Of Happy Meals, Matchmaking, and Mental Breakdowns

Of Happy Meals, Matchmaking, and Mental Breakdowns (Week 3)

On my previous blog post, I shared with all of you my thoughts with internship, as someone who is a newbie to everything in the area. Time seem to have flown by faster than I expected that I already passed by my third week as an intern! This week has been so eventful and I couldn’t wait to share it to all of you! It has been really hectic, but very fun, since I can tell that I, and everyone else in the department I am assigned has finally warmed up, and we are closer than the start.

Meals with your colleagues will never be avoidable when you are working. During my first two weeks, I never really joined lunch or any meals with all of them, except for a snack on my second week, because there was an Indonesian visitor from Nestle Indonesia for bench marking, and few snacks in between work. Last December 6 was the birthday one of my superiors. We ate loads of food that you really can’t consider it as a simple snack –it was more of a dinner, or lunch, a big big meal. Well, it’s his birthday, and one should celebrate his birthday with a blast. He really did, and not only did he have fun, but also us. His birthday did not end on that day alone. The next day, he asked me to join them for lunch, and was for free. Just like yesterday, the food was delectable! When I thought internship would help me lose some weight, I think it would be the opposite for me. I would be very healthy by the end of my 670 hours. I am not looking forward to that. Though, I would still be looking forward to the meals I would have with them, because this is where I get to share a lot of my thoughts with them, the way they are sharing it with me. This is just one of the million proofs that communicating while sharing meals with people makes you closer.

On the same day was the day when the former intern went back to the office to get his allowance. During my first week, my supervisor already told me that the former intern will come back in the office to get his last allowance, since he ended in September and was not able to come back after that. I wondered when he will be there because I have tons of questions, and it will only be him who could answer that. I wasn’t able to do one of my major responsibilities because I couldn’t understand which amount came from where, how would you determine the last inventory? What is MRF Inventory? Why do we need both inventories? I had my questions and I was prepared. It seems like not only were my questions answered, but my superiors hearts has finally warmed up to me.

Being the ate’s, kuya’s, tito’s and tita’s of Nestle Cabuyao Factory that they are, they have formed the couple of the year. LOL. Ma’am Dale, one of the strategic buyers, is a very funny woman who loves to joke and crack witty comments. I will never forget her joke about the cake we had for Sir Robin’s birthday. “Conti’s? Diba yan yung may magkalaban?” I was so giggly that she finally landed her attention to me. She was trying to pair us up even when we were inside the office while I was photocopying the MCS (material condemned slips) and Peter was standing beside me. When we were inside the canteen, they started to pair us up, and even gave us a couple name that sounded like a petri dish, an anther, and others that were just too funny that I just laughed it off.

This matchmaking seem like a simple thing, but for a moment, I suddenly felt at home. I suddenly felt comfortable joking with them just like I was joking with my friends. On that week, I was able to crack up jokes with them, and even tell them a lot of things about me. Wow, as I am writing this, I realized that it was just last week, but it seems like I was far from that day already. This week, I was able to talk to everyone in the department and I can pull off a normal conversation with them already. I also learnt that jokes should not really be treated seriously. I can remember when I was younger, I would get angry every time someone would pair me up with someone I don’t like (as a boyfriend or whatever). When you get older and work, you will get into situations that should not be taken seriously. One should always have a deep understanding with these kind of scenarios, because when you take a joke seriously, that is where conflict gets in. Not like I took the joke seriously, I just realized that people can really be different and they will have different perspectives.

Peter, the former intern, is an Accountancy student from Polytechnic University of the Philippines and is currently on his fourth year, just like me. He is taking his review in the main campus of PUP in Sta. Mesa. That hit me hard. Will I survive my 670 hours doing all of these, being a student from Management Accounting and not Accountancy? All the former interns were of Accountancy major, and I am the only Management Accounting major. Both programs weren’t really that different from each other, but I can say that Accountancy majors tend to be very, very, very… how do I describe them? I couldn’t find the right term, but when you hear accountancy, it reminds me of mind-numbing financial statements, carefully planned costs and variances, presentations, and audit. Lots, and lots of auditing. This means that Accountancy majors are trained to being morally upright professionals (pak ganern) and they are very meticulous with doing such work. True to my impression of accountancy students, he was very organized, and was very good with explaining the things I was confused at. It turns out that the materials given to me was incomplete, that is the reason why I wasn’t able to understand the reconciliation. He reminded me of my classmate when I was an accountancy student. Just like my classmate, he was able to explain to me the important things, and he was always ready to answer my questions. I am suddenly looking forward to see him as a CPA.

However, when I thought I would be able to do the work given to me after he explained it to me, I was wrong. This particular reconciliation wherein I will determine the discrepancy of the materials sold with the materials that are still in the inventory, had me breaking into pieces as I figure out where I went wrong. Every month, the discrepancy should not exceed 10%, and one of the categories had a 95% discrepancy! As I looked into the records, I saw that the tanks sold were drastically less than the tanks recorded in the inventory. However, my supervisor said that there must be missing records, and I have to look for it the next week. As much as I love to go to work every day, this particular thing had me so worried because it was making me feel so burdened. I am already in a real-life practice, and I can’t simply pass on this task like an exam question that I don’t know. No matter how, I had to figure out what went wrong, what went missing, and what I should do to fix this. I know that I can do it, because I am there to learn, but a part me tends to overthink and worry that I will not do good and get a low grade because of that. I hope that before my fourth week passes by, I was able to get this sales reconciliation perfectly.

Do you also have your mental breakdown moments? Share it with me in the comments down below! See you on my next blog post for Week 4!

xoxo