On the first day I was surprisingly nervous, this is even before I arrived to work. As soon as I woke up, the feelings were different. On arrival to work I had to sign into the visitors book and go and meet john plumber, who is a manager. But he was away, so a lady called Becky was there instead, she is also a manager. Straight away Becky introduced the other members of the staff. When I first met the workmates I was nervous, because I did not know what sort of people they were. But I soon found out they were friendly and helpful. After this Becky showed us where the staff room was, this is also the place we had our 2 fifteen minute breaks and if you stay in the building, lunch as well. Once we where in the staff room, there was a place to keep our coats and bags. We put are things away, then we were told that we have to wear the toy r us t-shirt. This came to a surprise to me because I thought that as we are only working there for 2 weeks, they would let us wear a different shirt or something like that, and also, on the interview we were told to wear a white shirt. We got changed then we were told to go downstairs to a meeting. It is actually called a ‘briefing’, at this briefing; the members of staff discuss what profits they made the last day, and what their aim is today, this happens everyday. They also discuss which area is better, and which they need to target more.
Once the briefing was over, the first job I given was to stack games on shelves. This straight away did not give me a good impression, as it sounded like a boring job. But then luckily something exciting happened. As I was doing this, a suspicious looking man came in, my supervisor and I both spotted him. So my supervisor told me to keep an eye on him, whilst he made sure the man was on camera, just in case he did steal. I personally thought that this ordeal was very strange, this is because, I did not think that I would have been given so much responsibilities on the first day, with out training, it came to a real shock to me. Nothing was stolen in the end. After that I had to put tags on all the games, the tags said ‘this box is empty’. I had to put tags on all the games because I was told that recently there have been a lot of thefts. I had to put stickers on about 200 games. This was very boring. Following that I had to stack more games on shelves. The labelling and stacking games was very boring, as it was just the same thing again and again. We then had an induction. We had an induction late because all of the manager’s were busy. In the induction we were shown videos about health and safety, although these videos were rather boring, they were very helpful and taught me a lot about health and safety around the store. We were then given a speech to summarise it all up. This all took about 45 minutes. We then had to fill in some forms that show that we understand healthy and safety issues. This had to be done because they had to make sure we knew what’s right and what’s wrong. Followed by this we were given a tour around the whole warehouse. Including storeroom, etc. we were also shown what to do in certain areas. Becky was the one who was showing us around, she showed us the entire work place. The place was huge. It was then lunchtime. At lunchtime I went out of the building to eat. Each time you enter and exit the building, we had to sign the visitor’s book. This was because just in case there is a fire, they want to make sure everybody is safe. After lunch first I had to clean up the games section of the store. E.g. dusting. Once I had done this, my supervisor taught me how to use the phone. (The intercom system). This is a useful system because it saves you walking around the whole store looking for someone, all you have to do is say the persons name and the area you’re in, and the person you’re contacting comes there. To my surprise I then answered some customers phone calls, this was even more shocking to me then the robbery incident. Mainly because it’s a huge responsibility taking customer calls. Customer’s calls are very important to the company, so I had to make sure I did not say any thing wrong, as doing so, could cause great trouble. Although I was vastly under pressure, it was not too bad because, my supervisor said: ‘ if you don’t know the answer to a customers call, just pass the call on to another member of staff’. I then had a fifteen-minute break, which was in the break room. In the break, I had a cold drink, which made me feel a lot cooler and relaxed. For the remaining hours or so I was told stacked more shelves. This is how work was on a typical day, although on some days, they gave slightly different jobs, with different training. For example on day 2, I worked in the workshop and built a desk and a bike, that was quiet exciting.
The feeling changed as the days went on because I got more and more confident, and began to talk to people fluently and with less muttering. I started to enjoy the job more and began to feel like a real member of staff.
I worked with a number of people, both male a female. Everybody was very friendly and helpful. Surprisingly, most of the workers acted unprofessionally and used bad language. They swore a lot and were obsessed with some of words. Two words, which were used in almost every sentence, were ‘ superb’ and ‘wank’. One person in particular I would like to describe is a man called Matt Arnold. This person’s personality was one of a kind. He was quiet tall and built, he had a bold head with a brown hair coloured gouty. His personality was different because he was just that type of person that makes you laugh by not meaning to make you laugh. He says the silliest things, and says them so seriously, that you begin to believe them. Although he was a bit of a mess about, he was probably one of the most educated and helpful people there. That’s why I think he is unique. Another person I would mention is a man called Justin Harris. This is possibly the jolliest person I have ever seen. He makes jokes about everything and makes the most boring things sound interesting.
One of the most positive aspects of work is that I met new people and was able to develop my communication skills. Also I learnt some new skills from work. E.g. how to use some of the machines. I think that learning these new skills was great as it could help me in further life. One of the most rewarding things about working in Toys R Us was dealing with customers. It naturally makes you feel good when you know you have helped someone and that you can make a difference. I think one of the most worthwhile things I did was in the workshop. This is where we had to build bikes and tables, etc. I think this was helpful, because it is a bit like DIY, and everybody needs to know some DIY for further life. I think overall the most positive things were that they offered me a job. This was great as it made me feel like I have worked hard and made a difference.
I think the negative aspects of work were that we did almost the same things everyday. For example, once they taught you one skill, they made you use it for a couple of days. I don’t think this is useful because I went on work experience to learn lots of new things.
In away I did feel exploited because I felt that they were making me do all they’re hard boring jobs. E.g. stacking big heavy boxes on high shelves. This from time to time made me feel angry and unimportant.
Looking back at what kind of job I first wanted, this is nothing like it.
I think I did achieve some or most of my goals. For example better communication skills, I know I have achieved this because I spoke to everybody at work properly and with confidence. I learnt that this job was really hard work, and overall was not very exciting. It was also very tiring, much more than school. The job was something like what I expected, but one thing that surprised me, where the people, they were not as profession as there made out to be. I think they just do this in front of customers. Overall it compares to a school day very differently, this is because, its very long hours, and its hard work. I think overall I did quiet well, and I am proud of my work. I would recommend the placement for others, but only if they are hard workers and willing to work. I think this job has not helped me come to a conclusion about my future at all. This is because its nothing like the type of job I wanted or was interested in.
