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Doer and Do-Gooder Jimuel Atienza, WeGen's IT Guru


Jimuel Atienza has the patience of a saint. He single-handedly takes care of WeGen’s web connectivity systems and is in charge of ensuring that everyone’s laptops and computers are in shape – free from viruses, functioning normally, and has internet connection to the office servers to they can access all the information they need from WeGen’s database. Where others may justifiably lose their temper on a regular basis handling different IT-related requests or addressing IT problems, Jimuel never loses his cool.


“It’s really a full-time job, monitoring the servers, looking for problems, trouble-shooting them. Sometimes I even have dreams where I’m still reading the system logs for issues and glitches, and then I woke up, go to work, and do it real,” he said laughing.

Jimuel joined WeGen on September 1, 2018 as IT associate manager, and now he is IT manager. Pre-COVID-19, he already had his hands full maintaining the system and supporting employees with their accounts. When the pandemic hit, he added to his task list giving support to the ERP, or the Enterprise Resource Planning efforts. He embarked on a one-man series of lectures and interviews with the members of all of WeGen’s departments with the goal to put everyone on the monitoring and reporting platform. This, he explains, is harder than it sounds.


“The departments and the members of the different department themselves have different project monitoring mechanisms and tools. Some use Excel, others use Word. It would be more efficient if we had everyone use the same tools,” he said.


And this is why Jimuel worked hard to introduce everyone to the improvements in the Odoo app. “The program itself is free, but it’s not yet fully functional. We’ve been working to customize it for our project management. We’ve upgraded it to the enterprise level, and for that we shelled out some money. It’s a very worthwhile project because we can use it to track our sales, all our projects, our expenses, our finances, all the data that we have that’s worth keeping and updating,” he said.


Still Chill Under Pressure

Speaking with Jimuel leaves one with the impression that he’s a really relaxed person. According to him, however, this calmness, is a cultivated trait. His being the middle child can also be a factor because middle children are said to be the most objective and helpful.


“Isa akong taong hindi nawawalan ng problema (I’m a person who never lacks for problems)”, he said. A Meralco Foundation scholar, Jimuel supported himself to get his certificate in Industrial Electronic Communication and his degree in computer technology. It was a long commute from his home in Tayabas, Quezon, to Ortigas, and as a self-supporting student, he had to overcome many challenges. All of this, he explains, taught him to be remain chill even under pressure.


“I also do my part in helping my parents with the household expenses, and there are always money issues to address. I’ve accepted this, so I just do what I can without getting frustrated because I know it doesn’t help.”


Jimuel is currently supporting his younger brother through school, shouldering all his tuition needs. He is also helping one of his older sisters raise her two small children.


“I suppose I’m not really a complainer. I’m a person who would rather find solutions or help others when they’re the ones focused on solving problems that affect not only themselves but others. I feel it’s actually easier to contribute to solutions than just complain or criticize.”


Helping Out the Frontliner Neighbor

At the office, Jimuel is always approachable. Even when he’s very busy, it’s easy to ask him for help because he never looks off-put or annoyed.


It turns out that even when not at work, Jimuel is still like this – willing to help out, even sometimes at his own expense.


One of Jimuel’s neighbors is a frontline healthworker in one of the hospitals in Pasig. The young nurse is committed to her work, but having no car of her own and because of the ban on public utility vehicles that effectively halted the public transport system in the National Capital Region, it was hard for her to get to her place of employment. This was especially true during the early days of the community quarantine.


One late night in March, Jimuel saw her arrive home and wondered she was out so late considering the health and security restrictions. He found out from her brothers with whom Jimuel is friends that the nurse walks to and from work, despite her shift that lasts up to 12 hours daily.


“I felt genuinely sorry for her. I could only imagine the exhaustion she experiences daily – having to walk to and from work every day,” he said. He then volunteered to drive her to work, and when necessary, even pick her up when her shift was done.


The nurse accepted gratefully, but was so embarrassed at the idea of inconveniencing Jimuel that sometimes she didn’t text him when she was about to leave for work in the mornings. Really intending to help, however, Jimuel made up excuses that he was running errands in Pasig so it was okay to give her a lift along the way.


“It’s not like I did it every day – just three times a week. And whenever it rained really hard,” he said.


When the quarantine was partially lifted but PUVs were still banned, the nurse thought of getting an electric scooter. Jimuel also helped her choose a good model and accompanied her to the seller.


“It turns out she still couldn’t drive it. She doesn’t have a good sense of balance – can’t ride a bike, can’t ride a scooter,” he said. When the tricycles were allowed too return to the streets, Jimuel ended his “chauffer services”.


“I was just happy to help. She’s a frontliner, and all our frontliners need all the support they can get considering they’re not getting it at all from the government,” he said.

But what about him -- doesn’t he ever have the need to blow off steam?


“I watch Netflix, I play online games,” he said. But in his case, playing online games can mean staying in front of the computer for 10 hours minimum. “My longest record playing DOTA is 16 hours,” he said sheepishly. “I don’t do this anymore – I don’t have time, and I know it’s bad for me. I used to do it during the times when I couldn’t make heads or tails of my problems.”



Pre-COVID19, Jimuel also made it a habit to take to the mountains to destress. He has climbed and walked the trails of the following mountains: Pico de Loro; Batulao; Pulag, Ulap, Ugo, Daguldol, Daraitan, Tarak Ridge, Manabu; Romelo; Pondaquit; Balinkilat; Tapulao; Batolusong; and Tagapo.


So that’s Jimuel: when he’s not climbing his metaphorical mountains to overcome his problems, he is helping others climb their own mountains and solve their own difficulties.#

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