Ascension Journals: Caretaker Government

The Fourth Hour:

You walk across the isle to make your surprise rounds. As the Team Leader, your job is to ensure that everybody is attending to their respective accounts. It is not the case in your floor however. You catch some of your subordinates playing games online, while others preoccupy themselves updating their social networking sites or reading articles of interests instead of talking to their users. Instead of giving reprimands to their upfront slacking, you ignore their activities as you walk pass their cubicles. It's been a slow hour and the real supervisors don't usually make this unannounced rounds. As a temporary replacement, you are bound to follow the pattern of your superiors. Had you been in your subordinate's shoes, you would slack off the way they do.

It's been two weeks since this responsibility was entrusted to you. Diligence isn't your middle name, but so far, you have done what the bosses have asked. You are not really the leader they have expected, but hints point to a surge of trust they are beginning to reveal. Just the other week, your superior was forced to take a half-day's worth of work because of a worsening flu. For the rest of the shift, it was you manning the floor without anyone to consult your decisions.

Despite carrying your duties without much incidents, you are far from the ideal leader you envision yourself to be. Marred by old habits that are hard to kill, you spend most of the time surfing the internet instead of watching the volume of messages transferred to your center. You speak more to outsiders than to subordinates who sometimes end the shift without reaching their quotas. You seldom look after your colleague's performance, which, the person you had replaced would monitor all day.

If not for your knowledge and work experience in the accounts, sometimes I still wonder why did they pick you for this job.

Time is running out and there are so many things to prove. In less than month, the real assistant supervisor will return from her absence. You will be transferred back to your old post - the one your subordinates are assigned right now. And your leadership, would just be a blip in everyone's memory. This is how it feels when power is bounded by time. Much as you would like to change and leave an impression that nobody would ever forget, your presence is just a mere interlude,

Bound to end and be forgotten when your time of duty ends.

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Ito yata ang first time na naging concerned ako sa output ng mga tao ko... I'm finally learning how to really lead.

- Twitter, 6:15 pm


Today marks my fourth year at work.