A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A LADY ESTATE MANAGER

QUESTION TIME/ NOTES

ACTIVITY
The morning 5.30 - Wake Do personal matter and prepared the simple breakfast.
question, up, bath &
What good pray I started my morning with a muster call at 6.30 a.m for sharing goals, targets as
shall I do 6.30 – Going well as information with executives, staffs and employees. During the muster,
this day? muster there is two ways communication as we will normally updated the latest info and
7.00 – Discuss review the yesterday performance. Workers also had the chances to give the
with assistant, feedback and info any issues during this time. We also had a Daily Doa and Ikrar
staff for safety.

After the session with workers, I will had a short discussion with all the executives
and staffs on the issues highlighted and finding effective solutions.

Muster chit and record also had been reviewed during this time.

Since I had 4 scattered division in my estate, I had to rotate the daily morning
muster in all division. If going to the outlying division, I will go out from home at
6.00am as the longer travelling time was 30 minutes.

Normally the discussion all will end about 7.30 a.m after I had done updating all
the progress report to our Zone. We had to update all the info of daily operation
thru WhatsApp’s to all the respective group. Now, the technology had change the
reporting style and method. WhatsApp’s had been a fast method in reporting.
However, we still need to update the book and keep the report in proper way.
7.45 – Send Due to work demands, I was unable to get my daughter ready for school. So, I
my daughter will make sure that I can send her to school. As a mom, I don't want to miss the
to school moment of my daughter’s growing up. This is the time that I always take the
ownership in doing on daily basis. For me, the time spending is valuable.

8.00 – Check At 8.00 am, I will go to my office. I will check my email inbox every morning
e-mail and before going out to fields. All the important email and urgent thing will be
visit field highlighted in the memo and I will put in the remark for my next course of action.

After that I will go for the operational site visit. I will spend my 1st one hour by
doing the SDDS check in the yesterday harvesting operation. This require me to
do the 100palms checking on the losses and any issues related the harvesting
operation. It’s a special devices and software given to all estate executive for
supervision purpose. We had to upload all the checking into the system after
completion the data collection.

After that, I will go for others activities to see the operation and ensure all estate
operations running smoothly and according to the prescribed standards. Priority
will be given to the area which had involved the high cost and impact to the estate.
We had a lots of daily operation such as spraying, manuring, pruning, replanting
and immature, pest and diseases control and etc. All the operation had the specific
method of monitoring and specific form to be updated and checked. This is a daily
operation of the estate and I will rotate the area of supervision and sometimes
bring the team for surprise checking.

Besides, we also had to entertain the visitors such as PA Visit, Planting and
Monitoring Unit (PMU) Visit, SCRA Visit, Agronomist Visit and visitors from
government or ESH related.

Once a month, I will Conducted the management meeting with my team and we
will included the fields visit or field day to get exposure of certain estate
activities and for engagement initiatives.
 During this session, we will discuss the issues and any room for improvement to
enhance the work method. Normally, this will included the office staffs as well. As
at now we had planted the oil palm seedlings in immature fields, culling in nursery
and exposure to harvesting operations. We do many things together.

I am promoting the sharing culture within my team and make them work as one
family which we only had one goal together and strive for company’s benefits and
achievement.

Since I had 4 scattered division in my estate, I planned and spinned around the
division regularly. However, I will ensure that I will visit all the divisions daily
without fail.

12.30 – Take I will to take my daughter from school at 12.30 p.m and send her home. I will
my daughter cook a simple menu for lunch but normally, I had just bought the food and bring
from school home.
2.00 – Cook
simple menu After that I will continue my routine of field supervision until 2.30pm. Then I go
2.30– Lunch back home for rest and go to office at 3.30pm.
with family
3.00 – Bath & Once a month we will having the SOU 17 meeting, Manager’s meeting and Zone
pray Meeting which commonly held at 2.30pm. If this occur, I will adjust my rest time
and go early for the meeting.

I had also to chair the OSH Meeting, Gender Committee Meeting, Stakeholder
Meeting, Security Meeting and all the internal meeting which require me to be
present. I had to ensure myself had well prepared on all this meeting as well.

If no meeting on the day, I will make sure administrative office work is done and
spend my time to review and analyze the report. Normally, my Assistant will come
to office and discuss on the work program and work for tomorrow. We will review
the productivity, record, cost and etc.
 I will spend another 1 hour in the evening to checked the ends operation and
ensure all thing are in order. I will also go around the workers housing area in
this time.

5.30 – Pray/ Do personal matter and go to recreation activities such playground or mini
recreation stadium. Sometime, I will go to supermarket to buy groceries with my family and
activities/ this is one of the ways of spending the quality time with them.
shopping
activities

6.30 – Cook I will prepare the dinner early and we will eat before 7.00pm. During this time,
7.15 – Dinner my husband and my daughter will assist me to prepare the work and we will
with family having the dinner together.
7.30 – Bath,
pray
8.30 - Bonding After prayers we will spend time on watching television. I normally watch Korean
time with drama and spend about 1 hours a day for this me time. After that I will have a
family or rest chit-chat with my family and shared the thing happen in a day. Before going to
time or sleep I am normally review the online newspapers and update the personal
reading books Facebook account or reading a book.
or watching
television.

The night 10.30 – Sleep Do reflection and sleep. I am normally sleep early as I need to wake up early
question, morning and had enough rest time and good sleep.
What good
have I done This had end my day of being Lady Planter in Plantation Sector.
today?
I am enjoyed my working life and love my job.
I am currently had been appointed as Acting Estate Manager in Serkam Estate. The major roles are to manage
the estate operation which had the 4 scattered division. My responsibility is to manage 1854 ha of total estate
consist of mature area, immature area, nursery, line site and other buildings.

Aside of day to day operation, I also need to manage workers welfare, stakeholders and dealing with
governance sectors.

The plantations offer a different way of life. It is of the open air, walking under the palm trees to check the
work each morning, and making changes with a fair degree of freedom probably not seen in any deskbound
jobs in town.

C. Ward Jackson, a former planter was offers an illustration of who and what planter should be in his book in
the November 1939 edition of The Planter. “A planter needs to be a walking encyclopedia, he/ she must have
detailed knowledge of all the branches of estate works”.

My daily routines can make a huge difference to how healthy, happy and productive I am. I’ve recently tried
adjusting my own routine in the hopes of getting more done and wasting less time in between task and personal
matter activities. The goal is to spend as much time possible doing what I want by maximizing output in the
minimal time. I also need to be ready with unexpected situation and interruption at all the time.

I like to share quote by Jonathan Yabut, The First Apprentice Asia Winner. He say “being busy is different from
being productive, the time you spend at work does not determine your productivity”. He give the example,
working for 14 hours mean working hard. But, if someone else can finish that the same task for 4 hours, then
you’re just working hard and she’s is working smart.
I started my morning with a muster call at 6.30 a.m for sharing goals, targets as well as information with executives,
staffs and employees. During the muster, there is two ways communication as we will normally updated the latest
info and review the yesterday performance. Workers also had the chances to give the feedback and info any issues
during this time. We also had a Daily Doa and Ikrar for safety.
After the session with workers, I will had a short discussion with all the executives and staffs on the issues
highlighted and finding effective solutions

I am promoting the sharing culture within my team and make them work as one family which we only had one goal
together and strive for company’s benefits and achievement.
Executives and staffs at Serkam Estate
Entertain the visitors (Government Officer).
Signboard Serkam Estate
My Family photo