Party strengthens bond between work ‘family’
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/12/2016 (3399 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Filipino colleagues at a Brandon grocery store have made a Christmas tradition of their own.
They might as well, considering they feel like members of the same family.
“We’ve become like grandmothers or grandparents to their newborn kids,” marvelled Ingrid Sian of the camaraderie between the approximately 50 Filipinos employed at the city’s Superstore.
“Since we don’t have our families from the Philippines here, we spend our Christmas with them,” she added. “It’s like we’re a family.”
Dozens of Filipinos have found employment at the city’s Superstore, often through a referral from other members of the local Filipino community. For many, working at Superstore is their first job in Canada.
It helps that Sian, the meat manager, and her husband Nevi, the produce manager, are both Filipinos in charge of two departments. They have a say in who gets hired, and they know Filipinos are often up for the job.
“We know how they work, they’re very hard-working.”
When she started at Superstore in 2008, there were only about five Filipinos working, a total that has steadily increased as more Filipinos settle in the Wheat City.
These employees brought their families to a potluck feast on Sunday afternoon at the West End Community Centre. The guests played games and took part in a gift exchange.
Nevi said only one day really made sense for a Christmas party.
“Because everybody isn’t working on Christmas Day, so everybody can come,” he said, laughing.
By hiring Filipinos, Nevi said he is honoured to give people new to Canada a helping hand.
“When we got here, I was nothing, I had nothing,” he said about when his family arrived in 2007. “So I want to help them.”
Bringing the store’s Filipinos together for a Christmas party was the idea of Virgenia Tagay, a produce clerk. She said this was the second consecutive year this get-together has happened.
“It’s a good way to get to know each other,” she said, “not only in our jobs and our work, but our lives after work.”
» ifroese@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @ianfroese