Recently at work I've been a bit speechless, but I truly feel it: you can't be too easy to talk to, you end up agreeing to everything, and your own comfort is what matters most.

When I first arrived at the shop, the plan with the person I was pairing with was for each of us to do half the work. Now she is getting lazier and pushes everything onto my part-time workload.

Now for me:

• Invoicing warranty policies, and goods-picking slips.
• I wipe all the glass display cabinets with Mr. Muscle.
• I tally cash, gold jewelry, and diamonds.
• I take out precious bracelets from the safe and place them neatly.
• I sweep the entire store floor.
• Every day I post the gold jewelry list to the group chat.
• I post to the store's Work Moments.
• If the computer asks for customer information, I reply.
• I take out the trash.
• In the evening I lock the safe and take photos.
• I record customer information and follow up.

Shift pairing:

• In the morning I count the gold items (I count three types; she counts one).
• Manual accounts, compare yesterday's accounts, computer accounting (copying from the computer where data exists).
• He takes out the valuable necklace from the glass display and places it neatly.

That’s basically it... The originally agreed half-and-half; at noon today he asked me: "Hey, why didn't you mop your area?"

My mind was full of question marks: "I’ve done everything for you, what are you doing?"

So learning to refuse is very important. It was originally her idea to help; I did it that day, and the next day she actually pressured me, treating it as my work—it's really ridiculous.

If I had refused or dodged it at the time, there wouldn’t be so many problems. Luckily it’s a part-time job; I’ve learned the hard way.

Learn to Keep Quiet

We are two people; on the second day after starting, seeing how much work this elder sister has, I casually said: "Sis, you have so much work; a few days ago at another shop, others didn't have as much work as you."

Okay, this sentence got through to her; in the future, whenever there’s a little boss around, she would pretend to be weak and say: "Hey, look, the store's little boy part-timers all say I have so much work."

When I was there, she would signal to me; I would just look at her, not wanting to talk, and even as several bosses or managers kept appearing, they all spoke.

Also my fault: I shouldn’t have spoken; some things should be thought through before saying them, or it will just lead to more chatter.

Whether there is a lot or not, I know it in my heart: when I joined, they dumped everything on me and bragged about how much; the kid who can cry really has milk to drink.

Learn to keep quiet, learn to think before you speak; colleagues are just colleagues. It’s okay now; I only mentioned there was a lot of work, but if I mentioned someone else’s things, a big mouth would spread it by tomorrow.

Fortunately it’s only a part-time job; it’s been a serious lesson to keep my wits about me.