My office is two doors away from the ant hill and three doors away from the bee hive. I’m physically separated from the rest of the department. It has its perks… the best being you can go to your alpha state whenever you please: you can play your alpha state-inducing anthem at the volume you want whenever you want and if you’re like me who likes to keep the competitive spirit up, scream at the latest resident office asshole without her hearing it.

There is a price to pay for these ‘perks’ though and that is less face time with the people who pretty much determine whether you meet your KPIs or not. To tell you the truth, it’s pathetic. The wired culture has dulled me to the point that I now rely on email, RSS, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and instant messaging to keep myself updated on the lives of people. To quote somebody who threw paragraphs of wisdom my way a few days ago: it’s a scalability issue. There’s just no way you can sustain a high level of interaction with each and every one in your team day in and day out and still be productive.
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What’s harder than managing smart people? It’s keeping them juiced and happy. You can’t let your guard down and hope that somehow a miraculous sense of personal loyalty will keep them interested and away from the greener pasture syndrome. You have to keep a special eye on the smart ones in your group, for they always figure out a way to find a company that knows they’re smart and is ready and willing to invest in them.

So what do you do to keep them interested, engaged and employed? In my 7+ work years, I’ve been lucky to have been both the target of and the giver of juice. I’ve probably seen and handled all personality types: from the prima donna, the recluse, the leader, the buddy, the crybaby… even the guy who’s just obsessed with money.
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I’ve been scouring the big local job sites for web designers and I must say it’s not a pleasant experience. Here are a few takeaways from this ongoing recruitment nightmare:
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The customer service people over at Globe Telecom should wake up before this snowballs into one huge mother…

I’m not sure if its the earthquake that hit Taiwan or what, but so far the speed I’ve been getting from my E220 has been slower than dial up. I live near Libis and I only get 1 bar when using HSPDA signal. Whats worse is my download speed is at a dismal 25Kbps (according to bandwidthplace.com and cnet.com. I then tried local sites and still the same. I tried accessing the sites using my regular DSL connection and there seems to be no problem with them. The next test is in my office in Valenzuela. HSPDA signal is 4 bars. Speed is 34Kbps. Useless! Tried my regular DSL connection, the sites that I go to are ok. My wife gave birth in Medical City along Ortigas, UMTS connection, 20Kbps. So for P2000 I’m actually getting slower than dial up speeds. I’ve only been a subscriber for less than a week and would like to return the unit, but I have to pay a termination fee of P11 thousand plus. That’s where Globe grabs you by the balls and squeezes it tight till the 24th month of service.

Customer service shouldn’t be a passive exercise. Don’t wait for us to call your hotline to complain because no amount of Taiwan-bashing will compensate for the crazy download speeds. Be proactive, face the problem and come up with a solution. Before you know it, the heat from the buzz might be too hot to handle. Pretty soon, you might want to rethink your Better than 3G positioning because it’s starting to sound like a lie.

I still recommend getting the Visibility service from Globe because nothing beats mobile broadband, just not now. Once they’re back to full capacity, it’s a no-brainer.

I’ve been sorting through creative director/interface designer resumes from job sites these past few weeks.

Here are two lessons for those hunting the same prey:
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Was checking out the PLDT myDSL audio fiasco over at YouTube and happened to see Putanginamo.com’s Dumb Pinoy Call Center video. Good enough to go viral? You be the judge.

That timeshare spiel sounds awfully familiar….

So I signed up for the Globe Visibility mobile broadband service a few days back as a backup to my on again off again PLDT myDSL.

I got the Visibility 2000 package with the matching white Huawei E220 HSDPA USB modem. I have a Dell Inspiron E1505 and the newer Dell models only come with the ExpressCard slot (no PCMCIA) so I couldn’t take the PCMCIA modem (the blue one you see on most marketing collaterals). It actually worked better for me as the USB version is faster as far as data transfer goes (don’t ask me why I’m kbps challenged).
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Read Joel Spolsky’s three-part post on management 101 here, here and here.

I’ve been cursed to have worked with managers, particularly those numbskulls on the outbound train, who think Command and Control is the way. I’ve also worked with people who only move when there’s something in it for them. Along the way, I’ve been blessed to meet individuals who buy and help sell the vision.

Filipinos are a difficult bunch to manage. The 90% of your staff that don’t buy your vision and can’t self-actualize will be more motivated by fear and money. I’d put the recipe at 65% fear and 35% money. If it were up to me, I’d throw all the money on the 10% that do buy your vision/self-actualize and put everyone else on a 100% fear diet. The 10% that matter are your partners, the rest are just cattle.

Focus. Put the commercial tributes and self-adulations on draft mode, and focus on why you wanted to be heard in the first place:

You started blogging for a reason. You thought you could change the way people viewed your company, you had insight you thought was worth sharing, you wanted to help people market their sites – there was something that made you decide to blog. Don’t lose sight of that. That reason is important. It’s what makes your blog important.

Just spreading the buzz….I’m not sure if it’s open or closed to the public. Best you confirm with the man.

What: Globe Innove Blogger Junket
When: August 31 2006, 8:00 PM
Where: Temple Bar, Greenbelt 2

Hey Globe, I still have that DSL application form with me. I’ll bring it to the event and hopefully get a sweet deal :) here’s to a night of booze and blogging!