One week recap

Here's a one week recap of my new job based in downtown San Francisco. Again, this might be my last post about work in general unless something big comes up.

And so I began my work as Account Representative with three straight overtime days. For three straight days, I went home at 8:30 PM, trying to clean out all the backlog my predecessor left me. Argh. It was a lot of work and the way I see it, if I just budgeted everything, I would have finished it within this week without having to work overtime! If I were paid hourly, I wouldn't mind overtime. Heck, I'd even do it everyday! But no, I get a monthly salary of $1,620 or $21,060 a year. That means my boss can overwork me and still not get paid proportionally. Oh well... At least, this job is better than working at Macy's.

Basically, my job consists of doing a lot of phones, trying to find potential clients who would subscribe to our services. All day long, my job is to call, call, and call. I haven't made a sale yet but I almost hit 2 today alone. Darn.

But in any case, my boss is happy with my progress. From a jittery rookie on the first day to a veteran after 5 days. My next and last lesson to be learned is how to make and close sales. Fortunately, my boss said she'd walk me through that step by step.

I have nice officemates and I think that's healthy for company harmony. I think chemistry is something important that co-workers must have so that a good working environment is produced. In my case with Ms. Chinita, the "chemistry" was too much, so much that our boss called us in and asked what was going on between us. It was funny, really. She thought we were dating - in what, 5 days?! Geeez. I've only known Ms. Chinita for 5 days and just because we have lunch together all the time, we're already going out?! Hahaha! The two of us just laughed it off. I mean, she's got a boyfriend! We're just good friends, officemates who just clicked. We both just found the whole thing ridiculous.

On the other hand, the lunches we spent together were really cool as I got to know her better. In her, I see a strong and determined woman. That's kinda intimidating, in my opinion. She's not afraid to voice out and she's really brave about it. I guess it's because she grew up here, despite being born in Taiwan. I find her personality particularly interesting because I never thought I'd hit it well off with someone who grew up here with that kind of personality. I've always been the conservative and reserved one and I thought that kind of personality will turn me off. I guess, in this case, it was a right match. I just hope our friendship will go on despite one of us leaving work (she has plans to leave soon because she finds the pay too little).

As I realized, when I think about pay and the money I spend everyday at work, I spend nearly $17-18 on food and transportation alone. Taking the BART already costs me $10. Food can get to as much as $7-8, depending where I eat. That's $85-90 a week! In a month, that's $340-360 - 21-22% of my monthly salary already! I'm fortunate enough not to pay rent but if I did, I'd be broke. That's why I'm rethinking if I should leave and find something else because I don't think the expenses compute very well with me. Besides, I don't want to do sales anymore. I'd rather be a receptionist than bug people to subscribe to our services. I just think sales is an annoying job to do. Heh.

So there, that was my week, in a nutshell. Phones. Ms. Chinita. BART. Day in and day out. All the same things.

But hey, at least I get to enjoy walking around the streets of San Francisco!

We'll just see what happens in week 2...

*Edited for some typographical and grammatical errors - I was so tired and sleepy when I did this last night!