No Sir, Just Kuya: Celebrating Kuya Yusuke’s Special Day

One of the best traits of Japanese is their full dedication to everything that they do. They are known for being disciplined and hardworking, and I proved it with my boss.

Hello Hivers, hello hive friends. It's been long since the last time I wrote my last blog here on Hive due to hectic schedule and job demands. Today, I will share with you my first time experience of working with my Japanese boss and how we celebrated his birthday in the field.

Last week was my boss' birthday. We had been together for two weeks since we started our PSU Flooring Project to one of the municipalities in our province. His wife asked me to surprise her husband with a simple celebration, and my task was to order food for him since the wife is in Japan.

I ordered a food package. I don't have any experience with bulk cooking, so I decided to buy ready to eat food good for 25 persons. The food package was a complete deal. It has lechon (roasted pig), 8 different viands (that were very palatable), a birthday cake, rice, and soft drinks. His wife paid the food package; it was not me.

I hurried to the site before our boss Yusuke arrived. He stayed in a hotel, only the workers slept in the site. I asked the team to help me ready the table. When Yusuke arrived, he was very surprised with the food on the table. I noticed it! He was teary-eyed. Perhaps he missed his family on his special day.

I lighted the candle while the workers were singing Happy Birthday. I asked him to blow the candle after making a wish. I could see how happy he was that day. He smiled; he ate with us and had some bottles of beer.

He was on the site every day. He was not there as a boss who dictates and give instructions but instead, he was there as a leader. He led the work, he was very hands-on, he gets his hands dirty, his clothes were like rags stained with paints and polyurethanes, but he used to be that way. His workers looked up on him, he taught them how to perform the tasks, and the best thing was, he didn't let his workers called him "sir", he preferred to be called "kuya".

This man is too humble to his workers even if he is an owner of a company. Walang kaartehan, just pure dedication to quality and reliability. He is a very inspiring person and these qualities of him won respect and value from his workers. He is also very kind and generous to us.

That simple celebration of our boss' birthday was also our way of telling him that we love him and a way of saying that he is also a family to us, a big brother, a kuya. His family might be far, but we hope he felt that a bigger family was with him on his special day.