A Call

Her POV

My day normally starts off with coffee and bread from the convenience store downstairs. The perks of getting free stuff from your colleague is irreplaceable. HuangMin who takes over my shift from 3am is one of my best mate. He is a new graduate like me and an eye candy. Many girls staying in this building comes early morning just to feast on his handsome, well built body before they start their day. I am not attracted to him that way but it's something to look forward to when I wake up every morning. In return, I stack up stocks on all the aisle except for the heavy stuff like beverages and mineral water before his shift. It's a win-win situation since he is really bad with small items, he either miss 1 or 2 products or misplaced merchandise at the right price labels. He stop getting warning from the shop supervisor after I took over the task which gives me a great sense of self content to be able to help.

We act like buddies too. He like to hang his arms around my shoulder whenever we are having a drink during change of shifts or pat my head when I am feeling down for yet another job rejection. Nevertheless he knew and respect I am of opposite gender because he always make sure to steer clear from the locker room when I need to change in and out of my uniform and respect my privacy. We are more like brother and sister really although he might be just a sister to me.

I have to make sure to get on the 8:30am bus to be on time at Q. That's my second workplace. Assignments are given out at 9am and they assume absence when you are late. We get 80% of the questionnaire back properly when we are lucky and persistent. We get back as low as 10% on a bad day. Our salary depends on the number of properly filled questionnaires so it's really hard work. Not many people will cooperate to answer your questionnaires in the first place and if it gets too personal or too long, your interviewee might just leave halfway. You can't cheat either as the supervisor will randomly check with participants through telemarketing from time to time to ensure validity of the forms and we don't get the same assignment everyday.

We only have a one page questionnaire on executive lifestyle today which means I will be able to have lunch. Yay!

This was not always the case. When we get complicated 3 pages survey, lunch is out of the question. With my 3 months experience, I went straight away to the train station in the financial district, where else will there be high concentration of executive right?

Everything was good until I had my late lunch. After a quick bite nearby, I went back to the train station to finish the assignment. There is only another three to go when a sudden gush of wind swept a page off my hand. Oh no you don't! My reflexes was quick, I turned around to immediately grab the piece of paper and I bumped into a wall of chest! Ouch! my nose. What is wrong with people these days, how come there are so many tall people around and why are their chest are so hard. I apologised in a bow while rubbing my nose with watery eyes and dashed after my piece of paper. It's money flying away from me, I am not giving up without a chase. Being small size allow me to squeeze through the train station crowd with ease. Luckily the questionnaire was not damaged when I finally grab hold of it.

Feeling relief, I make haste to finish my assignment and report back to Q. A quick shower at home and dinner later, I need to take over the convenience store shift from Casey. She is the full-time employee of the store. A very nice middle age lady with 2 kids, she gets a two hours lunch break to pick her kids up from school so it works well for her even though she has longer working hours. I always make sure to be on time at 7pm so she can go home to her family. She also brings dinner for me from time to time when she has leftovers the evening before. My lucky star has bought so many good people in my life.

My phone rang as I was putting my bag in the locker at the back of the shop. It's an unknown number but I get them a lot, these days with the numbers of interviews I have attended. Normally it will start off with an apology.

I braced myself before answering. "Good evening, am I speaking to Ms. Yuki Zhang? the voice asked politely. "Yes, this is Yuki speaking," I said. I am ready for the rejection to come. The voice continue on,"Ms. Yuki, unfortunately we have found a suitable candidate for the position of administration executive you are applying for"....There it goes again I sighed inwardly.... "however".....Huh?...."we have another position of personal assistant available which requires the same specification of administration skills. We are choosing from the same pool of interviewees to save time and effort. Would you be interested to take this opportunity at Lee Group?" Internally I was jumping with glee but I try to answer as steady as I could mustered," Yes, I would like to give it my best." The voice moved on,"In that case, please report to work directly next Monday. You will sign your employment contract and be brief on your role at the same time. I sincerely thank him before hanging up the phone.

Youpee! I shouted in the locker room. It gave Casey a fright as she came to check on me,"Are you alright Yuki?" I hugged her and told her about the good news. She is happy for me and reminded me to come to check into the store from time to time since I am living upstairs. I smile bashfully and nodded my head while going on my shift.