I was with customer services for two years before I joined the company's IT department. Working as a frontliner was so much fun but I was more interested in a job that requires analytical ability and is related to my educational attainment. When the IT department opened a position for bidding, I immediately sent my letter of intent to HRD. I received favorable result two weeks after my interview.

Shortly after the advice, I was assigned to handle our revenue management system at the head office in Makati. Because of my inclination to computers, I easily managed to learn the operational requirement of my job with the help of two other teammates.

Whatever the work may be, I always dedicate myself to my task. My wife would always complain that I am too attached to my work--I'll leave everything when duty calls. Instead of taking a nap on a lunch break, I would spend the hour working. She often told me that what I'm doing is too much. Well, I said, my job is our source of living and I must love it and I do.

In my effort to improve productivity, I even requested for a remote access to our servers to monitor server activities at home. I get off from bed at two in the morning during reports generation to check the progress of our activity. No one was telling me to do this but I love doing it.

I also love understanding users concerns and I love resolving issues. I made a study on a report, which I suspected that is gathering data from the wrong table based on feedbacks from clients. The purpose of the presentation was to correct the report. I never received any appreciation from my manager. Instead, I got a reprimand that I must refrain from doing these things. She emphasized that I was new and the information available to me is limited. She did not validate if my claim was correct or not. The way I look at all these things changed after that incident.

When my colleague resigned and the other took a maternity leave, I worked alone for more than two months. Over three years of dedicated work, I never got any promotion. I never asked myself for too much, I just wanted recognition of my contribution.

It was too much! And I think I need a long break. I went to the United States for five weeks. I was surprised when my boss told me to prepare an accomplishment report in his e-mail but he said, “I do not promise you anything, but I will try to convince her [our boss] to promote you.” This sounded ridiculous! Do I not deserve a promotion that he still needed to convince others? His message made me think that somebody might have told him my reason for a long vacation. I never replied and did not mention about it until my return.

During a meeting, my partner tried to speak for myself about everything that I feel. I stopped her and started it my way. It was a long litany of frustrations. I finally said, “I didn’t feel that my efforts are appreciated.” After the meeting my boss came to me and said, that’s the reason why I am asking you for your accomplishment report. I replied, “I will never appreciate any promotion because you heard me talked about it or somebody told you about it. It would have been better if you initiated it because you believe that I deserve one.”

In five months, I kept silent. I realized the promotion is for me whatever his intentions may be so I gave him the report. After a month, my boss handed me my payroll authorization for my promotion. I didn’t thank him or make any remarks. Honestly, I was not happy.

I'm trying to regain my old self but I can't. This is not good but I know there will be time for this.

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