Little-Wonder.Net

27 July, 2005

Fare thee well, workplace.

21:12:31 | Work | writebacks (13)

Yesterday was rather significant, as it marked the day of the very last accident I am ever going to have at my workplace.

I am sure the question lurking in the minds of everyone at this point is; What makes Brenda so certain that she is never going to have any more clumsy encounters at work?

Simple. I resigned.

But no, I didn’t resign because I was constantly making mistakes at work. I merely resigned because I wanted to give myself a month-long break from everything before University starts next month. It’s high time I sat myself down for a good rest, and to recharge my batteries before proceeding on with anything else.

Back to the actual scene. Call it over-confidence, or anything to that extent. Somehow, I overly estimated my ability at balancing when I was carrying a tray with several half-filled cups of water after clearing the table for a customer. At that point in time, I was trying to spin around to face the side-station so that I can replace a piece of damp cloth back in it’s basket.

Apparently, I was moving a little too fast, because one of the cups went flying out of my tray in the opposite direction of which I was heading to. The next thing I knew;

CLING! CLING! CLANG! CLANG!

In a split-second, the eyes of everyone in the vicinity was on me. But somehow, yesterday must have been my lucky day, because none of those eyes belonged to anyone of my supervisors or managers. For some strange reason, none of them were at the scene.

The contents of the cup also flew in almost all directions, and spotted the garments of one of the customers nearby. Thankfully, whatever she was wearing wasn’t a Prada, or a Gucci, or any of those hideously branded clothing.

I also managed to pop up the entire mess without leaving any trace that it actually took place.

That is, I hope, the very last time that I will ever show my clumsy self at a workplace. Because Brenda is never going to take up a job in the Food and Beverage industry ever again. The next time I get around to seeking another part time job, I am going to weigh the pros and cons about the job description before I decide, instead of simply jumping on the bandwagon in a haste like how I did with this job.

Today was also significant, albeit in another way. Yes, it was my last day at work. Although I wasn’t quite fond of my job, I will have to admit that I will miss almost everything about my workplace. From my co-workers, the grumpy manager, the collection of old shoes in the staff lavatory, the nagging of my supervisors, and even the difficult customers.

Despite bring around for a mere two months, at least I’ve managed to forge a bond between some of my co-workers, and I do hope that we will keep in touch. To each and everyone of them, thank you for making my first proper job a memorable experience. This particular job had certainly been an emotional roller coaster ride of trials and tribulations.

Needless to say, I brought home several momentos from my workplace;

Continue reading this entry »

08 July, 2005

Not working hard enough?

23:54:29 | Ranting, Work | writebacks (11)

I am sick of working, and the temptation to simply resign on the spot is simply overwhelming. An incident happened at work today which changed my impression of most of my co-workers there, and left me terribly frustrated.

This entry was initially filled with excessive cursing, but I decided to censor myself after much thought. Nobody deserves to go through an entire entry full of vulgarities, because we’re all innocent beings.

I can only say this much. I detest people nagging at me to work harder when I am already very stressed. I was already working so hard that almost everyone could see the crease lines on my forehead as I worked. I was trying my very best to work fast to accomodate the large influx of customers, but apparently the supervisors and managers don’t even adknowledge my efforts. Instead, they were complaining about me.

I overheard one of my co-workers at the ice cream counter remarking; “Today’s crowd isn’t considered that bad. But look at the state of Station 1! The Station 1 crew aren’t good at all!” (For your information, the restaurant is divided into two stations and for tonight, I happened to be allocated to station 1.)

Another supervisor then spoke to me and said that when the restaurant is busy, I should not be so laid-back and relaxed.

I nearly exploded at her when she said that. I was working my head off clearing tables, refilling glasses, attending to customers, carrying overloaded trays, pouring soup into bowls at such a fast rate that I scalded myself twice.

Do you call this laid back?

The spark that ignited the fuse came along when one of the managers complained that I had to work a little faster when I was in the midst of clearing three tables at a time. I was already rushing from table to table collecting soiled dishes and had to manage an overloaded tray when I have an elbow injury. Furthermore, I was so stressed at that moment that I just wanted to scream.

I didn’t scream. Instead, I broke down since I couldn’t handle it anymore.

I don’t bother about what my co-workers are talking about behind my back. I don’t even give a damn about what they think of me after this whole incident. Go ahead and whisper! I’ve already come to terms with the fact that working in the F & B line is not for me, and that I am hopeless when it comes to being a waitress.

Go on, talk behind my back! Backstab me all you want! Brenda is hopeless. Fine, I know. I’ve already accepted that.

I know I am going to hear stuff like “That’s how the real world is like” and “That’s working life for you”. But no, I don’t believe in cliches. So what if this is working life? So what if this is the real world?

Such scenarios simply indicate how screwed up this so-called real world is like, so we’re just going to sit back and accept it, with the mentality that “Oh, the world is like this…”, thinking that nothing we can do can salvage how degrading we are starting to become?

07 July, 2005

I’m sick of hearing my name.

23:55:58 | Ranting, Work | writebacks (10)

I was very distracted today, as too many things were going through my mind. University matters, friendship matters, money matters were weighing me down at the moment and there was no escape from it. The brain is only capable of handling this much before it goes into a daze. Needless to say, I was in a daze pretty much the whole day.

I made several mistakes at work, until I could literally hear the nagging of my supervisor ringing in my ears as I proceeded on with my work. Is it my imagination, or does it seem as though she is picking on me? She nags at me for the tiniest, teeniest mistakes, and the tone that she uses when rebuking me makes me feel like some uneducated kindergarthen kid.

“Brenda, did you do this? You placed the order slip into the wrong pigeon hole!” she snaps, muttering tsktsk as she walks away from me.

“Brenda, the customer ordered a banana split and she wanted to change all the ice-cream flavours to chocolate, not just the chocolate topping!”

“Brenda, put the milk back into the fridge!” (I had absent-mindedly left the milk behind after preparing a customer’s drink as I was so lost in thought. It was a wonder that I managed to make the customer’s drink correctly!)

“Brenda! Did you use this?” she shrieks, pointing at a leaky tap dripping water all over the counter tabletop. I swear, I closed the tap after I used it!.

“Brenda, you gave the customer the wrong cutlery for her brownie!”

Okay, the last one I don’t understand. Swensens’ Brownie is served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top, and the brownie biscuit itself is pretty hard. However, the stipulated cutlery to be given for that food item was just one long spoon. Hello? Have you ever heard anything more ridiculous? How can you eat a brownie with a long spoon? That is almost comparable with trying to drink soup with a fork.

For the uninitiated, the size of the long spoon was similar to the size of a tea spoon only with a longer handle.

So I gave that customer a fork and a spoon to make it more convenient for her. But this supervisor was so intent on going by the book, she actually told me off for my attempt to make the customer’s life easier. She even had the cheek to yank out the reference list and wave it in my face.

Needless to say, I was fuming mad. Oh, the injustice of it all!

All the endless nagging and ‘Brenda this, Brenda that!” during the five hours of my shift had left me so mentally drained that my face was literally black when I left my workplace. I was furious with both my supervisor and myself. What was wrong with me? What’s with all the mistakes?

So I went shopping to cool myself down, because shopping is one activity which enables me to relax. However, I was seething mad again by the time I reached home.

Why?

I was facing an empty wallet.