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Browsing tag: work

  • August 15, 2009

    Headhunting

    Having lost one of our trusty staff to maternity leave, I was asked to put out the word around uni – after all, surely there would be heaps of keen students wanting part time work, down the road from campus, in a big name company.

    Except the daytime hours aren’t really conducive to uni students, when it comes down to it – especially third years. Us journo majors are pretty swamped with graduation about thisclose to our noses and I frankly wouldn’t be surprised if no one bites – I sure wouldn’t want to be taking on any more commitment right now.

    The only person I know who needs work and is free during the days is BF….

  • July 20, 2009

    Jaded

    This isn’t a post I particularly want to write, but it’s one I need to write.

    I’m not really even sure how to phrase it, but here goes.

    I’m having doubts. I’m just feeling really disillusioned.

    I love writing. I like writing so much, I don’t even need to see my name in print – I don’t care if I get a byline.

    But it’s so not a good way to make a living. Like Penelope Trunk’s said, if you can find another way to get by than by writing, you should take it.

    So many of us went into journalism full of hopes and idealism. But once you learn more about the machine, it’s pretty near impossible to retain that.

    News is so mundane. Things get blown out of proportion. There are PR/comm types who stonewall you and irate, often irrational readers who abuse you. There are actually people who talk media-speak – who speak in soundbites and try to make every sentence quotable.

    I know there’s bureaucracy in any job. I know there are commercial concerns and I know there will always be people who you can never fully satisfy. People whose perceptions are so out there, people who are determined to infer things that aren’t there. I don’t just mean nitpicking, I mean straight up crazies. I know accountability is part of having any job, and as much as I fear screwing up and getting the facts wrong or misquoting, I would rather do that than be crunching numbers and potentially making errors which could spell catastrophe for a company’s bottom line. (Did I mention I went through a bunch of my old crap and found my old Stats workbook and exercises? I looked through them and actually recoiled. Then I threw it out. Not that stats has anything to do with, say, accounting, but maths is maths to me…)

    People may look down on those who work in community news. But you know what, I enjoyed doing human interest stories. I enjoyed working with real people, with genuine, honest, humble and down to earth Kiwis.

    I don’t really know where this is going… I just needed to get some stuff off my chest. And just lastly, if anyone out there is struggling with shorthand….freaking A, you’re not alone! It’s bloody impossible to keep up. I’m so not at the stage where I can do it without thinking – it requires concentration, which slows me down and makes it faster to use abbreviated longhand. Bring on second semester!

  • July 18, 2009

    We’re moving!

    Not moving house, unfortunately. Not yet, anyway.

    No, we’re moving floors at work. Our whole team is moving three floors down. Instead of being on the editorial floor, we’ll be downstairs among technical, SEO, advertising and marketing types.

    It’s a strange sort of position we’re in. Our department is obviously in the business of news. But we’re online, not print, so we have links to the flashy and burgeoning Online team (the aforementioned advertising/marketing/branding/IT/SEO types). It’s a tension between the two, a balance between editorial, and making money, and optimising..uh…webby stuff.

    I’m not quite sure how it’s going to work yet. When it comes down to it, I think we have closer links to the newsroom which outweight the benefits of being seated with the rest of Online. (Plus, do they have enough room for us? What will happen to all our old desks and computers? Will they welcome us to their floor?) We’ll all have new phone extensions, PCs, and god knows what else. New facilities (their floor is much nicer than ours). I hope it all goes well; we’re all pretty wary at this stage, so we’ll have to wait and see.

  • July 8, 2009

    Totally missed exam handback today – forgot all about it. Not that I really care. I’ve never appealed a mark before, and I figure I’ll just wait till Monday when results are released online.

    Internship is going okay. It’s been the slowest news week in a while…..no joke. Hopefully I’ll be doing some exciting stuff next week (I’ll keep you updated) and in anticipation of that, I think I need to brush up on my nonexistent rugby knowledge. Sorry, but I really have no interest in the national sport. But it looks like I’d better taking some!

