Working for one of the biggest multinational business process outsourcing companies in the country, one gets exposed to tools, systems and best practices that drive the success of the business. The experience in a world-class work environment is truly an eye-opener to what the Filipino can achieve when merit is recognized and performance is rewarded.
This, however, is the Philippines. And here, sadly, the age-old problem of patronage and its inherently corrupting nature can and will undermine even international work standards.
As Randy David wrote in his May 11 Opinion column (“The normalization of corruption”), corruption is normalized when key people in the management begin to justify the normalcy of their corrupt practices.
Usually, this is how it goes: Starting out innocuously as a manager bringing in trusted colleagues, this hand-picked group soon becomes emboldened as they establish themselves in the organization. These select few exploit the loopholes in critical policies and processes like time-keeping and take advantage of weaknesses in monitoring and reporting to defraud customers. This syndicate of like-minded individuals conspire, of course, with the aim of cornering incentives and plum work schedules for themselves and their teams.
This is exactly what happened in a BPO. To the detriment of the majority in the organization, not to mention its customers, they put their selfish agenda ahead of the company’s core values. For a long time, they clothed themselves with seeming integrity, while thriving in their exclusive world of favoritism. As some of their ilk were wont to boast, “Basta walang huli, go lang ng go!”
Thankfully, they were finally outed when others outside their cabal exposed their crooked ways. Due to this, the polarizing figure and leader of the group resigned unceremoniously ahead of any recriminations. Without their patron, the others soon followed via ignoble resignation or humiliating termination.
Unlike our political system, the BPO industry acts decisively against people who corrupt their personnel or jeopardize their customers. With hundreds of thousands of Filipinos employed in BPOs around the country, here’s to hoping that we inculcate enough ideas from a successful business culture to finally put a dent on our corrupt political system.
—SOLIMAN DELARIARTE,
sdelariarte@yahoo.com