Last year, I joined Macy’s as a seasonal employee for the holidays. It was my first time to work in a big retail store company. I actually enjoyed it – I didn’t mind helping people and ringing up items. I also enjoyed the company of my other coworkers. Our team rocked because we looked out for each other. Special thanks to Sylvia, James, and Ozlem.

I was assigned to Handbags section and my area is watches, accessories, scarfs, bags, and eyewear. I love modeling watches for clueless men who is shopping for their partner. I’m very convincing since I always end up ringing the watch. I also became a personal shopper for some customers who are looking for fashion jewelry to complement their party outfits. I preen when they ask my opinion making me feel like a fashion guru or something. And going the extra mile for a customer is satisfying.

What I didn’t like about my work is when I open and close shifts. I hate counting money because I don’t like my hands getting filthy. I also don’t like recovering items and putting them back on the shelf – the amount of folding, returning stuffs, and reorganizing never end during the holidays. I usually go home past midnight. I also don’t like standing for long hours especially coming from an 8 hour job.

After December 26th, my work schedule with Macy became less. This was norm because I was just a seasonal hire. Yesterday my contract with the store finally ended. I went in for an exit interview and for the first time in my employment history, I got “laid off”. It gave me a jolt hearing those words although knowing that they just connote a termination of contract.

So what I’ve gained from Macys…

…my social skills improved a lot. I learn how to make small talk and be more assertive and less shy.

…good record of customer service

…my fashion sense improved better since I can dress up at work.

…learned to operate the cash register or POS.

…learned how to adjust the links of a watch strap.

…the codes for the stockroom that holds COACH, Dooney and Bourke and the watches. Hahahaha…just kidding.

Will I do this again? I told myself that this will be the last time I’m going to do this. But…who knows? Maybe I’ll try a different field – restaurant hospitality, probably. So, I thank Macy’s (my supervisor, Chris Pinto) for the opportunity of working in their company and I thank it for the good memories and learning experience. Also, I will miss that employee discount

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1. The Macy's diary

I’ve mentioned from my previous post that I’m working as a part-time sales associate for Macy’s this holiday season. I was very excited getting this job. When I was a young girl, I loved playing with a toy cash register and imagined running a store. I get to relive that childhood fantasy this year working at Macy’s but minus the make-believe. This time reality came crashing in. I’ve just survived a Black Friday’s Sale event. I couldn’t believe how much work it is from the sales associate end. In previous years I was the customer and I get irritated waiting in a long line and getting no help from busy sales associates. Now I understand their plight.

I maintained my composure, mind you. I didn’t mind assisting a lot of people. I didn’t get tired showing people the store’s items again and again. No customer got angry with me. And though I didn’t attain my sales goal, I was happy with how I worked today. But I had a revelation: my body is not accustom to working 2 jobs anymore. When I was younger, I was happy having 2 jobs at the same time and I don’t feel too exhausted. However now I’m so tired. My feet are dead from standing for such a long time – no kind of shoes (except rubber shoes, which I can’t wear because it doesn’t coordinate with my uniform) can save my feet from aching. During break time, going to the break room is a hardship because it’s too far from my floor walking with my sore feet. I’m not enjoying the job as I would like.

I have decided with finality that this would be the last time I’m going to work for a retail store. I can cross out sales associate from my list of desired jobs. Despite the exhaustion, I liked the working atmosphere in Macy’s. I get to be surrounded by a lot of coworkers which are my age group. My main job has a work circle composed of me, the boss and another coworker. It gets lonely sometimes. But with Macy’s it’s like college days and people are friendly with each other. No dramas…or none that I know of. Another thing that I like about this job is the employee discount. Actually this is a devil’s temptation. A coworker stated that people who work at retail stores are the best customers of that retail store. It gets really tempting to buy stuffs especially when it’s in front of you. Having employee discount on top of store’s sales discount, I will always justify that I’m actually saving a lot. Today I think I spent around 100USD just for boots, bag and jacket. There goes my 3 days of work. And I’m still hankering for a watch! I hope I get out of this job with at least some savings.

Well there you go. Such is life at Macy’s.  I just need to endure 4 more weeks.

