These days I often write in my diary, but after finishing, I don't appreciate it myself. Is it well-written or not? There isn't a standard in my heart. To be honest, I write with my heart, but I still feel there isn't anything exciting about it. After all, it's just sharing the trivial matters around me.

Personally, I feel that since I want to publish articles here and share and communicate with pen pals, I must write articles that come from the heart. Whether it's a memoir or a novel, as long as it comes from genuine feelings, I believe it will definitely be a masterpiece.

As mentioned earlier, although I am a university student, my professional direction has not developed smoothly, and I had to change careers. Over the years, I have been wandering in the catering industry. My family also wants me to have a stable job and has repeatedly urged me to take the teacher qualification exam, work in the street office, or in urban management, etc. However, in earlier years, I was indecisive, and both studying and practicing questions were neither patient nor efficient. Instead, I was keen on brewing coffee and mixing tea.

However, the stores or companies I encountered a few years ago were not doing well, and changing jobs was basically just moving to a different place. They even allowed employees to play games, smoke, and drink at work. The business situation and company order were not necessarily related, but it deeply verified the principle of "survival in adversity, death in comfort." Every time I resigned, it was a reflection of being cautious in a stable situation.

My first job was as an apprentice in a coffee shop, my second job was as a bartender in a bar, and my third job was as a staff member in a lemon tea shop, where I later got promoted to deputy store manager. I know very well that in a poorly managed store, no matter the position, it is useless, so I resigned and changed jobs.

After changing jobs, I went to a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gym to work as a front desk salesperson, but later had to pause my progress due to an injury during training. Until my injury improved during the pandemic, I first went to the Chi Ji restaurant at Yuehai Yangzhonghui, only to realize that the catering industry truly means "women work like men, and men work like beasts." At that time, I interviewed for the water bar, but for some reason, I was assigned to the floor. Later, during the probation period, they told me that I did not meet the assessment standards and "terminated" my labor contract. I did not want to stop, so I did not pursue legal responsibility. Fortunately, the heavy blow from the lockdown left them in tatters, and they eventually closed down.

But the next place I went to, Yongying Tea Restaurant on Huifudong Road, claims to be the first Hong Kong-style tea restaurant in Guangzhou, founded in 1996. It is truly astonishing. Guangzhou, as the southern gateway of the motherland, should have absorbed a large amount of Hong Kong and Taiwan culture before the return of Hong Kong. Why did it have to wait until a year before the return?

I had visited as a customer during my student days. Initially, the branch on Nonglinxia Road had decent offerings, but after a couple of years, it deteriorated significantly. It wasn't until I became a staff member of the brand that I understood the reason.

I previously mentioned that before starting work, I had to sign a three-month probation agreement, with no copies kept and no photos allowed. After the probation period, when signing the labor contract, not only was there no copy kept on the spot, but they also required me to sign a "Employee Automatic Waiver of Social Security Application," which has no legal effect. The reason I was still upset after finally resigning was not the main reason.

At that time, I had to haul goods to the store every day at the intersection of Education Road like an ox plowing a field. After returning, I didn't even have time to drink water before continuing to work at the water bar. Over time, this caused me to have numbness between my shoulder blades. Despite spending a lot of money on acupuncture and chiropractic treatment, there was no significant improvement. My former employer surprisingly did not close down after the pandemic, so now when I see people giving good reviews on platforms like Dianping, I honestly reflect my experiences in the comments section below, until the store's overall rating dropped to 3.2. They used public relations tactics to ban my account, and then I canceled it and opened a new one to post again.

Until a customer who gave a five-star review replied, "I just passed by to eat, I am innocent." Indeed, the above is not effective information for them, and what real customers care about, besides whether the taste is satisfactory, is the hygiene situation, which is even more important.

At that time, all the staff were treated unfairly, and we were not allowed to order the company's food. If caught once, they would deduct from the base salary of 3500. The ingredients used for the company's employee meals were "zombie meat" that had been frozen from the beginning of the year to the end of the year in the large warehouse. Without mixing in a lot of soy sauce, vinegar, and chili sauce, it was impossible to cover up its off-flavor. Even so, employees were not allowed to order takeout, and if caught once, they would be fined 50 yuan.

Furthermore, I once witnessed the boss's nephew pick up a pineapple bun that had fallen on the ground and put it back on the bread shelf to continue selling.
Would employees do such a kind thing? The answer is no. There was a kitchen staff member who, while frying rice noodles, found a unique and powerful bug from Lingnan in the wok and casually threw the rice noodles into the trash. Instead of being rewarded, he was fined 200 yuan. Colleagues on the floor, who were misled, all claimed that he mistakenly fried the rice noodles.

The same thing happened at the water bar, and it was even more shocking. A night shift colleague did not put the bread used for making sandwiches and French toast into the bread cabinet for storage, and the next morning, it was found to have been bitten by a rat. The supervisor then asked me to cut off the clean half and continue to serve it. After all, under the surveillance of the cameras placed in the office building, if caught, it would be a light penalty of 200 yuan, and a heavy penalty would lead to the establishment of extremely punitive new rules to restrain employees.

If you, who are reading this article, have dined at this restaurant, I hope you encounter the above situation with only a one in a thousand chance. I also wish you good health, vitality, and immunity to all poisons.