A netizen named Tay Fish Ball posted a lengthy post on Facebook to recount her ‘nightmarish’ experience of working part-time at a Johor floral shop.
In the post, she wrote that she came across a Facebook post by a floral shop named Laurels & Leafz looking for part-timers to work during Valentine’s Day.
She decided to ask for more details about the vacancy as she had always wanted to try her hand at floristry.
However, she was told that the part-time job, which lasts for 10 days, was comprised of five days of training and five days of solid work.
She was also told that she would not be paid for the five days of training as “basic skills about floristry can’t be taught for free”.
“As for remaining five days, I was to be paid RM7 per hour and RM8 per hour if I worked overtime.
What’s even stranger was that I had to pay a RM200 deposit and if I were leave halfway, it will not be refunded to me.
“When I asked the reason for this odd clause, they told me that this was to protect themselves after a part-timer went MIA before the training period ended. I then signed the agreement and paid RM200 as I could somehow understand their predicament,” she wrote.
Beginning of hell
However, little did Tay Fish Ball realise that it was the start of her hellish part-time experience.
According to her, she never had the chance to do real floristry throughout her training period but instead found herself trimming flowers, packing parcels, and cleaning the premises.
I understand that working at a floral shop requires us to do these thing but this wasn’t the ‘training’ they claim to provide and we’re not getting paid for it!
“On top of that, I work from 9 to 6 every day but I’m not getting reimbursed for my effort, time, and petrol fees,” she wrote.
It wasn’t until the second last day of her ‘training period’ that Tay Fish Ball was finally given a floral arrangement job.
To her shock, she was given a few photos of bouquets and instructed her to do her own floral arrangement – skills she claimed wasn’t taught to her at all.
She also alleged that she met other part-timers who came from other states and even took leave just to work at the job.
They claimed it was a on-the-job training but we were working for them for free and learnt nothing. We even had to clean the toilet too!
She then ended her Facebook post by warning the public to be wary of the floral shop and emphasised that it was her personal experience.
Floral shop responds
In return, Laurels & leafz responded to the allegations and apologised for the unpleasant experience its part-timers had during the 10-day period.
This incident may be due to miscommunication on our part as we did not emphasise that floristry is not an art we can learn on paper but by getting our hands dirty.
“It’s never our intention to give our florists such a negative experience and we promise to improve our services and to get rid of part-time training,” it said.
Cover images via Facebook/ Tay Fish Ball and Facebook/ Laurels & leafz
Editor: Sarah Yeoh
