Why 4 and not 7 pickles?

My boyfriend and I went to McDonalds at around 6 o’clock in the evening and when we got there, it wasn’t as busy as I thought it would be. There were two people at the registrar, two people ordering, one guy at the drive thru window, manager was in the front talking to one of the employees, and three workers in the back. So my boyfriend stood by me on the side while I ordered. It was finally my turn and the guy who was taking my order seemed relaxed and had a smile in his face. I told him to listen carefully and he bent over a little bit just to be funny I guess and then I told him my order. I emphasized that I wanted four pickles and well done fries with no salt. He said jokingly back if I’m sure that I wanted seven pickles instead of four. I replied with a “haha” and said that I really wanted four.

I also told him I will not take the food if my receipt doesn’t mention two extra pickles and well done, no salt. He replied with an “oh” and went over to his manager. His manager told him to deal with the guys in the back about my order. The guy shouted exactly four pickles twice to the people in the back. Then the manager took over the register and asked what I wanted on the receipt. Then the manager told the boy who was close to the fries fryer about my order and dealt with it. Then guy from the beginning went back and told me the price. Since I only had $2 in my pocket being the smarty that I am, my boyfriend took out $50 to pay for my $2 plus tax order. He took the money and brought it over to his manager and came back and said, “I’m sorry we can’t accept this, it’s considered fake.” My boyfriend’s face was about to turn completely red and the guy immediately said he was joking and gave me the receipt and change.

The fries were ready and the boy put it into the bag and gave it to the manager and he also looked into the bag. Then he gave it to our guy. Our guy took the burger from one of the people in the back and he personally opened it and checked it himself if there were exactly four pickles. Then he closed it, put it into the bag, and handed it to me. I checked in the bag and everything was good. The fries had no taste and boyfriend enjoyed the burger.

Overall, I was actually treated well while I was ordering at this McDonalds but I definitely remember instances at some of the McDonalds in the city where I had to deal with rude people behind the register even without a special order. This felt like the first McDonalds experience where my order-taker was actually joking back at me.

I think the management process for my order was fair. They got my order done without waiting so long for it. It’s good there weren’t a lot of people at this McDonalds. I thought just shouting the order to the people in the back twice wasn’t really needed. I would have thought since they had screens of the orders in the back that one burger would emphasize it needed two extra pickles. The manager was a bit everywhere and kept checking things. I thought there were a fair amount of workers in the back and I definitely like the light humor that the guy had who dealt with my order.

If I were a consultant who was brought to McDonalds, I’d probably suggest that the workers should be extremely trained on how to work the counters efficiently so that they wouldn’t have to ask for help. I also suggest that each worker has clear role of their specific job function. For example, instead of the people behind the register to also deal with food assembling, why not have other workers deal with that area. Last but not least, according to past experiences, I also suggest that the nicest people would be the ones working in the front and who can also tolerate stressful situations.

Work. Help. Travel.

As of now, my first goal is to be a controller after I graduate. I need a BA degree in accounting or finance. Right now, I’m taking necessary actions by taking classes that involves both accounting and finance in order to get that degree. At the same time, I intend to do at least 3 internships by the time I graduate that involves accounting-related work. By the time I graduate, I need a year or 2 of experiencing real financial accounting and work my way up to be the controller of whichever company I choose to be in. First, I’d like to experience working in different kinds of companies that deals with different sorts of businesses to be able to compare and contrast which organization I feel comfortable to and satisfied to work in.

A personal goal of mine is to travel back to the Philippines and volunteer to spread the importance of education to young underprivileged kids. Right after I graduate and before I get into my career goal, I want to stay in the Philippines for one summer at least to help kids realize they can help raise themselves out of poverty and also those around them through education and hopefully the “power of vision.” Right when I arrive at the province, I would like to work with this nearby non-profit organization called "Bahay Bata Center" that deals with neglected kids in dire need of education and motivation. I will work with the organization and see what I can do to help.

When I finally have my career goal in my hands, depending on how many vacation days I can acquire, I will plan out the countries I want to visit and experience their culture and of course their food. First, I will do an extensive research and create a long list of all the countries I want to visit. Depending on the proximity of the countries, I could visit a few at once, but make sure I have enough time to enjoy and see sites I want to see. Of course I have to be financially aware and figure out how much money I have to bring. Things I would consider when I’m planning to trip includes weather condition of targeted sites, flight duration, expenses which includes tickets, transportation, hotels, food, light shopping and emergency money. It also wouldn’t hurt to bring a companion along to explore these places. I will let them know about a month in advance of my planning.

All of these visions are mostly dreams as of now, but I think the first step of acting on these visions is planning. These goals of mine might not be precisely detailed but as each day passes, adjustments will be made for these goals to be more specific. Even if my planning changes, my main priority is to reach these goals even if it takes constant alterations. I can’t wait to achieve these goals in the future and maybe even further advance them.

