I have a job

Applied for a job a few weeks back, emailed the application Thursday evening, was called Friday morning and interviewed Monday morning. I had never felt so comfortable during an interview. The job is helping in setting up of a new store, fulltime casual rates, 4 - 6 weeks duration with chance of being offered further employment at the end of it.

Started on Monday, with about 10 other people. On the first couple of days we were given jobs as a group putting up fixtures - I found myself taking responsibility of collecting pieces to keep things going smoothly, noticed if we ran out of an item some of the others just stood around waiting. Yesterday the boss asked me to work on one section on my own, today was the same. Kept having others ask me if they can help, told them I was all right, I was revelling in working on my own and not having others just standing around, arms crossed waiting to be told to do something.


This morning first thing we were all given a short lecture about work ethics - grouping up on jobs that one or two can do, disrespecting by just walking out when they think breaktime and day end is due, mobile phones being used, etc. We were warned that they were keeping an eye on us and at the end of the day we would be told if we were no longer required if we weren't up to shape. He did it quite well without singling out any one person, but it made me realise he wasn't talking about me. I realised that only 2 of us have been given solo jobs, the others have been working in the same area with almost constant supervision from the boss and his 2IC. Every now and then he comes over and says he hasn't forgotten me. Yesterday I was feeling a little guilty over what I thought was not doing fast enough work, I had only set up 4 units and put out a few boxes of stock for several hours work. Then I realised I had been doing everything from collecting and installing shelving, putting out stock and cleaning up on my own, not to mention fending off 'helpers'. Later I saw the amount of work done by the others as a group and realised I had been working my butt off.

Wrote the above last night, another day finished. I was still on my own most of the day - loved it. At the end of day I was asked to rearrange one panel and put up stock left on the floor in another section. An hour later the boss came over to see far I had gotten, I had finished what could be hung and tidied the aisle up. Her words to me were "oh jeeze you were quick". I'd really love to be doing this sort of work more often, going to put an application in for the next one - shouldn't be too long they are looking for another site at the moment. The only downside has been that I had major allergies this week, due to the dust am finally clearing up.