so heres my final conclusion on working as a barista for PCC.. FYI its been about.. a month since iv resigned from working there, so yea this is a bit overdue lol.
to start off, working there part time as the lowest position is barely minimum wage, actually it probably was minimum wage ($27 p/hour). working 7am till 5pm for the most part, 9 hours + 1 hour lunch break, mondays to fridays.
now, what exactly am i doing there and how was it? the first few weeks i was just lobbying, going around clearing tables, helping customers on the floor, bringing drinks out to some people, basically doing everything outside the counter. it wasnt until about 2 weeks in that i was allowed to start doing behind the counter work. lobbying is probably the most dreadfully boring part of the job, for the most part im just standing around greeting customers, otherwise doing nothing.. its extremely tiring standing around (in proper posture, no slouching, arm crossing, etc) doing nothing.
so now its the start of week 3 and im allowed behind the counter. im making drinks, preparing food, doing all kinds of shit. theres alot more work to do, but thats a good thing. i find that the busier i am, the less aware of how many hours of work i have left.
at the end of those 3 months what have i learned? well im more educated about coffee, at least more so than i was before. people often say to me "oh so you must be pro at making coffee now." no, not really. im trained to use the machines at PCC shops, which are probably not the same models as whatever tiny coffee makers are found in regular households.
the best and worst: well lets see. the most fun i had was when i had to send takeout orders. i get to walk around outside and visit offices, see some pretty OL lol. all my coworkers at the shop were also very friendly, i'll probably find myself visiting them every now and then. the worst, well its easy to guess, throwing out the garbage (thankfully PCC isnt in charge of cleaning the toilets in the building). though the reason isnt so obvious. the garbage from PCC is mostly cups and plates, used cutlery and tissues. and the garbage hasnt been sitting around for hours so it doesnt have time to rot and stink (i probably throw out the garbage once every 3 hours). its annoying because the PCC shop is on the first floor and the garbage disposal area is in the underground level. since im carrying around garbage bags im not allowed to take customer lifts, escalators, anywhere there are likely to be people walking around. i have to take the cargo lift, which takes AGES to arrive. and theres only one lift for the whole building (24 or so floors). plus waiting in elevator room is damned hot.. god it was so annoying.. lets see, what else sucked. picking up after certain customers. youd think that a sophisticated office employee would be nice and tidy, well no. they leave newspapers sitting around in a mess, coffee rings all over the table, crumbs sitting around. goddamn. we give you trays for you to put your shit on them as to avoid a mess on the table, so use them goddamnit.
ahem, so thats all i have to say. overall, i wont say it was very fun, productive, or i hated it. well lets just say it was a new experience..
