First day at work at Giant, Marina Square. Quite the screw-up over at the main office. Apparently, the person in charge of the Giant outlet at Marina Square didn't even know that I'd been employed. He'd been told that I was "unable to join (them)". -_-

Meh. Oh well.

The guy eventually arrived with all the promoter kit stuff though, and I managed to get started by about 2 pm. So I only worked about 6 hours instead of 8. Ha. :P

Anyway. Just for the sake of it, some of my observations about my new "colleagues" at Marina Square, in order of appearance. :P

Jackson Fernandez, one of the sales assistants in the Household Department, looks like a half-Malay, half-Indian guy; he brought me all the way down to the back of Marina Square and to the entrance of the Giant warehouse to show me where to get my promoter's pass. He's also one of the nicer sales assistants around in the Household department. The others don't really pay attention to me. Not that I mind; the other two seem a little... intimidating. :P

Steven Quek, head of Household. Looks like your typical aging father; lanky, looks to be in his late 40s or early 50s, and balding. Nice guy.

Hussin, one of the Loss Prevention officers at the security post at the warehouse entrance. Plump with a laidback demeanour and a smiley kinda face. Does make a poor, lost, blur thing like me feel a lot more at ease. :)

Ivan Lim; haven't yet figured out exactly what his post is. Seems like he's one of the supervising personnel at Giant, but he's also in charge of Reckitt Benckiser's (the company whose product I'm promoting. They're the company who also produces Dettol and Harpic, by the way) products. Like a middle man, but I just can't figure out the link. He's also the one who brought down all the promoter stuff for me and helped me set it up. From what he was saying when he was talking to some of the staff around Giant, it seems he's in charge of the Giant at IMM too.

Cecilia; short, with wet-styled, blond streaked, tied-back hair in a stiff, small ponytail that sticks almost straight out from the back of her head. She's one of the supervisors of the Marina Square Giant outlet. Er.. Don't let the lack of height fool you; she's mildly frightening and unsettling. Barely an hour into my stint as a promoter, she came by with Ivan Lim, stopped in front of my booth and started talking to him about me like I wasn't there.

Cecilia: So this is the new girl, ah? Will she be better than the auntie? (Here she turns and speaks to me) You sell 100 tubs in one day, can? Then like that good for me, I can clear stock faster. Can?

I wasn't so sure about that. Giant, Marina Square was almost deserted, even during lunch hour, and I'd quickly realised that it was likely it would stay that way for the rest of the day. I told her that there weren't many people around, which would obviously make it kinda hard to sell, and her immediate rejoinder was, "Don't tell me no people; you must be positive, yah? Must say you try; then I like you. Understand?"

What else could I say then but okay, I'll try. -_- (I don't even think more than 100 people walked past me today.)

After that, she proceeded to shout at Jackson (who was about halfway down the aisle on my left) about lunch and breaktimes, telling him, "You go for lunch from 12-1 or 1-2; tea break is 20 minutes at either 2.30 or 3 o' clock; you don't tell me you eat later; no such thing as lunch at 4 o' clock, ok?"

Did I mention that she's pretty loud? 0_0 Just watching her yell at Jackson, I felt uneasy about how much I'd be able to sell. And throughout her shouting, Ivan Lim was just standing behind her, chuckling the way that someone does when he's very familiar with another's behaviour. Needless to say, I didn't find it very funny. -_-

And then there're two other promoters that I met today, both aunties whose names I don't know, except that the one promoting Dove products is my mum's friend's sister; that friend is also the one who told my mum about the promoter job. With the two aunties around, I was considerably less lost, since they brought me to eat lunch with them and everything.

In the end, yes, the crowd was practically non-existent, but I still managed to sell 9 tubs. Quite all right, I guess.. the two aunties tell me that at Marina Square, as long as you "po ji dan" (literally, break the zero mark), it's considered good. That's just sad, in a way. Although, if I look on the bright side, if things continue like this, Reckitt Benckiser will *really* be paying me to stand around and do nothing. On the bad side however, I *do* have better things to do with my time, and if I sell more, I can still earn commission, after all. Sigh. I hope I won't be here for the whole 8 weeks of my employment. That would really be a waste of my time.