Pop, Pop, Pop – Pop Up! My TeamAsia Pop Up Experience Celebrating Earth Month

By Yelinda Abuel, Marketing Intern

Would you believe me if I say, I never had a good laugh like I did during the Monthly Pop Up for a long time?

Monthly Pop Up refers to a monthly event or activity held within the organization of TeamAsia. It aims to increase communication, team cohesiveness, and employee engagement. It is a brief event that brings a sense of surprise and excitement to the employees.

As a college student during the pandemic, events like this are kind of rare. Though we do have organizational activities that let us meet together virtually, and since last semester, physically, it is much less compared to what could have been if the pandemic did not happen. And it feels nice that I get to experience this in the agency where I am spending my internship.

As an intern, I was surprised about how my agency values this kind of team activity. Despite their busy schedule, I noticed how this team activity stays relevant throughout the month.

When I entered TeamAsia, everyone was saying, “Do you want to join the Pop Up?”, “Are you in the Pop Up?”, “Pop Up Monday!”, “Pop Up Weekly!”, “Pop Up April!”, and it is probably the first agency term I heard the moment I came in. And I was like, what is “Pop Up?” Why does it seem to be so ingrained in the life of the members of TeamAsia? And then I read in one of the blog articles written by TeamAsia’s Senior Human Resource Officer, Beverly Aguilar, that Pop Up is one of the employee engagements TeamAsia has. It is a time where the employees bond together, share updates about their life, and play games. It is a mental health break away from the pressures of work so they can recharge and refuel their creativity through activities with their teammates. With everyone working in a remote set up, it’s their chance to still bond with their teammates virtually.

As I got to know more about Pop Up, I realized, ‘Pop Up’ is part of the culture of Teamsia. And it is a nice thing that they do this often, celebrating Pop Up every month with varying themes!  

April was Earth month, and I learned that TeamAsia is an advocate for green living and sustainability. Incorporating the Earth Month celebration to the theme of the program is actually something that I did not expect. I believe developing the program with sustainability as a core idea is quite unusual compared to using Valentine’s Day, Halloween, or Christmas Day as the main theme. Being able to curate a program according to the theme and according to the company’s beliefs and advocacies made me realize that it is possible, and at the same time question myself why not a lot of people have done this before including me. Every year, we celebrate a lot of occasions but only a few are celebrated prominently. Through incorporating Earth Month on the Pop Up, it surely strengthened my perspective of helping our planet.

I believe it is very important for an agency to have an advocacy and also to stick to its roots, to its beliefs, and I have found these in TeamAsia. I remember in one of Steve Job’s speeches where he used Nike as an example. In his speech he pointed out how Nike focused more on honoring athletes than promoting their products’ quality and I picture this with TeamAsia. TeamAsia has its values, its purpose, and it is what gives the company its identity. And it is a good thing that the agency uses this kind of engagement to amplify its vision, mission, and advocacies to its members. With this, I truly believe, it will make each member always remember the identity of the agency and treat it as their own. A culture is truly what keeps the community intact and it really showed during this month’s Earth Month themed Pop Up.

Preparing for it was actually challenging. Everyone was busy with their own work. Preparing for it, like choosing a team leader, team name, and team cheer can be time consuming for people who have deadlines to meet, but TeamAsia has never failed to amaze me. With such a short time, each team was able to come up with creative and fun team names and cheers. And if there is something that I really enjoyed, it would be the introduction of each team.

Despite the unexpected and unrestrained demeanor, each team was able to finish their fun cheers relevant to Earth month successfully. And even during the game, the teams tried their best to answer in spite of the difficulty of some of the questions.

As part of the core team, I believe we still could have done better in maintaining the enthusiasm of each participant. Having a feedback form is actually a big help and all the insights inputted in the survey will be taken into account  when planning for the next Pop Up.

To encapsulate my whole experience and perspective about the event, everyone in the team was able to manage the program and end it successfully. Everyone had fun, and the goal of the program, which is to strengthen the bond between employees, materialized with participants engaging with each other before, during and even after the program proper. Overall, it was a wholesome experience.

If you would like to join TeamAsia as an intern or as an employee, don’t hesitate to send in your application and CV to hr@teamasia.com! We’re excited to work with you.