I have barely had enough sleep as I slept at 4:30am today and then woke up at 8:30am. Where did I come from? From our team building last night. Jessica asked yesterday, what exactly do we do at team buildings? Basically, we eat, drink (at least they do as I don't drink. Boo.) and bond over lots of stories. Sometimes we also do karaoke nights. Before, we used to go out of town or go swimming but because we now have different rest days, it is not practical to go somewhere far so these days we just resort to eating out or holding it at a team member's house. 

Yesterday we held it at Sasha's house. We are given monthly team building funds by HSBC to spend for these events, what we do is save it until it accumulates so we can spend more. Plus, some of the best agents in our team received their Deferred Cash Incentive last week so they also chipped in. As expected, we had lots of food and drinks  last night! We had grilled pork, grilled fish, shang hai, pork and chicken adobo, ensalada, spaghetti, roast chicken, ice cream and cake! They also had an endless supply of beer and vodka.

Everyone, I'd like you to meet our line manager and immediate supervisor, TL Jimmy. Judging on first impressions alone, you can easily dismiss him as someone who is up to no good (especially now that he sports that hairstyle as well haha) but once you get to know him, he really knows how to manage a team. He cares for all of us and patterns his approach to each team member's distinct personality. When problems arise, he does not take sides and instead listens to each offended party. He can easily make you laugh with his antics and jokes, but he knows when it's time to be serious. He is a rockstar. :)

We ate at the dining room on the 1st floor of the house, and they drank at the rooftop. After the nth drink my guy teammates removed their shirts because they said it was getting warm o.0 I will spare you their topless photos though, but I will show you this:

You know how when everyone's drunk they get really talkative? My teammates are the same, it was a riot! TL Jimmy gave us a small lecture about life, and then asked all of us what we think of him. After we all said our piece he then proceeded to tell us what he thinks of us. (I was given the titles Ms. Fashionista and Ms. Opinionated :D) Sure, we've had lots of other team buildings before, but last night was different. It was a night full of food, drinks, realizations and revelations, one I will never forget for a long, long time. :) 

All parties (and bonding moments) come to an end though. By 11PM, TL Jimmy and Watcher were too drunk to go home so they slept over at Sasha's. I also slept over at her house mainly because our two former teammates - Asther and Ruther - who already transfered to other departments are supposed to come after they end their shifts at 1am. I took a very short nap and was woken when they arrived where we again, bonded over food :D

Ruther went home at around 4am, and Ar, Sasha and I managed to sleep at around 4:30am. I woke up at 8:30am, and went straight home here to my parents' house. Tomorrow, I go to work again. :)

For my parting words, I'd like to tell you a little bit something more about my workmates. One thing that I can say about my team, we certainly know how to have fun. Even when faced at times with some impossible-to-please customers, our targets are constantly being changed, and we sometimes get a call with out-of-this-world concerns that is enough to single-handedly meet one's stress quota for the week, we still make it a point to laugh about it. Even when some egos clash and there are inevitable fights, everything is sorted out on the same day. If not, then it will be fixed on the same work-week. I admit though, there is someone in the team that I have never spoken to voluntarily because of an issue we had in the past but at least we are civil towards each other and respect each other's differences. And even when Dane and I had our big falling out where I did not speak to him for 5 months (September 2008 - February 2009), we were civil and prevented any dramatic scenes worthy of an Oscar nomination.

What TL Jimmy said is right: years from now, even when all of us have gone on to our separate paths, we will still carry the memories of our being together in one team. No one will be forgotten as each one has left his/ her own unique mark where he/ she can be remembered by. I read somewhere that you cannot stay long in a job where you do not like the people you work with. Let it be known that I really did not intend to stay here, but I did because I am happy with them and couldn't imagine working where they won't be there with me anymore. I have said before and I will never get tired of saying this: I am and will forever be grateful that they are the ones I shared my first job with.