On Salary Increase and Saving

Another good news broke out for all the government employees - - and it's about the salary increase that is going to take effect this coming July. Now the government is really making a move to have its employees salaries at par with those executives and employees of big companies from the private sector. Well, a grin is becoming wider and wider on my face since starting this July, I will have a 15.5% increase from my current salary and will continue to increase every July until 2012. Such a blessing indeed!

I just hope that this time me and hubby could somehow save up a certain amount. Saving is very important as we are not getting any younger and in my case, I have my three kids' futures to look after to. A lot of saving options are out there to choose from, with certificates of deposits (CD) being the most popular.

Well, gotta check out for cd rates at banks as soon as the calendar hits July then.

One Week Hiatus

On Monday, our team of players will be in Davao City for a week for the Mindanao-wide sports fest our office is organizing. At this point, my heart is already beating fast as I am not used to huge competitions like this. The pressure is all the more existent on every one of our team since we have to defend our championship title. But nonetheless, we were grateful for all the support our superiors have extended to the players like us. We all had fun during the practice and it was all a great learning experience as well.

Anyway, I am also pretty excited for this travel. It is a breather from work and I am looking forward for fellowship with my co-workers from the other regions in Mindanao. This is definitely a fun trip since we are about 150 or more delegates who would go from our region.

One thing that I am apprehensive about is that I am going to leave behind my three kids. With that, I could not personally ensure for their safety at home. We all know that the present times could no longer be relied upon as far as personal safety is concerned. Well, I have to research for some home security information first so I could make further instructions with the helpers and hubby.

Beauty and Sports

Guess I have to say hello to the scorching heat of the sun again. The last week of April will be our Mindanao-wide Palaro (sports fest), and I am included in the roster of volleyball players to represent our regional office. The last time we had this sports fest, we were the champions then and so we are deeply challenged to defend our title. Our regional director has ordered us to practice daily starting next week until the time of the actual sports fest. Whew!

The last time I played volleyball was six years ago, so I already forgot what it's like to stay under the sun for very long. But one thing I remembered was the unpleasant feeling the heat gave, especially to my skin. I have to ready an acne moisturizer then to protect my skin from the harmful rays of the sun and soothe my skin all throughout the day.

Nevertheless, I am pretty much excited for this.

Pressure and Stress

I have a deadline to meet - - at work. Well, I am only 50% done with the task and it is due this Thursday. Auditing is one job that I love the most, but when I am put on the edge, pressure sets in. Of course, stress could not be avoided, especially if you are determined to provide your very best quality of output at such a very limited span of time.

The deadline is only 2 days away and thankfully, I tried not to be affected with the pressure at all. I have to handle this stress well, otherwise I will be seeing some lines on my face.

It is important to remember that we should leave all work issues and concerns in the office. We have to put them down for a moment before they become heavier and heavier in our hands. Take time to refresh and once doing so, we can always go back and pick up those issues again. No matter how light those burdens may be, if we always hold them in, they would become heavy in time. Just like holding a glass of water - - its 8 oz weight may be nothing but very light, but if we hold them all the time, they would be increasingly heavy. This also applies to any burden we have in our lives, not just the work.

Well, for the moment, I am putting down my burden at work and unwind here in my blog, lol!

On Search Engine Optimization

I once worked as a part time virtual assistant long before I became a blogger. I worked for a nice person, who happened to be an expert in search engine optimization and that experience somehow gave me an idea about the said field. Of course, SEO is important in order to get one's website up in the rankings, which goes with it the prized unique visitors, the good name, and the monetary gain from leads and clients. For now, I guess this is the foremost solution for any website to be known and attract visitors, to keep up their reputation, to increase their revenue and strengthen their network.

There are lots of things to learn to, so that one could be able to fully understand search engine optimization. It is one broad area needed to be dissected and explored in order to master the skill, not to mention that once in a while new updates emerge on the net and so new researches have to be made. I am amazed how SEO experts devotedly learn everything and mastered the art. It seems like there has so much to do in order to get to the bottom of it and that I don't have the perseverance that they have. It's a good thing that a lot of them have extended their services to everyone, so websites would no longer have to go through some headaches just to be on top.

photo credits to iMajestic.com

When I Grow Up

Back when you were still small, have you thought of what you will be when you grow up? We may have a lot of ambitions we wanted to attain in our younger years and they are good motivators to pursue education.

So what did you aspire to be back then? Teacher, nurse, actress or writer? What are your reasons for such choices? There are lots of possible professions one could land to, and now I have become an accountant.

Being an accountant was not initially my wish to achieve. Back then, during my elementary years, I have thought of becoming a scientist, because I was curious about a lot of objects and I loved science. But that changed when i was in high school, when the thought of becoming a journalist crossed my mind. I had decided back then that i would enroll on mass communication for college, but everything did not materialize because my father did not allow me to. Instead, he suggested that I take up accounting so that I could be able to help him out on his accounting firm. Hence, my profession now...

