Remember that piece of "exciting" news I wanted to share with y'all?? Well... the piece of news is... I'm currently worki...

PODI

/
0 Comments

Remember that piece of "exciting" news I wanted to share with y'all?? Well... the piece of news is... I'm currently working as a part-time waitress at PODI @ Raffles City!!!!!!!! It's the restaurant beside the fountain at the basement. I've worked for two days already and I love it!!!!!!!

Initially, I was really sad with my life coz I've always always ALWAYS wanted to be a waitress and when I realised I might not be able to do it because well, I'm gonna be a graduate. And what do graduates do? Well, they find permanent full-time jobs. So I thought I'd never get to be a waitress..... So this time. To get the opportunity to be a waitress.... my once-in-a-lifetime dream has been fulfilled~~~~~ off the bucket list~~~ throw confetti somebody~

PODI is a sister branch of Cedele. You know how I only have one-and-a-half months to do stuff before I head off to Myanmar? I was thinking of working and I thought of signing a contract with a production house to while my time away and pick up/improve some production skills. But ah, they don't want me coz of my short time frame. So. I decided to do waitressing. Yet, who'd want me eh? Was thinking of working nearby at White Sands since it's opening soon again after renovations and my mom casually asked me to work at Cedele. I've always loved Cedele and its food and its healthy eating vision. I called its HQ one day to express my interest. They said White Sands' branch would only be open in September, and that's not possible for me. They asked if I was interested to work in their other branches. I thought alright, why not. Told me to head down to HQ the week after and I got posted to Raffles City's branch. Right away, I signed their contract and was given their uniform. I got PODI's uniform, thinking oh, I'm going to the Cedele branch at Raffles City. Actually, turns out it's their sister branch. I've never eaten at PODI before but ah well, why not.

I walked into the store and I absolutely love the floor concept - so spacious, beside the fountain and I enjoy walking, pacing around.

I sound like I've worked there for at least a week already but actually I only started work a few days ago. (which explains my lag in blog posts hahaha sorrehhh) My first day was in fact, just 2 days ago on Friday. Luckily, it wasn't a busy day with customers so I got a good first day learning and it was funnnn. So fun! Taking orders, serving food, clearing tables. All in quick time. Best of all, I get to interact with people and customers. Oh, I met the loveliest old couple from New Zealand - where I spent my 6-months exchange - and naturally, I had to strike a conversation with them. They were amazing. I told them of my adventurous hikes and memories of their beautiful country, while they told me about why they went to London and made a stopover at Singapore as they were making their way home. Argh, I love them. I also love it when customers (especially families with lil kids) smile when their food comes along coz the presentation of the food looks so damn good and leave feeling satisfied. What joy :')

Also, my colleagues... day one, I could tell they'd be a good and fun bunch to work with. My Filipina associate manager and Malaysian kitchen cooks are just the friendliest bunch. Never made me feel like I was new. My fellow Singaporean colleagues were also awesome, guiding me along, telling me what I was doing wrong and correcting my mistakes every now and then.

As you can tell, I had an awesome first day of work.

Saturday, yesterday however, was wayyyyy harder coz business was a lot faster. And I tasted firsthand the pace of the job - how I had to multi-task like siao, remember my orders, remember which table/customers made the order, remember who wanted a refill of water, remember THE DAMN MENU (AND WHAT THE FOOD WAS). I had to do all these because many customers would be calling for me at the same time.

This was just the second day of the job. And on that day, I had to handle difficult customers. Complained about cleanliness, standards. It was also then when I made the first major mistake with a customer yesterday. I believe I was the one who took her order and forgot to key it in to the system so she and her boyfriend had to wait forever for her meal to arrive. She almost wanted to leave but I took the responsibility to quell her anger and appease her to stay. After a while, she took her bag and was about to leave again coz her food still took too long to come. But she saw the food arriving and sat back down. I knew it was my fault for her bad dining experience, so I decided to not let anyone else serve her and take it upon myself. By the time she was done, I approached with the bill and apologised to her severely. I also decided to tell her I was new on the job. She couldn't look me in the eye and her boyfriend just silently nodded. Yikes.

I knew in my head, I just made one unhappy customer leave and never come back. Eeeek. Dunno if I'll get fired for this but all I know is that I've learnt from this experience and I'll do my freakin best to always improve and get better at it. I'm sure I made many other customers happy. I love it when I make them smile and laugh. It absolutely makes my day knowing that I made their day : )

During the closing of the restaurant, I had to mop the floors of the restaurant. That one, I didn't expect to do. But none too hard since I've experience at where else but ma cosy cribbbb.

Well I must say, just these 2 days of working at PODI has taught me to salute good and efficient waitresses. My respect for them has gone up a mile-high. It truly has.

I used to think I could do better than all the waitresses I've encountered (hahahah), and I personally wanted to do my part in raising Singapore's service standards. Ambitious only hor. After everyone spoke about how it's the foreigners that are doing their jobs properly, which I wouldn't deny coz the Filipinos should be saluted for their impeccable service standards.

Now I can sorta understand why people may not be happy being waitresses and our service standards are rated as low. Perhaps it is because of the demands of the job that the public doesn't usually see? And maybe waitresses are just not held in high regard in our society? Unlike other countries, the service industry is not a respectable job industry here. An indicator could be that we don't have a tipping culture. I don't really know yet. I guess working on the job for the next few weeks will give me a better insight.

I still think it is possible to serve others in the friendliest and best, in our own ways. Going the extra mile. And being courteous. Is can one. I'm sure Singaporeans will be able to improve on service standards in time to come if we all just have mutual respect for our own fellow human beings - as customers and servers.

As for myself, I just gotta get the hang of doing the basic legwork before I can become the become the best I can be ; ) I know it's a bit late at my age to be doing a part-time job, especially as a waitress and everyone's telling me how it's a difficult job, but I still wanna do it! I am in fact, the oldest part-timer bahahah. All the jc and poly kids are surprised when I tell them I'm just done with Uni and turning 23 this year. They're so nice and I've been telling those I just met that Uni is gonna be so fun~~~


COME VISIT GUYS!!! I'd be so happy to see my friends :') It's at the basement, you can't miss it coz you just have to go down the escalator next to Starbucks, turn left and THERE IT IS.

I will be so freakin happy to serve you. I will give you extra service hahaha sounds so sleazy wink wink. So yes, PLEASE COME VISIT. I'll be in this Thursday and Sunday evening, as well as Friday and Saturday morning & afternoon. Come in for tea! Their cakes are good. Haven't really tried the rest of the menu but presentation is awesome.

Come June, I'll be there even more often coz boss says so~
Don't worry about my SG Grad Trippin', I'm still very onz about it and will make time for exploring. More posts to come ; )


You may also like

No comments: