Like the Avengers team assembling from different parts of the world, our very own Iron Man and Black Widow a.k.a Directors Patrick and Abbey Berry have recently met and joined forces with our international superstar team based in the Philippines.

Although three (hot yet fun) days seem too short, we’d like to see it as a meaningful time jam-packed with non-stop stories, casual catch-ups, and waves of laughter between training sessions. Everyone’s convinced, it was certainly one for the books!!! 

While it’s Patrick’s first time visiting the Philippines, Abbey was able to visit the offshore office in 2019 with Grace Branch, one of our property managers. During that time, Renz Santos was the only offshore employee. But since 4one4 Property Co. loves to expand and innovate, our offshore team has now grown into four (4) hardworking team members! 

Renz, as the very first member of 4one4’s international team, shared how exciting it was to meet both the Directors and the other offshore employees. “It was nice to see and to have spent time again with these amazing people after 3 years. It was actually my first time meeting Pat, while the last time I met Abbey was in 2019,” Renz narrated. “I am happy to witness that our team here in the Philippines is growing. It has always been fun to work with them & definitely looking forward to our next meeting,” he continued.

Currently, we have two (2) offshore employees in the Property Management Team. One of them is Renz working as a Portfolio Assistant together with Darryl Mercado, a Property Management Assistant. The two (2) other superstars are under the roof of Media House: the Sales and Marketing Admin, Queenie Seño and the Content Manager, Niño Macapinlac.

Believe it or not, even if these amazing bunch of people are all residing in the Philippines, Patrick and Abbey’s visit to the country was also a grand reunion for the offshore team! Since the start of the COVID period, Work-From-Home setup has become the most convenient and practical work arrangement in the Philippines. Hence, the grand reunion. Now, they all enjoy the perks (and drawbacks) of working from home, with the last two (2) working days of the month at the office. 

Neither COVID nor the supertyphoon that had hit the Philippines the day Patrick and Abbey landed, had stopped this most anticipated time. The first order of business revolved around introductions and catch-ups, and even if it sounds like a holiday for Patrick and Abbey, training sessions were administered, too.

Abbey trained both Renz and Darryl with some necessary processes in the property management lane. Renz was trained on Maintenance Procedures and Follow-ups on Tapi Software. Darryl, on the other hand, was trained on Tapi & Inspection Express software and was immersed in the process of Downloading and Uploading Condition Reports and Updating Asset Registers. 

Since future plans include having Queenie as the first point of contact for property listings, she was trained in the whole process by Patrick, including onboarding on REX and verifying council rates. Additionally, Patrick also introduced her to Tasmania’s demography as far as Facebook advertising is concerned. Finally, for the release of the third issue of the Property Pod magazine, Niño went around exploring the features and tools of Adobe InDesign along with Patrick and was trained to lay out both the visuals and write-ups for the magazine. 

Patrick shared how valuable and fun the training they implemented for the international team was. “Face-to-face training is such a pleasant experience when training team members on new software as you are able to quickly work through issues and identify problems more effectively,” Patrick stated. 

“It’s also fun working directly with staff as you can have a laugh and enjoy each other’s company while working through the tasks.”

The second day was a break from the regular schedule and perhaps, one of the highlights of the trip. It was the offshore team’s time to showcase the beauty of the Philippines. They visited a heritage destination called Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar, parading the preserved culture, service, and craftsmanship of the country and the Filipino people. 

The team bonding day was highly regarded by Abbey highlighting its integral and important role in the trip. “It really gave us an opportunity to get to know our team in a less formal setting – and what a beautiful setting it was! Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar gave us such great insight into all the different influences on Philippine architecture. Sir Niño (as he became known after this trip) was an excellent tour guide and made sure we were well looked after throughout the day,” Abbey expressed.

Some of the activities that the team experienced included a tour inside and outside the heritage houses, a balsa (or boat) ride, a kalesa ride (the traditional transportation in the Philippines), a jeepney ride (the most common public transportation in the country), and a museum tour. Just as how beautiful the place was, the experience was just equally extraordinary, too. 

“One of the most memorable parts of the day was the team introducing us to a local delicacy known as Taho–a drink made with silken tofu, sago, and brown sugar syrup. What we learned from it is that our Philippine counterparts love very sweet food and that our western tastebuds weren’t up to the challenge of handling the sweetness of this delicious drink!” Abbey shared. 

“Overall, it was such a great day getting to experience the Philippine culture and getting to discuss the differences between our two cultures and the landscapes of our countries.”

The three-day visit was wrapped up by an assessment catch-up with the management team of the offshore employees along with the implementation of better and more favourable work arrangements which we have mentioned in the earlier paragraphs.

To say the experience was fun is a total understatement. We rarely have the opportunity to meet and bond with our offshore team and we’re looking forward to doing it again in the future. Until then, we’ll continue to bring positive energy through lively GIFs and funny messages to our chat spaces and across our monitor screens.