    My friend N, who’s also interning this fortnight (although for print, not online) was sick for the last couple of days :(. Not the best foot to start off on. So…the paper poached me yesterday to go out on the streets with a photographer and do a few vox pops of “our people”. Now, most people assume that anyone who approaches them onQueen St is gonna try to sell them something. Fair enough assumption, but I was holding a notebook and was in my coat and heels; then again, some of the Red Cross type fundraisers dress pretty sharp. I remember going for a promo job, which turned out to be one of those street campaigning ones, and rocked up in jeans. Except everyone else was in suits. Whoops.

    I was pretty lucky to run into three young girls straight off who were happy to talk to me, and then I encountered a woman on her smoke break. Then we had kind of a bad run; we needed some guys to balance out the sample, only all the men were busy looking suits, homeless looking, or didn’t speak English. Thankfully, my photographer was super experienced, and good at reading people from afar and suggesting which ones would be approachable.

    I’ve come to realise that I really just enjoy the writing. I don’t even need to see my name in print. (And for online stuff, I don’t usually get a byline because so much of it is simply based off releases). And as much as I was aware of the time pressure of working online – I mean come on, I work in the department – actually writing under that pressure is quite stressful. I was hardly writing groundbreaking stuff, but I swear I could feel those time constraints pressing in around me.

  • June 24, 2009

    I feel pretty lucky..

    I’m thankful that I have a job I like, with nice coworkers and an awesome boss. I guess I also get a fair bit of leeway, being a rare part-timer amongst full-timers, and being a student. If I need to change up my hours or take study leave, it’s never a problem. I get to pace my workload, and in return I’m always happy to pick up more hours as needed or stay a little later.

    One of my friends just got a job at Savemart, which is pretty neat. It’ll give her some solid work experience, it’s close to her house and the hours are regular – a damn sight better than at her old telemarketing job. Back in school, I wanted to break into retail SO MUCH. I was sick of working with food and just wanted to work in a shop. But I never got anywhere near, and then I landed an ever better job – in an office – and haven’t looked back. Now I think about it, hospo tends to pay better than retail, and I would have been a useless salesperson anyway.

    Being an entry-level sort of job though, has its downsides. She can’t smoke inside, obviously, but was told to not even bring her packet of cigarettes indoors! There’s the usual no texting, no slacking off talking, and a bit of a grilling about future plans. Like, what do you want to get out of this? How long do you think you’ll stay here? Why? You think you’ll be here for the next two years?

    I guess in times like these employers can push the limits and be as picky as they want, and people will put up with it to ensure they have a job – at least until something better comes along.

  • June 21, 2009

    On work, internship and money

    It’s been pretty quiet at work these past few months. Looks like that’s about to change though, with some new projects happening and me being assigned a couple of new tasks. They aren’t strictly within my area, so to speak – it’s a bit of a crossover between departments. At first I just thought it was a bit of a pain, but on second thoughts, the more I take on, the more it shows I’m being entrusted with more important things, and I’m going to take them seriously.

    One of my coworkers is going on maternity leave this week and I don’t know if she’s going to be replaced…they may just reshuffle her workload and redistribute it. I’d be glad to take on a few of her responsibilities, but I just wouldn’t have the time to do it all! I’ll be working three half days a week next semester, but they really need at least one of us there the rest of the week too. I was considering putting BF’s name forward, IF they ask any of us if we can recommend anyone who might be interested, but I don’t know how well that would go down. We would most likely be working opposite days, but company policy might still frown upon something like that.

    On the upside, I will be working a full week on the week starting 29 June to ease the shock of losing her! The money (MUCH needed) will go towards our water bill, and getting the CV boots done on the car. Then the two weeks after that, I’ll also be at work full time – but as an intern. Fingers crossed that goes well!

