First Job

I have left that job on the final day of June 2013. Looking back at the three months I've spent in the shop makes me think that it's worth it and appreciated it very much.

It all started in the near end of March, when my mom and I went to the shop together. My dad wants me to get a part time job to gain social experience, and I was like stuck in the middle. I wanted to get a part time job but I'm quite lazy to search for one, especially right after my National Service ended. We were greeted by the outlet head (this bookshop has a wide range of outlets all across Malaysia). The outlet head explained my duties and responsibilities as a retail assistant cum cashier in the shop and told us the working hours of the shop and the salary and so on. She realised that I am Chinese-literate, thus appointed me to the Chinese Department, where I will spend the next 3 months together with Chinese books and of course, my department head (I would prefer to call her 'supervisor' than 'head').

I've never expected that my job started on the 1st of April (damn, April Fools' Day?), working on morning shift. I remembered that I have arrived in front of the shop at 8a.m.. One of my colleagues arrived at half past eight. She opened the door and lead me to the office. She insisted me to wait for a while. Later, the admin of the shop walked in and told me to fill up some forms and told me to suit up with the shop personnel's uniform. I recalled that the only task I had that day was 'housekeeping' or tidying up the department, making sure that the books were arranged orderly and neatly.

Then there came the supervisor of my department. She's quite helpful and quite knowledgeable on books sold in the department. She had taught me how to deal with new stocks, starting from the moment the invoice was placed on the tray until the moment all new stocks have been placed on their desired bookshelves. Life couldn't be easier than that. The only problem I have encountered for the past three months was the 'storm' after weekends, especially in the children's zone. Comics wrapped with transparent plastic covers are totally ripped off and many of those plastic covers have dropped on the floor, which made the children's zone looked like a tornado passed by the zone. That was a horror story when I realised that the 'collectibles' can be filled in many baskets ... and my supervisor and I have to wrap all those 'collectibles' every single week ... with new stock coming in and minor disruptions.

Since I was also appointed to be a cashier (not everyday, but on selected ones), I have to be trained on how to be a cashier. It's quite simple, until when I realised that vouchers and coupons made my life as a cashier a whole lot crazier. For instance, the 1Malaysia Book Voucher (a.k.a. BB1M) is one of the vouchers that has complicated, time-consuming, queue-promoting procedures. I can say that on the night of the deadline of the BB1M, the shop went crowded and it were long queues on both counters (my shop has only 2 counters). The shop closed way later than usual, so as the clock-out time for my colleagues and I. That was an experience fought by sweat, brainpower, physical strength, the ability to greet customers without getting to drink some water and willpower ...

I have to admit that my colleagues are very nice. They are helpful and kind. The one obvious thing I had observed every single day during my 3-month stint was that jokes, laughters and awkward moves occurred every single day, indirectly creating a very positive work environment. Although the work was repetitive and sometimes boring, but with this work environment, it does make everybody's day better. There were sometimes that some of us went out to have meals. They knew that among 10 meals, I have eaten 9 Salted Fish Fried Rice. In reverse, I also did know their meal preferences. Some of them do love Thai Dessert, although it's not my favourite (no offence). They took care of me and had chats with me, asked me about my future prospects, my history etc. ... They were just awesome.

So far I admit that this has been my second major exposure and my first full-time exposure to the society. I hate to say this but I have to admit that the society is seriously unpredictable. You may come across nice people and the next minute you may face a disturbing customer. Some were good, polite, humble, caring, patient. Others may be moodless, cheapskate, aggressive, demanding, careless, even going to a state whereby foul languages and harsh gestures are used to express their fury. Yes, I admit that there are shortcomings of mine which may cause errors as a cashier, but sometimes they were just too 'over the moon'. I have tried to make customers leaving the counter, feeling satisfied of their purchased items and of their experience in the shop. I don't know that if they did feel like what I have mentioned in the last sentence, however I will move on to the next customer.

Overall, this has been the best part time job I've ever did to date. If only corporates can emulate the positive work environment in my shop, like my mom's. I would like to thank the outlet head, the supervisor of my department, my fellow colleagues and the admin, the suppliers and the customers so much for making my first job a memorable one. Moving on the my tertiary education years, I will certainly remember this experience ... and hope that in the next job, I will have a similar positive work environment like my first job.

I loved my job.