In my last post I talked about my very first Corporate Culture experience at UA. When the new guys took over, the culture was more relaxed and things actually got done more efficiently. It's been proven again and again that when people are treated with respect and are encouraged to enjoy themselves while working (ie being able to listen to music, etc) they will be more productive and your business will thrive. Unless you are an Internet startup with goofballs roller blading through the office and having Nerf gun wars but not doing any work.....but I digress. It was also my first taste of Filipino food. Ah, Lumpia......the egg rolls of the Gods. We had two wonderful older Filipino women working in our Data Entry Department, our Aunties to be Culturally correct, who used to bring in tupperware containers full of Lumpia.....I must say, being raised in an ethnically diverse area of the World makes for some good eats.
I ended the last post talking about the "crappy" job. The one I had from 1989-2000....yeah I know "if it sucked that much why were you still there?" I am a stubborn bastard who sits and waits for the silver lining. That crappy job was at a Company called Tricor. The majority of the people I worked with were wonderful human beings of all walks of life. The pay and the advancement opportunities sucked. My boss was an older woman named Yolanda. Yolanda was very old school and a workaholic. She basically was "retiring" when I left in 2000, but still kept coming into the office, and my last boss there Elizabeth just told me the other day via email that Yolanda is now "unretired" and working again. Your house is paid for, your Husband is a retired Union Butcher (big money pension there) and he keeps telling you "if you were retired you and I can go travel, etc....". She doesn't need to work other than to alleviate boredom. This was the first time I also experienced reverse discrimination. The Company was run and owned by Chee Louie, a man of Chinese Descent who was born in Kowloon. He was a good man, honorable and hard working, but he often engaged in reverse discrimination. If you were Asian you got the promotions whether or not they were deserved. It was interesting. Being Sicilian I've never experienced people discriminating against me for my ethnicity, they usually consider Italians as "White". Please don't think that way. I have never considered myself White. My old Friend Peter's Parents were the epitome of White. Fathers and sons shake hand when they are older....no hugging allowed that kind of thing. People have quiet conversations where one person speaks, then is prodded by another to respond (Brian if you are reading this you know what I mean....). Italians kiss everyone, talk over each other and have no inside voices. Now not every person that got promoted wasn't worthy of it, most were. It was just strange to see discrimination on the other side. This is also the job where I ended up with the position I've been in at every job I've worked; in the gossip loop. Why me??? I don't seek it out, but yet I become part of the Chismoso chain.....thank you Tita Beth for that word...... I found out who was with who, doing who, hating who, etc. It was bad. I also had my first encounter with a Filipino American Princess. Ah, Alice. Such a wreck of a girl she was. Probably still is. In High School I dated a Jewish American Princess for about a month....it was fun but I hated "Daddy" paying for everything (I was raised you paid no matter what. Italians think they are bigshots when throwing money around....its true.). A pretty woman, but a wreck emotionally and mentally. She believed the world revolved around her. She was high maintenance, and I was single and stupid. We did lunch a few times....it was good for my ego.....she introduced me to Filipino food other than Lumpia......Pansit, Adobo...oh Man it was good. No I never ate Baloot, nor will I. Baloot for those that don't know any Filipinos is a delicacy that consists of a fertilized duck egg eaten while still in it's fetal form. Yarrrrhhhhhhhggggg!!!! My Filipino friends gag at the mention of it. When Yolanda semi-retired my boss was a woman named Elizabeth. Auntie Bet or Tita Bet she was called. That's a cultural quirk from the Polynesian influence on the Philippines. In Hawaiian culture any older adult that is not related to you is called Auntie or Uncle. You know the family friend, that person. Filipinos use the same form of address. I learned a little Tagalog (actually I impressed Auntie by figuring out what Hana gusta ma meant....), it was easy to pick up because there are a lot of Spanish words in Tagalog. I learned Spanish in school (hey it's California, you better learn Spanish) and that helped. Things were okay, until Chee decided to merge with a bunch of small Courier companies (oh yeah, Tricor is a Courier company...forgot to mention that) in a blocking maneuver to keep DHL from swallowing us up. That worked, but it didn't stop another company from buying us. Things changed then, it started to suck more. Then the company was sold a second time, then a third. It was that third time that I got my first taste of the "saying alot but not saying anything" type of Corporate guy. I didn't like the way things were going so I actually found another job and was short timing it for my last two weeks. This talking head from the new Corp came in to "alleviate our fears" about downsizing....I mean Layoffs (don't you hate PC terms?) and we had this big meeting. He looked at us and said "Okay any questions I can answer?" I, being the guy with nothing to lose since I was leaving for new employment, was the mouthpiece for my fellow employees. I said "we were told you were supposed to come in and tell us everything that is going on." He hemmed and hawed a bit then someone asked him a question and his response was "Hmmm that's a good point. Let me take that back to my People and discuss it." Or he would answer "Not sure about that. Let me get back to you on it." After dozens of non-replies I sarcastically answered for him before the meeting let out....I answered.."wait, let me guess, you will take it under advisement and get back to us...." He was speechless. It's a really fun feeling being free to say what you want without repercussions. I was quitting, what were they going to do fire me???? I was glad I got out of there because 9/11 had a huge impact on that Company. Tomorrow I will talk about the best job I've had; ever.
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