maaga pa lang gising na ako para sa aking shift. 5:20 am pa lang i was already on my way to bonifacio high street.

my cafe manager tasked me to handle the opening shift last sunday. I had to take care of my staff, achieve my target sales, make sure that proper scheduling is followed, accomplish cafe management readiness checklist for pre-ops and midshift, be incharge of cash handling both POS and vault, do bank deposits, interact with guests, void transactions, make reports, and ensure proper endorsement to the next manager and so many other things that a manager should do.

Medyo nangarag talaga ako since it was my first time. it was a good thing that my cafe manager was there to help me especially during peak hours kasi it came to a point na i really don't know what to do first, whether i should help in the operations due to large volume of guests, or do shift close of my cashier, or open another cashier, or go to the back office to open the vault for the bank representative to take the daily deposit, or should let the team member have his break... di ko na talaga alam.

so much for my first time. but next time, i'll make sure that my entire shift runs smoothly with the aid of training, the management classes i am undergoing now, next time will definitely be a better shift for me. but this week i'll be focusing on my training classes and make sure that i achieve maximum learning and be able to apply them on the floor.

till next time... 

Almost one month na ako with Seattle's Best Coffee and so far, i can say that i enjoy my work mostly because of the people i work with sa cafe assignment ko. They welcomed us (the barista 101 group) wholeheartedly and they taught us so many things to make our life in the cafe easy. We easily became friends with most of them. well, with the exception of a few who never fails to raise my blood pressure due to something kaangasan within them. siguro dahil medyo matagal na sila and bago pa lang ako. parang they don't want someone to come to their territory especially someone who will be their superior, not to mention someone younger kasi most of them are over 25 years old na. Pero i'm thankful na ang mga kasama ko sa management team sina sir erald, sir jon and mam jane are very accommodating, helpful and super understanding, and super patient sa pagtuturo sa akin ng mga bagay na dapat kong matutunan. Kaya little by little i am becoming familiar with my tasks as shift manager though opening shift pa lang ang nahahawakan ko. I was just frustrated last week because I wasn't able to accomplish my reports on my KRA's dahil sobrang nakatutok ako sa shift management.

One of the many challenges for me sa aking work now is how to change the habits of my team. The training department had pressured our batch (0708) to be like missionaries. By this i mean, we are sent to our respective stores to teach the "oldies" the standards and make sure that they adhere to these standards not just in preparing the food and beverages but in all aspects which include service, quality, cleanliness and hospitality. Masasabi kong napakahirap nga talagang iaccomplish nito pero i am hoping na i could deliver the performance they expect from me.

By the way, naiinis ako sa isa kong batchmate na manager din. Actually, he has higher entry position than me dahil assistant cafe manager 2 na siya and marami na din siyang naging previous work. Medyo maangas kasi ang dating niya and i really hate the way he is. Siguro nga dahil naging assistant manager na din siya dati sa related industry kaya feeling niya he knows everything na when it comes to running a cafe. Well, ok lang naman saken ang part na yun pero ang bad attitude niya talaga ang ayaw ko. Is cheating a quality of a manager? a leader? I appreciate what he said na we should only commit 1-2 mistakes during quizzes and exams but achieving this by means of cheating is another.  Hay naku, naiirita talaga ako sa kanya!!!!!! well, siguro isa din sa mga naging  cause ng pagkainis ko sa kanya ay ang result ng audit ng store namin last friday. Sila kasi nag-audit and during lectures lagi kong binibida ang cafe ko na among all cafes i observed na ang cafe ko ang may minimal deviation sa standards and i shared to them na sobrang okay ang relationship ng mga people sa cafe ko kaya they really tried to find an area na pwede nilang maideduct sa grade ng store during audit. Anyway, patas lang din dahil isa naman ako sa nag-audit ng store nila which is Rockwell and they also got a failing mark. :bad:

Isa din ang mga audits (training, QSCH, and financial audits) na challenge para sa akin. I want to our cafe to have the highest grade in all audits. Aside from audits, ang pag-achieve din ng monthly targets namin ang isa pang challenge. So far kasi since our cafe opened last July ay never pa nitong naachieve ang monthly target.

