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Browsing tag: work

  • February 3, 2009

    What the future may hold…

    With one month left before going back to uni, I’m hoping everything works out in terms of BF’s employment. IE, it continues, with minimal drama. I’m not liking him contracting, at least not this way. He’s at the mercy of someone who’s rather finicky and high maintenance at times, and hard to deal with. He’s also meant to be paying tax on his behalf, so I’m going to keep track of his hours to make sure he actually is deducting tax.

    I really would prefer if he was back at the old company, although we have no idea what’s going on and even how many people are still there. I wonder if his health insurance still covers him? The company seem to be still paying his premiums, so…

    In the meantime it’s paying down debt and socking some away in the EF.
    He really needs around 6000 as an EF for three months (well probably less as in such an event things like savings, fun, etc would be cut down). It’s such a large sum, and we’ve got a loooong way to go! I’m continuing to look after it all. He still has such a long way to go – although he is learning, and trying. Last week he didn’t have enough for gas as he wanted to enter a draw to win a 200k hotrod in the mall. I was pretty mad at him for that, but he felt extremely down about it for days and wanted to try again this week without messing it up. Managing cash is hard, but for some it’s even harder to manage plastic, and it’s proved to be so for him.

    I just don’t feel comfortable with this lack of security! I want things to be stable, and as much as that’s unlikely in this climate, I don’t care. It’s going to be a long, busy, stressful year for me, and worrying about paying the rent and bills is not something I wanna add to that load.

    Still, what can I do, apart from wait and see, and cross my fingers?

  • February 2, 2009

    Phone woes

    phone1
    I really hate talking on the phone. Yet once I get into the swing of things, I think I do it quite well. Of course, it requires me warming up. When I know I have to make an important call, I start hyperventilating…I get a cold sweat, breathe faster, etc. my voice, no matter how much I try to project, goes all weak and mousey and my mind goes blank and I stumble over my words. In other words, I sound scared, weak and incompetent.

    I also hate making calls when other people are around me. Yes, I know they are busy and have better things to do than listen to my conversations. But I can’t help it, it’s just a psychological thing. I prefer if everyone around me is gone, or else on the phone themselves.

    I had to make a ton of phone calls this week for the stories I wrote, and It got easier as I went. I didn’t have to rehearse my speech, I knew what I wanted to say. I felt more confident, even though my voice didn’t fully return…i was super polite, and after one particular embarrassment soon learnt from my mistake. Although I much prefer email communications, I hate seeing a reply come in, and waiting through those two seconds that it takes for them to open up. Plus, a watched inbox never receives mail.

    I’ve got to work on my talking. I speak super fast, even when I deliberately try to slow it down, I think that barely brings to me to normal talking speed and when you’re on the phone I think it’s even more important to enunciate clearly. My name is especially hard to get out clearly, when I’m rattling off where I’m calling from straight after. I am pretty sure it just comes out as a sort of gentle murmur. It just feels so unnatural to me though – I’d be right at home in Gilmore Girls! I talk just like that, rat-a-tat-tat, sharp and quick and deadpan. I remember in broadcast classes last year reading out stories, and I thankfully wasn’t the fastest speaker there. One girl had to repeat herself approximately six times before our tutor was happy with her speed, but man I felt her pain the whole way. I understand how hard it is to understand others who talk fast, but somehow when I do it it doesn’t sound fast at all.

  • January 31, 2009

    Life after graduation

    I love checking out my stats on the wordpress dashboard. It’s really eye opening! My random little post on nineties music got my most views ever. And I like seeing the different searches that people are using and getting to my blog from. Up till now, my faves were “can’t wear my contacts” and “flatmates won’t take out bin.” I think that’s hilarious. Really, seriously, do people google phrases like that?

    But I think the current top search is more telling than funny. “is it easy to find jobs after graduation in Auckland?”

    Well, I don’t know. Not too much different than any other city, I’d imagine. But of course it’s impossible to say, too much depends on your field and your contacts and experience.

