More Gripes from the Service Industry.

I seem to be getting very stressed out at work lately. Not a day passes in which I have an enjoyable day at work. I'm resorting to drinking tons of coffee to stay hyperactive so as to prevent myself from screaming at clients. If I could drink alcohol, I'd have a bottle of whatever stashed away at the recept.

It's so difficult to do admin at work when your "office" happens to be at the reception desk. When you are trying to organize your thoughts and paperwork, you keep getting distracted by meaningless phone calls and people coming in the bloody door. The phone calls seem endless. Most of the time, you get another call coming in halfway through the first.

I really hate the phone. It started with my job at Hong Leong Finance when the phone rings from morning till night with people screaming at you for repossessing their cars. Not like I'm doing it for fun you know. You get financing for a car, make sure you bloody pay up your installments as agreed in the contract. Otherwise, take the bloody public transport.

Anyway, I've stopped answering the phone at home since about a year ago. The calls are never for me anyway and those that are usually are unsolicited telemarketing idiots who ought to be eaten up by bugs like in the movie Constantine. God. How I laughed in glee when that happened. But I digress...

Sometime during our lunch break, I was sitting out at the recept trying to do my weekly budget analysis when I heard the door being pushed. It made a lot of noise because it was locked. (We were closed). I ignored it because I was in the middle of working out an excel formula. I could tell by the sound of their voices that it was a group of people. One of them was telling the rest that the clinic was closed until 2pm. Another then read aloud a sign I put up on the door to say that "ENTRY BEFORE 12pm WAS BY THE BACK DOOR" (It was about 1.30pm). I then heard the group leave and the next thing you know, someone was enthusiastically trying the back door which was also locked. The group then trooped back to the front door muttering among themselves about how strange it was that they couldn't get into the (CLOSED) clinic. Eventually, the entire group (of Secondary school students) gathered by the huge glass window beside the recept counter and started knocking on the glass to get my attention. I shot them the most evil glare I could (No coffee yet) and then stomped my way out via the back door to answer the stupid bimbo ah lian's question about how she suspects her dog may be pregnant and if the vet can tell.

From that and other previous experiences, I feel that the ministry of education should seriously introduce another subject into the school syllabus. COMMON SENSE!

Later that day, this middle aged mandarin speaking couple came in to the clinic in the afternoon and told me that they had trouble applying the eye drops we prescribed onto their spitz. Now there are some breeds of dogs that I simply cannot stand and the bloody Spitz ranks among the top few. They are mostly aggressive bitey buggers who are kept mostly by bloody idiots who do not socialize or train them. Anyway, the stupid mutt in question had an e-collar on so that gave me an advantage over it. So there I was interrupted in my work, smiling and explaining to the clients how to hold the dog (I was actually in a good mood. Thanks Caffeine!) and how they had to work together with one person holding the dog and the other quickly applying the medication. They were like total idiots who didn't even dare touch their own dog because they are afraid of getting bitten. Ok. Fine. So I tried to apply the eye drop myself and because the two owners were so totally inept, I got myself a fresh scar on my left arm from the bloody dog's incessant struggling and clawing. Finally, I gave up and asked Mei to help me apply the drop while I held the dog for the owners to see. The lady (standing quite a distance away) suddenly said (very casually) to me:

[Translated from Mandarin]

"Oh the dog is peeing on you."

After that, I kinda lost it. I started telling the owner that they have to train their dog and they have to socialize their dog more or they are going to have a lot more difficulties with it. They just smiled and nodded but I could see by the look in their eyes that I was like an alien spouting rubbish and they just wanted me to get the job over and done with. So I decided to shut up. The dog had 2 eye drops to be given 15mins apart so I told them to come back in 15mins so I could help them apply the second drop. They never came back and they left without a word of thanks or apology.

Think it's time to call it quits.