Sorting Strays and Other Things

Strays: Trolleys filled with books that were previously on the shelf, but were unwrapped due to customers' requests.

Don't pretend you don't know what they are >_>. They are those pile of books you ask to peek inside only to end up purchasing just one or none at all. Those books fill up at least one trolley per day. It's normal to end up with at least one and a half trolleys of them in a day. Those books can't go back on the shelf naked. They need to be shrink-wrapped again before displaying. And who's the poor bastard who has to slave away wrapping them??? ME of course!

Next time you want to ask for books to be unwrapped, think about poor lil ol me...

Hijacking: to take over an unmanned wrapping machine whose current user is away usually temporarily.

I'm not always not guilty of this, but most of the time I find myself on the receiving end. I'll be away to the toilet or the surau (which would take longer) and when I come back someone else would be have already pushed my trolley aside and park theirs in its place, slaving away on my machine. It's not like they have the decency ti go away after that. Placing my apron with my nametag on the trolley was not enough. Once I even purposely left a pile of books on the machine to keep away invaders - and they still came! Unsurprisingly it's those folks over at CBD (Chinese Books Dept) who often hijack me. Pfftt.

CBD: Hijackers.

EBD: Hard workers.

xD

EBD Unit 3: People whose lives are expected to shorten by 50%

We got a new part-timer last week which means I'm no longer the newest person around, which is awesome xD. Dramatically I see our workload decrease. Full-timers now concentrate on manning the counter while displaying are mostly left to part-timers. Yes, we are being classified like that. Full-timers handle all the administrative stuff while part-timers become their hands and legs.

Being someone else's hands and legs is tiring work...but I would rather this physical pain than mental ones heh.

When I started work I was prepared to work with people of varying ages. I was surprised though that most of the floor staffs turned out pretty young. Must be that age limit thing as a condition of employment.

I made friends xD.

Ta'ra!

It finally Happened

Believe it.

I just finished my first week and it was TAXING! The retail industry is full of repeatitive work that needs to be done all day every day. No wonder part timers are in high demand. Who ever said getting a job here is hard??

I drove all the way to Shah Alam to get someone to teach me how to do a resume. Emailed it. Got a call the next day and was called up for an interview the next week. I called on Wednesday and they said they were still considering where to place me. Called me back the next day and by Friday I was trying out uniforms for size. I was already clocking in by Monday morning. I wasn't alone though. There was another newbie at the customer service counter.

So far I learned about book returns, shelf packing, wrapping and displaying. I am placed in the English Books Department; the biggest department (just look at our water bottles shelf space). EBD is divided into four more units. I'm in unit 3; again, the biggest. Size is determined by the amount of floor space and genres that fall under our unit.

Now, I enjoy being out in the store displaying books and such, but if I am in a section that I havent been briefed about, I get nervous when customers ask me about where to find this book or that book. I am even more nervous when I wandered into areas that fall under other units. I have no clue at all! On the contrary, I've been spending two days in the logistics section, wrapping trolleys-load of books. While it's not as dynamic as being outside, and you have to stand all day, inhaling burnt plastic fumes, at least you can talk to anyone else doing logistics about random topics.

Like today.

There were two other part-timers doing logistics. And apparently we're all gamers! What coincidence! This is actually a very rare occasion. Working in a bookstore, not everyone likes reading books. But since most full-timers have resigned themselves to the fate, they are usually not as playful as part-timers who are rarely specialised in a certain field of the job. So we talked. From books to movies, to histories, to games. A lot of people get bored of these subjects quickly so when you found two other people who have the same interests as you, you can't help but run with it.

I wore a mask today so the fumes didnt get to me as badly as yesterday. So, inside doing logistics or outside on the sales floor, they are both not bad.

I don't know what it is about seniors and superiors. They obviously need you to do the grunt work, but they won't admit that your job is just as important as theirs. Imagine if there were no part timers picking up the slack. Those logistics staff are not sufficient to handle all those wrapping. I'm not asking to be appreciated. Our unit chief and assistants were already too grateful that I did this and that as if I was doing them a favor (I'm paid by the hour after all). But it does get tiring and once in a while you do need a five minutes break. It doesn't mean that you're slacking off. It just means that you're being human. ....Especially at the break-neck pace they were demanding of you.

Still. I would rather this physical exhaustion than the mental and emotional exhaustion of management.

That said, I got my standard issue penknife last Tuesday. Anybody up for an unwrapping? ^_^

Ta'ra!

I should Blog. Or Something.

It has been a pretty fruitful raya harvest. the harvest started even before raya where I got comissioned to add my beads to someone's bracelet. XD I've never done it before so I charged for half a bracelet. She found it ok too hehehehe.

I thought we had a lot of cotton prepared for our raya debut, but we udnerestimated the crowd a little. Before the seven days were even over, almost half of them were either sold or reserved. And yes, the depletion was pretty obvious towards the end. >_> We need to get some more, but there wouldn't be any more new stock until the end of the year. Until then though...hehehehehe.

Quite unexpectedly, I got more bracelet orders than earrings. Of course, due to my own lack of promotion. Anyway, I got a decent amount of orders during the raya holidays. Which in turn allowed me to buy more chains. I even got a new type of chain with big rings. Perfect for charm bracelets. But perhaps again, due to my own lack of promotion, the original chain is still more popular. However, I get 4 free bells attached to the chains when I bought them, so that means I dont have to charge more for bells anymore, which used to cost me 4 ringgit a piece. Uurgh.

I think I have enough chain to last me till I can next go back to Kuching. If not then I'm gonna have to send for some.

A shoutout to all my highschool friends: PLEASE RETRIEVE YOUR CAMBRIDGE CERTIFICATE FROM SCHOOL. Thank you.

I'll have more to say later, with pics. Ta'ra!