Working in a Bank?!

Someone has begged me to update my blog more frequently, I suppose because she loves stalking me in her free time and so I am here to blog haha. My orientation week has just ended! It wasn’t very HOOHAA which is good bc i cannot HOOHAA i mean I can’t even throw a ball without hitting myself accidentally oh god can we never speak about that? I had to squat in a corner for a while because I was dying of shame and embarrassment of my inability to co-ordinate my mind and arms.

ANYWAY for the past two months or less I have been working in a bank that rhymes with VBS (haha better not write the real name in case) while JC kids are mugging away. In January after I got into DBKF I told my mom I wanted to work in a bank. I remember very distinctively, my mom laughing at me and saying why would banks hire a small inexperienced little girl and told me to work in Wei Ting stationery shop as a cashier instead. It was not mean hearted in an way, but more of realistic. I didn’t expect anything either.

Before CNY, (which was one month of waiting for job replies and applications) I went to Kelly services for a short interview and to sign my contract. On 23 Feb I started work. On the first morning of work I wore a tshirt and jeans and track shoes because Rendy told me to “wear anything I want with covered shoes”. HAHAHA what even. Annie and Tiffany sent me home to change into work attire. I should have known.

Before 23 Feb I knew not a single thing about banks; I’ve never even dropped my own cheque when Taylor Wessing paid me. I remember Violet greeted me thinking I was a customer and later on she explained to me what the cash transactions were because i was SO LOST. She told me TT give to counter and I was like what TITTY?!?!?! (Telegraphic transfer, kids, is when you send money overseas). Tiffany asked me whether I went for training before this and I said no, what training?? Kelly services never said anything about training me?? So that explains why I had to cram bank information from day one.

Because I am under 18 and hence cannot handle cash, I manned the welcome pod for the rest of the time. In professional term, it is customer service, and in Ivan’s words, I am the first point of contact with customers when they visit the branch so as to ensure that the bank runs smoothly. BEING THE FACE OF VBS OMG EXCITING haha jk. Not as fun as you think.

It’s not all honeymoon when you have to stand for nearly 8 hours straight and also UGH the troublemaker customers omg. I still remember the face of the scary man who pointed and shouted at me for a good 5 minutes about using the SMS to get queue number. Also remember these two woman who threw their Q ticket at me on two seperate occasions. It’s not very nice, to have to pick up people’s shit.

Despite bad customers, the nice customers and my colleagues made my times there the most amazing two months of my life. The old cleaner auntie that always asked if I jia/ba/bui and kept giving me food and even a red packet even though she survived on so little herself.

AND MY AMAZING COLLEAGUES (amazing isn’t even enough). Annie asked me on my last day if this was my first job, I replied, No, its my third job but my first job with emotional attachments. WHERE DO I EVEN BEGIN—

The lovely people like Violet, Fong Peng and Lyn from Sport Hub who come and cover once in awhile; although we only work together once in a blue moon they are all very sweet and they taught me a lot. ESP LYN she is my pinoy mommy, she really took care of me at Townhall and even sent me chocolates through company internal mail when Beary was leaving.

Speaking of Beary, oh god this running joke Annie started about me being his girlfriend ugh. I stood with him 8 hours a day times 6 days a week until he resigned and everyday was an adventure I looked forward to, whether it was singing and dancing to HSBC promo songs, to protecting me from troublemaker and encouraging me when there are difficult customers, to teaching him English during work, to fake bailing him out from Fatricia’s awkward conversation and so much more…

And then on to the relationship managers, I really wish I had spoken to James earlier he is such a nice person and I bullied him everyday. Howe too omg stoopeed Howe told Ivan I wanted to take him place as BBM when I finish my studies. I still remember standing at WP with Adi Howe James hahha it was so overcrowded

CASPERRRR omg i really miss him, he told me the relationship officers don’t want to stand at WP because WP is for people with low qualifications but before leaving the country he stood with me at WP and oh god what a time we had. Everyday at work made me feel like I was nurturing abs from all the laughter bc of his M18 jokes haha what have I done

MEIYUN i miss her so much and she misses me too, she made a little shrine in her cabinet with pictures and notes from us omg she super cute and sweet

JAZZY hahaha she always makes wailing noises in the morning about me leaving and then Dylan will stare at me haha super love jazzy

The tellers, even though I have lesser contact with them, are also very nice people, and super hilarious.

And the people in the back office, basically my service manager and the deputy service managers; Annie legit nearly cried when I was leaving it broke my heart so bad bc I always thought we kept things at a professional level and I never knew how much she took notice of my efforts at work.

And also Adi my fellow SP senior haha omg this malay boy is so innocent also so bochap i seriously miss his innocence and walking to mrt with him after work

And last but not least, Ivan. Let me try to explain this. Tiffany, whom I refer to as my manager, manages me (little intern), she is the branch service manager in the back office. Ivan is the branch business manager and we call him Boss. He has his own private locked office in the branch, that’s how different his importance is. For the past two months, I only see him 2/3 times a week when he walks into the branch and I smile at him; I thought he barely knew my name. But on my last day I found out that he actually chipped in to buy the Cath Kidston bag for me. It sounds like not much but to me it was VERY MUCH because why would the big boss up there chip in money to buy a farewell gift for a puny intern much lower in the hierachy at work? Also he sent me my testimonial and I read it during amazing race in school and I nearly cried because I was so touched by what he wrote despite seeming like he wasn’t there most of the time. It seemed like he did a lot of asking around about me and gathered what he saw when he saw me working and wrote a really long and detailed testimonial that really reflected my time there. I’m rambling a lot but really it feels so good to be appreciated.

I still remember the last day of work, Tina gave me money to go buy pizza and food with meiyun for my farewell party.

Really, what have I actually done in these two months to have deserved such amazing people in my life?

Now that school has started, I really miss waking up and slipping on my VBS uniform and taking MRT to promenade and opening branch and serving craptons of customers. I still talk to my colleagues on a daily basis but I’m not sure if this will last because we might run out of things to talk about. I am meeting meiyun for dinner this saturday and also James sometime next month (?) and then when Beary comes back in October we might have a meet up altogether.

This post probably has tons of grammar mistakes and lots of rambling and also some things you may not understand, but really, this holds a special place in my heart that I will never forget about.

PS SCREW CROSS READING HAHAHA JUST IGNORE WHATEVER GRAMMAR SPELLING MISTAKES OKAY