Jobs, jobs, jobs

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia – If the friends of David Magan from Moriones, Tondo, can see him now, they are bound to be impressed. Dressed in his white coat tuxedo, David barks a few orders, some in Tagalog, to the waiters in the casual dining restaurant at the top deck of the cruise chip Celebrity Century. The next moment, David is engaging a group of passengers with small talk. With over a decade on board international cruise ships, David now has the responsibility of seeing to it that some two thousand cruise ship passengers who choose to eat at the top deck restaurant, are happy with the service, three or more times a day.

David is just one of the almost 300 Pinoy crew members of this cruise ship from Celebrity lines. In fact, almost half the crew is Pinoy. There was a time when the only Pinoys on board cruise ships were found in the kitchen and security. This time, they are everywhere on board the ship. There must be at least three or four Pinoys on the front desk of the ship. Sheena Ybanez, the singer in one of the lounges is Pinay from Cebu. Even Arthur, our cabin attendant is Pinoy.

The other evening, a Pinay greeted us as we arrived to attend the dinner hosted by the ship’s hotel director… the equivalent of sitting to dinner at the Captain’s table that evening. Jonette Briones, the Captain’s Club hostess, was striking in her evening gown and her bubbly personality quickly got the evening’s guests (three other couples) at ease. Jonette said she met her Pinoy husband on board the ship too… and they are both working for the cruise line although not always on the same ship.

It has become such that Pinoy passengers have an advantage with all the kababayans around. After English, Tagalog is probably the next most useful language on board the ship. There are also a good number of Indonesian workers aboard and a sprinkling of Thais… so it is easy for a Pinoy passenger to make the mistake of talking to them in Tagalog.

 I asked Daniel Stacy, a Briton who is the ship’s hotel director about the large number of Pinoys in his 800 person staff and he said it just so happened they were the best of the pick. He is happy with the Pinoys and this explains why they can now be found in almost all functions on board the ship. Even Marie, the photographer, is Pinay.

The secret of the Pinoy workers’ success? Their ability to work hard under pressure and still give a sincere smile certainly works to the Pinoy’s advantage. When I asked why there are so many of them at the front desk, one of the constantly harassed Pinoys working there commented that they seem to have the most patience to deal with a variety of concerns, complaints and what-have-you from guests from many cultures and countries. As David puts it, they are just focused on earning for their families back home… everything else, including ego concerns, are irrelevant.

Being on a cruise ship is fun only if you are a paying passenger. To the staff, it is grueling hard work. The feeding and caring of over two thousand guests is a lot of back breaking work. But then again, the 300 or so Pinoys on board this ship should also consider themselves lucky. The job pays better than what they could potentially earn back home. They are entitled to practically mandatory tips from guests. They get free board and lodging. They owe no government no taxes.

David, our Tondo boy who made good, said he started out working on inter-island vessels of William Lines operating from the North Harbor in Tondo. He said he is happy to be where he is. Another waiter we met, Alejandro Estrella, used to work at Anabelle’s on Morato Avenue and is familiar with the media personalities who used to frequent the place on Thursdays when the late Art Borjal and the late Aber Canlas were still around.

Now I understand the complaint I keep on hearing from restaurant owners and hotel managers back home about losing their trained staff to cruise ships. I guess, our local hospitality industry should just consider their staff training programs as part of their social responsibility program. If they train their people well enough, more Pinoys will be employed in better paying jobs abroad. Thanks to the past and present crop of Pinoys working on cruise ships, the Pinoy worker enjoys a good reputation.

Maybe, in fairness to the local restaurant and resort owners who train most of them, government should give an incentive allowance for every staff member they train and subsequently hired by cruise ships or other international businesses. Government should also gear up even more its own training programs. Recession or no recession, the need for Pinoy professionals and workers abroad appear to be strong.

And one thing I am sure of… our workers do us proud. They make us proud to be Pinoys!

Migration

On the whole, it seems the recession will make it more difficult for foreign workers to seek greener pastures. Even within the European Union, there is some controversy over decisions of some governments to keep labor restrictions on workers from new East European members of the EU. Germany, for instance, is reported to still have shortages of skilled labor in some areas but it has announced nevertheless that it is invoking a provision that allows it two more years before opening up its labor market to East European member countries. If they can do that to fellow EU members, you can imagine how they feel about workers from non-EU countries.

The economic downturn in countries like Ireland, for instance, is also making it difficult for it to continue with its liberal policy of attracting workers from other EU countries like Poland. Luckily, I am told that the Polish economy is doing better in some areas so that the legendary Polish plumbers in Ireland can now go home and expect to make a decent living.

Open migration of workers is as good a part of globalization as free trade in goods. But the global financial meltdown has caused a rise in protectionist tendencies from many governments, including those who should know better. Jobs simply became scarce and government leaders are under strong political pressure to keep the few they have for their own citizens.

Sometimes, it is no longer sufficient to have a good post graduate degree like an MBA from a good school. I met at least two classmates of my son from the Cambridge Judge Business School who are still job hunting over half a year after their course ended. One of them, an Indian who had lived in the US for a number of years, couldn’t get a job that paid what he was expecting back in India, media reports of reverse migration from western countries to emerging economies notwithstanding. Another one, an Asian American from San Francisco, is fast depleting his savings while job hunting.

Ironically, many companies want to hire people now in preparation for an expected recovery. As The Economist puts it, competitive companies should be adopting a “ramp up plan” and hiring new talent now to ensure they are firing on all cylinders when the economy rebounds. But head hunters say their clients are uncertain about the right timing to hire. They don’t want to be saddled with extra staff in case the recession turns out to be more prolonged than hoped for.

One solution reported by The Economist is the deferred start date. Some offer six months salary to new employees who agree to start work a year later. This reconciles the need of some firms to keep costs low for now with their need for new talent later.

So it is clear that for our kind of environment, three things are most important. First is jobs, second is jobs and third is jobs. If you have one, love it. If you don’t have one, prepare to wait a while longer to get one.–Boo Chanco, Philippine Star