Chapter 26

I feel like I had a cooking show, I decided to go back to my room and take a shower and changed my clothes. Although the smell of the food is salivating and inviting me to dig in but I don't feel comfortable. So while I am freshen - up I asked the butler to gather everyone in the dining room. I feel lively today and I want them to taste the food I cooked, I want to know their opinions. Maybe I can make my own versions of filipino dishes and put it in the menu of our restaurant or better yet, I can build a new resto catering filipino dishes .. hmm I have to think about that.

After freshen - up, I went back to the dining room where I can see that all employees were surrounding the area. When the head butler sense my presence, he looked at me and greeted me. When the other employees heard his greeting, they followed up after.

" Good evening, Young Lady " they greeted me in chorus. Remember Butler James, my grandpa's right - hand man who take good care with the family's affairs here in the Philippines. He is the one managing the main branch here and I will be the one handling the subsidiary branch here.

I just nodded at them as a response then walked to the chair designated in the front center of the dining table before I started talking.

" Good evening everyone! I know you are all wondering why I asked Butler James to gather everyone of you here. You know that I just came back less than a month ago and I have formally meet everyone of you, I only recognized a few who has been working with our family for a long time. I decided to do a formally introductory meeting with you while enjoying a meal together." I paused

" I may not be an approachable type of person but I know how to repay kindness with kindness. Thank you for taking good care of the mansion in behalf of our family and thank you for all your hard work. I appreciates your efforts, sacrifices, hard work, care, loyalty and dedications you had spent with our family. And to show my gratitude and sincerity, I would like to spend my dinner with you tonight and share with you the food I cooked with the help of Chef Ram a while ago."

" I hope that the dishes we prepared would satisfy your taste. I know that you are all familiar with these dishes since it is our country's popular dish but I hope my version of these dishes would pass your standards. Let's forget the employer - employee relationship that we have and just treat each other as friends for tonight. Let's enjoy tonight, have a seat and start to dig in. " I lightly smiled before taking the seat

" Thank you Young Miss" they replied and pull the chair designated near their place and took their own seats.

Fortunately I prepared more than double of the usual amount of food I always prepared or it might not be enough for all of us. I did not know that we have more than fifteen employees here. Oh well, this is the main mansion, I know that we need more than ten maids to maintain the cleanliness all over the area.

After we had our dinner, which we all enjoyed eating and talking. Like I told you before, I might be a person with cold and aloof personality but I know how to treat people the way they deserve to be treated. I met a few new people that I did not met before I left to Singapore years ago. I heard some of their stories and how their lives changed since they worked in our family.

Some of their children and siblings are scholars of our school chain and some were already graduate but still connected in our family business. For example is Manang Maria's second daughter is working as a kitchen director in one of our hotels. All of them start from the lower position before they reached whatever positions they have right now.

We don't discriminate, we give everyone a fair share of chances and opportunities to prove that they deserve to be employed under our care. We only show them the way, but they are the one who should work hard to stay or better yet to climb higher in the company.

It is nice to bond and spend a little time with your employees. It makes everything easy. You gave them chance to know you more and they gave them you the chance to know them better. It is also a way to show them that you respected them, and you treat them good. It also shows that you appreciate their hard work and dedication in everything that they do for you.

Because of what happen tonight, I decided to have dinner with them at least once a week and give them a week family time off every three to four months so that they can spend some time with their family. I know the feeling of being away in their family and how difficult it is to be absent in family occasions slush gathering.

Although, they have a chance to have holiday vacation with their family members sponsored by our family in one of our resorts, it is a holiday with everyone of them and their family together in one place. Their only chance to see them is Christmas eve until the 26th of December every year during the Christmas celebration that we let them have the chance to spend holiday with them. I know that they also want to spend holiday with just their own family together not a holiday where they need to share it with anybody else.

Of course, it is scheduled and rotated so that everyone will have their chances. We can't afford to send them all, although, I would love to but we still need some people to maintain everything in the mansion.