    I’m incredibly lucky I think, to have the job I do, a fairly professional, respectable job for my age. I’d never have had some of the opportunities I’ve had otherwise. I think it’s also given me the confidence I need in other areas of my life, and probably helped me decide to accept that freelance writing last year (some of which I haven’t been paid for yet!).

    I’ll be graduating next year, one of the few in my group to do so. I’ll be out earning, out in the workforce before almost everyone else. Now I’m finding it a little scary after meeting a intern here who’s just finished her degree in journalism. What do we do after it all, where do we go? What if it’s not all it’s cracked up to be?
    I have a few friends who’ve graduated now. I don’t think they are necessarily totally prepared for the real world, or at least the working world. Even at the best of times it’s not easy being a fresh grad with no experience, even more so if you don’t know exactly what you want to do. I mean, it could lead you into a number of areas, but at the same time you may think ‘no that’s not quite right’ and end up looking forever and do nothing at all.

    Even at the best of times, you have to apply to tens or hundreds of roles, far and wide, as many as you can. Because you’re only going to hear back from a very small percentage of them. And go further, to interviews and second interviews, to even less. And today, well, things are really tough – there are way too many people out there and even fewer jobs. No wonder people are going back to school for another year or two.

    My point is, even during the good times you have to work and work and wait to score yourself a job. It’s really about the numbers. Applying to three or four positions won’t get you anywhere. And you need to be so well prepared for interviews, you’ve got to prep, dress the part, act the part, practice answers and anticipate questions. Otherwise you have no chance at all. And that’s something I don’t think everyone understands. They think they’ll just waltz in somewhere, impress the pants of the bosses and be offered a job. Or they’ve had fairly low level studenty jobs and don’t understand the processes of applying for professional roles. Or even worse, their tutors and lecturers assure them they’ll get jobs after graduation, and companies will be coming TO THEM!

    I think that’s just plain irresponsible. How can you say that to your students? The economy’s tanked, you have way too many engineering and business students, you have no way of knowing what the market will be like when they graduate. And certainly companies will not be chasing them. Maybe the very best, that’s true. But telling EVERYONE to not worry, well, that’s just encouraging laziness and a false sense of security. I’m not jealous of my friends who are constantly reassured. I just don’t believe it, and I hope they don’t either. You’ve got to do the hard work yourself.

  • January 16, 2009

    Screwing up

    I think something is really wrong in my head. I’ve been missing things at work, and I don’ t know how or why. I was positive I’d done all the horoscopes last week, but someone complained they hadn’t been updated since Friday and voiced their strong ‘disappointment’. People are very vocal about these things. Horoscopes, and puzzles. If Sudoku’s not up there is an instant outrage and floods of emails – I reckon they wouldn’t care half as much if there was no fresh news in the morning, as long as they have their precious Sudoku! I live in fear of those, of accidentally messing up a going-live date or mixing up days.

    I also loaded up a 100 best books feature, and somehow missed about 30. That was like 4 pages worth! I don’t know how on earth I overlooked them. When I went back, well I just couldn’t work out what I’d done. I must have been really preoccupied that day. To make things worse, by then the story was no longer in the system ANYWHERE…it was a week too old by the looks of it. I had to type up the rest of the article by hand. That was a lot of lines. Thankfully it was dead quiet and I was glad to have something to do, line by painstaking line.

    For the past two days I’ve also had a really bad pain all up through my right side, like I’ve strained something. It starts up in my butt and goes down to my feet and makes me hobble like a hobbly hobbit, cause I can’t walk normally on it (hurts too much). So I tend to hold on as long as I can to minimise limping trips to the bathroom, or to get water from the kitchen.

    On the bright side, I managed to wear my contacts ALL DAY yesterday! Woohoooo!!!! They got dry quite fast – which I put down to our wonky AC – it’s alternately noisy and freezing, or silent and completely non functional. Why they can’t maintain some kind of consistency is beyond me. Hopefully the worst of the pollen is past us, cause I loved having my contacts in, and even if I can wear them half the time then I’m happy with that.

