|
Monday, February 11, 2013/ 2:22 AM Last Day of Work  The last day of work was also the first time I received a treat from my customer. She was feeling incredibly bad for taking a long time to decide on her purchases, and it was the third time I have seen her in the store already. Finally, I also deserved my chance of working in the flagship store, although it was just over an hour. Mostly, I have felt very well-loved by my customers and several of my colleagues. It may have been a short period and a mere sales associate job, but it has given me much insight into people, interactions and attributes. With my previous sales job, it was just me manning the entire store, occasionally with friends coming over to accompany me in my boredom, and chatting with the shopping centre's security guard. Much drama ensued, like the pervert trying to get me to help him with his pants, thief coming into the store (but thankfully the security guard was with me at that time), middle aged man visiting me everyday and wanting to give me money without any purchases, several visits from the korean businessman attempting to ask me out for drinks. This time, it was almost everything on a magnified scale. Most memorable was the thief occasion, where I discovered my hidden interest of stalking. I was with a new colleague at that time, and she did not have previous experience of being a sales assistant before. When the two PRC girls came into the store, I was thinking they would simply wreck the whole store and not purchase anything, which is a distinctive trait for PRC girls (not discriminating). There was a policy in the store for one salesperson to one/group of customers so that no snatching would occur, and it was the new colleague who was approaching them. They separated really far in the store and kept 'taking up and putting down' products, so I was also keeping a watch on them. Then, a new group of customers came in, who I have to take charge of. When I turn around, I spotted one of the PRC girls holding a wallet and has walking out of the store, but when she saw me staring at her, she pretended to turn back into the premises. Hence, I warned my colleague about her and proceeded to serve my customers, but based on the CCTV, she did not take my advice and the thief put the wallet into her bag at that time. We still did not realise the wallet was taken when they left. However, they actualy came back for a second time in attempt to take the longer version of the same wallet. There were quite a few people at the wallet gallery at that time so they could not make their attempt. It was after they left again, the wallet was discovered to be lost. As the CCTV was really blur, we thought we would not be able to track down the thiefs. To our surprise, they were daring enough to go into the flagship store the next day, and the colleagues there recognised them as one of the thiefs carried our brand's bag, making them easy to recognise. They called me over to confirm the thiefs, in which one of our colleagues have already witnessed them stealing kimchi and mandarin oranges.. I continued to stalk the thieves with them until the police came. It was realllly fun like how we hid in the clothing stores, hiding being pillars in the food court, trying to keep a distance and pretending nothing is happening. When the police came there was a huge crowd staring at us, as expected of Singaporeans. The police took our names and numbers, questioned them and moved to the control room before they checked their bags to find not only the lost wallet, but also many food like chocolate, kimchi, moisturisers, etc. However, all the loot were found on only one of them, and she confessed but the other did not. They came to apologise the subsequent day too and said they would pay for the wallet, but all of us suspected it was their tactic for a lighter punishment. The other occasion that affected me psychologically was the china stalker. These cases are supposed to be small and easy to handle, but this one was really extreme enough to make me feel hes around everywhere and he will just appear like that any second. His initial desperate attempts were lying to my colleague to get her number and then get close to me, trying to portray himself as rich saying he can get friends to buy bags in the store, giving me a phone when I said I am going to change my phone, saying the price of the LV bag I am carrying, saying that I look like his dead ex-gf and showed me her picture which was like some googled up tw model, bringing drinks for me everyday, msging me on facebook when I didnt even reply him, lying that he has changed store, following me all the way to the MRT and bus stop, trying to stalk me during my breaks, passing by my store a million times a day and even bringing his friends to look at me. He could even message my colleague and ask why after all that he has done I am still not touched by him. That was scary, not touching. My requests to change my store was ignored, which made me quite disappointed at the company. When I thought he has stopped following me for several days, he turned up at the food court during my break and self invited himself to sit with me and have his meal with me. I already saw him pacing around me when I was buying food and purposely detoured before sitting behind a pillar. He bought drinks over and I thought it was the end of it, but no, he took his food over to eat with me even when I told him I want to eat alone. I was so pissed off and