  • June 16, 2009

    It’s bleak out there

    Following up from yesterday, since we have a water bill to pay and I have at least two (maybe three) weeks off, in which I’m only working two full days, I thought I’d look around for any odd one off type jobs I could pick up. There’s really nothing on Student Job Search though (I remember back in 2007 when there were all sorts – helping out at expos, data entry, etc…) and theoddjob.co.nz is just full of scam ads.

    So I guess I’ll spend it relaxing, being with BF, cleaning the house etc, shopping multiple times a week on the scooter (no longer have access to car as BF’s brother moved out on his own…the car that I originally bought back in 2007 and then got rid of because the transmission died and couldn’t afford to fix..Yeah, I know…) and car hunting. Hopefully we can find one by the end of the month. Like I said, we can’t expect much for $1-1.5k, but I just really need it to last at least till the end of year when I can (touch wood) work full time and be bringing in more. I don’t want to rush into buying a complete dunger, and having this time off will hopefully help us make the best choice we can.

  • June 1, 2009

    Postgrad

    Unlike many of my friends, I will not be pursuing postgrad study.

    I have zero interest in academia. It holds no lure for me.

    The thought of spending even a year or two doing research and writing a lengthy original thesis, at this point, terrifies me. Not to mention the prohibitive cost; it amazes me that the journalism post grads, who study alongside us, are paying the equivalent of our entire 3 year degree for one year…or pretty darn close. No way! Not after I’ve worked hard in order to graduate debt free (touch wood).

    Maybe one day that will change. And in the future I wouldn’t mind doing a few papers in something like political studies, psych or sociology. The one downside of doing a BCS is the narrow focus, especially in the earlier years. I loved my polsci paper and wished I could have done more like that (instead of crap like Interpersonal Comm…a paper in which you actually bust out your own everyday-life examples of, say, stereotyping others, which was just PAINFUL).

    So when people ask why I’m not doing something back at uni next year, and how I should be, whether it’s because of the economy or because I’m smart enough to, I say I want to be out there. I want to be working. Journalism, I think, is in the same vein as something like teaching or engineering. At some point you’ve just got to do it.

  • May 27, 2009

    I really hate answering the phone. I never call anyone, and nobody ever calls me. If anyone rings me in a professional capacity, it’s via cellphone.

    So I ignored the phone when it went tonight, and BF came in the room looking for it as he’d last left it somewhere among the bedcovers. He answered it, then turned straight to me and handed it over.

    It was…..a market researcher wanting to do a survey about Vector, our power company, based on the fact that I’d called them the other month about our lack of hot water.

    I always try to participate in surveys if I have the time, because I’ve been on that side of the phone. I know how hard it is to get people to give up their time, and what it’s like to try and shortcut through the superfluous questions so as not to piss off the rare person who actually assents to taking part. The questions can get so anal and so repetitive, they’re almost pointless. And how we try to frame our spiel as to focus on the fact that we’re calling on So and So company’s behalf, “which you’ve had recent dealings with”, rather than a third party middleman.

    It really sent me back in time as she read out each question, most of which were along the lines of “rate this on a scale of 1-7”, and I could almost see her clicking through the various screens on her computer as I used to do.

    She had a really good telephone voice too – super clear, not too fast, good enunciation, and smooth and flowing rather than grating. I wonder how I ever lasted so long in that call centre?

  • May 12, 2009

    My first job

    I was thinking back the other day about all the different jobs I’ve had since I started working. And then FB and Rainy Saturday posted about their first fast food jobs and their worst experiences…and I decided I definitely had to write a post about this!

    I got my first job at 16, as I remember, at a café in town. I had been looking FOREVER! I applied at supermarkets, restaurants, cafes, retailers, anything and everything. As we all know, it’s so hard to get your foot in the door. But once you get that crucial first job, it’s that little bit easier. I had no experience, bar a local paper run and helping my mum with some mystery shops. But that actually really helped me get the job, because I could talk about the importance of customer service, giving your best all the time and treating every customer well.

