Chapter 17 - Students First
Claire arrived for her interview nine minutes early.
Good.
Not because early automatically meant competent.
But at least she did not arrive thirty minutes late and say—
traffic po
—when she lived fifteen minutes away.
I had standards.
Very low standards, apparently.
She was twenty-two.
College student.
Some org work.
Some online selling experience.
Packing.
Inventory during bazaars.
No printing background.
Exactly as stated in her application.
I appreciated that immediately.
People liked writing proficient on resumes.
Then I would ask—
"Proficient how?"
And suddenly proficiency meant—
I opened Canva twice.
Claire, at least, said:
"Basic lang po talaga."
Beautiful.
Honesty.
Rare resource.
Abigail sat beside me.
Not because I needed help interviewing.
Because if Claire got hired, Abigail would be the one training her most often.
Bea was at the production table pretending not to listen.
Badly.
I looked at Claire.
"Why this job?"
"Need ko po part-time."
Fair.
"And?"
She thought.
"Okay din po sakin repetitive work."
I paused.
Interesting.
"Most people don't say that."
She laughed nervously.
"Hindi naman po lahat. Pero okay lang sakin packing, checking, organizing. Basta alam ko ano gagawin."
Abigail looked at me.
I looked at her.
Potentially useful.
"Do you get bored?"
"Sometimes."
"What do you do when you get bored?"
"Finish muna."
Better.
I gave Claire a simple test.
Not printing.
Not design.
A mock packing list.
Twenty sample orders.
Different quantities.
Different variations.
Two intentionally duplicated order numbers.
One missing item.
One quantity mismatch.
"Check this."
She nodded.
No dramatic confidence.
No—
easy po
She just worked.
Ten minutes later—
"May duplicate po dito."
Good.
"And?"
"Missing po yung variation dito."
Good.
"And?"
She pointed.
"Quantity doesn't match."
Very good.
Abigail's mouth twitched.
She liked her.
Bea had stopped pretending not to listen.
I asked Claire to pack three sample orders.
Nothing fragile.
Nothing complicated.
She was slower than Bea.
Expected.
But she checked twice.
Labels facing one direction.
Items counted.
No unnecessary tape explosion.
Promising.
Then I deliberately interrupted her mid-count.
"Claire."
She stopped.
"Yes po?"
"What's your schedule?"
She answered.
Then returned to the order.
Paused.
Started counting again from one.
Excellent.
I smiled.
She noticed.
"May mali po?"
"No."
"Okay."
After the interview, Claire left.
Abigail turned to me immediately.
"Okay siya."
Bea nodded.
"Maingat."
"Yes."
"Hire?"
I stared at both.
"Are you running HR now?"
Abigail laughed.
"No po."
"Then?"
She sat straighter.
"Recommendation lang."
"Very corporate."
"Thank you."
"It wasn't a compliment."
"Still taking it."
I stared.
That sounded familiar.
Isabella had infected them too.
Fantastic.
I hired Claire that afternoon.
Part-time.
Trial period.
Clear hours.
Clear responsibilities.
Production support.
Packing.
Finishing.
Inventory assistance.
No promises about full-time.
No vague—
family tayo dito
Absolutely not.
We were not family.
We were people with contracts.
Much healthier.
Claire started Wednesday.
Abigail trained her.
I watched for exactly six minutes.
Then forced myself to leave.
Not physically.
I went to the admin table.
Which was somehow harder.
Because every few seconds my brain went—
Check that.
Maybe explain this.
Make sure Abigail mentions—
No.
Abigail knew.
I'd trained her.
She had been doing the work for months.
If I had to personally train every person forever, I had not built a system.
I had built dependence.
So I stayed seated.
Mostly.
At 10:14—
"Ma'am?"
I stood immediately.
Too fast.
Abigail laughed.
"Relax."
I stared.
"What?"
"Need lang po additional labels."
I slowly sat back down.
"Second shelf."
"Thank you."
Claire looked like she was trying not to smile.
Traitors.
All of them.
By lunch, Claire had learned basic order flow.
Not mastered.
Learned.
Big difference.
Bea handled finishing.
Abigail handled layouts and quality checks.
Claire helped pack.
For fifteen consecutive minutes—
nobody needed me.
I stared at them.
Then at my laptop.
Then back.
Abigail caught me.
"Ma'am."
"What?"
"May gagawin po ba kayo?"
"Yes."
"Then gawin niyo po."
I stared.
She smiled.
I turned back to my laptop.
Fine.
Apparently delegation now included being ordered around by my own employee.
Growth.
Disgusting.
At 12:37, Celeste messaged.
i have 4
I stared.
Four what?
Then remembered.
Students.
students?
yes
Then—
actually 5 if saturday yung isa
I smiled.
That was fast.
good
Three dots.
that's it?
what do you want, fireworks
yes
I sent:
??????
Immediate reply:
bwisit
Then:
question
Of course.
go
how many is too many
I looked at the message.
