Lemonnism

今天應該可以用數字來形容吧︰

上班: 第二天
吃午餐所花時間: 10 分鐘
雙腳無休息站立/走動狀態: 7 小時
工作時刮傷: 三痕
折衣服: 300 件
下班等公車: 1 小時
公車下交流道撞安全島次數: 2
手腳冰冷發抖發麻程度: 無法計算

不過為了存錢去倫敦,
it's all worth it.

我想我是瘋了, 才會選擇去 downtown 的 Zara 工作。我敢打賭整條 Robson 上的 sales associate 就屬 Zara 的最累。不僅店面龐大, 存貨又多, 外加超級大減價; 帶進了一堆瘋狂女人的結果, 就是讓我們做得喘不過氣。或許只有我？

別把在 Zara 工作想得太美, 其實每位員工都只能穿全黑制服。永遠有摺不完的衣服。還要爬高梯子拿存貨。補充貨源只限 15 分鐘。遇到很 bossy, 貴氣滿身的婦人又不能對她的過度要求說 no。她們不只是把你當 sales, 還把你當顧問, 當跑腿。這些我都願意做, 只是被 manager 看到了就不好。有的女人偏偏又很懶, 都已經跟她說全部的 size 都在現場她就偏要你找。

雖然是 part time, 但是每次上班總是要花掉一整天。基於上班要提前15分到, White Rock 公車又不頻繁, 總是要上班前兩小時出發, 來回加等公車時間就將近4小時。我想我會身心疲乏不是沒有原因...
我是真的頭殼壞掉。

唯一的好處大概就是: 四天減一公斤吧！

雖然今晚加班加到剛剛不久前才回家, 還是想拼了體能極限在此記錄一下儘三星期就滿滿滿的工作心得。

1. I couldn't exactly say how I feel about my job. Sometimes I hate it. Sometimes I enjoy it. Today, I know what it is. It's customer's attitude towards you! I always feel good if customers treat me the same way I treat them (of course I've always been nice and sincere), even though sometimes I really can't help them, e.g. missing bottoms/belts. I would even look through piles (or you can call it, mountains) of clothes for them if I know they're looking for particular style or size. But sometimes there are just some very b*tchy customers who treat you like you're inferior to them, like you have to clean their asses for them, just because they're rich. SNOBBY. And seriously, I see people like that every single day. And I HATE them. Life would be so much more wonderful without them. But still, I put on my smile when dealing with them.

2. Some people do shopping almost EVERYDAY!!! What's wrong with them!?!? I can really recognize those who have been in ZARA for the past few days.

3. I climbed a 3-meter ladder in order to replenish new clothes. No kidding, about 3 meter.

4. Tonight we had the third mark-down, meaning that I get to put one more lower-price sticker on each on-sale item. The sad thing is, what I bought for Mom just last week, now is 10 bucks less. And the worst things is, the sale will continue for another 2 weeks!!! I've never hated sale this much!!

5. My colleagues are all nice people. The "General Manager" is really nice too. She is now the "successful-female icon" I personally adore. And that's my goal.

Oh well, I hate to be whiny. But actually, overall, I like this job more now compared to my first week. Like I've said, most customers are still nice.

So be nice to the sales person when you're shopping.

Two people with two different reactions, when I was in charge of the fitting room:

Assistant Manager: "How come there's always a pile (of clothes) when you're here?"

General Manager: "Are you sorting out the hangers?" (Yes.) "That's my good girl!"

See, no wonder.

p.s. I'm not a baby, but when you have wrong impressions on me, you're a pig to me.

所以, Zara 的工作我辭掉了。

會想念嗎？哦不。
再也不用看人家的臉色做事, 不用幫人家穿鞋投停車費, 不用忍受我話還沒講話就離身而去的大小姐脾氣, 也不用看英英美代子小姐每天打扮亮麗逛街而我卻折衣服折得要命。
再也沒有五點起床上七點班的早晨, 沒有加班不加薪的夜晚, 沒有連站5.5小時無休息的排班, 也沒有所謂的讓你分身乏術累到爆的 "Fitting Room Day".
再也不需要對同一個問題卻從 managers 得到不同的答案而感到氣餒, 不需要被每一星期都不同的排班給綁住, 不需要忍受無理的指控跟膚淺的評論, 不需要忍受愛改我排班卻不通知我的 assistant manager 跟自以為是很 bossy 卻愛混的同事。
還有, 不用忍受讓每個人都起水泡但還是一定得穿的 Zara 鞋子 (平底的喔)。

或許, 時尚業的管理制度就跟它本身一樣膚淺, 所有的事都只看表面, 只要是一兩次的表現不佳, 馬上就會被貼標籤。常常我問自己, 要是在這行待久了不知是不是也會變膚淺？還是在服飾業工作早就被人家認定是個"花瓶才會做的"工作？ 幸好我不會想要久留, 所以這個問題就丟給別人煩腦吧。

討厭歸討厭, 在 Zara 短短的三個半月工作經驗還算是一種寶貴的魔鬼訓練。雖然那期間我還是抱怨, 懊惱了一陣子, 但對於當初所作的決定, 嗯, 我不後悔。

每當我告訴人家研究所要念 publishing--出版時, 大家一致都給我個皺眉, 接著反問, "huh? 出版??"

是的, 就是 ㄔㄨ 出, ㄅㄢv 版, 出版。總之, 這個為期只有16個月的 program 是專門訓練培養出版人才的, 從總編排版設計至行銷刊物, 通通都包。

不過今天的重點不是要介紹這個 program, 而是要在事後兩星期正式宣告: "我申請上碩士班啦!!" 而且是在同個 SFU Publishing Department 上班後的第二天就得知這好消息, 真是雙喜臨門耶~~(歐並不是結婚又生子的雙喜)

說到在學校工作, 又是在 "right-brain oriented" 的環境之下, 跟之前在倫敦的律師事務所比較起來簡直像是人間天堂 vs. 人間煉獄。想想看, 在自己的辦公室聽音樂工作 vs. 在全公司離老闆全透明辦公室最近的辦公桌背對老闆工作; 面對 20 吋 i-mac 永不當機的電腦 vs. 面對 14 吋遲鈍緩慢死當活當常常跟你過不去的 PC; 網路世界 all access vs. hotmail gmail facebook 通通被賭; 餓了就吃累了就去散步不時還有 instructor/director 等長輩比賽做菜請你吃 vs. 所有吃喝跑廁所運動全天被監控...

唉呀~料想不到有天我居然會這麼說, "I LOVE my job!"

p.s. 我還是很努力工作的!

1. Treat yourself a great breakfast & lunch.
2. Eat chocolates.
3. Do not look at the calendar.
4. Check all your e-mails and voice mail later the day.
5. Don't think about what you did on the weekends.

And if you want to completely forget about Monday Blues, just work 7 days a week like I do!