Thursday, July 08, 2010

Work Front

I realized I haven't talked about my part-time job yet. The other day there was chaos when I became the secondary cashier and the primary one took a small break. I did something wrong and I could only undo it with a special key, so I rang the bell and the primary cashier (who had the key) came out to help me, but then the computer got jammed. So she restarted it and it took a while to restart, but after that it still got jammed. At that time the queue was getting longer, so the primary cashier (who had not taken her break yet 'coz I called her back right away) opened up her cashier line again while I was waiting for the computer to restart again.

At that time the queue was getting longer and longer and I was getting frantic, so I called another coworker to open up a cashier line (one person decided to leave the store when he saw such long lines). Only after a while I could get my computer working well again and by that time the queue was getting thinner and thinner. PHEW!!!


That day while the primary cashier took her lunch break and I became the only cashier there, one guy was interested in chit-chatting with me (by asking me where I came from, etc.), but the wife said, "Come on, now's not a good time for that. Look at the line!" HA HA HA HA HA HA...There was a long line already behind them, so it was really not a good time for a chit-chat.

I also had one person say to me, "Hey, a new worker here! It's nice to see a different face here!" He meant it was nice to see a non-Finnish face and I smiled and thanked him. It's always nice to know people who welcome non-Finnish individuals in this country to work and live here. :-D

One of the problems I've had when I work at the cashier is that sometimes there are packed stuff (usually drinking bottles) that should be scanned just like that, but there are packed stuff that should be scanned only after I type in the number. For example: a 6-pack of mineral water - the small version of this 6-pack I only need to scan the whole thing and the computer will show: 6 pack mineral water, BUT for the big bottles of mineral water, I have to type in 6 first before I scan the whole package - otherwise the computer will show 1 big bottle of mineral water. And in the beginning I didn't even know which was which 'coz I had no time to memorize them (there are some drinks that are grouped like this), so I really learnt the hard way - by making mistakes along the way.

All in all I like it more when I don't have to be a cashier the whole day 'coz it gets monotonous after a while (esp. if there are so many customers and I had to sit there for hours, then everything becomes a blur). I kinda like becoming the secondary cashier (which is called only when the primary one is taking a break or when there is a long line of customers) whose main job is mostly arranging stuff on the shelves. Funny thing is that more often than not, while arranging stuff on the shelves, people ask me where they can find this or that - sometimes I can answer them, sometimes not, but you live, you learn. You can't please everybody, can you? I can only do my best he he he he...

Tomorrow and Saturday I have to work, but today's a sunny day again, so I'm gonna enjoy being outdoors now. Gonna blog-hop later. Last but not least let me share this video on "Laminin". I first read about this in Shinta's blog.


3 comments:

  1. Ciayo with the work, Mel! =)

    the video...I was just just just thinking of putting it on my blog too! haha..

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  2. Wow, I can imagine how stressful it must have been that day!

    Some of the cashiers at the supermarkets are fantastic. They seem to memorise the product codes for many items.

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  3. Shinta: HA HA HA...sehati yah? THANKS for the encouragement! :-D

    Ting: Yeah, the senior workers have memorized the product codes for many items (some product codes consist of 4 digits) he he he...

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