A tribute to the office staff

Today, November 10, is the birthday of Ramona "Amy" Bolasoc — Reyes, head of the secretariat at the office of the Undersecretary for Communications of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC). It is also the silver anniversary of our first meeting, when she was 25 years old. She therefore turns half a century today. I recruited her to be one of the pioneers at the then Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) under the late Minister Jose P. Dans. The MOTC was a spin-off of the former Ministry of Public Works, Transportation and Communications.

Of course, Amy’s waistline in 1978 was hardly 21 inches. She was a tall, lithe, extremely slim and attractive young lady, for which reason one great guy by the name of Manny Reyes fell instantly in love and married her, and their union has produced two daughters and one son. At age 50, Amy Reyes still has that joie de vivre, bubbly personality and deep spirituality that made me recruit her in the first place – plus, she had a bachelor’s degree in finance.

When the late Totoy Dans asked me to organize the legal division at the new DOTC, I brought Amy in as secretary, a sort of a "package deal," but in Totoy Dans’ words, "The two of you have to prove yourselves first." It seemed funny to me because I had been invited to join the department specifically to organize its legal division and head it as a pioneer but I had to prove myself, before I could be given the rank of assistant minister for legal affairs. For three months, I received no salary upon orders of the DOTC chief, but I was successful in making sure that Amy received her salary. Soon thereafter, both Amy and I knew that Minister Jose P. Dans was no ordinary boss, no ordinary man. He was the first DOTC secretary and, remains to this day, the most admired. His professionalism was beyond compare. When I became the tenth DOTC secretary I remember having looked back to those Dans years as extremely enriching.

I thought that as I write about Amy and her years in public service, for she still works as the head of the team of secretaries and assistants under the current Usec for Communications, Virgilio PeÚa. I would be able to pay tribute to all those unsung executive assistants and lead secretaries that render such invaluable and selfless service to their respective bosses that they become indispensable elements in the superior’s performance in office. They often weave around their bosses’ temperaments, providing encouragement and solace when needed, sustaining their bosses with an efficient resource beyond compare.

Amy and I went through very rough times. Life in government can be enormously challenging and fulfilling, but can be fraught with dangers provided by Philippine versions of political mafiosos you never thought you would ever encounter in government.

As Amy’s waistline grew, her mental growth and her government experience in all sorts of situations became short of phenomenal. I had always intended to separate emotion from work as the best gurus have said, whether in business or in government. It has always been rule no. 1: traditional management teaches that leaders ought to be cool, aloof, and analytical; they ought to separate emotion from work. This was impossible for me.

I know of one popular leadership myth which my late husband who was president of the investment bank of Ayala Corp. used to talk to me about, where the leader, the boss, is portrayed as a renegade who magnetizes a band of followers with courageous acts. Amy and the great efficient team we had in my office then: Eugene Magboo, Beng Balba, Miriam Lorico, Alice Decena, Grace Alava "Garcie" and Eugene’s late brother Henry, whom one will never be able to forget, were going to be my band of followers, and me the renegade. That did sound exciting.

Another leadership myth suggests that it’s lonely at the top. With Amy and all the above mentioned assistants, it never was. Undertaking the very difficult task of demonopolizing and liberalizing the telecommunication sector, surviving derogatory white papers from vested interests, as well as the condemnable onslaught of malice and the effrontery of ugly power politics, I had a cheering squad led by Amy whose support in all ways was beyond compare. I have known and heard of those effective business and government leaders who are involved and in touch with those they lead. They care very deeply and they refer to those with whom they work as family. I cared very deeply and always referred to them as my team, my DOTC family, and I have never been disappointed by this relationship. But Amy and the rest knew where I drew the line – "Inefficiency is a crime, in my books." Whenever anyone was subjected to a strong reprimand, I always felt that they knew that it had to be done. We all know that people become exhausted and exasperated, frustrated and disenchanted. Sometimes, and especially in government, many are tempted to give up. The bosses and chiefs must encourage the hearts of their constituents to carry on. This is basic in the relationship of subordinate and superior. But it was they who encouraged me to go on.

The challenges (to be very frank let’s call them agonies) we all went through as a team, indeed gave us the best days of our lives. It is not only the leader or the boss who performs best when challenged. Because of teamwork, all of us did! When trials and disappointments plagued our lives, because of teamwork, we survived! And we would be jubilant! And we would have fun. Fun is not a luxury even at work. Without the fun and the pleasure that the office crew experienced with one another as a team, they would not have been able to sustain the level of intensity and hard work required. This is supported by empirical research which has found a significant and very real relationship between fun and productivity.

I learned that in any organization when the rank and file, the efficient crew of civil service eligibles, observe a charlatan making noisy pretenses, they turn away. Without credibility one cannot lead. He will be laughed at. And when one is able to achieve the vision everyone knew we were all fervently working for, everyone shared in the joyous experience. For the most important role of visions in organizational life is to give focus to human energy. I was told by an American friend who arrived in the Philippine as the recent Bush visit was taking the country by storm that "visions are like lenses that focus unrefracted rays of light." According to him who is a very successful chairman of a thriving telecom company in the East Coast of the US, leaders must have and convey a focus in order to enable everyone concerned in the endeavor, to see more clearly what’s ahead of them.

That enviable team led by Amy Reyes gave me the encouragement and inspiration needed because the work was tough. Words were sometimes said which hurt, so, it was a tradition with me every year during Christmas time to tell everyone in my Christmas message that if I had "hurt anyone in any way, you’ve got to give me your forgiveness, for this is what will give me the inspiration and encouragement to continue and endure."

During the months I was DOTC secretary, the chief of all the assistants in that awesome "Office of the Secretary" was Carmen "Menchu" Pagsanjan, who started as such as early as during the stint of the late Secretary Jose P. Dans, continuously up to today. Now widowed, still sporting the chic streamlined figure that was her trademark, I can’t leave this piece without paying tribute to her superlative efficiency in her work, spanning all the years that the DOTC has been around, and of course, her team of assistants.

I have been told that it becomes increasingly easy as you get older, to drown in nostalgia. In fact, I can almost measure where I am in life by the degree to which I have begun looking back, rather than ahead. Some, among the very old, lose themselves in the past, presumably on the grounds that they no longer care or dare to look ahead. Some among the very young lose themselves entirely in the future, presumably on the grounds that there is always promise in the unknown. Both are illusions. Time doesn’t pass – we do, hurtling across the face of a continuum. But as you hurtle across, you, the Amys and the Menchus of my life have to live by hope. I am aware of some of the feelings in your hearts as you work in government. We do not always get all we want when we want it. We may even be in despair sometimes. But we have to believe that someday, somehow, some way, it will be better and that we helped make it so.

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