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3. MY BIRTHDAY DIARY

There are a lot of things I want to experience. Even though my area of study is in health care, that doesn’t stop me from dreaming of working in other fields. I would like to experience being a secretary or executive assistant, an office clerk, a travel reporter, a nanny for an affluent family, a special eduction teacher, a tour guide, a violinist, a fashion buyer, and etc.

This holiday season, I enrolled myself as a part-time sales associate for Macys. I have never been one. So I’m excited to add this training and experience to my resume.  It’s extra income for me and I get to enjoy discount in the store. I pride myself of always having good customer service skills. I’m cool under pressure and I’m rarely annoyed at people (but with my family is a different story! hahaha) so this job is perfect!

Yesterday, I had my training with handling the cash register. I had so much fun! Scanning merchandise, ringing sales, typing (for a weird reason the clicking sounds are music to my ears), swiping cards, and the kaching of the cash drawer made me enjoy the work. But of course this was training mode – no customers involved! I also get to learn some scripted prompts that will aid me in conversing and helping customers. I sincerely hope that I remember them. I start hitting the floor on Nov 22. I wonder how I will fare during the chaotic holiday season. Will my optimistic outlook bear well under pressure? But as holiday is – ’tis the season to be jolly!!! *wink wink*

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3. BAD DENTISTRY

This week has been a very tiring one for me. After weeks of searching for a job, I’ve finally found one or rather two. Actually both are part-time jobs and temporary. My first job requires me a total of 8 hours a week while the 2nd job makes me work 2-3 days a week, until their assistant who was injured can return for work. This week I worked the whole week – more or less 32 hours. So it’s kind of full-time?

I’ve been studying the past 10 months so going back to work needs a lot of adjustment especially now where both of the offices I work for are more than 10 miles from home necessitating me to tackle the 101 freeway during rush hour traffic, which really puts me in a lot of stress. Thank God that nothing happened to me yet and hopefully ever. My body also needs to adjust waking up early in the morning and working a full straight 8 hours during the day. By the time I get home I just literally collapse. I don’t have time to chat or surf the internet. This time too both offices I work for have very high technology equipments and different materials than what I’m used to that I need extra time to learn how to use them. In addition to, I need to learn the office system really quick so I can keep up.

It’s really a blessing that I have a job since I’ve been unsuccessful with acquiring one for the past month. I shouldn’t complain and just work hard on my job so that my employers can see that I’m such a great addition to their office. So for as long as I have this job, I’ll do my best.

Sorry for the overdue post. Hopefully I can adjust really quick and my energy level would be back to normal.

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To break the monotony of my summer break, my friend invited me to join her on a job at a convention. I naturally agreed since I’ve been itching to earn something this summer. It was the same company who always hire students like us during dental conventions. So off I worked for 3 days in this doctor’s convention at Shangri-La Hotel Edsa.

The job entailed us to just hand out advertisement or flyers inside the convention area. The first 2 days we almost didn’t do anything. The company wasn’t too organized that they weren’t able to give us the flyers first thing in the morning on the first day. By the 2nd day, we ran out of flyers before lunchtime. So we ended up chatting, lounging on the seats, gorging ourselves with the food provided in the convention, and using the computer with free internet service.  We also availed of the free photos in the photo souvenir booth inside the convention. When 3rd day arrived, my friend and I agreed we were too bored with our job and we just wanted the day to end. Can you believe I got tired for doing almost nothing but eat and chat with my friend?

Then finally I got paid on the 3rd day! One of the booth also gave us a gift certificate for a free  full studio pictorial! Anyway with my money, I can buy that expensive Dicapac for my trip to Coron! Even though this job was easy money for me, I decided that I won’t do this no-brainer job again.

photo souvenir

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I’ve never realized how bad the economy was until I’ve been informed by my boss that last friday the DOW plunged to almost below 7000. I still didn’t understand that. He explained the gravity if the DOW really did go down below 7000, the economy will crash and burn. But came Monday the DOW bounced back and gained points. The economy is regaining slowly but still there are lots of losing companies. Watching the stock exchange on TV, I thought everything is getting better since I’m seeing a lot of green arrows instead of red. However the last time I saw JP Morgan, its stock was still down…arggghhh….I hope it doesn’t have the same fate as WAMU.

