Okay, so I've fallen off the wagon for a bit. Haven't updated this blog for a while. Can't believe it's being 26 days (almost a full month!) since Week of Hell. I'll get to it really quickly, because it's 11:38 at night on New Year's Eve and I've got to go to work at 8:30 tomorrow.
Main points:
- Six weeks, or three paychecks, to go after this week (!!!)
- I'm going to call the Christmas and New Year's pay period "Super Mario Week", because the holiday pay rate is insane. The holiday pay rate works about 2.25x pay per hour for the two holidays in this period (Boxing Day and New Year's Day). The reason I call it "Super Mario week" is because of the boosted of speed in money I'm getting is like getting a Star Power Up in Mario Games, and also because I've been playing a good amount of Super Mario Galaxy 2 lately.
- The three managers (Boss, Troll, Hobgoblin) are getting more and more aggressive towards me. Boss being bitchy and irritable; Troll is a hypocritical fat round asshole; Hobgoblin styles herself as a "sarcastic cool girl". Don't get me wrong, I like the sarcastic cool girl archetype, they're personally very easy to get along with for me, but the problem is that instead of cool, she's just bitchy and retarded. Can I manage to last 3 more paychecks???
- Language learning... I think I made a lot of progress on German this month. I am getting lazier these days tho; not doing what I'm suppose to do. Thinking of enrolling into a German language school in Germany when I'm there.
While 6 weeks to go is a pretty long period of time, I think there are two ways of "organizing" how I perceive it, so that it goes by faster. One: pretend that there's still a long way to go, so I don't think about it so much, focus on other things I need to do (like language learning and most importantly getting into University or college applications). The intent is that the time passes by "before I knew what hit me".
The second way is to divide the 3 paychecks into three smaller time periods. The first paycheck will be thought of as "the paycheck before the pen-ultimate paycheck," the second will be "the penultimate paycheck." The last will be "the last paycheck." I only really need to work until I get my "penultimate paycheck" before I say "I quit" and start my two week notice period. This is an interesting way of organizing how time is perceived, but I'm not sure if it's appropriate, because 6 weeks is STILL long, fully 35% of the entire Survivor experience. If I think like that, this might drag out longer than I expect, and I really don't want to think that I worked more than I need to.
Survivor Minimum Wage is on it's last legs. Literally only $1500 separates me from both the grand prize and the gratification of never having to work at a minimum wage job (hopefully) again. I am actually finding it a little bit surreal, because I have never attempted anything like this before, ever.
Well, gotta catch some Zs. Tomorrow is a Super Mario Day, which means instead of making $50 for five hours of work, I make $125 instead.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Day 53 - the long weekend of hell part 2
So the long weekend of hell is three-fourth over. In retrospect, it wasn't that bad. It's basically exactly like every other weekend that I have, except tack in 3 hours in front of it. I guess I just resented having to wake up early 4 days in a row. But, another week has passed, and I am ever closer to my goal.
To continue my story from last time, I would basically garnish orders (I have not been issued any cashier tasks for quite some time now) through the lunch rush, which usually starts at around 11:15 and begins in ernest at 11:45ish, ending at around 1:30. There may or may not be a post-rush rush that occur starting at around 2:00. If there is, I would do that until the clock strikes 2:30, or if there is not, then I would probably do the pop tower/garbage changing thing, which as aforementioned takes up almost half an hour. Intermissions when we don't have customers would have me go around the tables doing some wiping and/or taking the broom and pan-handle and sweep up the floor.
One thing that I hope I would never have to do is dish washing. I've had enough of that at the restaurants that I worked at, and I refuse to touch any of the grease coated crap without a rubber glove (which we don't have).
People that I usually work with during weekdays are Boss, Troll, the Hob, Konvict, and three previously unmentioned people (henceforth shall be known as Pandora, because I think her name is a character from Avatar, Co-op, because he is a co-op student from Earl of March and a fan of this blog, and Mom, because that's her nickname). Occasionally we may get Bestbuy (he used work here before working at Bestbuy before coming back here).
