Oddities

Last Saturday, my dad asked me to bring our 10 year old Mazda to have the Clutch Master Cylinder checked. For some reason, when you step on the clutch, it does not engage the gear. My dad, being the engineer that he is, suspected that the Clutch Master Cylinder needs to be replaced; the ENTIRE kit. He figured that the kit would cost, roughly, P250. Boy, was he dead wrong. After inspection, the entire repair cost P2,050. He was obviously a ZERO (0) short.

Anyway, that's not the point of this blog. At the shop; MGA Auto Repairs at Merville. Beside DMCI Homes along the service road is where I took our car to have the damn thing inspected and replaced. Mel, the owner was pretty much on top of things. Knowing where everything was; knowing where all of his mechanics were. Though he was not directly handling my car, he was up and about at 6:30 in the morning (take note that I still lacked sleep because Peter and I met and discussed a business we were thinking of getting ourselves into -- that's another blog altogether.)

The fun thing about the entire setup was the relationship Mel had with his mechanics. It was not the usual boss-employee thing. Sure, he is the boss but he was more of the friend than he was the dictator. One guy was sweeping the floor when his friend ran to him and informed him that his wife just gave birth that very instant. Without batting an eyelash, Mel simply waved him off and told him to tend to his wife. In the corporate world, you cannot even breathe without filing the necessary paperwork.

So the dude sped off and it was business as usual.

The next thing I noticed was that amidst all the hustle and bustle in the repair shop, there was a short dude; a midget; walking around the place. Turns out that this guy has been working there for a year now as their jester, their errand boy because he simply needed a job. Boy, if all employers had that kind of heart, then no one would be unemployed.

An hour and half later, the car was fixed and running like... well... it was running nonetheless.

I admired how Mel dealt with his team. Makes me look at myself and see how I am as a Leader. Wish I could be as kind as him but still get the respect and loyalty from my members. Hey, they don't earn much but they stayed. What more with my team?