But unfortunately, I was not able to help out my father full time because I got employed with the government.

I am happy with my profession now and it got me thinking that if i took up mass communications back then, how would I fare now? I really have no idea. I have always wanted to write (even now) but I just don't know if I could put up with the standards of journalism and broadcasting, since I am a shy type of person. And shyness has no place in that field.

How about you? Have you attained your initial goal? Or have made a detour?

Online Job Offer

Guess I have to be a virtual assistant again huh! It has been a long while that I haven't placed an ad for virtual / online assistance or even applied for online jobs. The last time I remembered was about 4 months ago already.

Last week, someone contacted me at yahoo messenger and sent me an email message as shown below:


Right now, I am still weighing things if I could handle the job that he offered. Technically, it is just bookkeeping, that is no problem with me, but I worry about my time. I mean, I work from 8am to 5pm and when I get home, I do my blogging chores as well as check on the kids. I wonder if I could still spare some more hours for this job (about 50 hours per month).

Sigh! As what Lainy said in her post, wish there's more than 24 hours in a day.

Pay Increase...Hurray!!!

The headlines in the newspaper brought some smile to my lips . . . GMA: Hike Workers Pay.

Well, at least the news for today not only featured those heart-wounding ones. Amidst the increases in commodity prices, there still lies some good updates. According to the news, President Arroyo ordered the regional tripartite wage boards to convene to determine wage increases for workers in the private sector.

The good news did not just stop there. Being a government employee, here's the delightful part of the news:

State employees are also expected to get a pay increase. The President will grant national government employees a 10-percent increase in their basic pay, according to the Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya. Andaya said Friday the President would issue by May 1 an executive order granting state employees the pay increase starting July 1.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for this one. If it came out as true, then hurray! It may be a small difference, but 10 percent is already something...haha!

Mike Test Myself

Few hours from now, I will conducting a mini-seminar for some employees in the government. The seminar will talk about how to audit the payroll and other related salaries and wages accounts of business entities, since their job requires them to investigate employer records whether such businesses remits the correct amount of premiums to them.

Auditing has already been part of my life. For almost 10 years (it will be 10 this coming December), this has been my job. And so, I am confident to say that I am fully armed for the seminar, knowing that I have done this routinarily for a decade.

But then, I could not deny to have this funny feeling of anxiety. Maybe because this is my first time to face fellow government employees, and wonder what questions might be raised? Oh well, I hope I could meet all their queries smoothly.

For the meantime, I am keeping my hopes up that everything would turn out okay. I want to go over my notes, but looking at them already makes me throw up (excuse me...).

Wish me luck!

Beware of an Angry Boss

Each worker has a boss. Lucky for some who have a very nice boss, but lots of luck for those who have otherwise. Bad and difficult bosses can really be a complex situation in a workplace. According to William Krug, a professor at Purdue University, "Although there are many different kinds of bosses, bad boss behavior usually stems from the supervisor throwing his or her power around. Some even take a certain delight in being difficult."

There are ways on how to deal with a bad and angry boss:

* Make sure you are accurate. Always make sure that you are familiar with what you are saying and that your facts and figures are right. If what you are saying is inaccurate, it gives your boss an edge, even if the way he or she is treating you is wrong.

• Always document. Presenting facts is a great way to circumvent the emotional thought process that often goes on between boss and employee. Documentation has been made easier with e-mail because it gives you a clear trail of what happened, when it happened and what action was taken, which can help prove you are not at fault.

• In a dispute, allow your boss to be the decision maker. If you say, 'The only thing we can do is this,' that can make a boss angrier. But if you can offer a few options, that can help diffuse the situation.

(reference Purdue University News)

Got a bad experience with an angry boss. I should say the experience is something not really terrible but makes me say "grrr..." just by thinking about it. Do you think being shouted at on the phone and then slammed is just okay? If being followed up with nonsense things when I am in the midst of a very busy work and beating deadlines is okay, then I don't want to even imagine what a bad boss can do.

Sigh.

Now that we have already conducted out exit conference to our audited agency, I should heave a sigh of relief. Last week, our audit team has presented to the management the audit observations that were noted during the course of audit and the suggested recommendations for the improvement and correction of the said observations. So far, we have issued about 20 audit observation per agency and somehow the exit conference ended up very smooth and as planned.

The observations we have noted were material to warrant a qualified opinion on the financial statements, since most of the accounts affected are those that are substantial and makes the most of the agency's assets. Even their income statement accounts have some misstatements, but then I do hope adjustments would be immediately effected to display a fair presentation.

For now, I may render a sigh of relief... for audit execution is over. But, since our audit coverage is only until October of last year due to year end reports not yet completely done, then we still have some continuations to be done, although only minimal additions and adjustments.

And since the agency under audit is a large one, consolidation of audit observations is likewise to be done for all its over 40 branches. And this is where the pressure, stress and other unpleasantries come in... Sigh! Is this still a relief?