Dammit. Just caught the elevator down and ran into the new boss. Explaining I was going downstairs made me feel a bit dumb, but at least we bonded over his camping story from the weekend.

It’s 10.30am and my stomach is rumbling. How embarrassing.

Ok just requested a break for 10mins, I’ve crammed in morning tea and a loo break. Hope that takes care of it.

Goddammit. 11.30am and struggling to keep my eyes open. I’m sure it’s noticeable and thankfully we have just broken for lunch. Energy drink required STAT.

Where the hell did that lunch break go?? Just sculled a can of red bull so I should be right for the afternoon. Can’t believe I have brought myself to the point where I need energy drinks. Early night tonight.

Waiting for the boss to return, he asked for 15 more mins. Just realized I don’t freeze with the aircon in this office and it doesn’t blow directly on me. Win.

End of the day. It’s been excellent so far. For my plans for the rest of the week including my surgery so I’m set. Everyone seems to be pretty cool, but I have already picked out who the pedantic nerdy developer is. He reminded me we had met a year ago. Oops.

Let’s see what the rest of the week has in store.

No related posts.

It’s so strange to know that I’m leaving.

It’s also exhilarating.

For so many years I have stressed about particular aspects of my job. I have pioneered various projects that have hit stumbling blocks, and to this day still haven’t been completed to the level I would have liked them to be at, and not through any fault of my own. My forehead is theoretically bruised from bashing it against the wall so often. There are so many frustrations I have about my current job, and while there were also a lot of perks about the position, I am seriously beginning to love the fact that I can just drop all of this stuff and run away.

It’s not my problem anymore.

I love that.

No related posts.

When I first wrote my list of 52 things in 52 weeks back on the first day of January, writing “Quit my Job” was pretty ambitious. I didn’t know if I would be leaving in order to join the police service (as I’ve been wishing to do for many years), or if I was going to find something else altogether.

There were several reasons I wanted to quit my job:

• To join the police force (life time dream)
• I needed a new challenge
• More money

Back in 2001 when I finished high school, I decided I was going to take a gap year before going to uni to complete a Bachelor of Science. However, it didn’t quite pan out that way. Within 3 months I was bored. I was working at a cafe for 6 hours a day earning a small wage generally used to socialise and fuel my car. I wanted a change. I saw an offer for a traineeship in Business Administration, applied, and got it. 9 years later I’m with the same company. We’ve gone through some name changes, a lot of personnel changes, and my role has changed substantially from when I first began. I changed from being a gangly teenager into a geek, picking up a lot of skills along the way.

But now it’s time to stretch my wings.

Last year I had interviewed for a company and didn’t get the job, but they had assured me they were greatly impressed by me. At the time I figured it was just a nice let down and didn’t think too much about it. Until last week.

I was head hunted. They rang me, told me about the new position and asked me to come in ASAP. All up, it took two phone calls and an interview, and now I have a new job, a nice new title, a new challenge, and a great big pay rise coming my way. The new job offer justified quitting my job; it met 2/3 reasons. I was never going to say no.

It was incredibly difficult resigning. Not so much in telling my bosses, that part was awesome. I dreaded telling my colleagues. The last time I quit I was 19 working at a cafe, and that pretty much entailed saying “see you around guys”.  At my current job, there’s a close knit group of 4 of us that have been together since when I first began. We have been through so much together, which I can’t go into out of privacy for my workplace and my desire to keep that part of my life separate from my blog. It truly wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that it felt like I was telling my family I was leaving them. That’s exactly what they’ve been to me – a family.

My last day is on the 28th, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I shed a tear. I’m leaving the nest, and going beyond my comfort zone.

New relationship, new house, new job. 2011 has been a bloody big year.

No related posts.

It’s not the situation. It’s your reaction to the situation.

- Robert Conklin

Sorry Robert, but sometimes the situation freaking stinks.

I don’t often whinge about work on my blog, purely because I don’t like to discuss work matters on my own personal site. But sometimes you’ve just gotta write for yourself and let your emotions out.