Why can't you pass the time when there isn't customers by chatting with your fellow co-workers and relaxing, like other places (Quizno's)? Because Troll will yell at you (unless you are the Hob or Mom) to get back to work (which is how I got my of many yelled-at incidents at work). She will say the most abusive things, and coupled with the foul odor that she emits, she makes any interactions or confrontations with her extremely uncomfortable. Her abusive behaviours are so bad that during one clash between him and the Troll, the guy did what one would instinctively do and said that he is quitting (he has since then retracted the quitting by talking to the boss). The point is, when Troll is around, an easy moment will not be had by anyone. Everyone realizes this, even the Hob.
The more that I work at this job, the less things that I actually find annoying. Namely, I actually enjoy garnishing customer's burgers. I no longer mind the customers that want "everything" and say their orders out of sequence. The logic is that the more the customers want, the longer the lines are, and the longer that I get to garnish customers' burgers, because time passes by relatively fast when you do this, and most importantly, working on a customer gives you the best shield against Troll aggression.
More details of my routine to come in future posts. Survivor: MW lives on!
To continue my story from last time, I would basically garnish orders (I have not been issued any cashier tasks for quite some time now) through the lunch rush, which usually starts at around 11:15 and begins in ernest at 11:45ish, ending at around 1:30. There may or may not be a post-rush rush that occur starting at around 2:00. If there is, I would do that until the clock strikes 2:30, or if there is not, then I would probably do the pop tower/garbage changing thing, which as aforementioned takes up almost half an hour. Intermissions when we don't have customers would have me go around the tables doing some wiping and/or taking the broom and pan-handle and sweep up the floor.
One thing that I hope I would never have to do is dish washing. I've had enough of that at the restaurants that I worked at, and I refuse to touch any of the grease coated crap without a rubber glove (which we don't have).
People that I usually work with during weekdays are Boss, Troll, the Hob, Konvict, and three previously unmentioned people (henceforth shall be known as Pandora, because I think her name is a character from Avatar, Co-op, because he is a co-op student from Earl of March and a fan of this blog, and Mom, because that's her nickname). Occasionally we may get Bestbuy (he used work here before working at Bestbuy before coming back here).
Why can't you pass the time when there isn't customers by chatting with your fellow co-workers and relaxing, like other places (Quizno's)? Because Troll will yell at you (unless you are the Hob or Mom) to get back to work (which is how I got my of many yelled-at incidents at work). She will say the most abusive things, and coupled with the foul odor that she emits, she makes any interactions or confrontations with her extremely uncomfortable. Her abusive behaviours are so bad that during one clash between him and the Troll, the guy did what one would instinctively do and said that he is quitting (he has since then retracted the quitting by talking to the boss). The point is, when Troll is around, an easy moment will not be had by anyone. Everyone realizes this, even the Hob.
The more that I work at this job, the less things that I actually find annoying. Namely, I actually enjoy garnishing customer's burgers. I no longer mind the customers that want "everything" and say their orders out of sequence. The logic is that the more the customers want, the longer the lines are, and the longer that I get to garnish customers' burgers, because time passes by relatively fast when you do this, and most importantly, working on a customer gives you the best shield against Troll aggression.
More details of my routine to come in future posts. Survivor: MW lives on!
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Day 50 - the long weekend of hell
So the next four days (Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday) are shaping up to be the really shitty. Basically,the guy that's normally doing the prepping from 7:30 to 10:30, let's call him Scrawny, for he is a scrawny frenchman that hopes to become an egomaniacal illiterate chef like Gordon Ramsey, can't make it tomorrow because he is being told to go to school for that day, since he is actually a high school co-op student and his school wants its students to show up to school once in a while. So when Boss found me, he asked me if I can make it to work at 7:30 tomorrow. At first, I wanted to say no by making up some BS, but I already said no way too many times lately, and I already used a lie to get out of going to work early one time ("I have to stay home because workers are repairing my furnace"). So I gotta say yes this time just to keep his trust. Boss may be a nice guy, but I suspect he is more clever than he lets on, and the guy does have his limits, which is constantly being challenged by that Troll wife of his.
Basically, for the next four days, I have to get up at 6:30, 7:00, 7:30, and 8:00 respectively, and get off at 2:30 on Friday and 2:00 for the rest. If there's one thing people that know me know about me is that I fucking hate getting up early, because that means I have to go to sleep early, and without drugs like Melatonin, it's impossible for me to sleep early. So thanks for getting me addicted to sleeping drugs, Harvey's! Basically, it's like I'm having a long weekend, but in reverse.
