Okay, so the last blog gave information regarding the big picture of my job and I asked you to imagine coming into a role where you knew there were new systems to learn, no
one to teach you your role – no breadcrumb trail to follow, and few people to
ask for guidance. That's basically the jist of it.
Putting drama aside…on the
micro end of things I have a rather large (cubicle?) area with two windows –
lots of counter / desk space right outside the Director’s and Manager of Fuel
Operation’s offices. So even though there is nothing too outrageous about that
setting, it is still very different from the Employment Specialist & Career Counsellor roles
I’ve held for the past 15 years. What IS different and quite amusing (to
me) about these topsy turvy changes include the following:
Constant interruptions to no interruptions: this took a little while to get used to
and at first I couldn’t even figure out what was missing, or what felt absent
in my day to day routine. Employment Services environments – particularly the Resource
and Information area – is designed to assist job seekers in whatever fashion
they require, on an ‘as and when’ needed basis, thus setting the stage for
potential interruptions. So while you weren’t always stopping and restarting
whatever task you were involved in, there was always the potential for an
interruption to occur at any time, to the extent you knew it best to not get involved
in anything that required a significant degree of concentration. At the
opposite end of the spectrum you will now find me immersed in a task for
minutes or hours without any interruption; in fact a phone rang yesterday which
I tuned out as belonging to the Director until my ears finally discerned that
the ringing was actually close by….and, as you are probably now able to guess,
it was my phone that was ringing…..whew, that’s the 2nd time in 3
months…. | |
| Silence.....to have or not to have... |
Noise to almost complete silence: at first I thought I was going to go
mildly crazy due to an abnormal amount of silence in the workplace, which no
one has probably ever said before. But really, this was one of the hardest
adjustments for me to make, or rather not make, as I ended up bringing a
radio to work: I play it very low as I’m still not certain if the absolute
quiet is a preference, or a reality no one thought to challenge or change. And,
it might only be my area on the 2nd floor that is experiencing this
omnipresent silence, but as said, this is how I felt the first few weeks. Now,
I am picking up some sounds that have probably been there all along and are
quite funny, but also a little on the noisy side. The Director, bless his
heart, likes to bang things, and I want to confirm that there is no disrespect intended
in telling this of him, however, by the way he bangs at his keyboard you would
think he is constantly angry, which he is not! And when using the land line
office phone, he does not use the release, or end call button, or use a finger
to press down on the disconnect upon which rests the handset, but instead bangs
the handset into the cradle area (numerous times) until the dial tone reappears.....
100% accessible to 0% accessible: until mid-November I was directly situated
in the midst of an Employment Resource Centre that allowed access to me from
start to finish of my day; currently I’m behind 5 foot high baffle boards that create a cubicle style work area. What I’m not used to is that I’m not visible
to anyone but the Director and Manager which can make it feel closed off –
almost excluded – from the rest of the world. And, sometimes I get caught in that
dilemma of ‘do I or don’t I’ that occurs when someone walks into the area, peeks
into the Director and Managers office, sees they’re not there (but doesn’t see
me), then tries to start up conversations with people way down the hall about
where they are, or make other comments not realizing someone is within earshot
of them. I still haven’t decided what my action should be….to date, I’ve not
made any effort to make myself visible…..probably it will depend on whether I
want the interruption, or not!!
100% customer service to 0% involvement with anyone: on the
heels of the previous point the last 15 years revolved around direct, and
numerous contact with clients, and, because of government funding it was
necessary to continuously provide extensive client service feedback. My current
position, however, does not involve customers or clients, or consumers, or
candidates etc., and therefore does not require any form of customer feedback. So
while I certainly understand the concept of petitioning information regarding
the service you provide, I am so glad this no longer applies to me as I found
the process extremely annoying…there, I said it!!
Team vs The Collective: these concepts are certainly valid to my perception only and a little
trickier to report on. However, I’m not sure if ‘Team’ is a word or
concept I’ve heard used with the Government of the Northwest Territories, yet, perhaps there is an implicit understanding this exists. Regardless, I want
to lean towards the position that due to its absence from any type of
reference, the term does not quite belong here. When ‘Team’ made its entry into
the workplace in the 90’s (?) (and apparently is a Baby Boomer characteristic
and attitude) assorted adjuncts entered with it such as Team events, Team building
exercises, Team meetings, Team objectives and the like. Certainly, if you
worked in a Team environment, you, without question, knew it. So, what ‘environment’
do I now find myself in? Well, we certainly don’t have any Team building events
and the like so there’s that to reference. And why am I pondering this when I’d
safely guess there’s absolutely no one else even thinking about this? Well, you
know, I noticed the difference and just had to remark on it. So, I’m going with
Collective environment which denotes ‘a group
of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or
interest, or work together to achieve a common objective’ – Wikipedia; And
since this has turned into a revelation of sorts, I will announce I’m quite
happy about leaving the team building events, exercises and mindset behind and leave it
at that…
Coverage: In a customer service environment you can’t close the doors and have
everyone take their lunch at the same time – you are open for all of the hours
you've designated you'll be available. As such, your team becomes very aware of each others' schedules and absences and works to ensure coverage is met at all
times during the business day. This can be somewhat restrictive and certainly
problematic if you’re short staffed. Currently, we can all take our lunches at
the same time and all leave the building at the same time, or have a shorter
lunch and leave earlier, which prompts me to say how much I love this job!!
Meetings: okay, here I’m referring to Health and Safety specific and I find this
quite funny; typical to H&S content in the south (ie. Ontario) content
would revolve around fire drills, exercise, stress, physical – heart health
etc; whereas at our last H&S meeting the content revolved around bear
attacks / safety; one vs two engine planes, wild dogs in remote locations,
taking sleeping bags when travelling to remote locations due to ‘bed-varmints’
and replacing the tracker devices staff have when they are on travel duty (remote
locations) – sometimes I feel a million miles away from Barrie, Ontario.
Gender: coming from a female dominated workplace at Northern Lights Canada –
Barrie, to a 60-40 male to female ratio – is this what the quiet is based on?? jk…jk…jk.
Kitchen: while some similarities exist the
main difference is that in my current workplace, for whatever reason, no one
brings in treats; this is so great particularly when I’m constantly striving
towards healthful eating only to have the frequent temptation of Timbits and
Chocolate Zucchini loaf from previous workplaces – please do not misread this
statement – I love treats – yummy as they all are – I just know that
temptations and I are constantly battling it out….and it is so much easier when
they’re not available….PS, haven’t even been to the one and only Tim Horton’s,
and it’s close by too!!