  • January 15, 2009

    Self doubting

    writing_tablet

    Now I’m into journalism, I’m feeling conflicted. I know it’s the right choice, it’s what I want to do and there’s nothing else I’m interested in, in terms of major.

    It’s way easier to move into PR and marketing than vice versa, and I wouldn’t mind trying my hand at publicity at some point.

    But in terms of journalism, well I’m having major self doubts. How am I going to find stories every week? I mean, I know it’s possible – thousands of past students have done it. But without press releases landing on your desk, without a huge social network or connections, without involvement in tons of groups and the community, it’s really daunting. Let alone breaking important news…

    And in terms of actually working post grad, then what? I’m definitely into beauty, but by no means am I any sort of authority. I’ve come to enjoy hard news more, but I don’t think it’s where I want to stay. Especially since I’ve noticed a pattern: something happens, something bad, kneejerk reaction, go to authoritative sources to comment and report on subsequent ‘calls for action’ whether it’s tougher laws, smoke alarms, more lifeguards, more police, cracking down on drink driving, whatever. And it seems kinda of repetitive and lame to me. One negative event doesn’t warrant a full on banning of whatever is at fault, especially when it happens over and over.

    Being a columnist certainly looks fun, though I don’t know what on earth I’d ramble on about. Then again, look at stuff like the Listener (a mag I do enjoy!) and Bill Ralston’s Life column, the Inbox column, the Internaut…. My opinions aren’t strong enough on REAL issues, as yet, and I definitely couldn’t defend any of my views very well at all. And frankly, I hate conflict. Which is no good, and I’ll have to develop a much thicker skin, I know.

    I think I’d really like to get into features, especially music writing. Ever since I stopped playing guitar my love of music has waned. I used to religiously have the radio on, and listen to music on my computer 24/7. I haven’t had the radio on in months, and because I only just figured out how to make the new Windows Media Player sync with my music folder, I wasn’t listening to my songs. I’m hoping to get back into playing guitar later on, now that I’ve realised it really is okay to just putter around and play for the hell of it. I was getting too worked up, too focused on GETTING GOOD and it simply wasn’t fun or relaxing anymore. I wasn’t improving and I just couldn’t play standing up. Now I really don’t care whether I can play upright or not, or whether I can play Astronomy perfectly, I’d just like to get back in the zone of playing for hours, just because. And I think tying that in with writing would be amazing. I love being at gigs, I like the buzz of events. I would be keen as to do reviews and interviews and be part of the scene that way.

    I’ve almost convinced myself! But anyway, that’s still a far far distant dream; there’s lots to get through before that point. As time goes on though, I’ve realised it’s okay to not actually know what you want. So many people don’t. even ones much, much older than me. They don’t have all their shit together, and so I’m not gonna panic. Careers today are so much more dynamic, and it’s not that hard (at least in the media field, from what I can see) to move laterally, sideways, or even transition from sales to editorial. And with the web growing by the day, hopefully there will be lots of online opportunities come next year.

  • January 11, 2009

    Back to work

    Monday marks BF’s return to work.

    Not too sure on the details, to be honest. He knows he starts at 7, and it’s going to be a quiet day to ease in. Should be a three month job. He should be working as a contractor, so who knows what’s happening with taxes and forms and whatnot. Sis’s partner is the one working with him, so should be able to guide him – failing that well my mother is an accountant and so are some other friends’ mothers! Hopefully on $25, though if he has to pay his own ACC levies and whatnot, not sure what take-home will be.

    He’ll have to go into old job and officially resign (although the place is such a mess, doubt they’ll notice/care at the moment, and they’re so disorganised they probably wouldn’t care if he turned up in three months again! Apparently there are guys that only work periodically..so….