There is one particular person in my company who I just don’t gel with. Never have, never will. It has gotten to the point where I purposely restrict my interactions with that person purely for my own mental health. I think I would have shot myself (or them) if I had to work with them closely on a day-to-day basis. I know the ex-workmates I have that read my blog will know immediately who I’m referring to, no surprises there.

The most basic of queries quickly turn into a gigantic debate, that is, if I get a response at all. On occasion I will even get an insult in response, without ever answering my question. Nice.

Just recently I asked for a particular reference number for something they had pointed out to me, and after 2 days and countless follow ups they are refusing to reply. Yet I know that same person snoops on me and keeps a close eye on my work, despite not even working in the same department that I do.

Rude much?

So yes, it might not be the situation, and it might be my reaction of getting completely frustrated and wanting to stab something, but after having bazillion millions of these same situations happen, you really can’t blame me for getting annoyed.

Thanks, needed to get that out.

No related posts.

Apparently it has something to do with confusing cows. Whatever.

To make sure that our customers don’t lose out on access to my services I also shift my working hours from 9 -5.30 to 8 – 4.30, then when daylight savings ends I go back to the 9 – 5.30pm shift. Unfortunately for clients on the western side it means that during daylight savings they lose an hour, but that’s catch 22 for them when they’re not the dominant group of our clients.

I’m an early person, so I’m usually up by 5.30am on any given day doing some sort of activity, usually running or kayaking. Working 8 – 4.30 suited me perfectly, since it meant I could come home, have breakfast and be straight on the go to work. The day would fly past quickly, and before I knew it I was back home chilling out. Well, that’s not really true. I would probably start watching a uni lecture or prepare to go out to the latest extracurricular activity I had signed up for.

I’ve only been working 9 – 5.30 for a day, but I can already feel how much my routine is out of whack. This morning I got home at 7am after going kayaking for an hour with my dad. Had I been working at 8am I would have jumped straight into the shower, had some breakfast and been out of here. Instead, I jumped straight into the shower, had some breakfast, then twiddled my thumbs. I’ve got roughly an extra 45mins in the morning and I don’t know what I’m meant to do!

I can’t start uni because I will just get into tje flow of learning when it’s time to leave. I’ve used the time today to write a blog post, so perhaps I’ll dedicate this time to blogging. I know I’m behind in posting my photos again, so for the next few days that will keep me occupied. Or perhaps I should use the time to read some more. I guess I just preferred to have the extra time at the end of the day because it meant that I had gotten everything out of the way and I could dive headfirst into something.

Maybe I should just learn to become a night person and enjoy the time to have a sleep in.

Nah.

No related posts.

My biggest challenge is not accepting when other people have different opinions, that’s fine. I’m a team player so I welcome discussion, and will come to a mutual decision that provides the best outcome for everyone. My biggest challenge is dealing with someone when their methods and quality of work is so clearly flawed, yet they refuse to budge. Especially when that person is in a position of power above me.

Which brings me to the point of questioning whether I continue to try and change it (stressing myself out for a potentially unnecessary reason), or do I just lie down, shut up and accept that the company just isn’t offering the best it can? How do others deal with it? What do you do in your workplace if you can tell that something clearly isn’t right?

No related posts.

Tomorrow will be a massive day at work for me. A project that I created and managed is reaching a major milestone, and I’m just hoping it is successful. Wish me luck!

I have just finished checking my uni emails, but unfortunately I am just too buggered to join in the weekly debate. I will give it another crack tomorrow night I think. This weekend will be spent writing my assignment that’s due next week, but thankfully it’s an interesting topic, so it won’t be much of a drag.

So really, even if it was the weekend, my work isn’t over yet. So umm…is it the weekend AFTER yet?

No related posts.

Hack is the only national show of its kind, delivering the most relevant stories of the day from the unique – and often surprising – viewpoint of young Australians.

I heard the show by chance when driving home from Brisbane one afternoon, and have been a loyal listener ever since.

This week they have been discussing topics about the workplace, and one really stuck in my mind.

Do you work for love or for money?

There have been all sorts of stories, ranging from a lawyer who gave it up to join a not-for-profit organisation, to a guy who started his own business and struggled for years, but persisted because it’s what he loves to do. This led me to contemplate my own position right now.

