Dear Qatar Super Stars, As an employee, it's natural to wonder about the significance of appreciation in the workplace. Why should I be appreciated? Well, let's take a moment to reflect. May we ask you to pause for us to hear your thoughts? It’s Employee Appreciation Month and this page is dedicated to your free expression of thoughts on why you deserve recognition and appreciation. You may say: “My contributions are important, whether they be taking on difficult tasks, helping out colleagues, or going above and beyond to make sure a project is successful.” “I'm engaged at more than attending to work, and there is a huge difference. By attending, I perform my functions, but by being engaged, I give my all for the sake of the tasks.” Bring it on…

By:  Miguel Luis Santos Curato Character Development, a Game Changer I’m here to share the realization that turned my life around for the better. Before I chanced upon a job opening with QSS, I was a college student who wished time would fly by so that I could finish school and focus on my band’s musical gigs. Music and sketching were my passion and creativity was my only tool. I only wanted to sketch animated characters and play the guitar.  Back home, my band would play in shopping malls, mass events, private gatherings, cultural shows, and of course, universities. I was earning a meager amount from all these engagements and I thought, I was already doing great.  My parents told me that in order to succeed, I should follow my passion. I lived by that perspective, however, I failed to discern the substance of what they said.  So I went on following my passion without discipline, goal-setting, and timelines. I felt like at the age of nineteen, I had the whole world in my grasp.  I continued pursuing Fine Arts while spending more time in my band’s paid and unpaid engagements. I would often skip classes and miss school submission deadlines, while my bandmates seriously juggled between the band and their studies. Slowly, I was being left behind. In 2020, Covid 19 came to rise. My mom who is an Overseas Filipino Worker in Qatar had just opened her Café.  I was a witness to how she struggled to sustain the Café operations between restrictions and the quarantine period. I helped by leading the acoustic band on weekends, but with pay. I didn’t even consider offering free help for my mom. The Café could not sustain its operations and closed down in 2021 while I never returned to school. Clueless about where I was headed, I ended up drinking and stress-eating with friends. I put on weight and looked much older than I was.  I was living a very unhealthy lifestyle and was unable to get a good night's sleep.  Even though my existence focused on having fun, I defined fun as drinking, eating, playing video games, and getting into trouble.  Music and sketching were the only activities that might be deemed beneficial for me.  I thought that was life. No matter how my parents tried to fix me, I remained stubborn. Maturity hit me hard and late. I was the epitome of a loser who was squandering his life and all the favorable opportunities that my parents could provide. I was wandering the wilderness of nothingness, reaching nowhere. My first band “disbanded” in 2022 and soon after, I left my other band. My bandmates became busy juggling gigs and school. I continued to be the person in his twenties without a plan, sitting in the darkness, alone. Even though, in retrospect, I knew it was all my fault, I still did nothing to try and change it. I was unwilling to take the proper advice from the right people. I relied on my own misguided viewpoint and the delusion that everything would simply go my way.     In the year 2022, it seemed like everyone else was busy while I was actually sitting around doing nothing.  My parents hardly made their usual daily calls due to work.  My two sisters were engaged in online classes the whole day and night in their own rooms. My bandmates and friends had their own after-school and in-class commitments. Even my cat "Ken" spent each day exploring the entire subdivision. At that point, I finally told my mother that I was open to moving to Qatar to work.  In October 2022, I landed at QSS and was entrusted the post of IT Coordinator at none other than the largest sporting event of the year, the “FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™”. In the short period of engagement, I learned the value of discipline and taking responsibility as I was tasked to train the Cashiers on how to use the POS, arrange the POS hardware, install the POS software, and coordinate with the bank for the payment system.   Socializing is an activity that I do in a limited circle, but I learned that once you are in the workplace, you need to be actively engaged as an employee. In eight months since I joined QSS, I have blended well with the head office team and started participating in HR and Welfare initiatives. I am able to utilize my musical flair during employee events and programs.  I never imagined myself in an eight-to-five office job but I am doing it now with tremendous interest.  When I am sent to do a task that I am not confident to deliver, I would still go for it. I learned that it is better to attempt, fail, and learn than to give up and remain secure and stale.  My job in QSS is a dream job because I am able to utilize my creativity wherever it is needed.  I have been appointed recently to render creative assistance in the company’s employee newsletter, for which I am now sharing my own tale.  I have been blessed to be surrounded by QSS employees whose life and work tales radiate a positive influence. I have been exposed to employees of diverse cultures, which has allowed me to pick up best practices from across the world. Remembering that “knowledge is power”, so I am writing down notes. I must admit that I used the character development of my peers in order to push myself to become better. Call it jealousy, insecurity, or self-pity but it had a positive impact on me.  I could not handle the fact that I had been left behind by my bandmates and friends and that the band appeared to be doing more favorably without me. This helped me realize how much one's character determines success. A degree can put you in the game with relative ease, but success in there depends on your character.   I have yet to call myself successful in my field, but I have drawn short-term to long-term plans to support my job and my passion.  And yes, I have just started living a healthier lifestyle by losing weight, sleeping on time, and taking work seriously.  With all sincerity, it was my improved character that turned my life around. Thanks to the opportunity extended to me by QSS, my parents who never gave up on me, and the company of positive and experienced co-workers.

