Fight for your rights.

I gone through a period of emotional crisis lately. There were few issues that happened at the same time, and I got really frustrated. Now that things have settled, I start to reflects my life.

I realised in my life, i have to always fight for what I want. Reason? I do not usually get what i want/wish. When i was small, i do not get to buy sweets/junk food that other young chidren enjoy. i do not get extra money to bu the weekly paper magazine sold at 30cents at the side door of my primary school.

Once my parents brought us all to a book fair in Penang. I wanted to buy a book written by Enid Blyton (Did i spell that correctly??) and was rejected. I was so into the book and I wanted it so much, I do not understand why they say the writer is good, the story is good for our age to learn, yet i was not allowed to get one.

When i was in uni, i was the only one who do not have fancy dress, branded clothes, make up, car, cash, handphone etc. When i went to Scotland for further studies, i am the only one with no handphone and extra cash. Some were teasing me, I know. What to do? I do not have the priviledge to get those luxuries.

I thought to myself, that I am going to get what i want with my own effort when i grew up. It's ok I cannot get it now. I will do that later, when I am financially independent. i thank my parents for giving me such experience. Though it was painful, it really taught me of the vlue of life and the value of getting something with you rown effort.

I am slowly moving towards achieving things I want in life. from small item that i fancy to the necessity that I want to have, but to many others, it may be a luxury. I treasure what i have now, especially what I get from my hard work.

I appreciate life more.

Part II

I am lucky to secure my position in Penang. So, I started my life with Aeon in Klang Valley, visiting all Wellness pharmacy to gain as much experience, skills, before my store pen in end August. I’ve been working there, travel up north and south frequently by driving alone. It’s kind of busy and crazy. I can be in Penang today and in KL tomorrow, back to penang next week. Sometimes I confused where am I supposed to be. Luckily I have a car with me. It is also my first time driving all the way from SP to KL alone, and the trip is enjoyable because there is no jam and traffic is very smooth.

4 August marks the day when I officially start working in my store in Bandar Perda, Penang. There were so many things to prepare, so many parties to entertain, so many big and small issue to handle. From renovation, rectifying, cleaning, receiving, arranging, organizing, training, endless meetingssssSSSS to attend, bla bla bla…. The list goes on. My patience is very much challenged during that period of time. I start work very early and only comes home very late. It is really NOT easy to handle and IMPOSSIBLE to finish everything without effective manpower. Thank god, everything goes on quite smoothly, until the soft opening of Aeon Shopping Complex, Bandar Perda on 22 Aug 2008.

It was exciting to see the pharmacy finally open to the public after all hard work and sacrifice we’ve done for it to be a success. We have a good opening and everybody is happily feel exhausted and tired. My boss is also in good mood and happy. Phew…..

Everybody was so excited to know how is the response and sales on our 1^st day of opening. There is a Chinese saying, “It is not easy to start a business, and even harder to maintain the business” I couldn’t agree more and I actually feel stress about it. When you’re doing well, boss will expect something better from you. If you cannot make it, whatever contribution or hard work you’ve put in might become meaningless. That’s what I worry about. My boss has already increase my target for October L and he already informed me that target for 2009 will be higher. Oh god! How??? Worse, my first target next year is THREE (3) times my target this year. I better don’t think of it now to give additional stress for myself.

I’ve stay with Aeon for 4months+ now. I am relieved I actually gone through it and finding a balance in my work. If you ask me how’s is it like working with Aeon? My reply would be: It is a roller coster like experience.

Seriously, it’s not a normal task for anybody to join Aeon, especially a pharmacist. Culture shock is normal. Job that seems out of our responsibilities are also normal. Whatever seems to be common sense and normal to us, might not be normal to the company. I’ve gone through a severe culture shock in the early stage of my employment when I was still in KL, and major crisis happened when I first came back to Penang for the very early preparation of our new store opening, when I first meet all the other colleagues. I really feel like crying, tears rolling in my eyes and my colleague ask me whether I didn’t get enough sleep. She then told me that it is normal if I react like this now. It is very common every pharmacist will feel like how I feel. L A BIG SIGH……. That time I feel like running away and quit right away, go far away from Aeon. I wish time pass in the speed of light, that everything will be over, just like that. I have no heart to continue the journey. It was a painful experience.

So how did I survived until today huh??? Maybe perseverence and patience is the key. Emotional support from my pharmacist manager and pharmacist colleague did helped a lot. I will be fine if they understand how I feel at that moment. Luckily they understand, because they’ve gone through what I am going through. I wouldn’t say I’m stable now but I’m learning to be stable and stay cool for any disaster that happens.

New exciting and challenging life (Part I)

I have been away for so long. Let me post some updates.

I went to Kota Kinabalu again on 30 May 2008. The trip was relaxing but not as fun as my 2^nd trip there where I can get superb place to stay (Sutera Harbour Resort Hotel) , nice delicious seafood to indulge, and also Mandara spa to relax myself. That was my first time doing full body massage and strangely after the massage I didn’t have much feeling about it. Either the massager is not good enough, or I have no stress. (Is that possible ???)

I report duty to my new job with a Japanese company a day after I came back from KK. I was told to be there 8.45am, but when I reach there on time, nobody is there attending to me because, according to the security, all staff went for assembly. So I sit there and wait….wait…..wait……

It was the HR staff who briefed us on the company and we’re given a handbook, one of the interesting content of the handbook is category of misconduct. If any staff were found of any misconduct that is categorized, then action will be taken. They actually have a “court” to penalize those who were found guilty of the misconduct. I’d better be a good person in this company to avoid this kind of treatment.

I was then being brought to the HQ office, which gave me a big surprise, of how actually is their work place in this big company. It is all open with no cubicle at all, and there are many strings hanging, those were the switch to the lights. It’s is not centralized. This is in line to their policy to love the environment and to cut electricity cost. Every staff will have a table and a computer, and the tables were arranged together so that all staff sit face to face, with manager sitting at the end, facing all staff.

This open concept gave us a surprise, we really didn’t expect such a company will have such a policy. Office itself is an eye opener to us.

2 June marks the new era in my life, I become an employee of a Japanese company, Aeon Bhd, working in Aeon Wellness Pharmacy. It is a brand new life with loads of new things to explore and learn and also suffer, suffer as in, no pain no gain. To be continued……