I very much have a love/hate relationship with my job. It all started 8 years ago, when I was an 18 year old fresh out of high school. I was working casually at a cafe making sandwiches, and was completely and utterly bored. There was nothing challenging me mentally, and while it was great going out all night with friends, going to the beach and generally chilling out, the fact remained that I was bored it with all.

I had planned to spend the year celebrating my freedom from study, before making a return to the books in the form of a uni degree. I knew that I wanted to pursue a career in forensics (which annoyingly had just hit the mainstream thanks to TV shows like CSI, but I had already decided my career path before this). Yet, this intense feeling of being brain-dead took me to the local TAFE, where I did some short flex courses in computers. Basic stuff, like using Microsoft Word and Excel. Thanks to my sister allowing me to share her computer, I had already been exposed to all of this. I remained bored.

Finally, I decided I had had enough working at the cafe and I was going to find myself a more interesting position. I saw an ad for an office traineeship, applied and got the job. 8 years later I’m still here. Of course, since that time I have progressed  from basic office administration into the support department, in addition to many other tasks. I have never had any formal training on computer software, customer service or documentation. Everything I know is self taught (either online or by begging people for information). It scares me a little bit, because after having worked in this position for so long, if I wanted to apply for another job somewhere else I have absolutely no credentials.

Everyone who knows me will agree that my job has a LOT of perks. I work for a company based in another state, and the only other people who work nearby work from home. I’m  in an office by myself without bosses breathing down my neck. My day is spent entirely online, using skype or MSN to converse with fellow employees, and for our weekly staff meetings. VPN provides access to our support system and emails, and I will fly to Sydney for the occasional meet up with other employees. I have just moved into an office that is only 30 seconds walk from the beach, and live close enough that I can ride my bike to work. If you look at it that way, life is good.

On the other hand, my job is extremely frustrating. It’s possibly the politics that exist in every workplace, I just haven’t ever worked anywhere else to know. We’re considered a small business with < 20 employees, yet our customer base is Australia wide. We have some pretty outstanding customers as well, household names, though I won’t go into any more detail about that. I suspect we struggle with the same small business problems that most companies do – we want to expand but it’s a matter of juggling a lack of resources with getting enough money to fund the expansion. By no means are our business practices perfect; far from it in fact. And my bosses can be pretty damn blind sometimes on just how badly they treat their staff. Remember, it’s not the pay packet we take home that keeps us happy (and mine could certainly do with a boost), it’s the respect that we get in the workplace.

Yet it’s these challenges that make this job so appealing for me. Like I mentioned earlier, I need to keep my brain occupied, or else I get bored. This company is a Mrs-fix-it wonderland. There are so many things that can be improved upon, and little optimistic me thinks that I can change the company, saving the world in the process. Unfortunately, I just need the trust and respect from management to let me try, and that is rarely the case.

The fact remains that I want to pursue forensic science as a career. I’m trying to get fit to join the police force, and as a backup I’m completing a Bachelor of Science degree via external study. The day that I am fit enough to join the police force I’ll be applying quicker than you can say “woohoo she’s finally doing it”. Until then, if you asked me why I stay in a job that frustrates me enough that I need to take regular walks to calm down, the answer would be “because I love a challenge”. And there ain’t no challenge bigger than this one.

No related posts.

I work on the support desk for a software company that develops their own software, but I also have the opportunity to branch into other areas, like software testing and documentation, report building and BA work. I’m constantly revising and enhancing our support process, implementing new features with our support software. So it’s not a dull job, I’ve always got something on the go that keeps my interest. Yet, amongst all of that I still have my main role – answering questions from customers about our software.

