YOUNG VOICE
Management blues
A group’s discovery of what it takes to be a professional
WE had a requirement, thus I had to miss some of my classes. In 24 hours, we will have to conduct our organizational study, a requirement we had for our Nursing lecture on Organization and Management with Communication, 8 units. We chose a private tertiary hospital and at that moment, we were still not approved by the hospital administrator. My group saw this coming.
“Hello may we ask if our organizational study is now approved?”
“Sorry wala pa. Follow-up niyo lang tomorrow.”
Many tomorrows passed and still our follow-up calls were turned down like a frustrated job hunter on his twenty-seventh try.
We are teenagers, furnished with adult-like maturity but still founded on childish and parent-dependent base. The night before my ‘ligoy’ event , I cried a bucketful to my parents, indirectly telling them to simply do the task for me and my group. If we could not conduct the study by the scheduled date, we’re all doomed. Goodbye 8 units. I know my parents, my group’s parents had contacts, they had influences, and they can make the process easier. But, I guess parents love us so much that they wanted us to grow. They told me I have to try this on my own.
“It’s not our problem anymore, Yan. We have given you the resources, you do the rest.”
We had to exhaust until the very last drop of our group efforts.
We were taught that as future professionals we must be good managers, thus, we must know how to organize our tasks. If our group has depended the progress of our appeal solely on our parents’ influences and our futile efforts, then we haven’t totally grasped the concept. Our high scores in the lecture quizzes looked like dung. We weren’t as assertive. We simply delivered the letter to the administrator’s office and let the poor little parchment take all the responsibility.
But with our grades on the line and our parents’ trust too, everything changes. The tiny seed will not cease and forego germination; the tiny seed will now sprout and face its destined growth. It was time for us to not only memorize the frameworks and terms, but to put them into practice.
PRIORITIZATION. Time is running out and we have to pick one. It’s between an 8-unit major subject or an accumulated 6 units for two minor subjects. We know our arithmetic. We missed three hours of minor subjects to pave our survival from a failing grade of not being able to conduct an organizational study for our major subject. You have to sacrifice something in order to gain something in return.
ASSERTIVENESS. The administrator was out of town when we arrived at the tertiary hospital. Our letter remained on her table, still for consideration. Our organizational study schedule will be on the next day and the administrator will still arrive three days after. We have to resort to plan B. Find another institution for an organizational study. We swallowed our teenage timidity to make room for assertiveness. We contacted all possible institutions and had one who actually agreed to accommodate our group by the 3rd week of July. However, our deadline has been set to 2nd week of July.
NEGOTIATION. This is where negotiation comes in. We discussed our dilemma with our lecturer and told him our proposition of passing a little later than the deadline because of the uncomfortable turn-out of events. Much of our surprise, our instructor soon announced the deadline for our organizational study outputs was the 3rd week of July, just enough time to cram. It was like heaven’s gate was opening wide with a chorus of angels singing in celebratory melody.
For a few seconds, we just couldn’t believe the huge twist of fate. We made it. We can beat the deadline. We can and will pass our major subject. All it took was a stimulus that will get our asses of our comfortable dependent chairs and start acting like professionals, start managing and organizing.
“Everything was worth it. Even though as if nag-ligoy kita.”
Yes, even if I feel quite nauseated about not being able to attend my classes, especially Economics which had been my favorite one since high school, it was okay because we earned an immeasurable score of experience of actually living by the theories of organization and management.
But before we called the day off, we had our share of REMUNERATION, a simple get-together lunch to quench our efforts and compliment our new discoveries.
A job well done guys. You all deserve a shout out:
Jubel Anne Conlu, Eusebio Dan Lopez, Frances Pauline Leda, Grazelle Joy Deocampo, Tracy Labestre, Ian Carlo Denoman, Rommel Gildore, Marilee Jagorin, Ismael Jimenez, Nessy Jean Eleuterio and Marie Dominique Jewel Fortuna.
(Reactions to reylangarcia@yahoo.com)