    New company seems just as bad. Not sure if they’ll pay cash or deposit on this project. But for some reason apparently their direct deposits take forver to clear – like, almost a week. How does that work? Fuck knows. They’re a business. Normal businesses pay staff and it clears overnight. So I don’t know what the hell they do or how they work it. But you know, whatever, as long as he gets paid someway somehow.

    He will be working super long hours, like 10 hour days, but at least it’s fairly close to home – less time driving, less gas, less wear and tear, better lunch options nearby!

    I hope he doesn’t burn out.

    I have to drag him to the doctor sometime soon; he gets some strange pains and cramps, and the last couple of months has pretty much had a constantly upset stomach. Nothing pleases it! Definitely nothing spicy. Anything too heavy/creamy/sweet (yet he loves his custard and slathers his cereal with about a pound of sugar). He never feels like eating anything we make, and has gone “off” some of our staple meals (like a freaking pregnant woman or something) like nachos, chili, pasta etc. I reckon he’s developed some strange allergies or intolerances. He doesn’t want a doctor poking around and prodding him; I told him we’d ask for a female doctor if that’s what it takes!

  • January 7, 2009

    Windfall!

    BF called his company yesterday and got them to agree to pay his remaining annual leave out as well as four stat days (seeing as all the stats fell on weekdays in Dec, which are his normal working days). I’m surprised he didn’t have any grief about it; the new boss has been a wanker to him. I reckon two days’ worth of stats will carry us through two weeks until he starts getting paid (should be starting some work on Monday) the rest will go towards debt, and his holiday pay will be saved for, well, a HOLIDAY at some point. We deserve one 😛 I guess you could say the last couple of months have been his longest holiday ever, but to be fair sitting at home isn’t quite the same thing.

    It’s still a little strange having everything so up in the air..I don’t like it! It’s a weird feeling, not knowing for sure if you’ll be working or not. Obviously the last few weeks were different – we KNEW there was no way BF would have work, but it was okay, we budgeted and got through. He did have a week’s work in December so that helped us for a couple of weeks, and I did a ton of mystery shopping which brought in over $100.

    In the meantime, assuming everything goes okay, I’m keen to do something fun before heading back to uni. Originally we planned maybe taking a road trip one weekend – either up north or the Coromandel (haven’t really been to either, and want to!) but think we’ll leave it till the end of the year. And the less wear and tear on the poor car, the better. I’m really hoping the last year has taught BF to choose his next one wisely. It won’t be paid for for another couple years, so fingers crossed it lasts till then, and hopefully longer!

  • January 5, 2009

    Back at work

    Back to work….it was hard! I worked a full 9 hour day. Dozed on the bus home. Felt slightly loserish being the only one in the office who hadn’t gone away over the break. Or got copiously drunk.

    Our new boss is great though! I just love her. She’s fun, bubbly, vivacious and a little cheeky. And has a great accent. And clothes. She’s just so funny and full of life. I would have wanted to be her best friend; I bet she was a blast as a kid. (She claims she was hideous and bullied lots…) It’s a totally different, light atmosphere now and we all love it.

    But man, I loved coming into work while they were all away. There were NO distractions (except of my own making). I’d rock up at 11 and still be done by 5 at the latest. In my miniskirt and jandals. I could hog the microwave. Scratch my ass. Talk to myself.

    I reckon I could in fact work from home, in fact I might prefer it!

    Working Girl reckons it takes months to make friends at work and to not try too hard. Like I did first day of uni……and bombed.

    But if that’s the rule of thumb I’m glad! I still don’t have work friends. But I’ve never worked full time – even now I’m basically split between the jobs on diff. floors, so I don’t have much contact time to build relationships. Sadly, the most I can say is I’ve gone out with a coworker to get some lunch…and not a sit-down together kinda lunch, a grab it to take back to work, with detours into shops on way back.

  • December 31, 2008

    My Laid-Off Life

    Seven NYers share their stories of redundancy.
    Check this one out: http://nymag.com/news/business/53153/index1.html

    He’s 24, still on his parents’ phone plan, had a car lease which his parents are paying for, expects they’ll also cover his rent, is worried what his GF will say about him staying at his parents’ if he gets a job out that way, “tries” to go job hunting but often decides to get out his Les Paul and pretend he’s John Mayer.

