Q. You won your award out of 85 managers in Hawai'i, Guam and Saipan. How did you beat out all of the others?

A. Each year they pick eight to 10 managers from the region, and I have won that award for three years for increased sales, increased customer count, hiring and other things. But this is my first time for being the outstanding manager for the whole region. I actually don't know why I won. I was so excited and was jumping up and down that I actually didn't hear the reasons. I asked them to write it all down so I could read it later. I do know that part of it is community service. I teach Sunday school and work with girls 12 to 18 in Halawa and teach them things like cooking.

Q. You've spent 35 years at McDonald's. How did that come about?

A. I wanted to do a job that was other than the cannery or the fields. I was able at 16 to get a job at McDonald's in Waiakamilo as a counter person. I wasn't very good. I wasn't very fast. I don't think I even knew how to count money. When I went to college, I just worked weekends. When I started my family, I worked maybe one day a week. Throughout those 35 years, not many of them were full-time. So when somebody walks in that door looking for a job and tells me that they're limited in time, I tell them I can make that time work for them.

Q. When you were an introverted 16-year-old, how did your first managers treat you, and how has that affected your management style today?

A. My first manager was so strict. I was deathly afraid, and he taught me how not to be a manager. He would stand behind me and time me how long I spent with customers. He told the other managers that I took too long and wouldn't work out. I left that store for the Ala Moana store to get away from him, and he ended up becoming my manager at Ala Moana.

He told me, 'There are Indians and there are chiefs, and you'll never be a chief.' As a manager, I think you have to adjust to the person. I hire people who were like me all of the time. I've learned to wear the shoes of all of my crew because I've been in their position. I've been the one who's too shy to answer the phone and I've been the mother who needs time off to be with her kids. I tell them I'm there whenever you need anything.

Q. With Hawai'i continuing to have the lowest unemployment rate in the country, how do you manage to retain and recruit mostly entry-level workers?

A. I've been hiring one person per week. In Waimanalo, I started with only nine employees. I figure that anyone who walks into the door to apply wants to work for me. So I'm going to figure out a way to fit them into my program.

When I first started in Waimanalo, my entire crew came from Kailua. One was on the student council at Kailua High School, and his cousin was a dropout from Waimanalo who couldn't read or write very well. The first day the cousin worked, he made a Big Mac. A customer came up to me and said, 'Who made this Big Mac? This is the best Big Mac I've ever had.' I said to the cousin, 'Come on out here. This customer wants to tell you something.' He became my best worker. That family was big in the community, and others started coming in to apply. They said they kept hearing stories at home about how much fun they were having at work.

Every year I have a Thanksgiving dinner at the store for the workers and their families, and one year I had more relatives at the Thanksgiving feast than regular customers.

When I left the store, all 40 employees were from Waimanalo.

Q. At the Kailua McDonald's, you have an ATM machine inside the restaurant that's new and you also have a display of orchids.

A. The ATM machine was removed during the renovation and has been back for a few months, and the orchids are from an orchid club. They kind of compete against each other but everybody enjoys them. It's really nice.

Q. When you started running the Enchanted Lake McDonald's 18 months ago, you had 15 employees, and now you have 45. How did you justify increasing your payroll so dramatically?

A. Volume went up. We now get 900 to 1,000 customers per day here, and I increased the dollars to justify the increase. Sales have gone up by 14 percent. People notice that we have renovated, and the dine-in customers have increased more than the drive-through customers. The number of senior citizens has increased because they find it more comfortable. I have a group of moms that meet here for play dates. It's a safe place where they can speak adult to each other.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.