*____good old times___

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

I had a real busy day today. Let me state that i'm not an octopus. Don't expect me to multi-task with only 2 hands.
Fabian was there to repair the computers. The computers have been giving me a whole lot of trouble and irritation. Thanks to the router that directed viruses from the customers' comps over to the counter comps. Fabian did a real lot to isolate the counter comps. I've got plenty of pandas and trojan horses popping out occasionally, supposedly to give me a surprise (and a hard time). The day went rather smoothly. Other than occasional network breaks (because i kicked the modem), there weren't much problem.
First thing in the morning, the game IC was sick and took MC. Ok thanks...so only 2 were left to tend the entire shop. What's more? There's supposedly an interview held today. I was picking calls non-stop and i couldn't really leave the counter. Plus, i had an urge to answer nature's call. NO ONE was around to substitute me. Oh wow.... 200+ boxes worth of goods were taken care of by temporary part-timers so i didn't really have to worry. I just stood at the counter area while peiching did the commanding and stuffs. Both of us were extremely lethargic at the end of the day.
Something tells me that i don't really like picking phonecalls for interviews here.
Firstly, people ask a lot.
Secondly, some don't think about what they wanna ask before calling. I ended up waiting for them to think of a question to ask while they prolonged the silence.
Thirdly, they speak really slowly and i'm really one who can't stand that type of speech speed (i wonder i got along with mx?)
Fourth, they don't listen to what you say (are you the one interviewed or am i?)
Fifth, they ask some questions which don't make sense
I shall quote an example which remains vivid in my mind....
"hello? can i ask you something? can i wear shorts down for the interview?"
"what do you think?"
"can u help me ask the boss whether i can wear shorts down to the interview? the weather's really hot..."
"can you please wear long pants?"
"can i don't wear? can you help me ask the boss? the weather's really hot!"
"please wear long pants."
"then can i wear t-shirts?"
"please wear at least a polo T-shirt or something decent"
"polo T???? the weather's extremely hot and u want me to wear a polo-T?"
"excuse me sir...on a personal note... do you want to wear something that'll give the boss a bad impression of you?"
"oh whatever..."
I was really amazed by the type of question that person asked. It's not a school interview. It's a job interview.

Anyway....halfway throughout the day, the boss ended up selling games because there was no game IC. hahaha.... danny was grabbed from vivo back to amk. Finally, the 3 of us reunited in amk...but we were kept busy. I was rather pekchek answering those calls...(and they came non-stop), and i had to do product information, collect money for books, scan stuffs....all simultaneously... oh wow...i felt as if i was an octopus.

At the end of the day...i tendered my resignation! the lady boss refused to take... i told her i was just shifting my resignation only slightly earlier but she refused to accept...The lady boss referred me to the boss. It felt as if i was asking my mum for permission to go out and she directed me to my dad for permission. The next moment, i just passed her my resignation letter (i gave her a month's notice). she passed it to her baby... =.="' i don't care la...i'm leaving on 30th june... =)

I went out for supper with peiching and danny...i like listening to them chat. I get to hear plenty of gossips plus their personal love lives... lol...

When i reached home, i found out that i received the reply from PSC after the interview. I was rejected by them anyway... and directed somewhere else. I don't dare to assume much from the short letter, so i've decided to wait longer for further details before thinking further about my future.

it's me again at [10:17 AM]

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Monday, May 28, 2007

ok. obviously, the previous entries were transferred from livejournal back to my old blog here. I guess i was trying to avoid the reality that i'm incapable of altering the appearance of my livejournal. hahaz...whatever the reason...i'm back to using this.

I've been really tired of working nowadays. Facing many troubles and problems in the shop now. In march, i was trying to quit. I didn't quit ultimately because i felt a need to be responsible for a promise i made, which ensured my employment. Also, i felt an obligation to "help" others there. The shop is constantly facing a shortage of manpower anyway. I guess, it was the friendship cultivated there that caused me to persist on for a moment.

However, as time passes, friendships were lost. Danny was posted away. Yoyo was fired. While i kept in contact with them, the shop was no longer the same. Never mind the fact that new colleagues were employed, and others were transferred here. To add on to the accumulating problems, the boss had a changed attitude towards workers. He was no longer caring, and blamed us mindlessly for any mistake committed, or work undone. It's as if we had the time to clear up the mess created by the customers when we are so preoccupied with sales, and the 200+ boxes that arrive without fail every month when we thought we finally had the time to clear up something. I feel that i've been blamed of something every moment while working. I'm not the only victim of course. the main victim's dajie. She's blamed for everything. And she's currently unstable in a certain sense.

So a few days ago, 200+ boxes of goods from china just arrived. there were no extra workers (only one self-proclaimed part-timer). There were only the usual number of people working.

