Victoria: July 2015

The life of an Awfully Chocolate Girl

Yes, I've been working at Awfully Chocolate(AC). However, I have to leave because it's back to reality(school).

Before my job interview with my friend at AC back in Feb, I've went around searching about how the work experience was like here in AC.

To no avail, I couldn't find any.

Therefore, this post is for the past and present AC girls who have worked/working at AC so that we could reminiscence the good memories and the bad together.

Not forgetting the future AC girls, like me, have a curious mind and go about searching for people's reviews before going for the interview.

AC has been around since 1998 and it has established a name for itself for it's own awfully chocolate's chocolate to make all the products displayed in stores.

The interview is held on a monthly basis and it's a mass interview.

The interview that I had went for filled the whole conference room and there were at least 10 people inside.

It's so overwhelming because that was the biggest mass interview I've ever went for and I have to do something have a lasting impression and stand out among the other girls. I felt so intimidated because all the girls are so skinny and pretty. Don't you ever get that feeling whereby you stand in a room and you felt so inferior that you want to dig a hole and hide in it?

They messaged me the very next day and I got in. I was so excited and wanted to start immediately.

When I got through the interview, I thought the toughest part was over.

I have never been so wrong.

There was so much more awaiting for me to learn and experience.

Before officially being able to start work at outlets, we have to go through training first.

During the training we were told to do the basic stuff. To promote whole cakes, how to key in orders in the POS system, piping, tying ribbon and torching creme brulee.

Lunch at Sinpopo!

My horrible piping during training

Training with Vic lau

Of course, we get to taste all of AC's product so that we could tell the customers how it tastes like.

Imagine the amount of calories intake that day, oh my. Though sinful, it's worth it cause it's worth every calorie I have to run to get it off.

I thought the training would make me feel less nervous because I have a gauge of what needs to be done.

There was so much more.

Im sure everyone knows about the bane of new girls.

They do not know everything.

Not even the prices of the product, or even the name of the product.

Simple things such as taking customer's orders, cake orders is nerve wrecking because everything is so new and fresh to them. They are at lost of what's going on.

They do things at a pace much slower than regular girls, even at a slower speed than the managers. They can do limited things in the shop to help. It's not their fault, because they are new right?

That new girl I've just described, was once me.

My very first shift selfie #vain HAHAHA

I remembered my very first day as a new girl at Vivo City.

If I'm not wrong, it was a Saturday. This meant that it was the busiest day of the week.

I started my shift at 5pm and the crowd was non-stop. Revi was the first manager that I've met and she was so patient with me. She took me under her guidance and she basically did everything for me during closing.

All I ever did was to collect payment and clean, keep the products and mop the shop during closing. I felt so useless because I couldn't help anything. I thought it was easy because the manager handled everything so quickly and efficiently.

Kudos to all the managers being so patient with new girls, because if it were me I would've lost my temper.

Over the past five months, I've learnt a lot, grown a lot. Made enemies, as well as friends.

I've grown to be more responsible because there was only 2 people in the shop at once, and two person must work together in order for work to be done easily.

I've broken down a few points an AC girl would have faced during her working experience, and these are just a few:

1. Fighting for shifts

AC has this policy of needing to hit 74 hours per month.

They are very strict about it to the point whereby if you don't hit the 74 hours, they would drop your hourly rate for the entire of that month.

AC is very strict about commitment I guess.

The hours that one can work is fixed, so the girls need to fill up the slots given. There are girls who couldn't hit the hours because they couldn't get shifts due to the excess amount of girls or don't have their preferred working hours.

It's stressful because most of the girls I know who works at AC are studying as well. It's not easy to work and study at the same time and their free time is rigid.

2. Late queen

For the entire month, one cannot be late for more than 50minutes. If not, there goes your hourly rate again.

I know friends who have their pay cut because they are late for 51minutes.

Everyday, we would keep a log of the amount of minutes, down to the seconds that we are late to keep track for the month.

It's a good thing because it just train us to be punctual for our shifts and responsible as well.

For me, it sucks because I work at least 180-210 hours for 3 months.

This meant that I literally work every single day with full shifts (10am-10pm) back to back.

That period of time was so stressful because I didn't want to be late and got my pay cut, especially when I've worked so much.

The annoying thing was the Ion biometric system had to be restarted in order for us to punch in.

