I work in a manic IT company where people are encouraged to work long hours & come in on time. When I joined the atmosphere wasn’t this bad. Though admittedly their official working hour is already long compared to general standard, ours is 9-6 not 9-5. But during my interview I was told they have a semi-flexible working hour. The late arrival is 10am, which works for me perfectly as I will sometimes need to bring or pick up my son from his nursery & I live 1.5hrs away from the City.

Fast-forward to 8 months later, the original dev manager has left, we have a new CTO & everyone’s under pressure. The dev manager until he’s been told to quit, worked 12hr days, worked weekends & owned our entire platform. Need a new feature? 2 hr job. Change the infrastructure? A day’s job… all of which takes forever to then stabilize.

Our VP of Engineering, parang laging magpi-fit sa sobrang excitement kung may bagong technology o may magandang feature na pwedeng idagdag. Gusto nya ng intensive testing at parang alam nya talagang mag-QA pero pagnagbigay ng project schedule walang resemblance sa real life. Too optimistic, too energetic, too hyper? A lot of developers has already said so.

Yung CTO naman namin ganito ka-dedicated: Pupunta ng India si VP e the day before the flight nadiscover nya, expired na visa nya. Step in the CTO sya na lilipad at an hour’s notice(!!!).

Nakakuha naman ng emergency visa si VP, wanna know how his trip went? Dating ng India Wednesday 8am, meeting at 10am, and at 3pm GMT (4hrs ahead ang India ha) nag-e-email na ng report. At 6pm GMT sumasagot pa sya sa mga tanong ko! Alis sya ng India Thursday dating dito ng Thursday night, andito ngayon sa opisina 9am at mag-meeting daw kami.

Yan ang dedication, pards.

During my days at Microsoft, whenever I get deployed “jetlag” is always considered. We do not turn up to work or meetings with bleary eyes. We are given enough time to rest & of course a company card to support ourselves.

Dito nung nagpunta kami sa India ang trip namin parang yung trip ni VP, mas malala lang. Dahil hanggang dinner namin (siempre kasama mga bossing – VP at CTO) nag-mi-meeting kami!!! Gusto kong pakamatay. Alis ng hotel 830am dinner hanggang 11pm for 1 week!!! Mas lumalala pa nung humabol yung CEO namin on our last day. Talaga naman… 1am na p*cha, ayaw pang tumigil. Di na ko nakatiis I told the CTO na kelangan ko nang magpahinga dahil ang alis namin sa hotel 530am!

Thankfully Friday night kami dumating dito so I had the Saturday & Sunday to catch up with my son & my husband.

Pero kung ganito ka-”dedicated” ang mga tao dito, how can I survive or even think to compete? So I shake my head & tell myself, sila na lang.