13 posts tagged “work”

I must be sending some terrible vibes out into the universe at the moment. I had ANOTHER horrible caller today... this one trying to get me to sign up to a print rental agreement.

He was babbling, and got shitty when I wouldn't put him through to the CEO (I'm sorry, but since when does a CEO look after equipment rental contracts??), but when he realised I was actually the person he needed to speak to, started the hard sell on me.

I tried to be polite.

I told him we already are on a contract.

I told him that we are happy with what we have.

I told him we didn't use it all that often, so thank you, but we're not interested in anything new.

He kept babbling, he'd kept me for about 5 minutes at this point, so I interrupted him and said "Thank you for your call, but we're not interested, I'm going to hang up now."

He called back 20 seconds later and started his schpiel. I answered with "I spoke to you about 30 seconds ago"

To which he replied "And you hung up on me. That's so rude" and then hung up on me. *sigh* frikin morons. At least I was polite about hanging up on him. Gah!

I know a girl who works in retail, and is sick of it, and was telling me that she has been trying to get an office job, but had no luck. She put this down to all the "uni grads" that she's competing against. She then went on to say "I mean, how hard can it be?"

This quite offended me, but it also got me thinking - do all people think that working in admin is easy and anyone can do it?

I've been working in admin on and off for nearly 10 years now in a wide variety of positions - Editorial Assistant for a magazine, Publicity Coordinator for a record label (yes, they were the 2 'cool' jobs), then Office Manager, Secretary, Executive Assistant - they've all been basically the same thing, but in different environments with slightly differing responsibilities. Some have paid better than others, and some have been fun when others have been horrific. Before I started working I spent a year at a snooty business college learning all the basics, how to type, how to use Word and Excel and all the other programs I'd come across, how to answer the phone properly, accounts, typing, how to organise catering / parties / events, even how to dress appropriately for the office. At the time I thought it was a waste of time and simple common sense, but once actually getting into the workforce I realised how important all these little things are.

Back to the friend, I wished I'd had the guts to point out that there's a lot more to most admin jobs than just sitting there, answering the odd phone call and playing on facebook. It's not the uni grads she's competing with for these positions, it's the people that have been doing it for years (because all the roles she was applying for were $50k+) or the girls who have done their TAFE courses or gone to a private business college. I did tell her that she'd need to learn how to type if she wanted anything other than a reception role, and she thought I was joking. *sigh*

Is it just me, or do peple completely undervalue just what admin (especially at the higher end) do and need to know?

We had a 'member information' session for our staff with the people from the superannuation company we use. The presentation went for about 20 minutes, explaining all the ins and outs of super, what it's for, yadda yadda. At the end, the guy opened it up for questions. From one of our employees:

"But... how do I get my money out if I'm going on a holiday and want to spend it?"

To the guy's credit, he answered with a completely straight face, and explained (again) that it was a retirement fund, not a holiday fund...

To: Sharkcrow
CC: CEO
From: Sales Director
Subject: Xmass

Let's discuss in the morning.

To: Sharkcrow
CC: Sales Director
From: CEO
Subject: re: Xmass

Great idea!

************************

I have no idea what the hell they're on about. Gifts for clients are sorted, cards have gone out, and we've had our end of year party. I can't think of anything else Christmas related that they would be asking me about. Weird.

I just had a recruiter try to tell me that one of our Operations guys is in charge of recruitment. When I wouldn't put him through, and said he had to go through HR, he told me he doesn't want to speak to HR, and would call back for the guy on Monday.

Um, I think I know who does the recruitment in the company... and if I didn't put you through today, why would I put you through on Monday?

I do feel kind of sorry for recruiters - places with phones ringing off the hook don't have the time or energy to argue. I only answer 2 or 3 calls a day, and I'm always up for a good argument.

I'm buzzed up on Redbull this morning, and have cleaned out my inbox. The IT guy made the mistake of starting some geek talk with me, and the conversation quickly descended into moron-land....

[10:09:44 AM]
sharkcrow says: not very often, but when she gets excited about something silly, she's hilarious to watch
sharkcrow says: even if i can't understand her - she's like a hyperactive doll

ITguy says: kind of like those little things they like hanging on their dashboards.

sharkcrow says: :D or the ones you can get now that you plug into your computer USB

ITguy says: haven't seen those

sharkcrow says: i'll see if i can find picture
sharkcrow says: OMFG! HOW COOL IS THIS?!?!?
sharkcrow says: http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/usbcompatible-voodoo-doll-223888.php
sharkcrow says: you so need one of these, for every person in the company :D

ITguy says: would be better if it could spit out nastygrams on other peoples computers, like a network version!

sharkcrow says: THAT would be gold!

ITguy says: lan voodoo gaming

sharkcrow says: 'YOU STUPID MORON! YOU'VE DOWNLOADED ANOTHER VIRUS AND I'M NOW STUCK WORKING LATE!! HATE HATE HATE!!'

I'm obviously way too easily amused.

From: sharkcrow
Sent: 15 August 2008 09:18
To: Level 4
Cc: Level 5
Subject: Blocked toilets
Importance: High

Hi guys

The reason the toilet keeps getting blocked is because people are flushing handtowels down the toilets. DON’T DO IT! There is a bin in each bathroom for the paper towels. If you think another bin is needed let me know, but please don’t put them down the toilet, or it is going to keep getting blocked up.

Thanks

This is my life.

From: SharkCrow
Sent: Tuesday, 29 July 2008 10:35 AM
To: Level4
Cc: PACMAN
Subject: blocked toilet

Hi guys

I’ve been informed that one of the loos is blocked – a plumber should be here soon.

If the toilet happens to get blocked after you’ve used it, please let me know so I can have it fixed. It might be a nice idea to maybe put an ‘out of order’ sign on the door or on the seat so the next person who goes in doesn’t get an eyeful.

Thanks

Yes, this is a legitimate email I had to send out last week. I had 15 replies, all very similar to the sample below.. I

lol thats hilarious

I thought I worked with adults!!!

I absolutely adore the Stephenie Meyer books, so much so that I got myself the audiobooks from Amazon.

I'm doing a stack of document formatting today, which is completely mindless, so I've been listening to Eclipse as I work. There are a few parts of this book that are just so sweet and mushy and gooey, that they make me blush. It's not that they're overly explicit or anything, I'm not quite sure why they have that effect on me, but they do.

So anyway, I'm working away, listening to a particularly sweet Bella / Edward moment, when the CEO wanders out to see how the documents are coming along. And I'm sitting there with this silly grin on my face with red cheeks. Urgh.

It's funny - for the last 18 months I haven't had a break at all from study. It's just been one subject after another, with maybe a weekend in between if I'm lucky. I'm at the beginning of an entire week off, between the summer study period and the first new one for the year, and I'm really feeling lost. It's so weird not having readings that need to be done, no discussion boards to keep up with, no assignments that I should be collating research for...

That being said, it is quite nice to have a bit of preparation time before the next SP. I think I mentioned earlier that I've done something a little silly, and enrolled for 3 subjects... 2 is considered a full time load, but after hearing that one of them only requires minimal work (allegedly) I thought it would be a good time to try out a web design unit I've been wanting to try forever.

I'm also doing my first level 2 unit this SP, Literature & Culture: Representations of the Medieval. It has a pretty good reading list, but haven't been able to get into the site yet to look at the full course outline.

The novels I have to tackle (and I've already read one and am halfway through 2 of the others.. I'm a bit schizophrenic like that) are:

The Mists of Avalon

The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story (Oxford World's Classics)

News from Nowhere and Other Writings (Penguin Classics)

The Name of the Rose: including the Author's Postscript