How many restaurants do you know that make you go through their kitchen before reaching the dining area? Now that’s what I call transparency. Top Dish Makati is one such restaurant. It is a small hole-in-the-wall type of eatery where many Korean nationals have their meals. Having worked with Koreans, I know that they are very attached to their food. For them, it is their life. So wherever they are in the world, they will always find restaurants that will make them feel at home and Top Dish is one such place.

Located along Durban Ave, near the corner of P. Burgos St, Makati City, Top Dish is open from 3pm to 4am. It is not a lunch place, and frankly, I don’t know why. Probably because the place will not allow them to accommodate a huge lunch crowd, neither can their kitchen. Parking is a problem because you need to park somewhere along Polaris St. or if you are lucky, you can park right in front of Top Dish’s front door which can be rare because there is always something parked in front of them. Top Dish DOES DELIVER but you will need to confirm this with them by calling +63(2)7581122.

So why do I go there? Because the food is fantastic. I used to travel all the way to Quezon City to get a taste of authentic Korean cooking, but being a Makati resident it’s too much of a hassle for me. Then I discovered Top Dish. Try the food and you will know why they call it “Top Dish”. I love the free kimchi, one of the best that I have tried in the Philippines. And the prices are very pocket-friendly. A huge bowl of Ramyun is only P150, the Kimbap only P120. Their Chapchae is only P220 but the serving is good for two or three people with modest appetites. I also love the Mandu, which is the Korean version of pot stickers.

The Korean owners sit there and watch some good ole’ fashioned Korean telenovelas while you go through your meal wide-eyed and amazed. I swear I could see a tear fall on the Korean guy’s cheek while he watches TV. The kitchen is equally amazing. You see how the food is being prepared and how clean they handle it. Don’t expect an official receipt though; they won’t give you one if you don’t ask for it. I guess after this post, they will start issuing one.

I love the food here and because they are open until 4am, there will be a lot of tourists dining here. Why not? It’s delicious, cheap and walking distance from the hotels in the Makati Avenue area.  I recommend that you visit this place the next time you crave for authentic Korean food.

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We might have experienced bullying at one point in our lives, most of these times were in school and we might have been a lot younger then. In Philippine culture, it is a problem that is not commonly addressed because to cry foul would be to admit weakness, making one more vulnerable to the bullying. For children, the best way to settle bullying is in the back of the quadrangle stage, after school hours. Usually, a non-lethal exchange of punches is more than enough to curb the bullying and maybe even end up as friends. However, this is not always the case.

When it happens in the workplace, the bullying has more serious effects. The target stands to lose his livelihood, decrease productivity and lead to depression, undue stress and even health problems.

Case in real-life

A case in point is the one that is currently happening in a friend’s workplace. The target, a married woman, has become the object of online heckling and ridicule by a group of product trainers. The head trainer calls the target on the phone labeling the target and calling her incompetent.  The target joined the IT firm on a contractual basis because of a government project. Actually, all of the employees both the bullies and the target are temp workers in the IT firm. The source of the head trainer’s hatred is unknown as she and the target used to be friends back when the company first embarked on the government project. Eventually, the head trainer’s animosity grew due to unknown reasons.

Methods of bullying

As common in most bullying cases, there is the desire to do harm to the target. Why? Experts attributed to this behavior to the need of the bully to channel most of the harm done to him into another person in the hopes of alleviating the pain of his own trauma. Personal insecurities contribute to the deep anguish of the bully. In the case of our head trainer, her bully methods include:

1. Screaming and shouting – If the target tries to reason and answer the allegations, the bully would raise her voice and drown out the explanation. When the sheer logic of the answer is undeniably true, proving her wrong, she would just say in a loud voice, “Manahimik ka!” (Keep quiet). 
2. Setting up the target to fail – the target, coming from a prestigious university in Laguna, will be made to look incompetent by giving her tasks that are already done by the bully’s specifications. When the target turns her work in, the bully will ostracize the target’s work by showing the “mistakes” making it look like the target is innately incompetent and incapable of doing what most people see as a simple task.
3. Patronage politics – in this case, the bully has won favor with management by giving the impression that she is a strong manager and effective worker. To prevent her own inadequacies to be pointed out by the target, such as poor grammar and spelling, the bully bends the ear of the higher manager by claiming that the work with faulty grammar is the work of the target. Because trust has been placed on the bully, she is then able to shuffle the work and their results around. The bully’s word has become unquestionable and considered as gospel truth.
4. Low assertiveness – the bully is quick to ascertain that the target has low assertiveness. She then exploits this to her advantage and continuously bullies the target because she knows that the target will not report the matter to higher management.

Effects of bullying

One of the biggest problems why bullying  in the Philippine workplace is not readily addressed is because it is done in the guise of a corrective measure. This being the case, the target will most likely feel it is her fault that she was “reprimanded” in the first place. Over time, this guilt tripping begins to erode the target’s better judgment and it will come to a point that she will start second-guessing herself, not being able to identify right from wrong, to report or not to report the matter to management. In a corporate environment, productivity and competence will be greatly diminished resulting in the fear of taking risks and the death of the so-called “gut feel”, a mental faculty that usually sees things before they happen. Without this faculty, the capacity to become part of management is lost and the target will cease to pursue advancement opportunities.

In our case, the head trainer resorted to gang bullying by influencing the other trainers and channeling her insecurities on them. Usually, those who follow a bully for a leader have similar insecurities and such a group of people converge with a common hatred for abilities they aspired but never had.

Facebook is the new water cooler

The water cooler is no longer the place of gossip. Much of school bullying has transferred to Facebook, Twitter and the rest of social media’s devices where the humiliation is more severe and widespread. There is nowhere in the world a person can hide from in Facebook. Carabuena felt this when his video of happy-slapping the MMDA officer went viral. Eventually he lost his job and perhaps more than that. The good thing about social media is that they remember as fast as they forget. In our case, the head trainer gathered her team in her FB page and began berating and calling other people names during their conversations. The target still hasn’t lost her good sense and took screenshots of the scathing words used to describe and other people in the organization. Apparently there was water cooler talk about other people in the company that they hated, people who actually sided and supported their group whenever it was needed. Most of those talked about were managers.

In my opinion, the best way to stop bullying in the workplace is to report to HR. If this does not work, leave the company and find something else.  You can fight fire with fire, if you can sustain it. My sister would always tell me, “the best way to fight a bully bigger than you is to embarrass them.” Humiliation and embarrassment is the tool of the workplace bully because it is exactly what they are most afraid of. Assert yourself. It is not about pride, but about self-respect.

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Yes, this time Globe Tattoo came to my rescue. I am an ordinary employee who just wants a stable 1MBps connection. It is all I pray for, because anything higher than that will cost me an arm and a leg.

As an alternative I wanted to subscribe to SkyCable Broadband because I heard the speed is OK, plus it is cheaper than maintaining a separate Tattoo line. So the SkyCable guy arrived at a time when I was at work. After installing it, he left. I called him specifically because I wanted to know the following:

• If he left a user guide for the modem/router
• the login credentials for the router

The technician answered my call but was already far away from my house. He said he already gave me a username/password for my Wi-Fi. I told him it wasn’t enough because I needed to make changes to the passwords, hide the network, change the SSID, etc. He hung up and didnt answer my call. I texted that if the Internet doesn’t work properly I will have it removed. He texted “Cge pu salamat.”

After the 6th of May I have been trying to call SkyCable Broadband service and had to sleep at 2am because I have been on hold FOR SO LONG and still no tech support.

Today I offered a prize on Facebook because I have gotten so tired of the hassle and the stress.

Good thing Globe Tattoo arrived and saved my day. Yes, I give credit where it is due. The Globe technician was very nice and stayed to make sure I was happy with the replacement. He even tried to tinker with the SkyCable modem to which I told him not to waste his breath because it is not his job.