Of course with the economy crisis right now, jobs are being cut left and right. In our dental office, lots of patients are not scheduling for their dental appointments because of lack of funds or their insurance benefit has been cut down. Thank God our office still manages to have a full schedule everyday. We never fear that we’ll be out of jobs.

But the reality and impact of the economy has struck me when my coworker informed me that my boss won’t hire another assistant after I leave. I was alarmed and surprised because work can be overwhelming when there’s only 1 assistant. Just think of juggling front desk work, scheduling, room prep, sterilization, inventory, office cleanup, etc. It really boggles the mind – if I was in her position I would go insane in a week! And I am sure that my boss knows that work can be too demanding because there were plenty of times when my coworker has taken absences and I was brought in to fill in for her when she couldn’t do all things by herself.

My coworker frankly asked my boss why she is planning not to hire an assistant. My boss replied that because of the economy being bad right now, she won’t know how much income the practice will bring in. Hmmm…so that’s what it is….

I have not truly grasped how bad the economy is. When my bank went bankrupt, I’ve no trouble after since my money has just been transferred to the company who bought the bank. I somewhat feel that the prices are going up but not that much since I budget my money really well and I don’t pay for rent and utilities so I have money to spare. I guess if my responsibilities are to get bigger then will I start worrying about all this economic hoopla.

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I’ve been studying dentistry for a long time and I couldn’t remember the taste of the anesthesia, or as older people knows it, the novocaine. That’s how good my dentist was. Until I had my wisdom tooth extracted here. I got a faint taste of it. It was bitter. Everytime after my boss injected the anesthesia on a patient, he would say to the patient to take a rinse and wash away the taste. Apparently the novocaine is a bitter tasting liquid. I would liken it to a bitter melon or bitter gourd or “ampalaya”  (for Filipinos). That’s not bad for us Filipinos since we have ampalaya dishes. Bitter melon is actually good for diabetic people. It is a supplement food/natural medicine to control diabetes. However for the Americans, they don’t like the taste. I always piped up to my boss and the patient to try bitter melon because it’s the same taste but they wouldn’t dream of trying the vegetable. Oh well, I just had an ampalaya dish (“pinakbet”) yesterday and it was so goood!

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My field is in Dentistry. I studied Dentistry in the Philippines and almost graduated. I got to experience the clinical aspects, meaning managing and treating real patients. A while ago at work, we had a patient who is Filipino who said he just lost his faith in the dentists in the Philippines. My boss was quick to say “Philippines has bad dentists.” I was quicker to defend, “Don’t generalize.” However I really felt bad for the patient because I’d seen how bad the work was done on him.

I studied from a premier university and I believed we were trained differently and had the same principles as that of with international schools. My schoolmates always joked that there were only 2 schools: UP and the others. I believed it was a dentist from “the other schools” who worked on this Filipino patient. But I just couldn’t imagine if it was lack of training or just plain laziness that that dentist was able to do what he did.

So our patient had his tooth filled. And the filling was so high and out of occlusion, and without anatomy, and there were cavities on the other surfaces of the tooth. A filling case is really simple. Take out the decay, put a filling into the tooth, and restore anatomy and occlusion. I just couldn’t imagine how one can graduate from a 6-year training/course and wouldn’t be able to do a proper filling. Look at me: I haven’t graduated but I know how to do it right. And this dentist did the same erroneous fillings on 2 different teeth!

What really angered me was the dentist violated the code “Do no harm.” The patient expected to be treated right. If the healthcare provider/professional couldn’t do it, then don’t do any more harm. I believe that there are many bad dentists in the Philippines; but there are also good ones, who are hard to find and very expensive. However when I would finally graduate, I would like to become a good one.

Disclaimer: I didn’t say Philippines has bad dentistry. As my boss later restated, there are bad dentists in all countries. I know there are bad dentists in the US too. I’ve seen some of their work. This blog is about a personal commitment to become a good dentist.

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After weeks of stressing and worrying about how I will say to my office that I’m leaving them, the day has finally come to really tell them. I’ve just gotten word from my school approving me to re-enroll for November. So it’s time for me to go back to school and study. My parents and aunts said that my boss will understand and won’t be upset when I tell him because I’m leaving for the right reasons. Education is really important.

