daily goofs
With all the cost cutting going on around work, I managed to come up with a cheap solution for the shop decoration. I snapped a dead mango tree somewhere, painted it red. Using glue gun, I added some fake flowers. Add some cheap lanterns. And some decorative bread buns for personal touch. Voala … festive and cheap.
We had our usual chaotic meeting at work over variety of incidence. My partner burst out in flames, literally over some issues which he had previously warned repeatedly. He stressed that “This is not a democratic place. You will do as I said. I am not asking you for your personal views and opinion. I don’t even care what they are. Even you don’t approve of my decisions, you will carry them out nonetheless.”
It seriously crosses out almost everything I learned at school. Creative thinking. The actualisation of the goals of individuals within organisations. The more power the people have, the better.
Reality couldn’t be more different. To run a business in a society where skilled workers are scarce, we are forced to take in unskilled ones. When the business grow bigger, we need to hire more. The more staff we have, the harder it is to manage them. Because everybody seems to think that they know more and they have their own agenda which most of the time, are not aligned with the company’s. It takes a lot of time and resources to educate and to steer them to the path that we want.
This is when dictatorship is at its best. We force them to think as we do. We feed them our ideals and business strategies. We set up the rules and punish those who stray. We control their every move. We measure everything. We have spies in our own organisation. We banish the rebels who can be poisonous. Literally, we squash individuality, creativity and uniqueness in favour of peace, harmony, common goal and vision.
It does not make any sense at first. But it works. Slowly, one by one, they start to think the way we do. Maybe one day, we can actually become a democratic company. Selective democracy, of course. Total democracy in the wrong hands can only spell C H A O S.
Career in retail-food industry is really great, especially during peak season. The adrenalin and the excitement when we found out that sales prediction for that period is achievable. Even when it means that no shower all day in a hot day, or we don’t get to sit down to rest the feet, no meals all day. There had been grease on my face enough to oil a motorcycle.
But when it’s all over, when we are back to reality, it’s like hell. It’s retail! I can never make a right prediction on packaging, ingredients, materials and the a whole lot of list. I don’t think anybody could get it right! I have got better during the years, I don’t make that much mistakes anymore in ordering what is needed. But still the aftermath is the most dreaded time of my work.
It was so frustrating when I got down to clean up the mess. During the busy days, we didn’t pay that much attention to little details, we just needed the things to get done, and the orders fulfilled. Now, I have to deal with extra baskets, too much Christmas decorations, New Year themed-cardboxes, too much cookies, broken appliances, too much syrups, went overboard on the tinsels, way too many fake poinsettias, Cadbury chocolate, thousands of cookie jars leftover.
I spent all afternoon cleaning up the mess. That’s just one third of the building. As we went through the mess, the more stressed I got. What am I going to do with all these?
Am I going to use these in the next six months? If not, they are going straight into the bin
Are these gonna spoil in one month time? If they are, they are going to be distributed to the staff or maybe giving them away for charity
Are they refundable? If they are, they are going straight back to the supplier
Can I use these again, maybe mess with them a bit and use them again or repackaged and sell as different products?
As for Christmassy and New Year stuff, I just have no choice but to keep them for another 12 months … 
I think I need an extra set of brain to figure all these out
Once a week I reward myself by posting something really blabla about my week. It’s always gonna be on thursdays. Why? Because it is not exactly weekdays and not yet weekends. That’s really driving me nuts! Here’s the blablas.
It’s public holiday. Haj New Year. And also this is going to be 10 busiest days of the year period. So … I will need all the coffee and all the patience in the world to help me get through this. Usually there will be a lot of yelling and nagging (in public) and litres of tears (in private) on my side.
There will also be no fancy photos taken. But there will be lame photos posted since the nice camera is now in Shanghai with the rest of the family. I will try documented the hectic days of my other-wise-fabulous life with the limited-and-really-bad-quality camera on my Nokia E61i. I personally think the camera feature doesn’t worth a damn! Maybe I can reward myself with a nice camera end of this year … 
I am thinking of buying some plants and fish for the office. Maybe I can cheer the place up. So far, it has been very dry and depressing. But me as a pet-and-plant killer, might not be such a sound idea. Heck, it will be a challenge. Let’s go and check them out!
I have finally finished Little Women from last week’s reading list. At the end of the book, I wept like a baby. Very mature, Andie.
I have not posted anything for 10 days. I am still here. Work has been bad.
There were so many cookie-and-bread-related problems to deal with. And I did lose my head a LOT of times.
Things are running smoothly, but getting busier everyday. People are very touchy. Everybody loses temper. Everybody snaps like cheese crackers.
But I am back. It’s much better to snap in blogsphere than in real life. So there will be more online snapping till the holiday season’s over ..
The past week has been quite uneventful in terms of photo taking
Busy busy busy .. as the Christmas is very near. It’s our busiest season of the year. In a week’s time I would be so busy, sometimes I have to stay in the office and sleep on the couch for a week. Have I mentioned that I work in a bakery?
2 tier rose theme birthday cake – for display only
bread, bread and more bread
cookie in baking – backroom view
cookies, cookies and cookies
more cake and stuff
One week after deciding cleaning up clutters of stuff in my office after the big peak season hype, finally it is cleared.
the seating area
the desk
the goodie spot
Got to admit, after clearing up, I can actually function better and more importantly when having guests I dont have to move stuff around just to make room for drinks or seats.
i took a moment of pause to stare at my office after the peak season scare.
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the cabinet
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the desk
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the coffee table
so, i turn on my de-clutter-ing mode. this is a good before-and-after blog. it might need me some time to post the after blog. haha.
Want to keep your job? I hate to say this, it makes me sound hypocrite. But playing in the safe and smart way is the best trick.
How to do it?
Get to know your boss really well. What ticks him off, what excites him, what he likes .. mainly know him better than himself – if possible.
If don’t have anything smart to say, shut up and listen. That always works really well for me. Not saying anything is much better than saying the wrong or stupid things. This is a very important skill to master.
Knows when to be smart and when to play dumb. It is good to appear smart and able, but know-it-all employee sometimes can be very threatening for the boss. Who wants to have somebody who’s so much smarter working for him? I certainly don’t. So pick the right time to be smart, just not all the time.
Be indispensible. Have skills and knowledge of your work thoroughly and well so that your boss / your company can’t function as good and effectively without you.
Don’t try any of these if you have high principle and like to just be yourself. They don’t work with a lot of people. But I have seen it work quite well for some.
Today is the last day of Ramadhan fasting and officially the peak season panic will be over after midnight tonight. The shop people had been working really hard to make this day possible. We actually broke the record sales.
We ran out of bakery products to sell and we had to say no to customers who came in.
For once in four years, I didnt have to worry about over stocked goods after peak season. That is a great great relief.
Next week we have to start preparing for christmas and new year. Good luck to me.