The majority of our customers are awesome. They’re down to earth, genuine people who respect that I’m a human on the other end of the phone, and not just a slave to their every whim. They treat me with respect, and in return I do my very up-most to help them. But then we have the exceptions, and apparently this week they held a convention and decided to all approach me at the same time. So far this week I’ve had:

• A customer’s tech support trying to reinstall our software on a new OS. If you follow the instructions, the software is incredibly simple to install. Unfortunately, it’s not one of the programs you can get away with not reading the manual though, as you need to install it in a specific location with specific settings. If you don’t, it doesn’t work. Simple. So Mr. Tech Support calls in with a problem, and I check if he has followed the instructions. He promises me that he has. Then he informs me that he has copied over the software folder from the backup prior to the new OS – wrong move. It has all the incorrect old settings and won’t work. 20mins of discussing the issue with him, I decide to dial in. I explain what he should set up so I can dial in, and twice he gives me the incorrect login details. When I finally get access, I’m forced to sit through 5mins of him explaining to me how great Linux is, how he develops for Linux, and how the Linux community are so welcoming of him and he’s totally honoured by that. Granted it was now 5.30pm, after work hours, and I was missing a personal training session to try and get this issue fixed, I wasn’t impressed with the time wasting. A long story slightly less long, I found that he hadn’t read the instructions, had installed it in the wrong place, copied the “old version” somewhere else entirely, and generally screwed the whole thing up. One uninstall and reinstall later (total time < 10mins from when I finally got access) it was working. I couldn’t help but rub it in a little bit, but I’m sure he didn’t notice anyway.

• A woman called in for help because she couldn’t see the invoices she needed to pay. Despite my best efforts, she wasn’t able to find the Print Screen button on her keyboard. Apparently saying “top right hand corner of your keyboard, near your scroll lock” wasn’t quite direct enough. I ended up telling her to call her tech support, and advising them I needed a screenshot of the window she was looking at when trying to see her invoices. She had gotten me totally confused. The issue? She had accidentally resized the window so that she couldn’t see the invoices at the bottom, only the column headings.

I know I could have had it a lot worse this week. I once asked a customer for a screenshot, and double checked to see if he knew what that was. He assured me he did, and 10mins later in my email I found that he had gotten his camera out, taken a photo of the monitor, and emailed it to me. I had tears from laughing at that photo, and I still look at it whenever I need a good laugh.

I’m glad the company I work for is specialised though. Our client base are people who work with computers every day. Even if we have some shockers that don’t know where a print screen button is, she still knows the difference between left click and right click. And when I’m dealing with the worst of the worst, I just remind myself how grateful I am I don’t work for Bigpond dealing with grandparents who just bought their first ever computer and are trying to get on the world wide web.

Oh crap, that’s right. I promised Mat’s mum I would show her how to use the computer to set up her first email account. Why did I ever get involved in computers??

No related posts.

I actually hadn’t met a couple of the staff members in person before. It was either a case of they were from another country, and we were never in the same place at the same time, or they were only just recently hired and I hadn’t had a chance to meet them. We’d spoken online before (either by email or by Skype – being remote means our company relies on instant messaging for the small things) but never physically in person. I actually got quite nervous hoping that I would make a good impression!

The day started early for me. I woke at 4am (having only just gone to bed at 12.30am – I had been at a Green Day concert the night before) and spent an hour making sure I had everything I needed in my laptop bag, showering, and generally trying to use makeup to hide my panda eyes. The carpool arrived at 5am, and we made our way to the airport. 3 hours later I was in the Sydney office.

Normally when I walk in the office in Sydney there are dust bunnies flying past. There’s an eerie silence and it’s freezing cold. You could assume you’re in a cemetery, and if it wasn’t for the computers laying around, you’d be right. I’m pretty sure it’s the bad coffee that keeps them all on their toes.

Jason and "Smart"

First impressions of the boys from NZ were they were absolute champions. Colin was a giant, definitely not what I was expecting, but was just so nice and friendly. Jason wasn’t quite so tall but had a killer smile, and my first memory was of him displaying where he’d just spilled coffee all down his shirt & pants. Hilarious! I immediately warmed to the guys; with both of them having a sense of humour it was hard not to. Steve, one of our new developers who I hadn’t met before, was a lot more quiet and introverted but very nice all the same. Angelique, our new marketing guru was stunning. I can imagine the boys go crazy over her. Very beautiful, and incredibly upbeat and bubbly. With the introductions out of the way, it was time to get down to business.

