Earlier this week, I had my first job interview in Melbourne. It has been almost two years since the last one. Naturally, I was eager to get back on the ring. But I wouldn’t have expected anything like this.
Some job requirements were in that grey area, if you know what I mean. The job was supposedly or might I say legitimately a receptionist gig at a « Massage Salon » run by an Asian Man for men. Yes, you got it now.
Since I need a job quickly, it got me wonder, how far would you go to get a job ? Would you be able to cross the society boundaries ? When is it to much to ask ?
Growing up in a Vietnamese family, the expectations have always being set very high. The limits and moral code is the one intangible thing proper to the culture that I grew up in. So when facing adversity and hardship in life, we have this now instinct to do the right thing. Whatever it might be.
But what if sometimes doing the right thing means crossing the limits of the society we are in ? Is a job just a job, meaning a work to do ? Or are your morals involved in your decisions making ?
I mean, technically I didn’t have to do « the massages ». The role I have been told during this trial where I discovered the farce was mostly doing some « marketing ». If I accepted the job, I needed to lure customers in the shop and then create customer loyalty.
The « masseuses » would have to do the dirty job. Whatever they feel like it. My role would have been to do some kind of preview. I had been told that whatever the interaction with the customer might be, the receptionist is the one untouchable. And that whatever happens behind the door of one of the three rooms is totally out of our control and up to the masseuses.
Even if I am out of reach, would you let something like this happen ? Is your conscience part of the recruitment process ? How to know when enough is enough ?
I know that I am not going to do this. Write about empowering women and than go around and act differently. Hope to grow with this exercise without actually practice being a strong, independent and fierce woman. It is something that triggers by boundary limit. Ethics.
It has been clear to me when for 30 minutes a massage that costs 50 AU$, the guy was rushing out, eyes on the ground after 15 minutes in there. The veil vailed and my suspicions confirmed. How well those women are at their jobs ? Is there some kind of magic trick to be able to get the tension out our body in 15 minutes ?
I mean, I am going to play the Asian card on this one saying that I am good at massages. Last month, I have been told that 30 minutes of my massage is worth at least 200 bucks but still. All I did was give a massage to that person. A real one. I have witnesses to confirm my statement.
But it’s not even the money the problem, even though the salary was incredibly low and they were some kinds of oddity in the accounts and how it was handle. Why those women do what they are doing ?
Especially since I had to see what kind of customers this shop brings in. That is to me the disgusting part of the job. Getting to see those men behaving like this, looking for this and finding a way to get what they want without remorses.
I have seen typical men walk through that first door.
The Labour guy, that comes in because he is too nag to approach a lady. The Unfaithful bastard that cheats on his wife waiting at home for him. The Old Dude that is too old, too pervert, too deviant to be able to have a woman taking care of him. The eternal Childish guy that never wants to grow up, the noncommittal who still needs a woman’s touch.
And I was only there for four hours. The first chance I got to get out of there and run towards anything but this place, I took it.
It turns out, finding the right job, that fits you perfectly, is like finding the man of your life. It is like looking in an Ocean full of fishes when you only need that one that is going to change the life as you know it, forever.
Travel Life With Vân 