recognized that.

And "to be shaped", I further realized, has a requirement - one who wants to be shaped had to submit itself to the "Shaper". Well, complete submission beforehand was something I only knew as the act of "giving up". So, in other words, if GOD wants to shape you then He has to make you "STILL". That means to "give up" is the same as to "be still". Right?

Let’s review:

1. A personal decision – often wrong
2. A realization – poverty and emptiness, clinging to God and not just trusting
3. An appreciation – of the bad things happening in your life
4. A transformation – shaping starts
5. A surrender – by giving up to the Lord
6. A deeper transformation – after giving up yourself to the Lord, you have to stay “still”
7. A system installation – you review and repeat the whole process whenever applicable

So, what does God have to do to make you give up (or to be still)?? ---> TRIALS (could this be the best explanation why God allows sufferings sometimes)

And trials, which are what we normally see as "hindrance", is indeed the "advance ingredient" for the Shaping that we want. But yes, of course, one has to give up on Christ and understand that a poor faith says "I believe in God because life is beautiful" and the rich faith is "Life is beautiful because I believe in God".

A better perspective of life – happier and stronger you.

Ok. I give up – to the Lord.


Sun

Against Credit-grabbing

Bro,

In your hands, my obsessive and zealous fellow Engineer is the momentous issue of disrepute – to infuse the absence of many to emphasize your presence.

I would not admonish you if you wanted to report the progress of the project due to your efforts, but in so doing what your words otherwise emphasized discredited many people who have been here long before you came.

I’d like to tell you, and you should know by now, the people you subjected to shame and degradation have sacrificed much in the past in order to get the same achievement that you now appear so insatiable of.

I originally have known you as a very talented and promising person, but even if your desire is truly for the good of the department, remember that the end does not justify the means. If you choose to insist the faults of other people, even if there truly was, how you say it truly reflects your own.

I will not further assail you as no one has, but I shall ask you to apologize to those people from whom you have offended, and give them back the respect that they hardly could earn through the years.

Thanks.

Sun

Letter of Intent - Transfer to Another Department

To my leaders in the IT Group,

It is with humility and optimism I convey my most profound intention to navigate away from my present department and field of expertise, network engineering and operations, to try a new field of interest which, it seems, the last few years of my profession have – by choice and circumstance – helped bring out an old endowment and increased inclination at – process analysis, project management, standards and compliance, organization, and writing.

Looking confidently ahead, I realize that this combination of skills and interest can be better employed and appreciated in a group where their use or practice is part of its main objective, and therefore, of primary importance. I thought that when the results of one’s work are measured as an essential part of a fixed, clearly identified deliverables and well-defined purpose of the group he belongs, all efforts are more worthwhile, and nothing is wasted. Thus, as the potential is being cultivated and polished, every output is always seen as a contribution, or at least a part of.

In my present department, my role as a junior officer for the last 2 years have been more of what engineers or technical people normally don’t like to do – or so they say. With that I became – as I interpreted and accepted it – the go-to person when something needs to be regularized on paper. Often I would receive liberty to decide, though sometimes I just have to, what these papers would or should contain. Under this capacity and opportunity, I am at ease to say that I have been – by initiative and often by chance – the proponent, author, or partner of many changes that brought diversity in the department. Many were proposals that sought adjustments or improvements in technical support procedures, most especially in RT, monitoring and reporting, and configuration standards. Some thought of them good, some bad. To this day, 2 more proposals, where I outlined the underlying problems affecting asset management and system deployment, are still waiting endorsement.

I am greatly indebted to my department head for the empowerment and to my fellow engineers for the support in these and all.

However, I observed that these kinds of work that I do seem to have an embedded intangible property coming from an engineer like me, and being from the Department I currently belong. Therefore, regardless of how one looks at it, the apparent issue about my inclination is that it had steered me away from what is really expected of my title. And before diversity become indifference, contribution into liability, and potential into problem, I have to find a new camp.

I wish to bring the same innovative ways and the zeal to see things more organized and harmonized to the Business Process Reengineering Division, which I hope would find my intention sincere, my background acceptable, and would find for me a more suitable and compatible position.

Thank you very much.


Yours truly,


SANNY SISON

My Prayer Language

During my college days, I used to swim regularly. Coincidentally, it was during that time that I felt what I considered God's calling (for priesthood). I was a Computer Engineering student, and mixing computer and religion for me was quite too tough a thing to do at that time. It was confusing. And then it was during one of my swimming sessions that I decided to swim myself to complete exhaustion. It was night and was raining hard. The resort was almost empty. I was all by myself. The idea was to put myself in a situation that if somethings goes wrong, there will be no one to rely on but God alone; to eliminate other wordly thoughts, but only of God and His Words. It was like a simulation of a real life problem. I wanted to prove to God that as I would strive to keep myself afloat despite fatigue and fight the threat of drowning, I would stick or cling to Him no matter what. It was terribly difficult because when it's time to raise my head above water to breath, rainwater would fill my face making the chances to breath more difficult. But as I went on, I noticed something terribly amazing that surprised me - in the middle of it all, I noticed that it was easier under water than above it. I felt I didn't have to worry too much about moving briskly to stay afloat simply because I was enjoying more being under water. And I noticed I wanted to stay under water longer than staying over. While the rain was still pouring wildly on the surface, I found peace under the splashes. I felt a unique kind of peacefulness that in a way I really felt I had successfully made my message across to God. I felt I was really able to make God belive in me, and that I love Him. I was counting the laps I was doing because I was also trying to say Hail Mary and Our Father. It came to a point that I was like in a middle of the ocean, far from land and all I could see was water, but I did not stop until I was really almost out of air. Guess what, I never realized that I had set a record for myself in swimming, having swam almost 20 laps (at least). I made it.... survived it.... I dared the dangerous and God saw me through.... I was thankful because there was really no real serious problem in my life or in my family, so I made one serious situation for me. It was like an act, so I could talk to God the way the "beaten but heroic people" had done. Then finally, I personally confirmed an old thought that as the bouyance power of the water is often so hardly believable, so is God's power sometimes. But in all eternity - God is there. We simply have to trust him just as we should the bouyancy of water. Well, I did not become a priest although I tried to enter a seminary. I am now an IT professional, happily married, and a father of one.