After several hours of meetings and statistics (and stuff that I probably should have been paying attention to – it was difficult to keep focused after only a few hours of sleep ), it was finally time to break for lunch. Unfortunately, one of the staff couldn’t make it as he had a deadline to meet that afternoon, so we bid him goodbye then raced to the door; there was a fun afternoon ahead!

Our boss took us to a Chinese seafood restaurant in Haymarket. We sat down and broke Christmas bon bons, with a couple of the guys putting on the paper crowns that were included (I admired their bravery – I hate those things). I  spent the next 5mins reading out all the bad jokes, I’m a big fan of a corny punch line! I was lucky enough to score a bottle opener in my bon bon, while Jason ended up with some strange chinese puzzle which we spent the next 5 minutes trying to work out.

Our boss had ordered lunch for everyone, and oh my goodness, what a lunch it was! I was told our entree was Peking Duck, but another person later said it was beef. Either way, whatever it was, I wasn’t much of a fan. It was mixed with rice, and presented on a bed of lettuce. It looked impressive, and trying not to be rude I ate it all. But yeah, it tasted a little bit funky. Shortly after that a waiter appeared carrying a plastic bag, and presented it to the boss for his inspection and approval. I didn’t realise it was a fish until it started flapping around! I remember jumping quite a bit in my chair, and Jason said I actually went quite pale.

Rhonda and Angelique

Now, I’m not that big on seafood, but seeing a fish flapping around ensured I wouldn’t be eating any that day. The damned thing was alive only minutes ago! I saw it! I love my red meat, and the only reason why I’m such a great carnivore  is my amazing ability to be completely ignorant of the fact that at one stage my steak was a living, breathing animal. I’ll have my steak well done thanks, just to make sure it’s extra dead!

When all the “main” meals arrived we were all presented with bowls of rice. On the lazy susan there was a mixture of many meals, from fried pork, steamed chicken and tofu, as well as the unfortunate previously mentioned fish. It also appeared he had a friend with him. I felt sad for them, looking at them laid out on the plate, fins intact, but with their body carved and ready for consumption. It was hard to look at, and I’ve never felt sorry for a fish before! Before you ask, yes I go fishing, no I don’t put the bait on the hook, no I don’t take the fish off the hook, yes I make Mat throw all fish back into the water.

I helped myself to some tofu and chicken, while beside me Jason made a beeline for the fish. First up, the fish eyes. He ate one (before doing so, he proudly declared his intentions to me), and I gagged. This is where all the wine came in handy. Before I could blink, I was a couple of glasses down, and the fish didn’t seem so scary anymore. We ate lunch talking about things from camping to umm….actually I would try and tell you but I think it’s a symptom of being drunk that you talk a lot of shit and can’t remember any topics later.

Before I became too bad though, I made sure to get a few photos of select members of the group. For the observant, you will notice I am absent from the photos. The reason I made photography a hobby is so that I’m always BEHIND the camera. Being in front of a camera is terrifying.

As lunch drew to a close, Jason discovered there were still two fish eyes  from flappy and his friend still on the plate. Smart (on the other side of Jason) wasn’t a big fan of fish either, so Jason challenged him to eat one. Another symptom of being drunk – you do stupid things. Smart immediately grabbed the eye, popped it in his mouth, and swallowed. The following day Smart told me he couldn’t remember what it tasted like. Jason opted to eat the other, at which I decided to video record him doing so. He provided quite a thorough review of the “treat”, while I looked away and sung music in my head so I couldn’t hear what he was saying. Unfortunately I managed to catch the end of it, and was still grossed out. If you listen at the end of the video, you’ll hear me tell him he’s gross *grin*

After we had all finished eating, we began walking to the location of our “secret team challenge”, for which we’d been told to bring socks. I had wondered if it might be ten pin bowling, and my suspicion proved to be correct. We arrived at Strike Bowling Bar, only one of the coolest ten pin bowling centres around (they have centres in other capital cities as well). Low lights, a fully licensed bar, and good music. What else do you need?

My aim for the bowling was to try and beat one of the software developers who bowls every week (though i didn’t tell him that). It would have been so sweet, and no doubt I would have carried on for quite a long time about it. Unfortunately, someone was still serving wine, and I was still consuming it. While I had been talking up my challenge to Colin, I hadn’t realised Colin and I were competing as well until the last frame of the first game.

