The atmosphere at my workplace the past few months is one that can be best described with a generous amount of uncertainty and anxiety. Truthfully, this began when the term of the last administration ended. Ours was one of the last few government agencies who's Head of Agency (HOA) got appointed. For like 2-3 months, we were led by an Officer-in-Charge.
And then when the new administration came in, it was like their No. 1 agenda was to conduct "witch hunting". Tracking down people who were closely identified with the past HOA; set aside what has been done by the past administration without regard for the reasons these were done and say these are all "wrong".
Sure, for the last 9 years, my company has been subjected to all kinds of hate by its members, mainly because of the massive computerization; policy changes; inadequate information dissemination and ineffective communication within the organization as well as to the external world. Members only saw the effects of these changes to them, and I cannot (do not) blame them. But you see, these changes HAD to be implemented, otherwise, my company would have seen its end early part of the new millenium (I hope I got this one right). This was something that members were not able to fully to understand.
Back to Present day: Among the early projects of the new administration was to do (another) Corporate Reorganization. Oh God... As someone from HR, all I can do is sigh and utter to myself "Okay! Here comes another one". You see, for the last 9 years, we've had about 5(?) reorganizations. So don't blame me for my reaction. First on the list of instructions on how to go about this reorganization, is to have a "flatter" organization. Second, was to make it more responsive to the needs of the members. Fine.
As days turned into weeks then into months, several more changes, nah, hundreds more, took place. Finally, it came to a point that we in HR weren't part of it (process of reorg) anymore. Everything was being done by a Committee.
February this year, voila! A new Table of Organization (TO) was presented thru a General Assembly (GA). This is the very 1st time everyone has seen this new TO. And everyone went like "huh?! nawala yung office or department namin"; "nabawasan ng number of functional groups" and automatically, the next worry was: "san na ako pupunta?" There were questions and there were answers. Fine.
And then part of the reorg process was conducting a "survey" corporate wide, to be participated in by everyone. Whoa!!! Hi-tech!!! And so, all of us, from the last week of April to early May, were made to answer the said survey. And most of us, took the survey seriously. I, personally was very skeptical about this survey process, but nonetheless, I answered it honestly.
Fast forward to last week (3rd week of May) to present day: We (meaning incumbents of supervisory and rank and file positions) just learned that incumbents of Vice Presidents positions and higher are being summoned to the Office of the GM, in summary, to know their respective fates in this reorganization. From the very 1st story that I heard, I personally felt livid. Stories were disheartening. People are being let go. Sure, retirement, redundancy and whatever else one might like to call it, is a likely result of a corporate reorg.
But what makes the process of letting these people go disheartening is, that they are not given a logical and concrete explanation why they are being shown the door out. And a couple of these people are seniors in the organization, whose experience and knowledge of the job will be a big help to the new administration. A few of these people are technically equipped and qualified in their present positions; and yet, they are being reassigned to another department or unit where their technical qualifications will not be maximized. These reassignments clearly does not take into consideration a person's career path. And it pains me to write this line, but, I feel and see that this reorganization is not being implemented with a touch of human compassion and relation. It violates every HR principle that I know of. I cannot help but feel sad and livid.
Personally, I am also anxious. I'm already a supervisor and there are talks that the qualification standards for the position I am presently holding will be revised. And if these talks are true, I will become "un-qualified". Ironic right? This is where I start to ask "Where is my security of tenure as government employee?" On the upside, some colleagues are worried for me, and I truly thank them for this. But as I was telling them, "Tigok kung tigok sa serbisyo. Pero di ko i-stress-in ang sarili ko na makakuha ng masters degree in one year. San Unibersidad ko nman kukunin yun?"
This is what we are all getting because someone seats at the throne of power with a very huge axe to grind against my former HOA. And this person is very lucky, because if there's one thing we all learned from the past administration, it is to defer to your superiors. But I wonder how long this attitude of deferment will last?
God help us all in these trying times. I know that He will.
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