    I worked on the weekends, bussing into town and spending my day washing dishes, clearing tables, serving food and coffees and helping to close the store. I eventually progressed to working the till and doing food service, heating up and preparing food, and helping to open the store. I actually really enjoyed it! I got paid well – 8.50, vs all my friends on minimum at 7.60 – and I liked the work; even dishwashing, because the kitchen facilities were brand new and super clean. Although I was by far the youngest, and a bit of an outsider being that I was still in school and only worked one or two days a week, the staff were all really friendly. It was hard work at times, but generally weekends were quiet and we got to relax and chat and read bits of the paper throughout the day. I could happily have stayed there forever, conceivably, but business slowed and eventually they stopped rostering me on. It just kinda faded away. Nothing I could do about it.

    Then I started tutoring. I also got casual work as a food attendant at Eden Park, mainly working rugby games and other events. I managed to move up at one point and they rostered me on as a supervisor, looking after my own little section in the servery. Not long after that though, I got sick of the work and stopped taking their calls. It also involved lots of really late nights, and I didn’t want to be catching the bus or train at midnight anymore and then walking in the dark. My job basically involved serving people fish, chips and calamari rings. We also did filter teas, coffees, and chocolate bars. It was hard work – we were on our feet constantly, it was hot, cramped and neverending, right from first opening of the gates to half an hour after match end. But we got fed (often we got the gourmet leftovers from the rich people’s boxes…platters, desserts, etc) and got occasional glimpses of the action, for those of us who were into that sorta thing.

    I had a stint at a call centre, mainly doing market research with the odd night of telemarketing thrown in. I didn’t find it that bad at all while I was there, but something in me shudders at the thought of doing something like that again. I think I might prefer to do inbound work  – but like someone once said, with outbound calls, YOU’RE in control. With inbound calls, you never know what you’re going to get.

    What else? I also worked at another local café  – this time run by a couple, who mistreated their staff and had insane turnover. I was there for a summer. At the end of it, apart from one other person I was the only waitstaff who hadn’t yet quit. The owners were there every single day, and weren’t afraid to shout at us, try and get us to work 12 hour days, and frequently made our waitresses cry. The one good thing I can say is that I got my first ever pay rise there  – from 10.50 to 11.00!

    And of course, I worked at the movies one semester break. There were perks. We got two free tickets every payday. And we got to see bits of movies while doing cinema checks. And a free drink on each shift, I guess. But the uniforms were heinous, the supervisors were MEAN and the computer systems were totally shitty. I dreaded working downstairs on the counters because of that. I much preferred checking tickets, cleaning out cinemas and doing rounds. It also meant I didn’t have to deal with popcorn, fizzy drink, ice creams and dealing with different pricing (student IDs, special passes, blockbusters) and R-rated movies (determining whether someone needed to be IDed, working out whether they were old enough to be admitted, etc). The onus was all on us for that – it was one thing we couldn’t get wrong, because the ticket checkers upstairs wouldn’t hesitate to send people back down, and we didn’t get refunds for underagers refused entry to restricted films.

    The one thing I’ve learned is how much I appreciate autonomy and being left to work on my own. I hated the rigid structure of some of those jobs. I mean, until I was offered an admin position, every single job I’d ever had forbade us from using our cellphones or carrying them around. Fair enough. I understand that. But I resented it, and like most everyone else, I started keeping mine in my bra or in a pocket if I had one. And I HATED being held to the minute on breaks. When you only have ten minutes for a break, and five of those are spent getting up to the staffroom to get your bag and food and then back down, and supervisors yell at you for taking too long, you’re not going to take too kindly to them.

    So although I’ve never worked in fast food (I don’t think I ever applied at any outlets; I was about to apply to Burger King when I landed my first job just in time) I know what it’s like to be under pressure, dealing with grumpy customers and working in a hot, greasy environment. And I know from experience that I vastly prefer being rushed off my feet to being bored out of my skull…cause one of those two makes the time pass much quicker, and it’s not the second one!

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