As always, resigning from a job has never been easy for me. I was so stressed about it that my night grinding came back. My boss even wanted to make me a night-guard which I refused because I really know the reason for my night grinding. I’m a very reserved person and I couldn’t tell what is really stressing me out to anyone in the office. Everything is bottled up inside me. Since I want to give them a month’s notice, I have to brave it out and hope for the best. Of course I prayed first that the Lord will just transcend in the conversation.

I told my co-worker first. She is so maternal to me and always gives good advice. She told me to do what I have to do and wanted to do; to be strong and not let others bring me down. Talking about it finally to someone just lightened up the burden that I’ve been carrying. I felt the stress dissipating. Now it’s time to tell my boss.  While we were working on a patient, I started with “At the end of the day, can I talk to you?” to my boss. I was surprised that his end of the day is different from mine. In between patients, he called me to his office.  He’s that type of person who can’t wait to hear any news or gossip. I really wanted to wait at the end of the day and I told him it’s better to wait. I feared that what I was about to say will ruin his afternoon. He was insistent and so I told him outright.

I was afraid to tell him so much particularly my background because he has this very high standards and I feel that he’s going to judge me and find me totally lacking. But I always keep my aunt’s advice in mind. She said to me that I should just be honest and no one would find fault in that. So I was truthful, I answered all his questions. I was spared from further probing when my other coworker called for him.

When we all convened at the end of the day, he let me break the news to the other staff. They were happy for me. Surprisingly, my boss was wishing me well too. Whew! I thought it would be so difficult and hard. I thought there would be lots of drama. Maybe I’m the only one who’s making a big fuss out of it.  They’ve really been good to me and I feel like I have not repaid that. They even wanted to give me a farewell party (please no more of that, it’ll be too much on my conscience).

All in all, I just thank God that it ended well.

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What does it mean to become Americanized? One day on a conversation I had with my co-worker, I was narrating about my banter with my boss the day before. I was in a bad mood for the past few days and I wasn’t in the mood to be polite or nice. My boss was asking me if I want to meet with him in this convention we’re going to attend – would I like to call him or him to call me? Honestly I didn’t want to meet with him because I want to enjoy the convention at my own leisure. I didn’t know how to tell my boss that without  hurting his feelings. However because of the black mood I’m in, I didn’t care anymore and told him frankly “How about…we do nothing.” That gave him the message to just leave me alone, I just didn’t want to see him there. My coworker told me it’s because I was feeling harsh that I was able to say that. She also added “You have been Americanized.”

I was insulted and stunned by that phrase. Me? Americanized? Where I grew up, we were taught to be respectful, courteous, and family-oriented. I was glad that those values stuck with me. I’m the type of person who often sees to the need of other people. And as a Filipino, our race is “matiisin” (forebearing of many things). My office, I could say, is really glad that I joined their staff. They got a hardworking person who doesn’t talk back, who is respectful, who is willing to help and do things without being told. Those kind of traits that would make the best employee of the month. All I can say is I thank God, foremost and I thank my upbringing.

What I have observed here in this country is people who are basically “ME first” and “MY human rights”. Americans are very straightforward, opinionated, no BSing type of people. Some have even lost their manners by disrespecting their parents, their coworkers, and anyone who step on their toes. I have heard and seen interaction between parent and a child and it’s amazing how a child can be so without any idea of their misbehavior. They just express themselves liberally.

I’m here for over a year now and I can say the American attitude is rubbing on me. The last time I was here for only 8 months, I returned to the Philippines with a very assertive attitude. My friends even call me “maldita” because I was just too opinionated and audacious. Now I haven’t even returned yet and I’m full of gripes already – I gripe about my boss who gives me extra duties which is NOT under my job description. In my mind I would have told her off but still professionalism and respect won. Before I would tolerate working beyond my work hours, now I don’t care anymore – if it’s 1230, I’m gone! That’s my right as an employee.

I could be generalizing the American race. But many times I find myself thinking if I have encountered such situations in my home country. I had but it is so rare. Or maybe it’s because I’m sheltered – I just haven’t seen the real world yet. Or maybe this is just me meeting the wrong kind of people in this place. Or maybe this is not being American, it’s just people being rude. Oh well. For the Americans who might read this blog, don’t get angry. This is not an attack. This is just an opinion.

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