I’ll set the scene for you. I’m drunk. Smart is drunk. He’s also dancing around the bowling alley, and making me laugh every few seconds. I look at the scoreboard, and hear a taunt from Colin. I need to get a strike to have a chance of beating him. Crap. Grabbing a ball (I didn’t choose consistently – whatever one was there at the time appealed to me) and started walking towards the lane. As I went to bowl, I heard Smart approaching from behind. I had to get rid of the ball fast and stop Smart from doing whatever he was about to do. I threw the ball down the lane and turned around, and managed to prevent Smart from taking a photo of my ass. In the meantime, I had gotten a strike!!! The look on Colin’s face was priceless. I managed to beat him by a couple of pins.

Ian and Colin (pulling quite the face)

But then, I realised that while I was in front of the software developer (and had been comfortably a couple of times in the game unless I started playing around), if he got two strikes in a row he would beat me. First bowl – strike. Second bowl – strike. DAMMIT! Colin burst out laughing, while I dropped to the floor, yelling “NOOOOOO!!!!!!” and reaching up to the sky in a dramatic fashion. Yep, copious amounts of wine will get you every time (on further reflection, for someone who was worried about meeting Colin & Jason from NZ, I was doing my best to leave a lasting impression).

We realised the time, and given that Jason had to fly out to NZ that afternoon, he had only about 20mins to check in at the airport. We raced downstairs to the Strike Bowling Bar reception to see if they could check him in online, and they tried (thanks guys – great customer service) but unfortunately as it was international, he had to get to the airport. Sadly, we bid Jason farewell after enjoying only a few hours of his company.

Back upstairs, the second game whizzed past in a drunkish blur. I was focusing less on my bowling skills (hence how both Wolfgang and Colin beat me easily) and instead preoccupied myself with being silly. I had SO much fun. I was tempted to buy a cocktail from the bar, but decided against it since I wasn’t sure getting on the spirits at a work function was a great idea. Not that it mattered, I was drunk anyway. Most of us were, it was only the drivers who were unlucky enough to be stuck with the responsibility of remaining sober.

My highlight for the afternoon would have to be when Charlie stood up to bowl. He stepped forward and into the actual lane, where they oil it  to keep it friction free. Unfortunately, this caused Charlie to start sliding. He released the ball at the same time that he slipped and landed on his bum, his back to the bowling pins, facing all of us who were now howling in laughter. Somehow, he managed to get a strike! Smart went to go help Charlie up, but instead he slipped over too and they both ended back up on the floor. Their second attempt to stand up almost caused them to go over the balcony to the bowling lanes below, but Charlie managed to save both Smart and himself. It took all of us a few minutes before we could talk again, I had tears from laughing so hard. It was better than watching the three stooges (or two in this case). It just needed some Benny Hill music.

Eventually, the games were over. Time-wise, we had also left it quite tight to get to the airport, and I had tried to check in online prior to leaving the office but was also unable to. The system advised we would need to see the customer service counter (they had delayed our flight an hour and wanted to confirm it prior to checking in). Smart lamented that we weren’t there overnight as he would have loved to continue the celebrations, to which I agreed. The day had passed in a blur, it was almost unfair. I still considered myself lucky to have been able to visit the office and meet everyone at all; previous years had seen only minor celebrations in the various states, and working in an office by yourself 99% of the time can be quite a lonely affair. Reluctantly, Jon, Charlie, Wolfgang and I were whisked off in Ian’s car to the airport, while the others made their way home in Sydney.

Thinking back on it, I was amazed at how much I had done in a day where I had had only a few hours sleep the night before, and spent a good part of the day drinking. Not bad for someone who is usually quite a cheap drunk. I can’t wait until I get to see everyone again, it appears the company I work for has quite a few cool people on the staff roster! Of course, every company has the odd bad seed, but on this day I didn’t care. I made new friendships, celebrated existing ones, and had a bloody good day.

So, when are we doing it again?

**More photos and videos from the day**

Charlie and Jon

Wolfgang and Charlie

No related posts.