FF:QLD In this thread, we discuss what happened at Work/High School/University.

The important thing is to clean up afterwards.

 

Glad you had a good time in Sydney Luke! Pity you didn't have time to stop in at Sydnova! We'd have loved to have caught up with you!

The job is going great, and now that Sydnova is over, I do actually have a little more time (as I'm frantically sewing every night after work). They're looking at moving me to the Surry Hills store, which cuts out about 30 mins of travel each way! yay!

Plus Matt recently got transferred to Granville, so on the days we're both working, we get to share the trip to and from Granville (he drops me off at the station there). It also means we can move closer to the city! At the moment we're looking at moving to Merrylands, which would make the trip to the city about 20 mins!!! YAY!

What's no so good is that I had to take my first sick day today. I am very sick! Spent most of this morning sleeping. I was tempted to go back to sleep this afternoon but I'm worried I won't be able to sleep tonight. Determined to go to work tomorrow though!

 

Get well soon, LC..
Think of sunny Qld to warm you.

 

Well my book is being proofread at the moment, hopefully it gets done soon so when it comes out in two months time, it will be in its finest form.

 

Well I'm almost recovered from the cold which is good news! Still loving my job too, which is also good! Another girl has quit at work (funnily enough she, like the first girl, is also from Brisbane...) so it's possible I might be able to take her spot at one of the city stores! It would mean 30 mins less travel each way (an hour total each day) and would also mean later starts (10am!). Plus it's a really nice store that doesn't get too busy. So *finger crossed* I can be transferred!

Though everyone is constantly asking if I'm going anywhere anytime soon Nope, I'm stuck here for at least another 6 or so years.... silly study!

 

You know,

sometimes you just don't realise how important your work and the integrity thereof is to you until you find how badly someone can frack it up.

I want to stab things.

On the flip side, maybe I should become a librarian or something - apparently I have a passion for indexing and archiving.

... Still want to stab things. ARGH.

 

Heh, know exactly how you feel. I came to the decision yesterday that I refused to sign a document which consisted of the last 3 months of work because someone insisted on something being included that I did not agree with, and might not even be right. I refuse to be held accountable for someone else's stupid statements. Even if it means handing over 3 months worth of work to some numbskull who had next to nothing to do with it.

 

And how. Ah well, I was able to escape the horror story of filing for a bit by attending a seminar on how to file properly, and sat giggling in the back rows with a work collegue. Apparently Pirates are a sensible aside everywhere.

 

While I've finished all the advertising (i.e. degree-relevant) subjects of my master's, I have one final semester of electives ahead. While I'm as keen to delay the real world as the next perpetual student, I was never hugely enthusiastic about this last stretch. It felt anticlimactic. This has been the most interesting and rewarding period of my life to date, and it never felt right ot have it fizzle out like that. This changed today when I spotted some newly available electives and switched all my subjects at the last minute.

I am now, for all intents and purposes, studying sound design and music recording. Audio editing has become one of my biggest hobbies over the last year, so the chance to learn the tools of the trade is a really exciting prospect. I think I'm really going to enjoy this.

It's a welcome breath of fresh meat. I can't think of a better way to end my six year run as a student.


(Except "not at all". But that's the instinctive fear of change talking.)

 

Sounds like a change for the better HB - enjoy the last of your studies


I've constructed a small fortification around my desk with packing boxes. I should be able to repel the enemies until the packing guys remove my walls...

At this stage of the office move I've decided that I've no hope for completing my goal of getting all my filing done, so I've switched to boxing stuff - a much more satisfying task with easier to achieve and more obvious results.

Also, whilst cleaning out my own desk I came across a few items which I had thought lost to time:

-- a pair of black gloves I've been looing for for the last two winters;

-- the art book I did all my Companion outfit designs in. YAY!

I also have some fairly delicious cupcakes on hand that we whipped up on the weekend... Real strawberries for flavouring. Really nice.

Back to packing up things then.

 

Day 2 of the move to the new office now, and so far it's not all bad. My desk is naturally a shambles, but I have a window and a lockable cabinet, so that's a start. I've figured out where the mail points and times are, also good.

After almost two years of being up on the in/out board, Batman - and his away status of "fighting crime" - has been removed. I was sad.

Most of my stuff is unpacked, though I'm not looking forward to unpacking all of the filing folders and putting them into the Compactus thingy again... Really quite dreading it, actually.

Anywhom, I ought to get back to work.

 

My workplace is a place of scum and villainy right now. It's like I only just realised I work in the public service. Boss left a month or so ago, and took away the supervisor position I was doing for a bit before he left. Others had been doing it since I opted out for my lovely 5 hour days.

Anyway, apparently it was never funded correctly so "didn't exist". So the bunch of newbies working around me, about 5 out of 10 who've been there around 12 months or less, have no direct supervisor, no-one managing them really, no-one checking processes and fixing, no-one doing the complicated stuff, no-one taking responsibility, no-one mkaing sure things are being done right..and they really aren't..but not their fault.

Also all the really complicated stuff we used to do has been passed back to them on top of their normal work load and a couple just can't do it and many are talking of quitting.

I was asked last week to go help by my temporary supervisor, with no knowledge of what we do or how its done. "go, be a team leader, pass on your knowledge"..for no extra moey mind you. Now I was the supervisor a while, and am really good friends with the supervisor who's been completely politically stabbed.

So I was at a crossraods last week. Say no, and watch it all fall apart and prove the stupidity of the people above and those that left, or help, ease the workload of colleagues, possibly hurt my friend, and let the bastards win.

I picked somewhere in the middle, but it's all such a mess.

