Knuck, knuck, knuckles on heaven's door

From Greenhills we grabbed a taxi to get the last measurements done by the tailor. After saying no thanks to beautiful girls, beautiful boys and drugs the taxi driver drove us to a place called “Market! Market!” which is the district in which the tailor has his shop. After the tailor visit we went to get some late dining in a restaurant with a traditional Philippine cuisine. The main dish was knock out knockles, which is one of the few traditional Philippine dishes we have tried. It is pork in some way roasted and made crispy but still juicy. It is quite tasty.

We have not seen many traditional Philippine restaurants. We have been explained that since both the Spanish and the Americans have colonized the Philippines, their culture and cooking has been integrated. 

Temporary paranoia

After the last interview of the day we decided to go take a look at Greenhills market and leave the office a little earlier than the other days. We took a taxi to our hotel, changed to some other clothing, got rid of our laptops and found another taxi for Greenhills. The driver didn’t really understand what we were saying and replied “greenfield?” a couple of times before he nodded and started to drive. By second thought it could’ve been a little risky since we aren’t familiar with that side of town (well… I don’t know if we’re familiar with any part of town), and he could drive in the complete opposite direction without we would notice. Since the traffic was rather heavy we sat in the taxi for some time. Some were more or less asleep when one (no need to mention any names…) suddenly started: “what if he’s driving us to his 20 friends and they’ll all beat us up”. The feeling in the taxi became a bit tenser and another one replied: “That’s some sick shit to say!” (translated from: “Det er sygt sagt det der!”). A few minutes later the doubts were gone as we saw a large Greenhills sign rise next to the road. We would later realize that doubt and questions of people’s motives had just begun.

When we arrived at Greenhills we didn’t really know what to expect. We’d heard about the market and how you should bargain about the price and watch your walletJ. The mall was a mix of actual shops and small stands. The center is a weird combination of electronics, clothing and jewelry. We used quite a bit of time figuring out, which stands were actual selling the genuine brands and which were trying to sell copies as real ones.

What made Greenhills interesting from our point of view was the special atmosphere, which is tense, because people are constantly approaching you. Furthermore they are using more radical selling technics than the common Danish ones. “Hello mister, you are so handsome.” and while one of us was buying a soccer jersey one of the shop assistants said: “you are so sexy”. J Which of course boosted our self-esteem? But even with our enhanced confidence we didn’t manage to make a good bargain.

Taking measurements at the tailor. Tue was actually offered a position as a model.

Food variation - a succes

After the interviews with the managers we invited one of our local colleagues to dine with us and she suggested a Mexican restaurant. It was nice to sit down and have an informal chat about everyday stuff.

Regarding the food perspective we perceived the concept of food variation a huge success. Unlike the Danish food culture where everyone orders their own dish, the Philippine food culture is more about sharing a variety of different dishes, while enjoying the social relations. Therefore the Filipinos cherish the lunch break a lot.  One could argue that the lunch break is more holy to the Filipinos than the Danish who usually just rush through their meal and get back to work. We very much enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere and the variation of different meals and stuffed we went back to work on our blog J  

Successful breakfast

Wednesday started off with a rather successful attempt to get our breakfast in time. Our preorder worked and we were not delayed due to misunderstandings, which was really good cause that meant decreased stress for us. 

We arrived at the office at 09.00 ready for an exciting day filled with interviews, socialization and a rather funny visit to GreenHills Mall which is a huge shopping center in the northeast direction from the hotel.

The 3 interviews which were scheduled for the day involved a variety of department managers. Giving the four of us a more broad perspective of the perceptions the Filipinos have regarding work, life, culture and personal ambitions.  

First of all the primary impression we got from the managers we interviewed was that they were competent employees with a very professional approach to their work. They all had several years of experience in different industries which definitely has been beneficial to Vestas.

We emphasized on the Filipinos perspective regarding management styles. We learned that the Danish management style (macro-management) fits the Filipinos after some adjustment. One said that the Danish management style empowers the employee which is both challenging and motivating at the same time. In relation to this we learned that the Japanese management-style was more micro based and doesn’t leave initiative to the individual employees which can be comforting but not very challenging.

In the interviews the employees elaborated further on how they perceived the cultural differences between the different nationalities management style.  They found the hierarchal flat structure in the Danish way of management a bit odd :-) but in some way admirable.  

Even though some are more or less trying to adapt to the flat hierarchal structure their way of perceiving things is still influenced by the cultural aspects of gender and age. In the Philippine culture respect tends to come with age and gender. We have not experienced that ourselves but then again we are nothing but ignorant foreigners trying to get some impressions.  J