rallie17

I enjoyed reading the comments on this post, as I have observed most of these situations while either here in the US or back in Manila.

When I moved to So Calif over 25 years ago, sabi ng friends ko sa Phils, wag kang makikibarkada sa mga pinoy sa US kasi most of them are the proverbial "filipino crabs", meaning they'll backstab you and pull you down kung umaangat ang buhay mo compared to them. (likely because of "inggit").

(If you've seen crabs sa palengke, when one tries to climb out of the bucket, the rest of the crabs on the bottom tries to pull that crab down.)

I work in an office of almost 1000 employees with over 150 pinoys. A dozen of those filipinos work in supervisorial and managerial duties.

Guess what? Each of us are very supportive of each other. In fact, in the years I have been with most of them, I have not met a "filipino crab" yet. Most of them love the Phils. and in fact, bring some of our coworkers from other racial groups to vacation and party in the Phils! And each tries their best to hold up our reputation of being smart, good hardworking people.

I feel fortunate being with the group.

I work in an office M-F from 8:00 to 5:00 pm. Unfortunately, traffic going to work is very unpredictable. On a number of occasions, I find myself quietly slipping in late by 30-45 minutes.

I made it a point though, to try to always hold a piece of paper or folder on my way in to "look like" I was in early and was coming from another dept on business

After being late so many times, I felt bad so I met with my Manager and told her, I would like to change my hours to a later schedule from 8:30 to 5:30 pm.

Her response was: "Oh, all this time I thought your REGULAR schedule WAS 8:30-5:30 pm! No wonder I never see you here at 8:00 am! Next time, call me when you are running late...blah! blah! blah!. (Bokya pala ako! Akala ko hindi niya napuna!)

I felt real bad...I made sure I came in on time thereafter.