Plantation Bay’s LOVE SEMINAR

It takes an unusual company to offer employees a seminar titled “Finding and Keeping Romance,” and on company time, to boot. Well, Plantation Bay is an unusual company.

“We are genuinely concerned that all our staff enjoy happy and fulfilling personal lives,” explains Training Manager Mia Singson. “And the one overwhelming source of personal happiness or unhappiness is personal romantic relationships. Thus, we thought of giving a primer on this subject, especially because so many single people, and even married ones, are clueless.”

Mia worked for several weeks on the syllabus for this half-day crash course in dealing with the opposite sex. Plantation Bay CEO Manny Gonzalez, who has evidently been reading a lot of women-oriented “relationship” books lately (wonder why?), chipped in his two cents’ worth. Mia and Manny also incorporated ideas from a DVD on “Lasting Attraction” shared by in-house designer Joy Onozawa, and from an Australian TV clip from ex-staffer Dianne Gandionco, on why men and women communicate in basically different ways.

By the morning of the seminar’s inaugural run, only eight persons had signed up, and Mia was concerned. She need not have been. By the time the seminar started at 2 PM, forty-plus seats were taken, and within a half-hour it was Standing Room Only, with the 50-seat Savannah Conference Room filled to overflowing.

Alternating skits, lectures, classroom discussions, and video clips, the seminar was led by Manny with Mia’s help. It started with a segment on Losers (men you should run away from, such as over-controlling Tyrants, and never mind if they’re tall, guwapo, and rich), then touched on the Fair Exchange Theory of Falling in Love. Also covered were what a Man Wants in a Woman (and vice-versa). The day finished with pointers on how to keep a relationship healthy.

Just as an example, one of the pointers starts with the word “lingerie”. Manny explains: “Men are genetically programmed to desire many women. If you as a wife or girl friend can be those ‘many women’, your romantic life will be much more exciting, and your partner much less inclined to stray.” Sounds like great advice!

Conducted with Plantation Bay’s signature grace and wide-open sense of humor, and peppered with lots of audience participation (as well as true confessions), the seminar was judged a runaway hit by everyone. Promptly, there was an outcry for an encore, and Mia has already set a second date.

Because of the potentially broad appeal of this subject, Mia and Joy are now planning to offer the seminar to outsiders (non-staff members, but by invitation only, for the moment), and have tentatively chosen March 14. If you know Mia or Joy and want a slot, call quick.

What is the single best piece of advice given in the seminar? Without hesitation, Mia answers. “How to recognize if you have a healthy relationship with a great partner. We have two answers, and the first is so simple. Trust your intuition. Do I feel good, really good, with him? Many couples predominantly feel guilty, heavy, tense, sad, angry, ill-at-ease, or fearful with each other. These are not healthy relationships. Effortlessly feeling good and light-hearted, effortlessly feeling right with each other, and effortlessly respecting and caring for each other, are what it’s all about.”

Manny chimes in with the second answer: “And do you hold each other back, reducing each other to the lowest common denominator, imprisoning each other by limiting your friends, your activities, your ambitions? Then something is wrong. Or do you uplift each other, help each other become better persons? Then that’s great, this is what love should be.”

How about a concrete example? “Suppose you want to pursue your career, and this includes further studies for you. Does your partner love you enough to help you and cheer you on, aim with you for the best school and later the best job possible, or does he ask you to settle for something less? But sadly, in the long run, lowering your sights won’t satisfy him or you, because true love does not imprison or limit, it sets you free.”

Warmth, insight, concern for others. Plantation Bay isn’t just unusual. It’s truly a one-of-a-kind place to work.