I will also learn from the Japanese spirit of hardworking, and do this way during my part-time job. --------From my diary
Most of my friends take my current job as low-paid, effort-taking and time-consuming. Now I work only three days each week, say, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, generally from 11:00----2:00 (sometimes, I may lucky enough to get an extra hour or two, such as the promotion time, I went to send advertisement fliers for two more hours). Basically, I have to spend one hour on the way, and another four dollars and forty cents on the train ticket. My current pay is still 8 Australian dollars per hour (the boss promised to make it 9 dollars from the second month, but now four months have passed, he had never mentioned it). That means I spent four hours, only to get less than 20 dollars (excluding the transportation fee) in return. As a rule, part-time jobs in the local restaurant last at least four hours. Almost all of my friends think I should quit this job to look for another one. Once I did tell my boss I wanted to quit, not for this reason, but I simply feel guilty of always been making so many troubles for him. He asked me to stay, even though he didn’t appreciate the way I worked at all. My friends think that’s because he can hardly get another employee working for him only three hours at a time, with such a low salary. This is the real situation, but I still appreciate the patience and tolerance he has had on me.
As a matter of fact, I’ve always been trying my best to do it well, particularly after reading a feature story about a girl’s part-time working experience in Japan. (I know many Chinese do hate Japanese very much, but I seem to have adored the spirit of hardworking of this nation since the first time I heard about their story.) This girl went to overseas study in Tokyo, the city with the highest level of consumption in the world. She chose to work par-time to reduce the financial pressure despite the opposition from his father. (By the way, my father was also against my decision to take part-time job. He loves me so dearly that he doesn’t want me to bear any hardship, and he was afraid it might hinder my study. But I eventually managed to persuade him with the help of my mother. Yes, my mum is in favor of me. When I acted spoil on the phone last time, she even warned me that it’s the right time for me to bear hardship, as she believed I would certainly enjoy comforts later. To be honest, I had never found in my lifetime that my mum could be so great in thoughts. Actually, I was too self-centered to listen to what she was saying, as I suppose. Well, this great discovery is another story, but now I have to go back to the topic. )
This girl wrote to persuade his father that in the local restaurants, there’re some waiters or waitresses found working all the time, even during the rest hours. They ware working so hard not for the sake of extra pay, because they are nobody else but the sons or daughters of the boss! In Japan, hardworking is highly horned. Nobody cares about getting the same pay, though they've done more jobs. On the contrary, they always try to work as much as they can. Once in a restaurant, the local students and Chinese overseas students even competed with each other about who would serve more customers before the closing time. They started this "labor emulation campaign" unconsciously. Afterwards, the Chinese students managed to be the first to serve the last group of customers and eventually won the competition. They were overjoyed regardless of fatigue, but the local students felt so shameful to work less, and even cried into tears.
As being involved, the girl was impressed deeply and told his father she would learn from the local’s labor viewpoint. I was also so touched that from that time on, I followed the suit and worked even harder. Sometimes the boss even said I needn’t do so many things all at once, but simply take a rest first.
I felt very happy, because I’ve always been working very hard despite the awkward and nervous performances I conducted when it’s busy (currently it’s still beyond my control, because I lack practice in the past, as I suppose). I think the boss knows I really want to do this job very well, and he therefore treating me very well. He gives me some food to take home to eat from time to time, and even exchange ideas with me about his early overseas study in UK and other life experience. (That’s also what I’ve learnt that to treat others exactly the way you want to be treated. Say, really concerned and do your best for the business, and the boss will also respect and appreciate your efforts.)
I used to be very self-centered. It has been a bad habit since I was born, and it really takes me long time and great endeavor to get rid of it, now I’m still trying hard in this process. Anyway, I feel lucky, as overseas working experience alert me to face it up timely. Now I’d like people of the same age as me also think about this issue.
I almost forget that I happened to read another feature story the other day. It’s about what self-centerness or self-indulgence has brought the young generation: unbalanced and fragile psychology particularly meeting setbacks, such as over-sensitive coming along with depression, as if people are all against you on purpose; lack of tolerance and cooperation, since you took yourself as No. 1 and thus refuse or can hardly deal with teamwork. Just think about it, as I’ve mentioned, “correct the mistakes if you have made any and guard against them if you have not.”
So this is my first part-time job, but it’s such a long story with so many enlightenments and acquisitions that I can hardly all share with you once at a time. I think I’m going to write something more the next time.
(Joan September 4, 2004, 22:37 in Sydney)