One cashier, one salesgirl, one game-ic, one technician. I was the only extra one out, so i was busy trying to settle those 200+ boxes. the self-proclaimed part-timer was more than useless. He was completely ignorant of my commands. i told him to check every single box so that those containing stationery would not be left out. He went out and came in promptly. "done!" he said.

After that, i dragged liying(who came to my rescue for only a day) out to check those boxes again. We found 5 more. And those boxes were in very conspicuous places. I guess, his definition of stationery is rather narrow, or he probably forgot the meaning of stationery. I was utterly irritated with him. He's not only not helping me, he was giving me more trouble.

After the stationery-containing boxes were carried into the shop, the stationery was laid out and price labelled. Since everyone was armed with a label gadget, and i wasn't, i went out to label the boxes. They weren't easy to move. Some were extremely heavy.

I looked around helplessly hoping help would come, but it never arrived. I don't know how much muscles i've strained to get those boxes up and down. fortunately, liying came out halfway. she helped me with the boxes. thanks a lot!

However, after a while, liying had to leave and i was all alone to deal with the mess created inside n outside. while stationery was taken out to be priced, they were not packed properly and left aside. I was left irritated. I have to deal with a mess created by others. and guess wad? the self-proclaimed part-timer was slacking all the way at the back of the shop, probably sms-ing and doing nothing. AFter which, he found himself a place at the game counter where he wasn't employed to be. He wasn't selling anything, juz standing there, not doing anything, and obviously not helping me. He was supposed to be packing goods, not selling games. A girl to pack 200+ boxes of stuffs without help and paid only a measly 4bucks an hour. I was challenged mentally and physically.

After that, dajie asked me to stop packing those goods and to help with the ordering of taiwan books. So i went into the office to help scan those order lists. The computer gave me a whole load of problems. and the technician is obviously not around to help me settle some problems. I couldn't email the order lists in the end.

Another problem i faced was dinner. I remember asking the dinner buyer(the self-proclaimed part-timer) to buy my food and the boss' maid's (rita) food. he returned promptly (again). he bought only the guys' food. The girls had no food simply because he dunno where the shop was. so shiling went down instead to buy and i had to leave my job post to take over hers. When i was about to have my dinner, i found out that he did not buy the maid's food. I was really angered. I was facing a dilemma at the same time. I ate only breakfast and i was really hungry for dinner. but it's either, rita going hungry or me. Rita is really nice to me and i like consulting her regarding many problems (other than work). She still has to work when she gets home with the boss. So i gave her my dinner. And i went hungry. At the end of the day, i could really feel myself on the verge of breaking down. When i left (avoiding having to OT), the boss' child waved goodbye. i didn't notice because i was really lethargic. Then the boss called me and said (supposedly jokingly but i was not in a mood to joke), "hey, y r u so disrespectful? my boy's saying goodbye!" i would appreciate the fact that i'm senior and your child's junior and it's morally right for him to respect me and say goodbye. thanks

when i was walking out, i could feel tears welling up (even at this moment while i'm typing).

These few days, i was doing plenty of overtime. at this moment, i don't really feel like going into the details.

on friday, while packing newly arrived taiwan books...

i found out that 200+ boxes of goods were arriving, and the boss was looking for part-timers. Ahpek said that the boss was employing them for 50 a day, and told ahpek to look for a few of them. the next moment, i broke out. they are paid 50 dollars a day and i, also a part-timer, is paid only a measly 44 hours a day working myself to death and having to juggle multiple tasks at the same time. I was really angry. however, i'm not one who starts cursing when angry, or throws my tasks aside or go crazy. I went emotional and the next moment i knew it, i was crying. ahpek was trying to console me but i knew, the more he consoled, the more i cried. I was facing a problem called extreme exploitation. I can only say that i'm stupid to persist in this line. I'm really stupid. I don't regret because i've learnt. but i can only say that i'm stupid to learn this way. I cried really badly in the shop for the first time and i guess my colleagues were really scared.