Going to work each day has become a complete drag for most of us. Bad management, reactive management, lack of caring about training, customer service coming last...ahh fun world.

It's also against policy for me to whinge about work on an online formum. So there!!

 

Hate to say it, but that's the public service for you :S

 

And I'd sadly have to agree - although it's no less demoralising for it. Sounds like the day I realised I lived and worked in a Dilbert comic - hope it turns out alright K.

 

I have a substitute teacher! Yay! for subs! Especially since we're supposed to be doing a mid term exam. Japanese can be awesome!

 

Been watching Thank you for Smoking because I want to show my students a bit when we learn about fallacies of reasoning. However, watching it I've decided that I'm probably in the wrong industry. Not that I want to become an advocate for cigarettes (hate the damn things) but that I actually find myself nodding my head as the marketers talk and thinking "I could so make that idea better"....

That and I can talk under six foot of wet cement

*sigh*

Kithera

 

Where do you work? If you don't mind me asking.

 

At a highschool in Brisbane

Where do you go to school?

Kithera

 

At a high school in Brisbane, on the North Side. And I know you can't be one of my teachers 'cause none of my teachers are called Rachael.

 

Eh. I work on the Southside!

It's like most of the places that people work. I don't mind people knowing I'm a teacher, but I'd rather keep where I work to myself

Kithera

 

Uh. Yeah. Sorry. I meant highschool, uni, tafe etc. I realised afterwards and couldn't be bothered to change it. Sorry if I seemed prying or anything.

Anyways, back to the topic.

Today, my principal got up all the year tens and elevens. There were people who came from QUT and TAFE to give us information. 20-30 got detentions because they weren't paying attention. Considering there are a grand total of 500 in those two year levels at our school, it was really dumb to pull all of us out of another lesson just to yell at us.

I'm still shocked that my friend and I didn't get detentions. We were hitting each other.

 

I've never understood, even when I was still in highschool, why kids couldn't just sit still, stop talking and behave at the appropriate moments. Although I do vaguely sympathise with the idea that assembling a group in order to yell at them is rather demoralising.

I'm a cranky person today though, don't mind me.

Today I've just been in a meeting with the head BSS guy (after he cancelled on our last meeting) and we all talked about the corporate structure and that sort of thing with the upcoming alignment with our relative regional operational masters.

In the proposed structure, there is a bunch of AO3 positions and as I currently sit at an AO2 position, chances are I'm going to have to apply for my job.

On the flip side, if all goes to plan and I retain my job, I get bumped up to an AO3 position and get a little bit more money in my account every fortnight. But there's that lingering and depressing feeling that someone far more qualified than I will sweep in and steal my job right out of under my nose, sticking me on a deployee list.

Consequently, Vodka Friday has been bumped up a few days... Again.

I hope it all goes to plan. For now though I just want to go home and have a nap.

edit: Hmm, I had a chat to my boss - it might not be as worrisome as I had originally thought, so that's okay. Of course, I won't get a crack at the AO3 position, but I think I'll live. Apparently my main concern at the moment is to try and get my current position permanent.

 

Must be something going on in the Queensland government and an attempt to keep decent people working for them. OUr positions, after a lengthy process, have been reclassified as AO3's as we handle bills and money and stuff. Current;y it's on a 1.50 more than I'm getting, but we're supposed to be backpaid for some 12 months or so, so loking forward to 1.50 multiplied by..how many hours did I do the last year??

Of course, the pay and level rise was supposed to occur next week, but it's been put off about a month again. Still, it's one reason to stay in my current pain in the butt job, and much easier ahn looking elsewhere..maybe that's the point of it all.

Good luck with your changes Morgs, and get the position descriptions for the AO3 jobs, you're a smart woman and could do a higher job easily...if you wanted the responsibilty that is. It's not all it's cracked up to be. Is somewhat disconcerting to me on occasion that one of my closest friends, on a par with me at school, is an AO7 or somewhat..but hell, if I wanted that kind of responsibilty I'd be doing it by now.

Ah..work..vodka Wednesday..sounds good!

 

I can't understand why people just can't sit still and listen either Morgs, highschoolers or adults

Actually today's lesson came from my students in terms of the massively cliched idea that sometimes winning is not everything, it's the fact that you participated, that you gave it your all and that you had fun that is way more important than essentially who wins and loses. It was a timely reminder that I was taking the whole thing slightly too seriously (as I have a wont to do) and that as long as they are having fun, then why should I care?

It also made me proud to be a teacher

Kithera

 

I had my first professional development seminar this week. To keep their practicing certificate, a solicitor has to earn 12 Certified Professional Development Points throughout the year. I had a Family Law seminar offered by the community legal centre I'm volunteering at, it's worth 2 points, so I put on a suit and ponied up.

The first half was "How the Legal Aid Website Is Actually Useful", and they weren't lying. The amount of concisely worded legal cheat sheets on that site is mind blowing. Look there before considering hiring a lawyer.

The second half was "How the Family Law Reforms are Stupid (Throw Rocks At Them)." I'm not a family lawyer, so while the substantive law was new to me, the overall theme wasn't. The last government had the bright spark to codify into law that divorced parents had to be advised first and foremost by a legal practitioner that shared parenting plans were preferred. This got a beat up in the media and publicity so word on the street was that the government wanted all divorced parents on these plans.

Not advisable in many cases, but what shocked and appalled me (but frankly, was unsurprising) was that the government nor any independent social science research group did ANY research into whether a shared parenting plan WAS actually beneficial to the child before these laws were enacted!

*headdesk*

Anyway, today I bought a new suit for job interviews and eventual employment. I can't wear my jeans and leather jacket forever.

Be seeing you,

Magnus Darcrider