Sana nga lang.. :D 

revalida ko tomorrow for management training. Goodluck nalang saken. Di pa ako nagrereview. Will tell you nalang tomorrow about it. By the way, may familiar scent sa paligid ko... m missing the person who wears that scent. hehe.

Sept 25

I came home from work at around 4 am. I'm starting to hate closing shift. I have to accomplish so many reports but I can't start doing them until the cafe closes. It's a good thing nalang na my baristas wait for me patiently kahit minsan more than an hour silang maghihintay while I'm finishing my reports.

Ayun so late na ako nakauwi and di ako makatulog agad so I took with me to bed some magazines and pocketbooks and started reading magazines the magazines til almost 6 am and slept. But too bad coz I woke up at 8:30 am and couldn't sleep again so I read one of the tagalog pocketbooks. Hay naku, nabwisit lang ako and super nasayang lang ang oras ko sa pagbabasa. Kung pwede nga lang i-sue ang author for robbing me of my time. Wala talagang kwenta ang sinulat niya. Wlang proper build-up ng characters and hindi smooth ang pagkadevelop ng events. HIndi din justifiable ang actions ng mga characters. Nakakainis lang talaga.

Naiinis lang tlaga ako. In fairness naman to other tagalog authors marami din naman sa kanila ang magandang magsulat. Pero di talaga maiiwasang parang i will be hesitant na next time to read tagalog pocketbooks.

Christine. My father named me after Christine Jacob, a champion swimmer turned actress. She was so populas in the 80's when she won in a swimming competition.

Love-Love. This is my nick at home. Before only my relatives call me this but now, my blockmates also call me Love-Love. Love-Love is actually short for "LOVE ni Mama. LOVE ni Papa".

Tinang. from Christine. My relatives in my mother's side call me this especially my Lolo. (I miss my lolo and lola in davao. I wish I could go home this Christmas.)

Teri. Also Terry. Short for "Teriring". Hahaha. This name was coined when I was in highschool after a fight with my classmate. I was so angry and was so mad that I cried. My classmates were worried that they kept on asking me if I was okay. But deep within I thought that they were just putting an act and I didn't like it. This thought had brought smile to my face and eventually I couldn't help from laughing. And so Teriring which in our dialect means "crazy".

Tala. A shortened form for Krystala. My orgmates in psysc started calling me this when our batch performed during our evaluation in Laguna almost 2 years ago. I played the role of Krystala which was a popular tv series in Channel 2 that time.

KC. I first used this name in west contact services. My trainer used to ask me how i spell my name. "Is it with a K or with a C?" , she asked. Hence, KC. When I worked in C3 events place, I was already the 3rd "Christine" in that company composed of 7 employees. Christine Ablaza, our manager. Christine Bantilan and me. I wanted them to call me Tin but Christine Bantilan was already "Tin". Our manager chose to be called "Chrissy" and they told me to pick other name coz we can't have 2 Tin's because then our clients would be confused. By the way, we were in Sales and Marketing in C3 so it was important not to have confusions in our names for reasons of commissions. Now that I'm in Seattle's Best, our unit head asked me also to change my name from Tin to something else coz we already have Tina. So again, I chose KC. Why did many parents name their babies in the '80's Christine? Were they also named after Christine Jacob?

I just remembered my roommate so I reposted this entry. I made this poem early January this year. Actually this is just a part of it coz the rest sounds mushy so I didn't want to post it here. My roommate loved this when I read it to her and asked me to repeat it a couple of times. haha. :D 

I care for you. A care which is more than that of friendship. I think I love you. The same kind of love that romeo and juliet had for one another. Only we are not star-crossed lovers. A love that must have never been there. Many were the times that i tried to deprive this feeling of the things essential for its development but the more i try, the more it grows. And now it has already reached my head and trying to destroy my brain. My brain, my poor brain, the rational part of me now succumbs to my emotions.