|
|
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
All right, it's been a while. Been pretty busy till Chinese New Year, then I got lazy, so put off whatever I've wanted to update till today.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, I'll talk about my working experience as a cashier. YES, a cashier. I actually worked as a cashier. All right, you guys who think that cashier is an easy job -- you're wrong. I had that thought too, that's why i agreed to work as a cashier. Actually it isn't really a difficult job, it's just taxing and tiring(not that i'm complaining or anything).
Firstly, my friends and I have to memorise the PLU codes (which are basically numbers that you have to key into the machine because there is no bar code) of quite a number of items which are mainly from the vegetables, fruits and fish sections. Actually it isn't really a problem because customers usually buy those few "standard" items, and for those items, after keying the numbers for 5143890226 times in a day, they can be remembered in one day. For me, the PLU codes aren't really a problem actually; it's recognising the fish and vegetables, fish especially. I do not really eat fish, so naturally i do not recognise them. No choice but to seek my seniors' help.
It's tiring because unlike certain supermarkets, cashiers have the luxury of sitting down when there are no customers, but for my case -- NO CHAIR. Well, it's not that I cannot bear with the long hours of standing -- it's my lower back. After long hours of standing, my lower back aches. Whenever i go to bed at night, when i finally relax, there's this pain in my lower back. Though it's painful but it's quite pleasurable, not that i'm a lover of pain, but it's something like massage when it's comfortable even though there's pain.
Well, as cashiers, you come into direct contact with customers and that sucks ass. I hate customer service. Well, some customers were pretty nice and understand that I'm new when I first started, so they were patient and gave me smiles. Some others were impatient as if they were rushing to die or maybe shit was leaking from their underpants. There was this instant when this little girl came to purchase items and she had insufficient cash, so she went out to get from the parents. This Indian man who got so impatient shouted at me and said, "Oei mister, can quick or not?!" Well, he's supposedly drunk, and not sober enough to notice that i can't do anything because the system is unable to handle two customers at the same time. The only way i can serve him first is to void all the items the girl had purchased, but that'll cause more trouble. Well, I had wanted to shout back at him but it was only my second day of work. I just looked away from his stinking face and continued to work. There is another kind of customers I hate, they are the people who act like they are very rich. They purchase two dollars worth of items and give my a fifty dollar note. And when I took a little more time (probably 2 or 3 more seconds) to ensure that I'm returning the correct change (because it's a $10 note you're talking about, if I return the change wrongly, it'll be docked from my pay), they give you the black face or just ask you hurry up. Seriously, I've finally seen how retarded and idiotic Singaporeans can be. I'm not going to list all the incidents down, it's too tormenting to recall.
The customers are really screwed up, and I don't really blame the customer service in Singapore for being bad to Singaporeans. Many complain that foreigners are treated better -- that's because these foreigners treat those serving them nicely, usually with smiles and 'thank you's. From my experience, the foreigners I've served so far are very nice. One of them even gave me a pat on my shoulder and told me to work hard. You see, there's never a one-way thing. You treat me nice, I'll treat you nice. Singaporeans can never understand this unless they end up in the service industry, because they are too self-centred.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nothing much else to talk about actually. I think I'll stop here. Shall update again some other day.
|
|
|