Good question.
depends on schedule
i have 2 weekday after school, 3 saturday
one hour each
one-on-one?
2 are siblings so sabay
Better.
how tired are you after
Pause.
Then—
why is that relevant
I smiled.
Very relevant.
answer
not tired yet
yet
lia
track your actual prep + teaching + travel hours
why
because one paid hour is not always one hour of work
No response for almost a minute.
Then—
oh
There.
Teacher discovery number two.
After work, Celeste called.
At 6:21.
Acceptable.
I was already outside.
"Hello?"
"I hate you."
"Good evening to you too."
"I computed."
"And?"
"One-hour tutorial is not one hour."
"Correct."
"Prep."
"Yes."
"Travel."
"Yes."
"Checking."
"Yes."
"Messages with parents."
"Yes."
"Materials."
"Yes."
She sighed.
"Bwisit."
"Welcome to business."
"I liked teaching better five minutes ago."
"You're still teaching."
"Now I know how much invisible work I'm doing."
"Exactly."
She had five students.
Not enough for a center.
Not enough for another tutor.
But enough to start learning.
I asked—
"Where did they come from?"
"Two from coworker referrals. One neighbor. Siblings from another teacher."
"Good."
"Why good?"
"Organic referral."
"So?"
"So people already trust you enough to recommend you."
She went quiet.
Then—
"Oh."
"Yes."
"Should I advertise?"
"Lightly."
"Facebook?"
"Yes."
"Poster?"
"Maybe."
"Paid ads?"
"Not yet."
"Why?"
"You barely know your best schedule, your retention, your actual capacity, or your strongest offer."
"You really know how to remove excitement."
"I'm saving you money."
"Same thing."
Then she asked—
"What should I call it?"
I stopped walking.
"No."
"What no?"
"Don't spend three days naming it."
"I need a name."
"You need students."
"I have students."
"Five."
"That's plural."
I laughed.
"Fine. Pick something decent and move on."
"What about logo?"
"Simple."
"Colors?"
"Celeste."
"What?"
"You're trying to decorate a business you haven't validated yet."
Silence.
Then—
"Okay, that sounded bad."
"It sounded expensive."
"Fine."
Thursday morning, Celeste sent me three possible tutorial-center names.
At 7:03.
I had not even had coffee.
I replied:
all fine
Three dots.
that's not helpful
pick the easiest to remember
which one
I chose one.
She immediately:
i like the second one more
I stared.
then why did you ask me
validation
I put the phone face down.
Some people deserved expensive mistakes.
At work, Claire was on her second day.
She made her first mistake at 9:40.
Wrong insert in six packages.
Not shipped.
Caught during final checking.
She looked horrified.
"Sorry po."
I checked the orders.
Fixable.
"No problem."
"Akala ko same variation."
"That's why we check."
"I'll redo."
"Yes."
She immediately started.
No crying.
No defensive explanation.
No blaming Abigail.
Good.
I looked at Abigail.
"Training note."
She nodded.
"Variation names need bigger print?"
I smiled.
Exactly.
"Try it."
Claire looked up.
"You're changing the system?"
"Yes."
"Because I made a mistake?"
"Because the system allowed an easy mistake."
She stared.
Then—
"Hindi niyo po ako papagalitan?"
I frowned.
"Would that fix the labels?"
"No."
"Then no."
Bea snorted.
Claire laughed nervously.
Good.
We changed the job ticket.
Variation moved higher.
Bigger text.
Quantity boxed.
Tiny adjustment.
Probably fewer mistakes.
That was what I liked about operations.
Problems were annoying.
But sometimes they showed you exactly where the system was weak.
People were not always the problem.
Sometimes the process was just stupid.
Original Lia learned that after blaming herself for everything.
Current Lia preferred spreadsheets.
Less emotional.
Friday afternoon, Evelyn's orders came in on time.
No surprise changes.
Miracle.
She had apparently threatened her branch managers with our cutoff schedule.
I respected her more every day.
She messaged:
they are learning ??
I replied:
so are we
True.
The trial account was no longer eating half my attention.
Abigail could handle most file checks.
Bea handled production.
Claire was learning packing.
I handled scope, costing, exceptions, and planning.
Like—
a manager.
Revolutionary.
At 3:22, Celeste messaged again.
problem
I smiled.
too many students?
7
I stared.
you had 5 yesterday
referrals
There it was.
schedule?
She sent it.
Two weekday evenings.
Saturday morning.
Saturday afternoon.
Sunday morning.
I stared at the last line.
remove sunday
Immediate response.
why
rest
i can rest afternoon
no
boss ka?
you asked
Then—
but sayang
Ah.
There.
The dangerous sentence.
I knew it intimately.
why sayang
extra income
and?
another student
and?
Pause.
okay i know where this is going
good
you'll say i shouldn't fill every available hour
correct
because then tutorial becomes my whole life
I smiled.
look at you learning
bwisit
She called later anyway.
"Seven isn't even that many."
"No."