So the whole purpose of this writing about my Survivor: MW thing, other than to provide entertainment to friends, is to have a written record of my experiences and what I felt while working this crappy job, so I have a self-deterrent against future incidents where I am forced to take minimum wage jobs again. I feel like I haven't done enough of that, just a whole lot of (deservedly plenty of) complaining about Trolls and SLB and other creatures of darkness at the expense of other stuff. So I'm going to talk about other stuff for a bit, especially things like working conditions, the people I work with, the obstacles I face, and the various emotions that runs through me during my shift, etc.
Basically, during the weekdays, my shifts are usually 4 hours, from 10:30 to 2:30 (Troll is now too lazy to alter the schedule, because, having absolutely no brains at all, she is completely incapable of the little foresight and strategic thinking that's required of schedule making, and basically relies on ad hoc solutions to everything); weekends are from 8:00/8:30/9:00 to 2:00. I don't expect to get night shifts anymore. Weekdays are pretty easy: when I get to work, I wash my hands, put on gloves, and "check the pop towers", or put ice from the ice machine at the back, put them in a bucket, and dump it inside the pop machine (the pop machine is incapable of producing its own ice). I do this for the drive-thru ice depository as well. Afterwards, I take out the garbage through out the restaurant, and dump them to the garbage bin outside (thankfully, it is right next to the restaurant, unlike Lapointe's). Amazingly, this whole process can take half an hour to do. So this is a good way to pass the time, and in this line of work, it's ALL about passing time.
By that time, there usually will be the customers eager to fatten themselves up with our crap. So I will probably alternate between garnishing their orders or doing some half assed sweeping of the restaurant floor or some other crap I can find to pass the time (anything I can do to avoid cleaning things other than table surfaces. I absolutely despise cleaning things other than tables or countertops).
As it is past 10:30, and I have to get up at work at 6:30, I must take my sleeping pills and go to sleep. More to continue.
Basically, for the next four days, I have to get up at 6:30, 7:00, 7:30, and 8:00 respectively, and get off at 2:30 on Friday and 2:00 for the rest. If there's one thing people that know me know about me is that I fucking hate getting up early, because that means I have to go to sleep early, and without drugs like Melatonin, it's impossible for me to sleep early. So thanks for getting me addicted to sleeping drugs, Harvey's! Basically, it's like I'm having a long weekend, but in reverse.
So the whole purpose of this writing about my Survivor: MW thing, other than to provide entertainment to friends, is to have a written record of my experiences and what I felt while working this crappy job, so I have a self-deterrent against future incidents where I am forced to take minimum wage jobs again. I feel like I haven't done enough of that, just a whole lot of (deservedly plenty of) complaining about Trolls and SLB and other creatures of darkness at the expense of other stuff. So I'm going to talk about other stuff for a bit, especially things like working conditions, the people I work with, the obstacles I face, and the various emotions that runs through me during my shift, etc.
Basically, during the weekdays, my shifts are usually 4 hours, from 10:30 to 2:30 (Troll is now too lazy to alter the schedule, because, having absolutely no brains at all, she is completely incapable of the little foresight and strategic thinking that's required of schedule making, and basically relies on ad hoc solutions to everything); weekends are from 8:00/8:30/9:00 to 2:00. I don't expect to get night shifts anymore. Weekdays are pretty easy: when I get to work, I wash my hands, put on gloves, and "check the pop towers", or put ice from the ice machine at the back, put them in a bucket, and dump it inside the pop machine (the pop machine is incapable of producing its own ice). I do this for the drive-thru ice depository as well. Afterwards, I take out the garbage through out the restaurant, and dump them to the garbage bin outside (thankfully, it is right next to the restaurant, unlike Lapointe's). Amazingly, this whole process can take half an hour to do. So this is a good way to pass the time, and in this line of work, it's ALL about passing time.
By that time, there usually will be the customers eager to fatten themselves up with our crap. So I will probably alternate between garnishing their orders or doing some half assed sweeping of the restaurant floor or some other crap I can find to pass the time (anything I can do to avoid cleaning things other than table surfaces. I absolutely despise cleaning things other than tables or countertops).
As it is past 10:30, and I have to get up at work at 6:30, I must take my sleeping pills and go to sleep. More to continue.
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