I told him straight in the face that I already said I want to eat alone but he just wants to force himself to sit down with me, and so he left. No, that was not the end, whilst eating halfway he came again to say hes leaving. And, I thought it was the end. But not again, he was waiting for me to finish at the entrance of the food court, and when I came out he could say 'oh what a coincidence' and tried to walk with me back. Never felt like hitting someone so bad. One of the hawkers in the food court did pass me a note through his friend asking to be friends and gave me his number, but did not attempt to find me after I did not respond. Guys should definitely stop once rejected, because usually further attempts simply make you more detestable.. Work drama was really at its peak. The store I was working at was the one no one likes working at. Its not simply the freezing cold central cooling system, but the low sales, and the horrendous colleagues. For a very long time, ever since primary 6, and one more occasion during year 11, I have not came to the point to be angry at a friend or dislike someone. Last year, I met 3, and 2 of them are my colleagues from this store. These 3 were essentially the same kind of people. Immature, two-faced, put on shows, think of themselves as the greatest and the smartest. Those 2 colleagues were really good friends, one part time, one full time. No one liked them or enjoyed working with them, and my other colleague at the store has also argued with them several times before. She ended up quitting as she could not take the drama, but likewise the part timer also quitted, but it was definitely a show of immature feat. Despite my nice talk to the part timer, the part timer thinks she is some queen or something and that she knows everything, but if I wasn't nice I would have told her straight in the face if she knows she is from the worst school in Singapore. Being new there at that time, she exploited this by stealing my customer, not giving any help at all. When the store manager was there, she tried to portray me as stupid by saying things like 'it's just there, cant you see' without giving a specific location. However, the more you portray others as stupid, you are portraying yourself as dumb. The manager just gave her attitude and agreed with me to just show me where the things are when she is done with her work. Immature no? People I really cannot stand. As the part timer decided to quit, the full timer attitude changed 360 degrees once after she left, she became just like her even when I thought of her to be nice at first. Her physical pushing, dropping boxes on me without apologising, disrespectful calling without a name, telling me to teach her to do stuff in a rude way, wow, it really was the last straw. When the store manager was around she would be this person, and when not around, she would be the evil bitch. It was a pity I had to work with her every single day until the last few days of my work that the store manager decided to switch her store so she could watch her. This was the main reason that led to my early resignation of the job. Still, this job led me to experience a lot, positive and negative alike. I was praised a lot for my patience and helpfulness, and socialising with people from all walks of life and different ages was definitely beneficial. Mostly instead of a customer relationship, I turn the chat into something personal so that they would feel like they are talking to a friend, not only does it make it easier to sell, but also let me understand and know more about many aspects. What I enjoyed most was the chance to interact with Japanese customers, even if they do not purchase, it is alright for me. It was surprising one of them was a Japanese teacher before. Another customer visited the store a lot of times, and also sometimes just to see me, we would chat and all despite my lousy japanese, and most of the time she purchases my recommendations. On my second last day of work she came too, which she thought was my last day, and we exchanged contacts. She is actually borned in like 1975 where theres a huge age gap between us, but we are really comfortable with each other :) Now, I am hoping I can get the new job at passionflower when I am back in Sydney! But of course, studies will always take precedence in this period of time. After work, I had reunion dinner with my sister, it was the first time that it is just the two of us, and no matter what, I hope every year we will still be able to sit together to have this meal despite our differences. Like this time, we had some arguments before our dinner, but on the table, I prayed aloud on how stress takes its toll on us and affects one's temper, but we just hope to have a calm and happy reunion dinner now. The food was not up to par and prices soared as it was Chinese New Year Eve, stores are mostly closed. Had coconut, crab, clams and kankong, need to apologise to my gums! My sister's temper is still like before, taking out her unhappiness on family. I was able to tolerate that time, because my mum was with me, and also perhaps 'shared' this with me. However, it has came to a point I cannot simply tolerate anymore with all the stabbing and I would just retaliate. I hope in the period I am away, she would be able to reflect and calm down herself as there would be no one for her to take out upon anymore. I hope to see her as a changed person when I would be back near the end of the year. Previous Next |
