Leaving Homesense

I feel almost as sad writing this post as I did writing the one about leaving Fusion. Despite being at Homesense for only four months, I made some really great friends, and completely loved the job. TJX were a pretty great company to work for (it must sound like I’m being paid to say this!) For example, in the run-up to Christmas, the management were told to spent £20 from the store’s money on food for everyone to eat in the staff room. We took a random 10 minutes each and stuffed our faces with sausage rolls, doughnuts, and fizzy drinks. And we were being paid to do this. Yeah. On our stock take night, when we were expected to work until around midnight, they ordered £240-worth of pizza for everyone to dig in to. Who else can say they work somewhere like that? Everyone working there was incredible, really brilliant people, and I actually liked the job, too! Telling them I was leaving was something I was dreading, but it turned out to be totally fine! Everyone was really excited for me, and my manager told me to come back in when I returned to see if she had any summer hours she could give me!

Starting work at Homesense

I wrote this at the time ready to publish when I'd updated everything previously!

So, today I started my second job in two months! Haha. Got all my uniform, logged into the system with information on a post-it note I just know I'm going to lose. Have a locker all of my own! Very snazzy. I was only working four hours today, in fact, I think most of my shifts are going to be four hours, which is nice because it means I get a lot of the day, but does split up days a lot. Was on the tills straight away which wasn't too bad, I'm sure I'll pick things up quickly. Also went on the shop floor tidying etc. Felt a bit useless if customers asked for help but everyone that shops there is very friendly, I guess it goes with the homewares territory really. I finished at 6 and then had Bible Study tonight which I was leading. 
I prepared a talk/study on 'Making your life count' - it was a bit bitty (haha) rather than flowing smoothly but I don't think it was too bad! A few quotes were: 
"You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough." - Mae West
"Only when we're brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light." - Brene Brown
Pretty sure I have an unhealthy obsession with quotes.. 

And this is more recent:
So, working at Homesense has been pretty cool! All my shifts have been 4 or 6 and a half hours, and the people there are fantastic. Everyone is so friendly, and really make you feel welcome, and willing to help if you need it. You have to find the balance between asking for help when you need it, because you don't want to make mistakes and mess up, but also using your initiative and not just going to a manager every four minutes. I like learning new things, so it's been a good experience. And I'm not gonna lie - the money has come in handy!

Getting a job - Aramark Catering

After returning from a busy summer of going all over the place, next step was to get a job.

I applied to a ton of jobs all at once, and the work experience I had from the Olympics really helped! I had a phone call from Aramark Catering, who cater at Worcester University, inviting me to join them on a paid trial week of work.

This news was amazing - although catering wasn't my ideal job, I had experience in it from the Olympics, the pay was pretty good, and the hours were very full. 

I was working in the Pear Tree cafe in the Student Union part of the university, with Tash, Alex and Carla. I worked with Jade in the evenings, who is one of the loveliest people ever. We did Starbucks coffee, so I learnt how to make all the drinks! It took a while, but I got the hang of it eventually! My favourite bit was putting on whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles :) We also did food, so chips, burgers, panini's, sandwiches etc. Over the two weeks I was there I learnt how to cook most things, and also did cleaning up, temperature checks on the fridges and freezers, and obviously the till.

The seating area in the Pear Tree Cafe

The job was okay, not my ideal thing as working with food really puts you off eating, and it's just not my favourite thing to do. Most of the students could be quite rude, too, and we had hardly any stock so I was constantly apologising for advertising things on our menu that we didn't actually have.

The big problem for me was being messed around with my shifts. The rota went up a week in advance but changed all the time. I was asked to stay late on my first Tuesday to serve wine and.. what are those things called? That posh people have, served on pieces of slate, with teeny portions of fancy food on little crackers or whatever? Does it begin with C? That's going to drive me crazy.. Anyway, those. We had so much wine left over it was unreal - Alex downed about eleven glasses and got pretty tipsy pretty fast. I was asked to work till 7, which I said I could do, but no later, as I had Fusion (my youth group I help at) at 7.30pm. However, they kept me there until well after 9! I was so angry. My shifts were constantly messed around, at one point my hours for Sunday changed four times in one week. Nobody asked me if it was ok, I just got in, and on the rota someone had scribbled out my old hours and put in something new! I'd be at home with a morning off and get a text asking me to come in asap to work. You really had to learn to say no - something I'm not too good at in the world of work. I've been learning more and more though that if you don't people really do just walk all over you, you're like the easy option to come to and get to do whatever you want. On one Saturday, I arrived at work after checking the rota the day before, and had been scribbled out as being 'Off'. Nobody bothered to let me know! I couldn't stand not knowing when I'd be working, so I really don't think it was for me.

Homesense Worcester!

BUT..... God is good! With perfect timing, I had a phone call from Homesense, where I had also sent an application in. They asked me to interview on the Monday (my very first day at Aramark) which I did, and I got a call about a week later asking me to work for them on a 12 hour contract!

At the time, I was in such a dilemma as to what to do. I'll draw you up the reasons for staying at Aramark/accepting the Homesense offer:

Aramark

Pro's

Lots of hours = money 

Good pay

Con's

Never know shifts

Working with food - not ideal

Not even on a contract - no security

Homesense

Pro's

Job/environment I could enjoy

Proper contract, more reliable company

Con's

Only 12 hour contract

In the end, I phoned Homesense back and told it to them straight. I said that I had another job offer which had good pay and lots of hours but I really would prefer to work for Homesense. Sindy who I spoke to (now one of my lovely managers!) told me the pay would be around £6.20, and I would have more hours than 12, although most likely not near full-time. I accepted the job. I think a lot of people thought I made the wrong decision - even I wondered if I'd done the right thing! I'd given up all these hours for a job where I might only get 12! Now, however, I cannot thank the past me enough! I definitely made the right decision!

You see, just when you're worrying about if you've done the right thing, you can get a sign. For me, the sign was in the lack of pay from the 70 hours work I did for Aramark. Four months on, and I'm still owed over £350. Ask God for a sign, and he'll give you one!

(If you're wondering about the money issue, I'm still in the process of getting it sorted. I have been assured that I will be paid - although I've been told that about three times now! All I can say is that I am so glad that I took the job rather than someone with a rent to pay, family to support etc - they'd be in a right pickle now.)

PS - I remembered the word for the fancy food beginning with C! Canapes!