Aside from the plot of the story, I was more intrigued by the role of MJF as a hotel concierge. How he was loved by his hotel guests for being able to pull off even the most outrageous requests. How he has so many connections, able to get courtside tickets, best restaurant seats, etc. Pretty much, anything and everything that a person can ask for while they are guests at the hotel.
This is how I feel right now about my job in HR; like a hotel concierge.
It is no longer the traditional HR that simply handles payroll & benefits, data and case management, or employee relations. The HR role now delves deeper into business optimization and financials. Gone were the days where I would only worry about case evidences, ensuring people get paid on time and what activity to launch. HR now focuses on lowering operations’ attrition, brainstorming on how to increase revenue, analyzing how other business units can perform better, basically almost every detail in ensuring that the company runs smoothly.
And believe it or not, I have accepted this role without hesitation and regret.
In addition to being a company concierge, you can add an M.D. to that. Well, not that an HR personnel is a medical doctor, but in terms of being “on call” and trying to heal the wounds, you’re pretty much on the same wavelength. For urgent matters of the life of a business unit, for consultations, “ask and you shall be responded to”, daytime, noon, and night, my clock does not stop. Some would ask, don’t you have a choice? For me, it’s not that I don’t have a choice, but I made it my only choice to make myself available. At the onset, I totally planned to bring this upon myself. Why?
Because like I always say, when something goes wrong, at the end of the day, more often than not, it always falls unto to HR to find out what happened, and how to get it fixed. (So this is how President Aquino feels. He gets blamed for everything and is expected to fix everything. I feel you dawg. I feel you.) I want to be on top of things, I don’t want to be caught off-guard. Because you never know who will be holding a knife, stabbing you in the back or probably portraying as Hansel and Gretel’s witch hunters looking for faults and errors.
The role requires that you have this “I get it, I got it, it’s done” attitude. It’s like you are a hostage negotiator. You are not allowed to say no, never, it can’t happen. You will always, always respond, “I will see what I can do.” You will get requests that seem out of your jurisdiction, but as a concierge, you use everything at your disposal to get what the customer wants. (It’s like grabbing a magic lamp and comes out an HR Genie to grant your wishes.)
The Company Concierge M.D. does have its pros. You are well rounded, well informed, people can’t live without you, and you are the first person that comes to their minds with pretty much anything when things get messy. The sense of fulfillment is priceless. The satisfaction you give to your customers is equally priceless.
But on the flip side of this role is the way that my children now see me. It almost drove me to tears when my 5-year old son asked me one day, “Dad, why are you always at the office?” I simply responded, “Dad works so he can buy you all the toys that you want.” And his only reply was, “Dad, I don’t like toys anymore, will you stop working?”
I really try to balance work with the life that I want to live. I want to be able to tutor my kids with their homework, I want to spend the weekends with them uninterrupted; but I no longer yearn to be able to watch the DVDs I bought that are still unpacked, read the E-comics that I have downloaded, and play the hobbies that bring happiness to me. Because whatever free time I have, it’s no longer about me, It’s about making my customers at home happy, it’s about the 5-year old kid who is willing to give up his toys so I could be at home with him.
So it begs the question now, as an HR Company Concierge M.D., do I do it for love…or for money?