After being bounced around SkyCable many times (funny, their sales people need only one ring to answer) someone in tech support answered the phone. When I told him that I wanted to remove SkyCable broadband service, he said I need to write a letter stating my reason and that my deposit of P2,000 could go into the pre-termination fee of P3,000 in which case I will only need to pay P1,000 for a service that I didn’t like. He also mentioned that a refund of my P2,000 is possible pending approval from the higher-ups. Interesting.

NOW HE TELLS ME THIS, that the login credentials for the router is non-existent. All I have to do is click OK when I was asked for it. That was nice to know, 3 DAYS AGO!

If only their installer had given me this information when I asked for it, it could have saved me and SkyCable A LOT OF TROUBLE. Now, if you will excuse me I have a letter to write, a law to read and a lawyer to call.

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I cannot begin to describe how wonderful it is to stay at the Sofitel Manila. With everything perfected to a tee, there isn’t much to say even by way of fault finding. Their beds are some of the best I have tried and proof of this is my deep, dreamless sleep. It’s like I closed my eyes and time-warped to the following morning in seconds. The service is impeccable, as expected from a five-star hotel.

The Sofitel Manila is a national treasure itself. The building joins other structures in the CCP Complex that were designed by National Artist Architect Leandro Locsin. Each room in the hotel has either an ocean view or a city view. From the pool area of the Sofitel, you can witness the breathtaking and world-renowned Manila Bay sunset. Sure it happens everyday everywhere, but the Manila Bay sunset casts a spell on anyone who witnesses it. If you haven’t caught the bug yet, then I recommend you try seeing the sunset from Sofitel’s Sunset Bar or Poolside. The one seen from the back of the Mall of Asia is a good replica of the one seen from Sofitel. Of course, I’d rather see it from the balcony of a Sofitel Millesime Club room. You would too.

Being a foodie, the new and renovated Spiral is something to look forward to. The morning after, be greeted by an abundance of goodness by the Spiral buffet. Rivaled by none, Spiral has become the buzz word in hotel buffets and has been considered to be the grandest of them all. Of all the hotel buffets in the country, Sofitel Manila’s Spiral is the only one with a cheese room. Yes, an entire room with carefully controlled temperatures that ensure the freshness taste of their wide selection of cheeses; blue, provolone, Stilton, Edam, Camembert, Swiss and other cheeses whose stink I love on bread or crackers. The sausages were just as good too. There are way too many dishes to mention but all the great food they serve go by one name; Spiral. Don’t forget.

The pool is so nice. They have two slides and a couple of bridges that feels like you’re swimming in a Venetian canal, minus the gunk.  Staying at the 11th floor made me witness how they clean the pool every night. I bet resorts are not as thorough with their cleaning. While you laze around the pool, staff would go around offering you ice cold water (such a nice thought) and cold fruits on a skewer. Yes Virginia, it’s free! I loved every minute of it.

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I am appalled at how some people are actually very proud to do drag racing along Macapagal Avenue. At whatever time of the day or night, there are people, commuters and travelers on these streets and drag racing, whether with old or new cars is just plain irresponsible. I am a motorist and I do not want to be hit by these erring drivers when I go to the Mall of Asia or to Solaire. They practically block the traffic and race along the highway even in the midst of so many motorists, as you can see from this screencap. The husband of the lady who shared these videos owns a car repair shop. I realize that this is his way of promoting his shop which is probably a good one, but racing like this is illegal and extremely dangerous. There is a reason why MMDA put a speed limit along Macapagal Ave; this is because there are now more cars than there used to be mostly going to the offices (some of which are 24/7), malls and casinos. More of such entertainment centers will soon be built and even more cars are expected to ply this route. If you do not stop drag racing, you are bound to either hit an innocent motorist/commuter or be injured yourselves. Boys, there are better ways of getting your adrenaline rush. If you really want to race, there are racing clubs you can join. Please stay off Macapagal Avenue because this is a public highway and not your personal playground. If you are unsure of the law, see this link.

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