From being early for 10mins could lead us to being late for a minute or two because it has to be restarted so many times. Ion girls do you feel me? *sigh*

3. No price tags

This is a frequent question among the customers. No doubt because if I'm the customer, I would've asked the same question too.

Want to know the answer?

" It's because it is to promote interaction between us and the customers so that we can tell them more about our products. "

Most of the customers would take it as it is, it's the store culture. However, though most of the customers are understanding, we often get scolded for, yelled at for it. *cries*

Simple classy tags

Simple Classy tags

4. getting bitched at, bitching about

In a workplace with only girls (except ninethirty), girls bitch about each other, girls getting bitched at.

It's a part and parcel of life.

At first, I was really surprised by how a rumour could spread so fast and the next thing you know the whole AC family knows about it.

Well, people will talk. Just live your life as it is.

5. Ice cream too hard to be scooped in the morning

Till my hands got so red and sore just to scoop that one scoop.

6. Too many ootds, too many voice chats in phone

Before we start work everyday, we have to take our ootd in order to check our attire.

Hair tied up, apron worn correctly with covered shoes.

Imagine the number of ootds I have in my phone right now!

Slanted apron messy hair back in March HAHAHA

April!

May/June

In order to kick start the day, we also have to do voicechats introducing our products with great details in a chirpy tone so that we would know how to promote our products well.

7. getting burnt while torching creme brulee

Creme Brulee arrives in boxes that are unburnt.

We are supposed to torch it ourselves and sometimes if we aren't careful, sugar gets stucked onto our fingers and we end up burning ourselves.

I remembered laughing at Chrystel because she burnt herself and it was so swollen. Ouch!

Those beautifully torched babies

8. Extra tall display

So tall that we have to stand on a small stool/chair so that we can see the customers. I'm only 164cm ):

9. Perfecting piping

I remembered how disheartened I was when the first time I piped a cake, it's so ugly that the customer demanded for a new cake.

It was so sad... But its okay!

Looking back, I wouldn't stand for that kind of piping on my cake too.

My piping now, not perfect but it was way worse HAHA

My piping now, not perfect but it was way worse HAHA

10. Classical music all day

We have an in stall playlist which consists of classical music that loops mercilessly throughout the day. If you're doing a full 14 hour shift, you would've known the lyrics to the songs. Luckily they've added new music recently from Boyce Avenue so it's not that bad anymore!

11. Long queues during special periods

The only special occasion I worked for was Mother's Day and the queue was crazy.

There was a long queue at ION all the way to Gelato right opposite us. We were serving non-stop from opening till closing.

It was so exhausting.

12. Meeting different people

The girls would be constantly shifting around outlets, therefore you would tend to meet many different people with different backgrounds.

There are people who loves to travel, there are people who loves to bake. It's interesting how even though we are of similar age but different girls do different things and have different interest.

Time really passes by real quick because you enjoy their company there. From bimbo moments to trying to clear the crowd during peak hours.

Krisha before she went to the US for 2 months

Syafeekah!

Krisha back from the states!

Sophia!

12. Friendships

Last but not least, there are definitely people you would meet and get along well with.

One of the few friends that I've made was Jing Wen. We just hit it off so well even though we only had one shift together. The best part is, she's in NTU too so we can see each other around in school!

Natalie Karl, who has always been there and saw me through since I was new till present day.

I still remembered how impatient she got when I packed cakes so slowly and how black my face was(or is) when I don't smile.

She is just a pleasant girl to be around with because she's so confident.

Going to miss teasing her about Baking Natalie, HAHAHA! Support her okay guys, (@bakingnatalie) and her random times where she burst out singing to spotify music from Boost.

The day Nat did my brows, Omg I have brows!!

Vic Secret, for being so smiley all the time. Going to miss her daily rants about how idiotic someone is and her drama mama moments all day. (EH, What now?)

VicNVic Adventures!

Daffy, for being as spontaneous as me, for taking bus 10 instead of the MRT when we end work at vivo because we love long bus rides.

Daffy!

Chrystel, for understanding me and being so patient with me even though I screwed up so many times in the store.

Never knew she would have became someone I could talk to and whine to when I was unhappy at work. Not only is she a good manager, but also a good friend because she would listen to my doubts and tries to solve them for me.

Going to miss her Aries moments when she burst out of anger HAHAHAHA!