The Myth of the U.P. College Degree

We once had a messenger-temp (temporary) who’d return to the room before he boarded the vehicle and would softly say “Ma’am…. wala pong notice of hearing itong motion nyo” (Ma’am, you forgot to put a notice of hearing in your motion”.)… and he was right. He learned that from observing how we work. At that time, we also paid for his enrolment fees to driving school, and he was eventually promoted to driver, and then after his stint with our office, he became a Deputy Sheriff at the Regional Trial Court. He started out as an agency utility person, as someone who mopped the floor. He mopped the floor tediously,  line-by-line,  instead of just passing through it  in big strokes, as most people would. Then,  he would give it an overview,  and return to any spot he missed.

And that was when our assistant said we should hire him. we gave him some writing tests, which he passed; then clearances.  The last test was practical, i asked him to describe,  on-the-spot,  the entire corridor that he just passed. He scratched his head and smiled, he thought it was a joke.  Then, looking at the blank wall, he gave the make and color of furniture and desks, who sat where,  and the slippers under them.

don’t you miss people like that. he’s more observant and perceptive than some people with U.P. college degrees are. (Maybe the U.P. college education just measures verbal, non-verbal, abstract reasoning, but not the practical, how to observe how the people around you work so you will see their pattern.)

If you’re surrounded with staffmembers who listen to and watch what’s going on around them, and therefore see the pattern, you’ll have less stress– half to two-thirds of your work is done.

People who see the pattern can know what’s next. People who are supposed to know symbolic logic, which is what is taught in U.P. classes, should be able to do this. People who can see a pattern can be anticipatory, that is, they’ll do the work even just on general instructions, so it’s already finished — less stress. When you say, please file this, they know that you mean serve it on the party or on the court. They know how many copies. They know which copy to give the party, etc. , (the former messenger  now deputy sheriff i was talking about, he would even say, “ma’am, this copy doesn’t have attachments, the other copies have attachments, etc..” He was trying to learn and he was learning. As Deputy Sheriff today he serves court orders and attaches properties)….the not-good ones, when you say “file”, referring to a motion that everyone knows you’ve been rushing for a deadline, will put it in the filing cabinet or their drawer — that’s because they’re somnambulating all their lives. The good ones know you’ve been working on the motion for several days so they know it has to be released. And they know how many copies. And because they’re observant, they even know the jurisdictional requirements like notice of hearing.

don’t you miss the good ones. The not-good ones will tell you “ma’am nag-leave kasi ako” (“ma’am because i was on leave yesterday”) as an excuse for the document not being released right after you’ve finished working on it until 10pm for three days. They didn’t endorse it to the next staffmember, they don’t care. The not-good ones will tell you, “ma’am, wala ho” (ma’am, there’s nothing like that….”). And here’s the only time they’ll make an effort: when you say, what do you mean there’s nothing like that, i wrote that, if you can’t find it in your file look for it in my computer — if I look for that myself and i find it i will ask you to resign. then, they’ll start finding a way…

don’t you miss the good ones…i know. petty lamentations, well, not petty because it’s a problem that persists in some government bureaucracies.