Nov 24 2008
Work went smoother after a turbulent week
Well, after a turbulent week last week I had a good time with my job today.
I started working in the hospital last week as a ward hostess catering to patients. Basically, the job is serving food to the patient and it’s just like working in a restaurant because we got to go to ask the patients what they want to eat that’s in the menu. It was my training/orientation week but I was like thrown into the battle field unarmed.
I didn’t realize there was so much to know about my job. First I had to read the menu for the elderly patients who couldn’t read. Then I’d go and get them a serving of the food they have chosen. Having little or no knowledge at all about English food made the job too complicated for me as I didn’t know what comes with what like jacket potato with cheese and tuna or baked beans and stuff like that. At first I was paired with a guy who didn’t have the art of handling a new worker who’s under training. I got told several times what I should and shouldn’t do while we were serving food. Fine! I’m a new worker who had zero know-how about what we’re doing and I really appreciate the way I was handled by him.
The hospital ward seemed confusing for someone who had never been there especially for me who easily gets disoriented with directions. So when it was time to collect the trays and plates I missed some side-rooms (private and semi-private rooms as what we called them in Thailand and in the Philippines. When I went back to the kitchen I started loading the diswasher when he came a few minutes later with all the trays I missed. He looked ragingly surprised that I was already back in the kitchen when he supposed I was still collecting trays and plates. I apologetically explained that I got lost in the wards and his reply really hurt me. “It was easy. Just put it on your head!” Quiet and withdrawn that I am, I asked myself why I was doing this job and be under someone who hasn’t got a degree yet. Excuse me? This is not the only job I can do. I can quit right now and look for a better job. These thoughts poured out from my mind and I actually thought of going back to Thailand and be a teacher again. I don’t care if I get paid more in this country. I just missed working professionally again.
As if that was not enough, the following day I made another blooper. I rinsed the dishwashers before we had finished washing all the dishes. Well, I didn’t know. I thought we needed to rinse them every after wash. Again, my partner got upset because he said that we have to wait ten minutes for the machines to warm up again. Well, an hour later he mellowed down a bit.
But on the fourth day he left me with so much more to do. I had to finish half hour later so I had to collect the tea cups and wash them before I go. He finished at 8 pm and because he did the tea run he wanted me to mop the floor as well. I had to comply to all his demands because he thought that he was doing more than I and I should equal that. Forgetting that I was new and under training, he just overwhelmed me with too many instructions and at the same time practical training.
The last day of that week I had had enough. I told myself, “Why would I be keeping this job? I felt so run down. For five days I was trained by different people who said different things making things overly complicated. Everyday I see new supervisor who never really looked after me and how I was doing. At the end of the day, I told the supervisor on duty that I was quitting. She was very soft-spoken and tried to convince me to stay with some promises. But I was firm on my decision. However before I said my final goodbye that night she told me “hope to see you on Monday with fingers crossed.
Saturday, November 22, I went to the office carrying my uniform to give them back and to tell them that I was quitting. But when I was asked what really happened I couldn’t help but tell the whole story although I insisted that I didn’t want to blame anybody. It was just that I was slow on following all the instructions. Well, it didn’t turn out as planned. I learned that I was handled very badly and unfairly. I was convinced to give it another week or two and that I would be trained with supervision.
So far today proved it so much easier. It turns out all the hardships I went through last week made me smarter and stronger. And when I was signing out I saw my friend from last week and he greeted me sweetly.
Thanks God I didn’t quit!
