The People Who Build Your Home

The construction industry in the country has largely stood still for decades. While cars pilot themselves and phones have replaced wallets, the Philippines continues its love affair with the CHB (concrete hollow block), employing more men to build a home than Lego needs to make a billion bricks. As such, our industry has had to put a lot of faith in one’s integrity, where the difference between a solid house and a disastrous back job is determined by people who either take pride in their work or not. 

Considering our industry hasn’t always delivered on its promises to the homeowner, that’s a lot of faith being put on people you don’t know. Whether it’s the slapdash work, the switching of materials or the fraud you hear about at dinner parties, contractors have let many of us down (87% according to one study — higher if it includes two of our own partners who built Magis as a response to their experience). 

It wasn’t long ago that construction workers were viewed as professionals. Restoring that view is not going to be easy. Ill-will often goes two-ways and construction workers have a building-sized chip on their shoulders too. It does, after all, hurt when they are looked at with suspicion or shabbily treated by a client. Or when they are penalized for errors yet left untrained to read plans by their uncommitted owners. Or when their jobs suddenly evaporate during a pandemic without warning or reassurance. 

Closer to home, we often wonder what our work does to the psyche of our own men — they build for the top architects in the most desirable addresses in the country during the day and experience the polar opposite at night. Surely the irony does not escape them.  

Fortunately, we’ve been blessed with a solid core of upright men and women. You will see it immediately when you visit our sites. You will feel camaraderie and joy, but you can also smell the intensity of people who want to do good, meaningful work. If you look our men in the eye, you can tell that they intend to do exactly what they say. You know you have something special when veterans act like owners, telling the rookies that “this is not the way things are done here.” When people start policing their own, it’s a sure sign that people are buying into a collective culture rather than making a mercenary-like go at it.

Understanding motivation was helpful. Weekly conversations with our men brought several key drivers to light. “Dangal” (honor and pride of work), “layunin sa buhay” (purpose) and “pamilya” kept outranking “sahod” (pay) as primary motivators. Learning this was gold — it helped us design relevant individual dream-making initiatives instead of a one-size-fits-all program.

Our men want to bring the pride back to their profession.  They work hard. They build some of the best representations of modern tropical architecture. They resist, in an industry accustomed to opacity, the temptation to compromise. Above all, they are some of the kindest human beings on the planet.

We are proud of them. This is their story.

Magis Men (June) 

Efren

Electrical work is the less sexy side of engineering. We often take it for granted because most its services and cables are unseen. When we flick a switch, the lights go on without us giving it much thought.

When one considers, however, that a quarter of residential fires are caused by faulty wiring or short circuits, you can argue that the lives of homeowners depend on electricians. Electrical work is not something that you entrust to people whose standards are less ambitious than yours. 

There is nothing more reassuring than having to recognize an electrician for June’s Employee of the Month. Efren is a second generation specialist who apprenticed under his father, a Master Electrician, and has been honing his craft since he was sixteen.

This recognition is remarkable because he was quarantined for a good part of the month after being exposed to a Site Engineer who had tested positive for Covid. During the quarantine period, he continued his work remotely, keeping office hours while sitting on Zoom and effectively directed his team’s work at his site. 

Efren has showed ferocious effort in getting things done. He doesn’t like having pending work (it keeps him up at night). He self-checks, providing an extra internal layer of audit before independent auditors come in. He has been consistent and dependable. His work has been clean and free of back jobs.  

Secret sauce? Efren seeks purpose. He says he wants to leave things better than he found them.  

His work ethic is not disjointed from his personal values. He is big on family and dreams of a better life for them. He wants his kids to complete their schooling and live good and successful lives. If this sounds common, it is. But it is one thing to say the right things and another to actually see it through.

Efren recognizes the importance of being a father figure and a role model. While others hit the bar to unwind, he makes it a point to be home for dinner, often a fun boodle fight. He spends free time at home, enjoying his family, a good game of chess or an impromptu gig with his guitar. 

Efren and Sasana, his wife, have three biological children. They have two boys, aged twenty-four and nineteen, and a twenty-two year old girl. The family adopted their neighbor’s daughter whose biological parents were unable to take care of her (now that’s just heroic). Efren says he loves her like a full-blooded member of the family.

We’re proud to introduce you to Efren. It is great to have these kinds of personal values at play in critical parts of our homes. His life story is an inspiration for us. Our hope is that he will inspire you too.

Efren

Magis Men (July) 

Charlie

July had a severe weather swerve to close the month. After weeks of skin-frying heat, we suddenly had to cope with eight straight days of relentless rain. While this isn’t entirely unexpected this time of the year, the volume of rain was. Consistent with what was seen in places like Germany, India and China, the rain was probably enough to get Noah agitated.  

During this period, Charlie’s home was damaged. His roof had given way, and he needed funds to repair it in preparation for the incoming typhoon season.

Applying for cash advances can be rough. When I joined the company, one of the first things that management took pains in communicating was its purpose. And it was very clear that Magis wasn’t in the business of lending. It is big on fiscal discipline — and expects it of every employee as well. 

Charlie, however, ended up not needing one. Upon hearing of his roof, people took the initiative to pass the hat (some even volunteering their services to help with the repairs). He raised more money than he was planning to ask for — a heart warming win that we all needed to compensate for yet another announcement of a Covid-preventive lockdown.

The eagerness of others to help gives one an idea of who Charlie is, and what he means to the people around him. 

Charlie is a truck driver. This is a taxing job. Its hours are demanding — having to ferry men to and from sites, one has to consistently be the first to check-in and the last to check-out of work. In between, one is constantly on the move, rushing from various suppliers to multiple sites and, if that weren’t enough, dealing with the notorious inefficiency of logistics in Manila. 

Charlie has always done his work with aplomb. He is never late. He keeps his assigned truck in top shape. He follows the rules and expertly navigates Manila’s roads without accidents or violations. He is one of the longest tenured employees in the company, but we have never heard him complain about anything. 

His job also calls for immense trust. Anyone with experience in supply chain can tell of the horrors of missing cargo, siphoned fuel and, as comical as it sounds, stolen trucks. With so many things going on, it takes monastic effort to resist the temptation to compromise one’s values. 

Being a pastor helps. It likewise explains why mentoring younger members of the logistics team comes naturally to him. When you look at Charlie in the eye, you can see someone who cares, someone who genuinely wants to help. 

We are proud to introduce you to Charlie. He was recognized as the Employee of the Month of July, but he could very well be a candidate every month. 

Hanga kami sa iyo, Charlie. 

Pastor Charlie