My Boss, My Friend

Can you be friends with your boss? I don’t mean just hanging-out-after-a-long-day-at-the-office kind of buddy but an honest to goodness true friend. The kind you can trust, confide in and share your thoughts and feelings to freely, without reserve.

In my previous job, I became good friends with my boss. I remember the day she interviewed me, I had an inkling we would be friends despite our different ranks. There were times in the beginning that I felt shy towards her and thus was less open with her compared to our other workmates, but we became pretty tight pretty quickly. It helped that she reached out to me and sort of broke down the invisible wall separating her, the boss, from me, her subordinate. We both knew when it was time for work and when it was “chikka time”, so to speak. When I eventually transferred to another department and we weren’t able to see each other as frequently, the friendship remained. I even ended up asking her to be one of my bridesmaids.

Someone dear to me felt she had that kind of relationship with her own boss. They had worked together a few years ago in another company but parted ways when she got married. Later, her boss sought her out and offered her a job to work together again. All seemed well, the new job was demanding and ripe with office intrigues and politics but they trudged on, optimistic for the future. They were a great team, after all. But soon, the difficulties of the job took its toll on the boss and she felt tempted to give up and accept a more lucrative job elsewhere. The boss had earlier confided about these developments to my friend and although it made her nervous she believed that she wouldn’t be left in the dark precisely because they had a good personal relationship, beyond the office.

However, a strange thing happened. The boss retreated from my friend and their regular meetings turned into pure business, they didn’t talk anymore about anything else. The invisible wall was up and it seemed to grow higher and higher. Around their office, rumors were flying that the boss would be resigning and their department looked to my friend for the truth, she was after all, the closest one to the boss. But my friend could only shrug because she didn’t know what was going on either. A few days before the boss went on a sabbatical leave she talked to my friend and told her everything. She was going on a long vacation but would be back to see the completion of the project. Meanwhile, she put my friend in charge of the team. My friend felt somewhat relieved that finally the boss had told her the truth, but somehow she felt that this episode had changed how she saw her boss. She had become less of a friend and now seemed more like a distant boss.

Looking back, I feel fortunate that I had such a cool boss who I could actually enjoy spending time with outside the confines of the office. I feel bad for my friend and what happened to her and her boss. I now realize that my experience is not something you see everyday. It was indeed rare and precious to be friends with my boss.

So do you think you can be real friends with your boss? I guess the answer is, you’re lucky if you can be.

A ...ty-twoNA Party

For hubby’s birthday, friends bought him a huge tuna which our resident expert cook, Tintin, cooked in several ways. Being the “domestic goddess” that I am (NOT!), I don’t know the exact names of all the dishes but I found it really amazing how one kind of fish could be cooked in so many different ways without people getting “umay” with it. We had barbecued tuna, fish fillet, spicy tuna in coconut milk, sweet & sour tuna, sinigang sa miso type of tuna soup and fried tuna with sesame seeds and herbs. Wow, that’s six different dishes! I ordered the ever-reliable pancit bihon and lumpiang shanghai too for good measure.

Needless to say we had a feast! I’ve never been much of a fish-eater, I always joke with hubby that I must have been a mermaid in my past life. But on that day I had a lot of fun sampling the different fish dishes. Tintin could definitely give Rachael Ray a run for her money.

Hubby and his office buddies played poker until 2:30 am. Raine was in her element. She always enjoys it when there are a lot of people milling around. She would dance around to the music, go to her favorite Titas to be carried and pretend to be conducting her own poker game for one.

Entertainment and recreation facilities are very limited here on Marshall Islands but sharing happy times, a sumptuous meal and being in the company of good friends is the best R & R hands down.

Laidback Sunday

We had a fun-filled busy Sunday. The three of us got up at about 10am and had a lazy brunch of last night’s leftovers. We dropped by hubby’s project, so he could check on the progress of the construction workers. It slipped our minds that it was lunch break and everyone was either out for lunch or taking naps under the shade. So off we went to hubby’s officemate’s apartment where a group of them were just about to have lunch. We chatted for awhile and then went to hubby’s office where his boss, John, turned over some work stuff to him. He would be the acting Project Manager while John went to Guam for a week.

The meeting took quite awhile and Raine was getting restless. I wasn’t able to bring any of her toys so we got an old folder and a pen and she started making squiggly lines across it. Hmm, I have a feeling that she might grow up to be a lefty. John’s wife, Lynn, bought some balloons for Raine and we blew up a few for her to bounce around. She soon tired of the game and I found her a clean paper cup, some bull clips and our house keys. She enjoyed putting her loot into the cup and spilling the contents on her chair again and again. It still amazes me how little kids take delight in the simplest things. After some time though, Raine got bored of the game, drank some milk and promptly fell asleep in my arms.

We still had to go to the supermarket and we were wondering how I would carry Raine around while we did the grocery, we had left her stroller at home. The moviehouse is right beside the market and we noticed that Jumper was still showing. Since Raine usually naps for about 1 ½ to 2 hours we decided to catch the afternoon show, at least that way we wouldn’t have to carry her around the store as she slept. Raine however woke up 10 minutes into the movie but was surprisingly behaved. It was her first time to watch a movie and we thought she might be afraid of the dark. But she seemed to be comfortable. She got antsy only twice during the whole movie. Rynor and I took turns going outside with her. When it was my turn, I bought her popcorn and she was a happy little baby.

We went home to deposit the groceries. We were going back to our friend’s apartment for dinner so I didn’t have to cook. Rynor prepared tuna sashimi and fruit shake while I washed Raine’s bottles and gave her bath.

We had a nice dinner and Raine had fun playing with Tintin’s dolls. (Rynor’s officemate has a penchant for collecting Barbie dolls.) All in all it was a great day spent with family and friends.