starting today, things at the office will be a lot tougher.  no, not performance wise, but security wise.  just this past friday, a memo was sent out saying that effective monday, the upper management will be implementing a much more strict–if not already stringent–security measures regarding, well, how we work.  the memo dictates that there will only be a list–a short one at that–of what should be on our workstations.  and that list covers us on the middle management.  of course, as managers, we have lots of stuff on our workstations.  all of them work-related.  to name a few, they are small drawers for our supplies, forms and other documents; in-out trays for document transmittals; monthly performance ranges of our associates for easy reference; and managers' calendar for our schedules and appointments to be easily seen and reminded of without going through our own computers using outlook or lotus notes (which was asked by our bosses to be posted on our workstations as well).  and of course, some personal stuff like pictures of me with my colleagues at our last christmas party.  all of them had to go, according to the memo.  so i spent half the day last friday clearing out my desk.  my colleagues and i arrived at a consensus to return the drawers and trays because, well, they'll be obsolete to say the least.  i went through some old documents and made frequent trips to the shredding machine to get rid of papers no longer of use.  when i announced this to my team, not surprisingly, all of them reacted negatively to it.  bottomline is, they (and i mean upper or senior management) want to streamline what can be brought to the operations floor, what can be seen on all the workstations, and implementing (or at least trying to) a paper-less environment.

how did i react to it?  to put it in simpler terms, it's plain overkill.  i mean, the company has always been strict with data protection and everything and we have been doing our share to prevent fraudulent activity in our immediate area, but to restrict what can be seen on our workstations?  most of my associates have their achievement certificates displayed there, not to mention medals, recognition buttons, and other work-related reference materials.  all of which are not on the list.  i just shook my head in agreement as one of my associates told me, "then we should just stop having our monthly department-wide gathering because it's nonsense awarding the top performers for the month if the proof of recognition cannot be even displayed as inspiration, not just to me, but to my fellow associates as well.  what will we do with them, bring them home?  this is not school where awards are to be brought home and showed to our parents.  we earned what we were awarded and it's just proper that we display them on our stations."  i couldn't agree more.  we filipinos by nature treat our work as personal as can be.  the office is like a second home, so we want to make it as homey as we can.  i mean can you imagine coming to work everyday to an empty, bare, lifeless station with nothing to look at when stress sets in or when there's nothing to smile about because, simply, there's nothing displayed.

but here's where it gets more interesting.  now, i understand the need for mobile phones to be left on the associates' lockers.  but their wallets too?  what the hell?!  and, not do they only must leave their wallets on their lockers, upon leaving the office, the security personnel will do almost a strip search on you, even your wallets.  imagine one whole department ending their shift at a particular time and then have to queue in line up at the exits to at least half an hour just to get out?  how pissed would the employees be?  plus, there has been reported incidents on theft at the associates' lockers (this with masterlock safe locks provided to the associates by the company free of charge) that are still unsolved so leaving personal stuff there like mobile phones and wallets aren't 100 percent safe.  some of my team members actually leave those stuff with me on my personal file drawer before their shift starts and get them upon leaving.  i don't mind that the least, but for upper management  to disallow their most valuable and important personal possesion to be brought with them always is just plain stupid.

i understand the dire need for data protection and security.  after all, we are indeed a global company and we deal with very sensitive information on a daily basis.  i supported the move made by upper management late last year on an intensified background check of current and future employees where we had to submit tons of documents ranging from our parents' birth certificates, to utility bills to prove we live where we say we live, and sign waivers allowing the company to interview or call up our schools and requesting for data about ourselves.  that in itself was really difficult, but i had no problem with it.  but for this new security measure, i give it a two thumbs down.  it is like upper management doesn't trust their employees anymore even after going through that very thorough and threading a needle-like background check for us to gain employment.  this is more like paranoia to me rather than security.  i mean if there would be individuals who would defraud the company, they would have either:  left the company, stopped what their doing, or have done so already.  but for everyone to go through the hassle of being suspected of doing something illegal, that's just too much.  i could just imagine the applicants at the main lobby witnessing how all of this is happening.  man, that would translate to the applicant saying, "what is this, a prison facility?"  or, "what a horrible place to work," or worse, "i'll just apply somewhere else where they treat employees with respect and tell all my friends about the horrifying procedures of this place."

there's such a thing as respect and trust.  if the company or management have little or none of both to their employees, even if the name of the company itself is prestigious in nature, i don't see current employees staying long, and employee satisfaction together with the number of applicants would diminish.  not that i'm planning to leave or anything, i'm just seeing this as one of their bad, if not overly stinking decisions made due to security gone paranoid.