the secret life of a busy bee
Admittedly, the best e-mail I got this week was from the Chair of our Professional Development Center:
Dear Judith,
(My Unit Chief’s name) has OKd me to ask you if you would like to become a trainer for a two-day Customer Service course. (Head Trainor’s name) says that you have expressed an interest in training others.
Here is what would happen:
- you take the course later this month, in Manila.
- you must later co-teach the course with an experienced trainer.
- you must later teach the course, with an experienced trainer present.
After doing that, you are designated as an ‘adjunct faculty member’ of FSI*, and can teach the course as often as needed, normally at least twice a year.
Let me know if this is something that interests you. I am also trying to find a second person for this, so you would be in the process with someone else.
It’s been months ago since I volunteered my services for future training sessions that for a while I thought they just didn’t consider me. Without thinking twice, I replied to him expressing my interest. I’m no training expert yet but I think, on some level, I can perform well. I remember getting high grades in my Human Resource Development and Training class activities, even if it was just an elective. I already put my head on the chopping board of too many activities this year. I’m quite nervous, to be frank, but a big part of my full-sized aortic pump (my heart) would want to do them, so I’m simply going with the flow.
I’m hoping that our additional staff would be onboard soon, as in within the next two months. It’s not that I don’t like doing my share of staff-level correspondence assignments because I do. It’s just that the quantity is still overwhelming that I am left with almost no time to do supervisory duties such as updating our SOPs, overhauling the reference files area, mapping out staff training patterns, among others. Plus the department newsletter is still in the air, although we’re banking on a pre-Mother’s Day release because we already promised most of our featured subjects. The calendar says our next issue should be out by the end of August, and I don’t know if we can pull it off anymore. The daunting task of semi-finishing the pending edition by Monday is what I referred to in the post below. I made a firm promise to my layout editor extraordinaire that if and when I don’t turn in most of the content by Monday morning, I’m going to be unwed, unloved, romantically unappreciated forever. That’s how badly I need it to be over and done with.
Our distance learning course on passport and citizenship issues is rumored to be having its final exam this coming Wednesday. I wasn’t able to attend the last 2 meetings because of the outreach and a prolonged team leaders’ meeting, and there’s no e-mail announcing it formally so it has not sunk in my brain yet. Not a few have suggested that I should e-mail our trainer tomorrow, to suggest that we should postpone it to a later date, especially since FSI* gave us until the middle of June to finish the course. I will send her an e-mail but knowing the trainer, there’s a 60% chance that we may still take it on Wednesday. When it happens, the next two days would be frantic ones, especially in our area.
# # #
Despite all these career-related tasks, I am high on reading again. My reading rate has increased anew. I kinda hoarded books again even though I’m scheduled to join a bookshop warehouse raid next Saturday. I still remember my former boss telling me that I might cry when the 5-story Fully Booked branch in Bonifacio High Street finally opens. I really might. Although by that time, I would want to be with the members of Ex-Libris Philippines (Hi
tatatwin and
sopraninigabi!), or my backup** EG when it happens. The former, I’m excited to all meet next week, and the latter, I admire with his taste in books. I cannot fathom him most of the time but I’ve accepted that he’s really intelligent.
# # #
Speaking of EG, I hope he would be back to Earth again when the bookstore opens. EO was pissed (but not that kind of pissed) at him last week because he’s been dodging her calls. Persistent as she is, EO called the person beside him and asked to be connected to him. To make it short, she didn’t believe his line was busy as she was told because it’s ringing, he’s not just picking up. I joked that maybe he got fed up with us remembering him only when we feel like extorting lunch or snack money. Yeah, we’re bullies like that. Anyway, we made a deal that when we bump into him soon, we will stick our noses up in the air and snub him. Although the ending would probably be we’d take the snubbing back and go with our usual extortion modus.
* Foreign Service Institute
** What should I call my reserve partner. Yesterday, I whimsically watched a Friends Season 6 episode where Rachel and Phoebe were “80% happy and 20% jealous” with Monica getting proposed to by Chandler that they thought of choosing between Ross and Joey who their respective backups-the person they would hook up with when they’re both 40 and still single-would be. Not only I thought of changing what I should call EG, I think I should get a 2nd choice backup, too. One person popped in my head immediately and I am giving him a call soon. I know he will take me up on it. When it’s final, I will be calmer in dealing with the pointless pressure people put in escaping singlehood.