reasons to love working at Pancake House

• being in-charge: actually this goes both ways, you get respect and prestige but at the same time, get the blame for everything that goes wrong. when i was still in school i've never been someone who would readily volunteer to be a leader in any group project. i would rather be a team member who works for the team and works with the leader. being a leader has never appealed to me. feeling ko masyado akong mabait to be an effective leader hehehe. but now i realize, being nice is not a disadvantage, having a great working relationship with people helps the team to function more efficiently. IMO being masungit/strict/super serious does not equate a perfect day-to-day operation nor does it beget respect.
• working with different kinds of people: you encounter all kinds! from the ridiculously rich (with uniformed yayas and body guards in tow and who tips at least P200 everytime they eat), to the most underprivileged of them all. funny thing is, i learned more from them not so well-off people. mapapaisip ka talaga about all things you have, khit for you it's not that much.
• cooking!: i make the perfect omellete. hehehehe. also, i know the recipes of the famous tuna mac and potato salad.
  
• working hours: in the sense na 8 hours a day lang talaga. any extension would be for offset or would be considered overtime. yun nga lang, there are no holidays and weekends..
• being able to apply almost all aspects of my course: financial, people relations, human resource, food and bev, inventory, cost control, marketing etc etc. it's like having a function everyday of the week. =)
• having some/a lot of downtime: this depends on the amount of ppl who comes in the store per day and also the amount of work you get done. pag tapos mo na lahat, you can relax and enjoy for a while hehehe..
• somedays 2pm pa lang tapos na work: yun nga lang 5am ang start ng pasok hehe. pero getting off work at 2pm enables me to do a lot of things pa. i go to the mall, visit friends, meet up for dinners, nood ng tv, eat out etc etc..
• never having to be alone: working in operations is a team game. you can never survive it alone, unless you have special powers of being in two or three places at a time. i love the fact that i am constantly working with other people and it's being dependent with each other, there's a never a dull moment.
• not really having to watch what i eat: because i get to work out everyday on floor. parang nag-gym ka na rin hehehe. kaya i can eat more but not gain any weight =) sometimes pag walang oras kumain, pumapayat ka pa lalo without meaning to.
  

seeing the light

i feel better today than i did for a while now. the past few days have been my most unmotivated time at work just because of my katopakan hahaha! parang nagsasawa lang at the same time tinatamaad kaya ang daling mainis at mairita with everything related to work. parang nawala yung enthusiasm and passion that i've always had with almost everything i do. tao rin tlaga ako at sadyang tinotopak din. ewan ko paano nawala ang said katopakan, nagdecide lang ako kanina paggising ko na nakakapagod tamarin sa life in general kaya panahon na para sa pagbabago hehehe. it's better to be open and happy with everything life brings you or else ikaw din talo sa huli. not making much sense huh? eto ang epekto pag 3 days kang straight sa work eh hehe.

tomorrow's a brand new day so smile and welcome it with open arms. there's no use fighting the inevitable, just make the most out of it and learn. =)

reliever blues

So it's been almost 3 weeks now since I started to be a reliever. Let me define what a reliever is first, it's a supervisor who goes around 2 or 3 stores per week to take his/her duty. Meaning a reliever does not have one store of their own. We take our duty where we are needed, usually when the supervisor of a particular store is taking his/her rest day. We spend about 2 days per store, well at least that's the usual practice. My area manager talked to me a couple of days before i was about to be a reliever. She first asked me if i would consider it. At that time i was in a bit of a rut at work. I felt like i had no more energy and motivation to be excited about going to work everyday. So i welcome the change and told her i would do it, plus the stores she mentioned where i would be taking my duty are easily within reach.

Going around different stores and meeting new people is exciting. It takes a strong foundation of core values and knowledge of standard operating procedures to make being a reliever work. If you have yet to master all the things you have to do and that couples with having to adjust to different environments, you'll be in trouble. Flexibility is the name of the game. As well as the ability to get along with different kind of people and work with different kind of systems. I'm learning a lot and am enjoying my time but i still feel unmotivated most of the time. Maybe i'm just over all of it? I don't know exactly what i'm looking for but i know i want to try other things and discover what it is i want to do.

Hmm.. maybe i'll stick it out until i reach one year with the company or maybe not. I'm not sure. There are bad days as well as good days so.. yeah. Let's see where it takes me in the end.

"tagus-tagusan" for a lot of ppl.. =)

The One Who Got Away
Source: The Manila Times

By: Mark J. Macapagal



In your life, you'll make note of a lot of people. Ones with whom you
shared something special, ones who will always mean something.
There's the one you first kissed, the one you first loved, the one
you lost your virginity to, the one you put on a pedestal, the one
you're with...and the one that got away.



Who is the one that got away? I guess it's that person with who
everything was great, everything was perfect, but the timing was just
wrong. There was no fault in the person, there was no flaw in the
chemistry, but the cards just didn't fall the right way, I suppose.



I believe in the fact that ending up with someone, finding a longtime
partner that is, does not lie merely in the other person. I can
actually argue that an equal part, or maybe even the greater part,
has to do with the matter of timing. It has to do with you being
ready to settle down and commit to someone in a way that goes beyond
the little niceties of giddy
romance.



How often have you gone through it without even realizing it? When
you're not ready to commit in that mature manner, it doesn't matter
who you're with, it just doesn't work. Small problems become big;
inconsequentials become dealbreakers simply because you're not ready
and it shows. It's not that you and the person you're with are no
good; it's just that
it's not yet right, and little things become the flashpoint of that
fact.



Then one day you're ready. You really are. And when this happens
you'll be ready to settle down with someone. He or she may not be the
most perfect, they might not be the brightest star of romance to ever
have burned in your life, but it'll work because you're ready. It'll
work because it's the right time and you'll make it work. And it'll
make sense, it really will.



So that day comes when you're finally making sense of things, and you
find yourself to be a different person. Things are different, your
approach is different, you finally understand who you are and what
you want, and you've become ready because the time has truly arrived.
And mind you, there's no telling when this day will come. Hopefully
you're single but you
could be in a long-term relationship, you could be married with three
kids, it doesn't matter. All you know is that you've changed, and for
some reason, the one that got away, is the first person you think
about.



You'll think about them because you'll wonder, "What if they were
here today?" You'll wonder, "What if we were together now, with me as
I am and not as I was?" That's what the one that got away is. The
biggest "What if?" you'll have in your life.



If you're married, you'll just have to accept the fact that the one
that got away, got away. Believe me, no matter how fairy tale you
think your marriage is, this can happen to the best of us. But
hopefully you're mature enough to realize that you're already with
the one you're with and this is just another test of your commitment,
one which will just strengthen your marriage when you get past it.
Sure, you'll think about him/her every so often, but it's alright.
It's never nice to live with a "might have been," but it happens.



Maybe the one that got away is the one who's already married. In
which case it's the same thing. You just have to accept and know that
your memories of that person will probably bring a nice little smile
to your lips in the future when you're old and gray and reminiscing.



But if neither of that is the case, then it's different. What do you
do if it's not yet too late? Simple...find him, find her. Because the
very existence of a "one that got away" means that you'll always
wonder, what if you got that one?



Ask him out to coffee, ask her out to a movie, it doesn't matter if
you've dropped in from out of nowhere. You'd be surprised, you just
might be "the one that got away" as well for the person who is your
"the one that got away."



You might drop in from out of nowhere and it won't make a difference..
If the timing is finally right, it'll all just fall into place
somehow and you know, I'm thinking, it would be a great feeling, in
the end, to be able to say to someone, "Hey you, you're the one that almost got away."



**********

sad.. oh well...