Wannabe Graphic Designer

Since I was a kid, I have always dreamt of becoming a graphic designer someday. And now, I feel as if my dreams are about to come true because I only have few more terms left before I finally graduate. I always love arts and crafts and I would really be thrilled if I could get a job in a media firm where I could be their graphic designer.

Well, I'm not really excellent in designing stuffs. I only got average grades in my previous design classes but I really want to pursue this career. I will be having another design class next term and I'm really looking forward to learning more design techniques that would help me hone my skills to someday be a famous graphic designer.

For now, I have to focus on my floating subjects and finish all of the assignments I have in those subjects. Even though everything's really stressful now, I know that someday I'll be remembering these hard times and I will be saying to myself my proud I am to have accomplished these things in college. :D

Managing Crisis in Organizations and in my Daily Life

Society is always changing and nothing is permanent in this world, that’s what I’ve been taught. You should not expect that today is as happy and joyful as tomorrow. And somehow, you should prepare ourselves for any problem that may arise. And even if you want your organization to run smoothly, crisis sometimes crops up unexpectedly.
Before, when I hear the word crisis, I become frightened. But now, since I have already learned a lot of strategies in managing it, one of which is creating an environment where people could communicate and discuss with each other the crisis and its possible solutions, I am more confident and open to crisis.
What we are taught in school is all about managing crisis in organizations, but who would have known that we could also use the lessons we’ve learned in managing crisis in our life. That is the beauty of OrgCom, it teaches you key concepts and you learn to apply it in your daily life as you go along. It is more realistic than other courses because it doesn’t give you a one-sided reality of life. Instead, it gives you the whole picture and it’s up to you to explore each and every one of them. It may not always be positive, but you will definitely learn from it.

Ethics in communication: Contractualization of workers

In today’s world, contractualization is very much evident wherever you go, especially places that are owned by big corporations like San Miguel, Meralco, and PLDT. For me, the practice of these corporations is really unethical because aside from giving these workers low pay and extra work, their rights are greatly violated. What’s wrong here is that these big corporations still engage in this kind of practice although they actually earn and receive a lot of support and loyalty from their customers.

In contractualization, the skill, performance, and quality of work of the employees are all compromised because they are forced to multi-task. I have realized just now that maybe the reason why a lot of Filipinos want to work abroad is because aside from having higher pay, they are also provided with a good working condition. This is a very sad reality that instead of providing and helping the employees to have a better life, big corporations degrade human rights and expect their workers to bring them profit without even taking into consideration the situation that the workers are given.

Gender sensitivity in the workplace: What is gender for me

One of the many problems that women face in the workplace is gender discrimination. Even though women are now given bigger roles and opportunities than before, they still experience some type of gender discrimination. How did that happened? Well, I believe that the opportunity of women in the society, particularly in the workplace, is still not enough to create an environment that aims at gender equality. I believe that the communication policies of every company should be revised so as to cater to the needs of everyone in the workplace. Employers themselves should be equally concerned about gender issues because this might influence the productivity of their employees, especially those who are affected in gender discrimination.

However, I also noticed that when talking about gender issues, only women are given emphasis. I believe that it’s wrong to include only women in gender issues. Gays, lesbians, and other types of gender should also be given equal importance and concern. They should be given equal opportunities as with other people because their sexuality does not make them less capable of doing a good job in their work. That, I believe, should be taken into consideration when creating a gender sensitive communication policy.

Organizational Communication What???

When people ask me what my course is, one answer only comes out of my mouth—“communications”. I don’t basically tell them what kind of course I’m taking up because it would probably take me 10 minutes to explain what it is exactly. But when I sense that they are really interested, then I tell them this:

“OrgCom is a course which focuses on communication within and outside the organization. It basically teaches you all sorts of communication lessons that you should know before you work in a real-life organization to help you learn how to effectively communicate the message of the organization to your target audience.”

So what’s our importance in an organization? We basically do all kinds of communication works of the organization—from being a spokesperson to doing brochures and videos, sometimes, all at the same time. Without us, the organization will go into chaos because they don’t have any common understanding of each other. OrgCom students are taught how to do a lot of stuffs without compensating for the quality of each work.

Sounds easy right? But it’s not. It’s never easy, even after you graduate, but I say it’s worth it. : )