What's your future like?

"Good day ma'am, what can I get you today? or how can I help you today?" these are the common greetings we hear from people working in the customer service or hospitality industry.  Recalling my first job, I was 20 when I started working. I started working at a fast food place called Charley's Phillysteaks. It was a fast paced and very busy when I worked there. I was able to meet people who are polite, patient, friendly and also those who are arrogant, impatient, rude and those who belittles. I had to learn how to do everything from food preparations, cooking fries, grilling the steak and chicken, building the sandwich and knowing the menu and recipes by heart. Learning acronyms or how ingredients are abbreviated like the O.M.G which stands for onions, mushrooms and green pepper or yelling steak for the original Philly cheesesteak, or veggie for a regular grilled vegetable sandwich. 

The most challenging part when working at a fast food is being the cashier... Why? probably the phrase, "the struggle is real" runs in my head over and over again whenever I work my shift. Pretty much, as a cashier, you are the face of the restaurant what we can call the front liners. Customers rate the type of service given to them from the time they were welcomed or the moment they order. But mind you, one simple mistake (which cannot be prevented cause we're only humans) customers immediately flips their mean side switches on. Mirabelli mentioned in the reading, Learning to Serve: The Language and Literacy of Food Service Workers assumptions that waitresses (and waiters) are ignorant and stupid--- some people judge not just because of a simple mistake but because this is the job one chose. Yes, this is the reality of working as a service occupations, otherwise known as "in-person" services or "interactive services" as Mirabelli had mentioned. I can vouch that it is difficult to be working in such environment where people belittle and look down on you.

Stereotyping in the restaurant service industry or in anywhere cannot be avoided. A very common example of this stereotypes is that those working in this work field hasn't or do not have good education or is uneducated since the job does not require any type of degree compared to some jobs.

To think I may know only little more than I think I know about what being an Occupational Therapist is. As I occupy a new job, in the health and rehabilitation as an occupational therapist, I will need to read books relating to exercises, anatomy of a human body and learn the terms such as ROM (range of motion) or calling the Pectorals as Pecs for short. Relating the new occupation to my first job, I guess I can connect these two in terms of interacting, communicating and building relationship with the client/s or the patient/s. The type of stereotype I will be getting from this career I am looking at would be the common perception of Filipinos are nurses the never ending "you are a Filipino, so you must be a nurse"--- Hmmm no....being an Occupational Therapist and a nurse may be in the same field but are not the same. Another one would be people thinking that being a physical therapist is the same as being an occupational therapist. NOPE THEY ARE NOT THE SAME. Although both are in the same area of the medical field which is rehabilitation but different in the type of work carried out to its patients. Physical therapists are those who help people with issues such as for mobility and strength while Occupational Therapists are those who help with a patient's coordination, balance, flexibility and complex motor movements. The positive side of this is that people treat this type of job with respect especially now to become an occupational therapist, at least a Masters degree is required. Meaning... MORE SCHOOL.