Work life

These past few weeks, I've been working part-time at a fairly known Japanese retailer. The place sells every household item and daily essentials you could think of, from acacia plates to travel luggages. Think Bed Bath and Beyond blended with UNIQLO, but a tad more fancy. With that in mind, it's tough for me to remember every single product we have in stock, and explain them to customers.

My daily tasks involve stock replenishment, restocking items, folding clothes when I'm in the garment section, cashier protocol, carrying heavy boxes on delivery day, and just being on the sales floor to interact with customers. As a rule, we treat them with respect and the best kindness we could produce. When it's raining we provide customers a shopping bag cover to protect their items from getting wet, and usually we tape the handles of the bag together to keep the grip secure. For pens among little items we shove inside a small envelope. Everything we do, we ensure they get what they want in the most sincere way possible.

Ironically the staff is mostly Chinese, which took me aback a bit. Not that I have anything against it. I'm just wondering why it's staffed by only one race. Either way, all I'm there for is to do my work and at the end of the day I go straight home without any other words. I talk to my coworkers, but only at a minimum. We share a few laughs and get the job done. No other wasteful movements.

The company is minimalistic, they avoid standing out in any way, and their products are utilitarian. Nothing is there to stand out; they're just made to fulfill their purpose. That's the point of the company, and could be one of the reasons of their success.

My days here are extremely dull and monotonous. Easygoing lullabies flow from the ceiling speakers on repeat the whole day, drifting me to sleep. Coworkers blurt at me to do certain tasks, tell me how I'm doing things wrong, and never give me any acclaim or appreciation. They're exceptionally nice to customers, but are pretty demanding to inexperienced workers. Oftentimes I'd say to myself I'm only doing what you told me to do.

I think that's what society isn't doing enough of: appreciation.

Appreciation. That's it.

We demand so much, that sometimes when they're fulfilled, we take it for granted. Nobody ever came up to me and said, "Hey, you're doing a real great job so far. Keep it up." People sometimes overlook the fact that these simple words can give others an incentive to do better.

Face it. That's reality.