After waiting I grew anxious and pressurised my friend to ask the person he knew at the mechanics what was happening with our placements. To my dismay there would only be one placement offered, however as I though that I had another option I opted to work at a pharmacy. I sent off the legal document and the set up to my work experience commenced. The week prior to my Work Experience was I was really happy and excited solely on the basis that I was going to have tow weeks off school. For a week I had to liase with the school and my future employees by sending and receiving documents about me working there. After the hassle of organising my work experience the time finally came to go there.
I arrived at Edmonton (where my work experience was) at around nine o’clock. I travelled there with my Aunt and Uncle it was ‘all part of the service’ I was told. The shop was dingy; it had a musty smell and seemed like a used place. Hardly a place I though people would want to come to help them get better. When I got there a customer arrived straight away I did not know what to do I felt out of place, but my employers handled it with grace, it was like second nature to them. I then prepared myself for the long and boring safety briefing, but unfortunately it never came; so if the place was going to burn down I guess I would go down with it! Instead I was given an induction into what I was going to experience. I was going to be on the till, I was also going to be doing merchandising – my heart leapt something that would finally challenge me as this sounded new. Unfortunately all it meant was making sure the customer could see everything on the shelves, I did not think that it took much brainpower to do this. Great!
I had been on the till and had made a couple of mistakes, but soon picked up on them and was a natural, however making mistakes on a till makes you feel a little bit inferior as it does not take a rocket scientist to work it out. It was the first day and things were satisfactory. Then it was chaos. Three toddlers entered the shop, very lively delinquents with a single mother. This was the equation for trouble. My Aunt was serving the lady. Another customer came in and I was serving them, the pharmacist was advising a customer and the three children had gotten hold of lipstick on the shelf and were decorating the dull carpet. I thought it brought colour to the place. I found the situation hilarious at first, but trying to stop them is another thing. Cleaning it up is another. My next experience was cleaning, I did not expect it, but I could not argue with my employers either. I could not apply the saying so far so good to the day that I was having.
It was around one o’clock I had some lunch and a break for an hour. The shop was pretty empty if customers did come they all came at the same time. They might have a plan to ruin the ‘new boys’ day. It was a bit like being in the army, this was like my initiation my test to try and get in.
For the rest of the day the shop was pretty empty, so I spent time ‘merchandising’. Except for when it was time for me to leave, the customers poured in at five to five and I had to serve them. I wanted to impress my Aunt and Uncle prove to them that I could do anything that I was given, make myself seem more mature and like an adult. I was there to gain experience wasn’t I?
During the rest of the week I had the routine menial jobs to be done. However, I did meet some interesting people, you hear about people like this on the news or in rap songs. I served a lady who was in the past being beaten up by her husband and was fighting her craving for alcohol, this gave me a glimpse of one half of the area I was working in. I also met a person who had been into prison and knew some of the old gang leaders in Tottenham (the area I was working in), he looked violent; he had the classic skin head and tattoos on the arms and grim smile, but he was on a steady and legal job now. I learnt not to judge people on how they look and understand them better instead of getting a misconceived impression of them. Once again it came to three o’clock and we were empty so another prolonged two-hour wait. Sitting, sitting, sitting. I thought to myself, “This is not where I want to be. I want to be out, I want to be experiencing, living, running, jumping, eating, womanising, playing, screaming, laughing, anything.” The people I met were the only interesting thing involved in this job.
The weekend finally came and I had my two days off. My back was hurting my legs were aching as I was not able to sit down at the pharmacy, I also did not want to ask as I wanted them to see me as a person who is capable of doing any task. They may be menial tasks but the hours add up.
On Monday I was given new things to do I found a bit more interesting, I had to get all the medicines ready count them up and get them ready for the customers to pick up. I was not able to this to the best of my ability as I had a cold. I was stressed to the limit as I had a module test coming up on Wednesday and had done hardly any revision, talk about timing! I stuck it out through Tuesday but that was only because my Uncle took pity on me, which I was quietly grateful about. He allowed me to revise and helped me. At this point I thought it was handy working in a family business. However, I did not repay his gratitude and said that after the exam tomorrow the school said that we are meant to stay at home. I am grateful to him though letting me revise otherwise I would not have been able to even fail the test. The rest of the week flew by as I missed the last day, as I had to go onto a field trip for my geography coursework.
Well at the end of the week I was so glad I had finished. On my last day I must admit I decided to rebel a bit but nothing major. I had a laugh. So three-thirty came and I left. I was so happy with myself that I had put up with it. I went home and chilled out. I reflected on my two weeks.
In the end I decided that I didn’t want to be tied down in a job like this that has no real career opportunities. I went back the Tuesday afterwards to get my Work Experience paperwork signed and they offered me a Saturday job. I obliged.
After working my first Saturday there. I decided it is not half as bad as I thought. Then I realised I was getting paid this time. This experience has changed me, it has given me a slight insight into life, working is not as easy as it seems and saying it doing it are two different things. It has also made me more focused preparing me for my GCSE’s the next big step in my life. Now the paint has dried and the grass has grown it is time to re-decorate and cut the grass. In other words now I have decided what I’m going to do with life I am going to sort myself out and do it!