By: Evalyn Nzilani Mulinge I believe in Equal Opportunity “I thank QSS for holding the annual QSS Sportfest again after two years of hiatus due to the pandemic, and for allowing me to play with my all-boys team. Neither my team members nor the other teams’ players made me feel different. We were all players of equal opportunity to showcase our talent”. Growing up in the neighborhood of Mombasa, Kenya, I had a strong passion for playing football from the age of seven. Instead of playing dolls with girls, I was always in our compound playing football with boys. While our neighbors went on wondering and picking on me playing with boys, my parents did not mind watching. Thank God, I was blessed with a very supportive mother. My love for the game even led me to play with boys during recess at school. Thank goodness the school established the Girls' Football League in 1995. I discovered that there were other females who had the same interest as I did, and we were all trained by various coaches. The name of our group was Mombasa Railways F.C. We practiced from Monday through Friday and on weekends while the school was open.   1997 became the deepest heartbreak of my life for me. I was fourteen years old when my mother passed away. I prayed to God for his protection and guidance. Some people might think this is strange, but I made a commitment to myself that football would be my life and my boyfriend since I did not want to get sidetracked and distracted from going further. In 1998, God sent me a guardian angel. One man who used to play in the same club as me recognized my talent and did not hesitate to help me. I started training under him twice a day. He would wake me up at 6:00 AM and train me until 8:00 AM. He would tell me to come in as early as 2:00 PM even though our school team's practice did not begin until 3:00 PM so he could work with me before the team coaches showed up. I received encouragement and support from a number of other kind people apart from him. I played for Mombasa Railways from 1995 to 2002. During that time, we won a number of trophies at competitions held in several countries. In 2002, just as my football career was starting to take off, my sister passed away. I had reached the point when I felt I had no more need for Mombasa and had no reason to stay. In order to embark on a new path, I chose to relocate to Nairobi in 2003. There, I joined the Ministry of Sports team Minicuss/Moyas, where I played until 2012. Unfortunately, my work schedule prevented me from continuing to play. I had a difficult time making the choice because football was my all-time favorite sport. Ten years later, I got lucky to be granted the chance to return to the pitch and play football once again in Qatar. I appreciate QSS for resuming the annual QSS Sportfest which had to be stopped since the pandemic and for letting me participate with my all-boys team. I did not feel any different from all players and it helped a lot to get cheered from everyone. We all had an equal opportunity to play and show off our skills. I am hoping that QSS will continue to hold the sports fest every year as this gives employees the chance to do what they do best outside the workplace. Sports is one activity that draws people together. I want to let everyone know that, if you have the talent, you should acknowledge that God gave it to you. Utilize that gift and cultivate it with discipline. No matter how talented you are, you will never succeed without discipline and control. Everyone needs a mentor in their life. Choose those who will encourage you to reach higher and farther without having any personal stake in your success, and never forget to thank them whether you achieve success or not in the future. And lastly, our strength does not come from our gender, rather, it comes from within. If you have a passion for something, you should not entertain negativity.

By: Wilma S. Curato (HR & Corporate Planning Manager) QSS did it again! As the sole provider of the FIFA Public Food & Beverage Concessionaire Programme for the FIFA World Cup Qatar™, QSS had to triumph over the odds at what could be considered as test events such as the FIFA Arab Cup Qatar 2021™, Lusail Supercup, Turkish Supercup, and Bollywood Music Festival. We recruited 6,000 people from overseas. The on-boarding process necessitated navigating a diverse culture, rigid training, and acclimating to the stadium. That in order for us to get to the point of serving more than three million spectators over the tournament period, we had to synchronize the logistics of food supply and workforce delivery amidst operational adjustments. However, even with planned strategies in place, it was the continuing demand for inevitable modifications, bottlenecks, and restrictions that put QSS' capacity to the test. In the end, every inch of pressure gave us the chance to better ourselves by learning new things, expanding our social networks, and re-enforcing our mitigation strategies. This helped us become more than prepared for the forthcoming big initiatives in the field of mass events. As they say, “The best opportunities often disguise as impossibilities”. End of the day, we must say that we utilized the most of our resources not only to prove ourselves worthy of the project but more importantly, in support of Qatar’s efforts to build a legacy at the world’s largest single-sport competition. Lessons learned from the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™