Lauren Wright

Working at Pets Fayre has been one of the most rewarding jobs I have ever done. From the moment I started working there I got on super well with my Boss, Rachel who taught me lots about animal care and retail. I worked back and forth between caring for the resident animals (cleaning out enclosures, running health checks, nail clips and basic grooming) and running the shop. In terms of retail, I learned how to cash up at the end of the day, restock and face up shelves for better presentation and assist with unpacking and pricing up products after deliveries each week. On occasion I would run both the pet shop and boarding by myself as I was the only employee and I felt very comfortable doing this and appreciate my boss trusting me to do so. One of my favourite parts was getting to know the customers who I would see routinly each week as this helped me appreciate the importance of the local community on the success of the shop.

My time as an elf was very unique. I was incredibly excited to have the opportunity to work such a fun and magic orientated role that allowed me to bring out my inner child and some rusty acting skills. I had a scripted role that involved me telling part of the Christmas story to the children and parents before organising them into 2 groups to be sent off to see Santa. Although this role could feel stressful at times I was resilient through this and kept calm in order to assist my other collegues who relied on my organisation for their roles to be successful. Ultimately, I had great fun doing this and I know for sure it has furthered my social skills past what they were previosly. I had to handle situations such as keeping customers calm and happy during a power cut and dealing with any complaints that customers would make to me about the Grotto and handling those with empathy.

Working at the fish and chip shop was a very exciting time for me as this was my first formal job. I was very eager to start working and this position allowed me to begin my journey of independence. My main role involved taking orders from customers, relaying that information to my boss who cooked the food and then packaging up and working the till. I gained my first customer experience here and dealt with a variety of customer requests and concerns which I did my best to deal with independently as to not disrupt the flow of productivity. Sometimes this involved working under high pressure as rush hour would hit and the shop would be full of customers. I felt like I handled busy times the best I could by staying organised with my notes and being friendly to customers who were waiting for food.