No extra pay for working OT. No extra pay for working at night. No extra pay for working on weekends. No extra pay for working on public holidays. The life of a part-timer in that shop? I sell books. i promote books for rental. i do cashier's jobs. i do cleaner's jobs by tidying the place from time to time, collecting books and placing them on shelves and cleaning up dirt left behind by customers. i do delivery jobs. i do collector's jobs. i do technician's jobs by repairing computers. I do labourer's jobs by carrying plenty of stuffs. I do administrative work, the scanning and stuffs. i receive complaints, deal with complaints and whatever. That's not all. All the jobs the rest don't wanna do are thrown to me. and i'm paid 4bucks an hour. thanks. i can only say. I'm really stupid, dumb, blind and i'm a real idiot. thanks.

it's me again at [12:56 AM]

(entry on 14th march transferred from livejournal)
I think i like the idea of posting entries periodically? I've doing a lot of that... So many things happened in a month and i realised, i simply can't be bothered to update about them! i shall summarise them...CNY: not bad lah... quite a few angbaos. I can feel that many of my aunties are still using those red packets from years ago. The design hasn't changed. Oh well, i throw away those angbaos eventually. The highlight of cny is still meeting up with my cousins. Although i'm not very close to my cousins at my mother's side, we still talk of course. Just that, the content is rather different. I still remembered that during my cousin's wedding, i was sitting with those girls. However, they were simply talking about fashion and stuffs like that. Things that i'm not really interested in. Although i spent the effort to wear a skirt there, each of them was still more dazzling and attractive than me. I've managed to surprise a few people though. So during cny, i spent most of my time mapling in my little cousin's room >.(end of transferred entry)

it's me again at [12:55 AM]

(entry on 13th february 2007 transferred from livejournal)
i had my day off yesterday and today, i'm back to work.i had a face-to-face meeting with irene today. i thought she was a rather strict person but she seems rather nice. Peiching, yoyo and irene started ranting about clothes. Yes, we had our company dinner today. The day was rather tiring. From the time i started work, i had been packing books for the different branches. Then i had been transferring books which were left at a corner during the renovations. Not only so, i had to arrange those books on the shelves. The number shelves is pathetically small and obviously not enough for the cartons of books. We resorted to stacking them on top of the shelves and trying to maintain the rest as neatly as before on the shelves. I still have 10 or more boxes of manga to go and i'm beginning to wonder, when i'm gonna finish packing those books as neatly as i could. I sort of doubt i could do so alone, or even with the help of the rest. What's more? there's hundreds of boxes of franchise to be packed for the franchise stores and the other branches. i was packing books non-stop and for the first time, i didn't only feel tired, but also felt like vomiting. the tendency to vomit grew stronger while i continued unpacking n arranging those books. i'm not sure whether it's the smell of the books or what, but i was certainly not feeling very well.i was quite glad 7pm was coming because it means we are closing shop soon and i can stop arranging books. i practically did nothing for the sales today. At the end of the day, all my khakis had gathered at the shop. in the morning, there were danny, yoyo, peiching, angie (surprisingly), qiaoli n nick from the yishun branch (who was hmmm....supposedly good-looking according to peiching. he's surprisingly young too.... he's younger than me although he looks older than me =.='"). then nick n qiaoli left for the other branches. xinyi n junyeong came later to join the crowd at the amk branch. all of us were busy with books for the entire day. Company dinner was held at Pariss at Taka. Cool eh... i've always dreamt of eating there, hopefully during my parents' birthdays or something. i gorged on the seafood (haha...i'm a typical greedy pig). There were sashimi and abalone! i even had goose liver (which was deemed rich men's food). and of course...ice cream and cakes!! well, it was a treat from the boss what. i thought we will have some sort of company meeting first when we have all the bad news or whatsoever. unexpectedly, it was not held. i was very full at the end of dinner. i was busy eating n interacting with other colleagues from the yishun branch (since i know the rest from toapayoh n amk already). I even drank beer! cool... well, it seems that people from the vivo, yishun, amk n tpy branches know each other fairly well... =)at the dinner, the boss bro came over to ask me something. i was rather shocked, only to find out that all he wanted to noe was how the aircon at tpy was working... i gave him a simple reply, "i'm at amk..." then i spotted another men at the shop. he was the one i followed while he carried chairs from the amk shop. i think he's the boss in charge of other branches. =.= oh my...i tot he was a friend of the boss or something.After the dinner, we took photos with each other as if we were close friends. i quite like the atmosphere. i like the yishun branch and i hope i can be posted there soon... tpy is as good. i just want to avoid amk since i'm under the scrutiny of the boss every second...
(end of transferred entry)

it's me again at [12:54 AM]