Not-So-Chaotic Decision Making

Even though I only voiced out an opinion once during that semi-chaotic decision making process for our test, I felt like I handled the conflict with more of a compromise rather than a withdrawal. The combination of ideas integrating into one decision felt like the most sensible thing. But to be more reasonable, there were so many ideas being put out there so it was really hard to combine what everyone wanted. Just because ideas were approved and denied back to back didn't make me want to withdraw from the decision making. I basically participated in eliminating or sticking to these ideas by raising my hand. My grade is affected by the final decision so might as well participate in the poll.

I think collaborating feels like the most sensible method to use because the decision isn't only for me, but for the entire class. It would have been nice to form small groups first but since we were under time pressure we just skipped this process. Although that step was skipped, we still ended up combining two sets of ideas: extra credit and dropping the lowest grade, to create a combination that everyone seemed to agree on (unless others were forced into agreeing because people were just worried about time constraints). It felt like everyone was competing to win in the beginning and then eventually collaborating which turned into a seemingly win-win outcome.

I did have doubts that we will not be able to come up with a decision on time but having a leader made it more organizable and put the process more at ease.

A Successfully Cracked Egg

In my opinion, I think our group did a moderate job in the planning process even though we failed at creating a successful egg protector. First off, we missed step 1 which is defining the goal and objectives. I think we felt that we’ve already processed the goal in our heads and so we went straight to brain-storming due to lack of time. Our group didn’t have a specific leader because it seemed like it wasn’t one of our priorities. Our main priority was to have an idea of how to build our protector.

We didn’t really touch on step 2 either which was identifying the resources because the resources were already discussed earlier. Also, we already knew that each of us needed an idea of how this protector should look like so all of us just kept throwing ideas, either going against it or agreeing to it.

Discussing several alternative strategies and any mishaps that may occur were definitely mentioned (step 3). One mishap that was discussed and that actually happened was the egg rotating when it was dropped straight. The idea of the egg rotating was scratched out because we felt that if the egg were to drop straight down, the yolk would be at the bottom of the egg and light part of the egg will be on top, creating a straight down fall. False. That theory didn’t work. It’s interesting and funny looking back at it.

The tactical plan approach, which was stage 4, was definitely followed. Each of us knew our role as to who will handle the specific job in this process. We also implemented the plan and evaluated the results, which was stage 5. While we had the actual necessities to build the protector, our group still kept throwing out ideas and finding ways to modify the plan.

A reason why we failed in creating a successful protector was that we didn’t really focus on if there’s a loophole to this activity or we didn’t really “think outside the box.” We focused on a more obvious idea and finding ways for that obvious idea to work. Other reasons were not determining the leader of the group and time-pressure.

I give my team an A for effort and 10 extra points each for the test because even though our egg protector didn’t work, we worked well as a team. But too bad that's not my decision to make.

Ma'am

I was six years old when I first stepped foot on American soil. Sadly at that age, I don’t think I made a comparison between my native culture and the culture here. Though recently, I visited the Philippines last winter break and finally made that comparison. I experienced a slight bit of culture shock on my first day. When I arrived at the airport, I was greeted by “hello ma’am (or sir)” by those who worked at the airport. Then as we stepped out of the airport, a hired driver picked us up and also addressed my mom and I “ma’am” the whole time he drove us to our destination.

During my stay, I also remember visiting a fast food restaurant known as McDonalds which I’m sure isn’t known here. My cousin and I were greeted by the staff members with maximum kindness that it was a bit terrifying. After we finished our food, I picked up my tray and was about to throw out the content which is the usual custom here in New York, but a staff member stopped me and said it was their job to do it. He also mentioned that I must be from the US and I blushed. As we left, they excitedly greeted us goodbye with extremely happy faces.

Another custom (and that I practice here as well) is showing a sign of respect to the elderly by bowing a bit and moving their right hand toward your forehead; usually the back hand touching your forehead. I also had to greet my older cousins by addressing them either “kuya” (aka brother if male) or “ate” (aka sister if female) before I say their first name.

The most exciting part of my trip was New Years. The actual fireworks were in my cousin’s backyard. Everyone had a firecracker stick and it was just a beautiful eye-popping site.

One way of addressing the Filipino way of life is in the words of Anthony Bourdain from the Travel channel when he visited the Philippines, "You're just too darn nice."

introduction

I was born in the Philippines. I arrived here in NY when I was 10 years old and since then, I've been living in Queens. I know how to speak in my native language (Tagalog) and barely know Spanish. My major at Baruch is Public Accounting and I've joined various clubs in the beginning of my college years such as American Cancer Society and AIESEC. Other random facts include when I have time to watch TV (which is rare), I enjoy watching the Food Network, Travel Channel, the Colbert Report and the Office.
They might be the possible reasons for why I love ethnic food, the idea of traveling all over the globe, sarcasm, and dry humor. I am looking forward to this semester and this Management course.