Princess Joan Magadia

7.30 AM

At 7:30 AM, I grab my phone and turn off my alarm but I’m still in bed for another 30 minutes because I am still not fully awake at this point.

8.00 AM

This time, I get up from bed and go straight to the kitchen to wash my hands, which became a habit ever since the pandemic happened. After fixing myself up, I start making breakfast which is usually just bread or if there’s leftover food from last night, I would reheat it. As long as I get my breakfast and my daily coffee plus chocolate drink, I’m quite active already for the whole day. And of course, the morning would not be complete without at least one episode of whatever series I’m currently watching (as of this moment, I’m rewatching New Girl). I still try to catch up with sitcoms even if it’s a weekday because I think it’s healthy to start a day with a good laugh.

9.00 AM

After finishing an episode and some chores, I take a bath and if there are meetings, webinars, and/or presentations that require us to open our camera, I try to dress up formally but if it’s only team meetings or the on-call meets for inquiries on projects, I dress up casually. I take long baths, usually, it takes me 30 minutes or sometimes just 15 minutes.

9.30 AM

My working mode usually starts at this time, meaning I sit down in front of our desktop at 9:30 AM to make sure it’s working well. I check my social media accounts and open up a music streaming site to help me become more at ease. As an intern, you don’t get used to this kind of setup that fast. So you still have the jittery feeling every time you open your company email. I check my company email if I missed some emails overnight, and open the tabs I know I have to use to finish my tasks for the day. Most of the emails I receive come from Operations, these are employee documents I have to re-organize for the proper keeping of the HR Department, and also invites on webinars our company provides for us. If I have already done every preparation I need, I browse on the internet for some more and wait until it’s time to start working.

10.00 AM

At exactly 10 AM, I input my time on my Daily Time Record Sheet and start working from there. I look at my notes from the day before, about things that I’m supposed to do for today. Before timing out, I make sure to write the tasks I wasn’t able to finish so I can go back to them the next day. I like to multitask or not just focus on one task at a time, because when this one task gets too confusing for me, I go to another task. For example, today, I’m revising a program that requires a lot of words. If I can’t think of any more words to add, I leave it for a while to continue with a task regarding Recruitment. And if the creative juices for writing come back, I proofread the things I’ve already written in the program and re-edit if needed to. Sometimes, I get tapped for another task in Operations, and if the task is simpler and requires immediate action then I do it once I receive the full instructions.

I got hired as an Intern to assist with all HR Initiatives so I usually get sudden tasks on anything HR Related, from Recruitment to Operations, so I try my best to assist and offer my help as

much as possible because I know how busy it can get when you’re in this Department. This is the usual work I do until it’s time for a lunch break.

12.00 NN to 1.00 PM

You can take an hour-long break once every day, it doesn't have to be at exactly 12nn but I choose this time because it’s the usual time my family decides to eat together. And eating together has always been important to my family, especially my parents.

1.00 PM

At 1:00 pm, I resume working on the revisions of the policy, this also includes the Slides and Form that will be included once we have published the program onto the HR Portal. Since the topic of the policy is a bit sensitive, the guidelines that we’ve written were done with further research. This means I also have to do some reading before fully inputting them in the policy. And if I feel like I have done everything, I ask our HR Manager if she can browse the policy and check the work that I have done.

3.00 PM

I usually take a five-minute break at 3 pm so I can drink coffee and maybe eat some merienda. This break is like an energy booster and a bit of rest from sitting down and facing the computer all-day

Once our manager is available, I invite her into a Google Meet so I can share my screen and present all the details I have revised and the questions I wanted to raise. After presenting, she offers feedback which helps me a lot to make a policy that has direct and clear content. I take down all of her comments and sometimes, she types them on the document itself. When all my concerns have been addressed, we end the meeting and I organize first the changes I have to do for the policy. I actually have some ongoing tasks for recruitment that need an update so I do these first and if things go my way for this task, I try to take my time until my shift ends. Because in this way, I am not only assisting in one side of the HR Department daily but also from the other parts of it.

With this, I am able to contribute to all parts of the department, slowly complete the work I have to do, progress to another task that will give me more experience in the HR field, and guide me to do a better job in the future.

5.00 PM

On most days, my shift ends at 5 pm as scheduled for an intern. But if there are webinars or sessions I have to attend, they usually end no later than 7:00 pm. The last thing I do before officially ending my shift is to check again the files I have edited for this day, maybe take a second look at my email and chats to make sure that I haven’t missed anything, and of course write down my to-do list for the next working day. This helps me manage my time well and gives me a little bit of ease because I already have an idea on what to expect for the next day. It makes me comfortable and lessens the nervousness day by day.

TIP: Make a work playlist that hypes you up.