(post on 12th feb 2007 transferred from livejournal)
It has been a long time since i last blogged... I've decided to switch blogs because blogger is throwing me tons of problems... I've to register a google account and what-not for the sake of uploading an entry? Oh gosh... and what's more... after requiring me to register a google account, the page simply doesn't want to load proper for me. I couldn't proceed hence i've decided to switch to livejournal... following the crowd eh? Anyway, i've started working and i'm quite sure the whole world knows about it. I've started working at a comics shop! The working hours are hectic. I guess only workaholics can take that sort of work schedule. I'm not a 100% workaholic though. but i dedicate myself to my work totally, which sort of means that i don't slack at work or things like that. I first started out working at Toa Payoh. On my first day of work, i had a hard time trying to find the shop i was going to work at. It's along a row of shops facing the road less frequently ventured by people. I walked round the whole of Toa Payoh central during my great search for the shop. I think that's the reason why i know almost every corner of Toa Payoh central now. At least, i can calculate the shortest route i need to take from any bus stop to the shop. By the way, Ying Huo Chong De Meng was filmed at that shop! i haven't started working there then, but i could recognise the maple cards displayed there in the show. When i first started out, i do what newbies do. I sweep the floor, clear the bins and stuffs like that. Peiching was my mentor. She taught me how to use the systems at the counter as well as the cashier box. That's a whole lot of information to memorise. Anyway, as i was not used to those systems, i was rather slow. Peiching stood by me to guide me. She's a bit strict though. Then i started out collecting books the customers read, and putting them back on the shelves. I can take hours looking for the position of a certain series. There's a whole range of books there. I was overwhelmed by the amount of books, ranging from novels to manga. I walked around for the entire day and at the end of the day, i was completely shagged. My feet ached like hell. I haven't walked kilometres for ages. For the second day (it was a saturday), customers were flocking in. The influx of customers left me panicking sometimes because i couldn't handle them quickly. I left many waiting. Fortunately, Peiching was an extremely efficient person. The queue shortened rapidly. My feet ached much more on saturday because i walked tons more. For the rest of the days, my feet didn't ached as badly. This is probably my feet is used to walking for 11hours. My other colleagues at the shop are Ahyee n xinyi. That's 3 "yi-s" at a single shop. They are very nice people. However, as time passes, i hear more gossips. Politics in a shop i guess? Angie came after a week when Peiching was transferred to the main branch in amk. Angie worked in amk initially. I had a new mentor after a week. She's a nice person too, though she was not as efficient as Peiching. I could sense that from how she managed the accounts. Peiching takes only 5mins. And for that one week when peiching was around, i could leave the shop for home before 10, despite many errors i made while collecting money. However, when angie was in charge of settling the accounts, she took rather long. For that few days, i left shop at about 10.30pm. haiiz... Junyeong came a few weeks later. I began calling him gorgor after xinyi started calling him that. Well, he's older than me ma... He's a nice person, but a wee bit blur too. He's super talented in music! lol...There's 2 levels in a single shop. i was employed to take care of the upper level. For the first few days, there was peiching to guide me. After peiching left, i was left to guard the entire level myself sometimes. i felt rather stressed because i wasn't used to the environment there. Worse off, i wasn't good at introducing books, especially novels. What's more? i can't handle phonecalls yet because i don't even know what series are available and till which book is a certain series available. Sales was maintained at the target amount even though i haven't really gone about promoting books. wahhh.... As time passes, i got to know more customers. Most of them are regulars, especially those borrowing wuxia novels. I learnt the art of introducing novels despite not knowing any content. The longer i worked, i know which series are more popular. Hence i could introduce them to other customers. Most of them are old uncles. Whereas those renting comics range from students to aunties. I made a few friends there and i even exchanged emails with them. Hopefully, i can meet a few on msn. Well, the way i deal with customers is rather interesting. I treat them as friends, rather than strangers. I speak to them as though we are very close friends, using a polite yet casual tone. Of course, i don't go on ranting about books all the time. Sometimes we chat. I'm not sure whether that's considered slacking, but i guess i'm used to promoting books and chatting with them at the same time. Sometimes, i complain to them about my work schedule, the boss, and other things. When i'm depressed, and i go to work with a heavy heart, the site of them really makes me cheer up. Words of concern from them really makes me feel happier. At the end of the day, i leave my work with a cheerful mood. I like my customers there =)On saturday (the most recent one), i went to work only to find out that i've been transferred to the main branch where the boss work... Wah... before that, i've heard many things about the boss. I felt very stressed out as i have to live under the scrutiny of the boss. Somemore, i've to deal with sales which has never been good at the main branch. This gives the boss more reasons to reprimand me and stuffs. Not only so, there's the lady boss there. After working for two days, i really missed my days at the tpy branch even though i'm quite stressed out there too. Just that, it's much worse working with the boss around. what's more? i've to submit something called "personal sales" to indicate how many books i've managed to "sell out". Not like there's many customers around for me. And it's not like i'm more experienced than peiching when it comes to familiarity with books and stuffs like that. Presently, i'm taking this as a challenge. but how much more can i take it? i'm not very sure. i started my practical driving lessons already. Combining that with work, i think my body can't take it. when my body fails me, i don't think i can take it mentally either... haiiiz... looking forward to more rest days when cny comes...
(end of transferred entry)

it's me again at [12:52 AM]

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