A Tale of two Shopping Centres

It had been a couple weeks here and I was getting pretty desperate to find work. The only thing I would really draw the line at was being one of those people who hold signs up all day. So I was very thankful to get a call for an interview at a Starbucks at Liffey Valley shopping centre. I really didn’t give a hoot how far out of town it was. That is, until I had to go out there. I live to the South of the city centre, and Liffey Valley is to the direct West. So first I needed to go downtown, and then hop on a double-decker bus that would take about 45 mins to get to the mall. This was my first bus experience, so I giddily climbed up to the section on top and sat right by the front window; big mistake. These buses go fast, and swerve around tight corners, and I swear we hit a branch of a tree at some point, and by the end of the trip I was feeling sea sick. Liffey Valley is a gorgeous and gigantic mall that feels more like an airport. Despite realizing how inconvenient it’d be for me to get there, I gave the interview my all. At the end of it the manager said they were interviewing one other person who actually lived closer than me, but she was pretty certain the shopping centre at Dundrum was hiring too, and that I could get to very quickly on the Luas line. But, she added, I don’t know if this other person will work out, so I’m going to cover my bases first and get back to you.

That very evening, when I was walking down Ranelagh in order to buy a couple essential groceries, I got a call from Jayson from Dundrum shopping mall asking if I’d to come in for a “chat”. Assuming the other manager at gone with the neighbourhood applicant, I readily said yes and appreciated getting an interview at a closer store. The next day I went out to Dundrum, which despite being incorporated into the Dublin suburbs, still has the feeling of a village thanks to the little street you have to walk from the Luas stop which has pubs and charity shops and little brick houses with gardens. The mall itself, at the end of this stretch, comes up rather as a surprise. Jayson is a good guy and asked many of the same questions the Liffey Valley manager asked the day before. At one point I said, “I should come up with a different answer to that than I answered yesterday,” and he said, “You had an interview yesterday?” It turns out Liffey Valley had not called him yet and he had offered me an interview completely on his own (coincidently phoning me the day of my first interview!) No matter, they’d work it out, he said. I finished off the interview and felt pretty confident.

Then the Liffey Valley manager went missing in action, and Jayson, not wanting to step on her toes, didn’t offer me anything until he could reach her. Then it turned out she was waiting for the other person she interviewed to get back to her, but by this point I was favouring Dundrum and didn’t like the feeling of being bounced back and forth. “Do I have any sort of say,” I asked Zara, the assistant manager at Dundrum when she outlined the situation for me, “because your store is a lot easier for me to get to...” Finally, Zara phoned me about coming to do a test run (I forget what it’s actually called, but it’s something they do here in customer service where they see how you are behind the counter for a bit before they offer you a job). So I came in and everything went well (except a pitcher of frappuccino mix was knocked over in the fridge, maybe by me, and we had to mop it all up). Anyways, Zara said I did a good job and I’d hear from them soon, eventually getting a call from her the day of the Pride Parade.

And it’s been a whirlwind ever since. I was hired as a full-time staff member, which means I am guaranteed forty hours a week, which is radically different from scheduling in Canada. Also different though is the pace. In Toronto I must have worked at one of the quietest stores; now I work for one of the busiest in all of Ireland. I never thought about it this way, but starting at a new job is all about surviving a thousand little humiliations. For instance, despite the fact that the dress code is international, they made fun of me for wearing khaki pants instead of black. Worse, on my first day working with the manager Jayson, he said my scruff was a bit thick (“This store is kind of high profile, you see...”) so I offered to go and buy a razor and shaving cream from the pharmacy upstairs, which I hope showed my dedication. They have me mostly doing “cafe” (which is called “bussing” back home, but is so not as big a deal!) which involves going around picking up all the plates, mugs and garbage people leave at their tables. They keep apologizing and saying that I’ll get to do something more interesting soon, but for the time being, while I’m still getting used to the pace of the store and all the little things that are different, I’m quite happy with my little bin of dishes.