Three jobs
February 1st 2007 09:11
Well, it's been an interesting week. For starters, I had my second interview today. Second, that is, in terms of how many I've had since I began looking for a job six months ago. (I started a month and a half before I left my previous job.)
This interview was at a book shop, and they're expanding and looking for four full-time staff and four part-timers. The only trouble is they work seven days a week, and I'm not keen on going back to working on weekends. Still, I got an interview out of 250 applicants, so that's progress.
Meanwhile, back at the day job, things have eased up a bit on the sharp edge of things. It's still there, but not quite so unfriendly as it was the first day. I can tell you I was praying hard about the place the second day I went. I didn't really want to go back. Still not comfortable there - there's a curiously unhappy atmosphere about the place - but things are better. They had an 'urgent meeting' on Tuesday, leaving me in charge of the place (!), and it seems that was about the general level of antagonism that exists in the office.
Going back to my evening job last night was heaven by comparison. Not that exciting in terms of intellectual stimulation, but I was greeted like a long-lost friend, made to feel welcome, asked how I was, and in general treated like somebody. They don't treat anybody like somebody at the other place.
The history of this unhappiness goes back a long way. It was originally a city council department, where work was done in the fashion that it's done in city councils all over the world (or used to be, anyway). Those who got swept up in the sale of it to a private company found the changeover not to their liking, and those who carried on either sank or swam. Some are still sinking, and making a heck of a lot of noise about it.
And it's curious to go back to the days of men in one tea room and women in another. Although when I worked at the city council, we were in the same large room, just at separate tables. You had no choice about sitting with the opposite sex. It was never done.
This interview was at a book shop, and they're expanding and looking for four full-time staff and four part-timers. The only trouble is they work seven days a week, and I'm not keen on going back to working on weekends. Still, I got an interview out of 250 applicants, so that's progress.
Meanwhile, back at the day job, things have eased up a bit on the sharp edge of things. It's still there, but not quite so unfriendly as it was the first day. I can tell you I was praying hard about the place the second day I went. I didn't really want to go back. Still not comfortable there - there's a curiously unhappy atmosphere about the place - but things are better. They had an 'urgent meeting' on Tuesday, leaving me in charge of the place (!), and it seems that was about the general level of antagonism that exists in the office.
Going back to my evening job last night was heaven by comparison. Not that exciting in terms of intellectual stimulation, but I was greeted like a long-lost friend, made to feel welcome, asked how I was, and in general treated like somebody. They don't treat anybody like somebody at the other place.
The history of this unhappiness goes back a long way. It was originally a city council department, where work was done in the fashion that it's done in city councils all over the world (or used to be, anyway). Those who got swept up in the sale of it to a private company found the changeover not to their liking, and those who carried on either sank or swam. Some are still sinking, and making a heck of a lot of noise about it.
And it's curious to go back to the days of men in one tea room and women in another. Although when I worked at the city council, we were in the same large room, just at separate tables. You had no choice about sitting with the opposite sex. It was never done.
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