    Boy, when times are hard, the hard get going! Cars and guitars are luxuries you can’t afford. Sell the LP for whatever you can get. Maybe he can’t break the car lease but hopefully he’ll think twice before leasing in the future. While his GF has two jobs, he’s all: I’m applying for blue collar manufacturing jobs.

    Well I’ll tell you, it’s not something you can just step into. It takes time to get good at. There are apprenticeships in welding. You actually get qualified in welding; whether it’s specifically welding or general engineering. You can’t expect to walk in and start working. I know this because this is what my partner does. And it’s not as easy as some white collar professionals might think.

    It always bugs me that people automatically assume “manual” work is poorly paid and guys should get educated and get desk jobs and wear suits. I admit I still have vestiges of that stereotype in my head. But I’m learning. It takes years to gain the skills needed for many trade jobs. And they’re not always easy to come by. To get qualified takes years, and you have to find a place to get trained in, which is much, much harder than simply enrolling at uni. Good tradespeople make more than I will probably ever make in journalism, although they’ll probably have a shorter working life (and a harder life along the way). But I say, if you’re making a good honest living and you enjoy it, well everyone else can STFU.

    I cannot imagine the boy working a desk job or wearing shirts and ties, or even worse, SUITS to work! Frankly, some people were made to work inside an office (me) and some weren’t. He likes to be out and about, doesn’t like to be cooped up. He likes variety. And he’s good with his hands. He’s strong, coordinated, good at making things. He overheats far too easily and would not feel at home in a job where it’s really important to maintain an image. He’s too honest, too earthy, and would probably spend his days sweating it out under a collared shirt and loafers.

    Me on the other hand, I have a hankering to wear pencil skirts and tailored suit jackets to work.

  • December 30, 2008

    Am I doing the right thing?

    I’ve been thinking, A LOT, about the future and what it holds. Escaping to Europe after graduation is sounding really tempting. Not straight away of course, after working and saving for a few months. I don’t know what kind of job I’d be able to get overseas, but I think I definitely have the itch…

    To a lesser degree I’ve been thinking about my degree, and whether I made the right choice. Would I be where I am today if I was doing a plain old BA? Who knows? Probably not. But maybe in the long run it would serve me better; I’d have a wider, more rounded base of knowledge. And I know people with BAs who’ve gone straight into media type work and then stepped into PR right after that, which makes me wonder why bother with a BCS?

    But I think stories like that are the exception rather than the norm, and you need, often, to be in the right place at the right time. You need to be a certain kind of person, social, networking, well connected usually, and it helps if you’re attractive and, if you’re working in mags, well off enough that you can dress and act the image.

    I’ve found it hard to keep the blog at work going; I’m not really out and about doing awesome things or being seen at society events, or going to fab restaurants or buying new accessories/makeup/beauty stuff that could be written up. I’m certainly not in the loop to hear about upcoming events, I rely on the other staff to keep me up to date and let me know if there’s anything important coming up that should go online. It takes a lot of my time digging around trying to find tidbits for the blog!

    I’ve also started to really question my writing ability. I swear I’m slowly dumbing down; my vocab is shrinking and I can rarely ever get the right adjective that I want…instead I dance around it in my head and have to consult a thesaurus to pin it down. It’s really frustrating! A dear friend said I was the best writer ever, which was very sweet of her but I really don’t think I can live up to that anymore. Writing on cue is hard. Writing to deadline is near impossible. I fear I’ll never be able to churn out the best writing I can on tight news deadlines. It’s hard enough trying to hammer out a good piece of fluff for the site or newsletter in a day…

    So I’m doubting my future in writing, it’s not looking all that bright at the moment. I’m also sick of mag language; the liberal use of exclamation points and the overuse of ‘fabulous’ (it seriously appears in every other paragraph).

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