trip report: new job is unbelievably sweet (kinda long/boring)

[mbillie1]

So I started a new job today. I showed up looking quite sharp actually. I managed to have picked out a shirt and tie that look terrific together. They match my eyes which are extremely blue. I now work for a company that designs and sells office furniture, or something like that. I'm not heavily involved in what's going on and I can't be sure that any summary of the type of business done there given by me would be entirely accurate. The office is on a nice side of the city it's located in, in an old storefront building with large plate glass windows looking into the street (which is cobblestone and one-way and lined with antiques shops and a few awesome sandwich places). The office is large for the ten or twelve people who work there. Mostly green, with a lot of chairs but not cluttered.

There's music playing quietly in the background, but not too quietly. The "no repeats all day work mix" from a local radio station. Not EQX (which, once you've listened to it, is the standard by which any other radio station is judged) but it will do. I heard Rocketman and a few other songs that are pretty good. I meet my boss, a woman in about her early forties. She's nice and she gives me some papers to sort. Tells me to answer the phone. It takes about fifteen minutes to file what she gave me. She says there's nothing else to do and offers me something to read. I decline politely - anticipating this possibility I have brought a book. A coworker shows me the kitchen. It's got a blue tile floor, a nice refrigerator and lots of coffee. Real coffee too, not that I drink coffee. It smells nice. The back of the office is windows also, looking out over the river and to the city on the other side of the river. It isn't going to make any postcards, but it's a far cry better than the most beautiful view in Binghamton, where I recently moved from. Among the brief list of responsibilities I am charged with is handling the mail. This is conveyed to me in a very serious fashion and remarks can be overheard in the background about how problematic the sorting of the daily mail has been; checks have gone missing, entire client orders have been lost due to the absence of someone to monitor the mail. I spend the next two and a half hours finishing "Blindness" by Jose Saramago, which is an excellent book by the way.

Eventually I'm hungry and I ask when lunch is. I can go whenever I feel like. I am not given any direction as to when to return. Other people left for an hour, but I eat quickly and am back in twenty minutes. I read some more. There are pretentious catalogs of overpriced office furniture. They have descriptions that start with sentences like, "The [name deleted] chair is an enchanting tale of bent chrome and classic design." (Yes, that is the exact sentence, I found it so amusing I wrote it down word for word). It looks like any other office chair to me, except it costs a lot more money and it is moderately shinier.

Eventually the mail comes. There are not more than seven items and after about three minutes of opening they are all distributed in the manner which was prescribed to me by my superiors. The phone rings periodically, but it rarely comes to my desk. I don't do anything glamorous or even remotely interesting, but at least I'm getting paid (and quite a bit more than they could probably get away with), and the most remarkable thing is this: when there is nothing to do, they let me do nothing. Busy work is conspicuously absent from this startlingly pleasant and bearable work environment. A woman offered to sign into the computer for me so I could go online (it being my first day I politely declined; maybe next week). Nobody is frustrated or irritated that I'm reading. I've never been in a situation where I could sit and do whatever I pleased--read books, send text messages to old friends, go on facebook from my phone--and get paid and not be slacking. When there is work to be done it is brought to me in very small amounts and I do it and then there isn't any more work for a while. I will certainly finish my next book by friday. I may need a new bookshelf by christmas.

There has always seemed to be some sort of balance between how much work you actually do and how much you get paid; either your job is easy, or your job pays well. This is not going to buy me a luxury car, but it's more than I made at my last job. And I unfortunately had to bust my ass there. For as disappointingly mediocre a person as I've turned out to be over the last several years this is probably as good a turn as I could have gotten. If any of you have really good book recommendations (preferably stuff that doesn't suck; pretentious is ok, old is ok, boring is discouraged) please post them or PM them to me. I'm already running low on reading material.

edit: fine here are some paragraphs, although it seriously detracts from the story imo

[JMa]

you should pick up writing

[By-Tor]

paragraphs FTW

[Bostaevski]

jeesus christ is your [censored] enter key broken

[tuq]

Did you let peachy write your OP?

[DonkeyKongSr]

I didn't read that blob, so all I know is that mbillie is better at using the bold function than his enter key.

[Los Feliz Slim]

mbillie,

Congrats on the job and getting out of Binghamton. I hope it turns out well for you.

[mbillie1]

paragraphs included... LFS, thanks man

[BEP]

[ QUOTE ]
So I started a new job today. I showed up looking quite sharp actually. I managed to have picked out a shirt and tie that look terrific together. They match my eyes which are extremely blue. I now work for a company that designs and sells office furniture, or something like that. I'm not heavily involved in what's going on and I can't be sure that any summary of the type of business done there given by me would be entirely accurate.



The office is on a nice side of the city it's located in, in an old storefront building with large plate glass windows looking into the street (which is cobblestone and one-way and lined with antiques shops and a few awesome sandwich places). The office is large for the ten or twelve people who work there. Mostly green, with a lot of chairs but not cluttered. There's music playing quietly in the background, but not too quietly. The "no repeats all day work mix" from a local radio station. Not EQX (which, once you've listened to it, is the standard by which any other radio station is judged) but it will do. I heard Rocketman and a few other songs that are pretty good.



I meet my boss, a woman in about her early forties. She's nice and she gives me some papers to sort. Tells me to answer the phone. It takes about fifteen minutes to file what she gave me. She says there's nothing else to do and offers me something to read. I decline politely - anticipating this possibility I have brought a book.



A coworker shows me the kitchen. It's got a blue tile floor, a nice refrigerator and lots of coffee. Real coffee too, not that I drink coffee. It smells nice. The back of the office is windows also, looking out over the river and to the city on the other side of the river. It isn't going to make any postcards, but it's a far cry better than the most beautiful view in Binghamton, where I recently moved from.



Among the brief list of responsibilities I am charged with is handling the mail. This is conveyed to me in a very serious fashion and remarks can be overheard in the background about how problematic the sorting of the daily mail has been; checks have gone missing, entire client orders have been lost due to the absence of someone to monitor the mail. I spend the next two and a half hours finishing "Blindness" by Jose Saramago, which is an excellent book by the way.



Eventually I'm hungry and I ask when lunch is. I can go whenever I feel like. I am not given any direction as to when to return. Other people left for an hour, but I eat quickly and am back in twenty minutes. I read some more.



There are pretentious catalogs of overpriced office furniture. They have descriptions that start with sentences like, "The [name deleted] chair is an enchanting tale of bent chrome and classic design." (Yes, that is the exact sentence, I found it so amusing I wrote it down word for word). It looks like any other office chair to me, except it costs a lot more money and it is moderately shinier.



Eventually the mail comes. There are not more than seven items and after about three minutes of opening they are all distributed in the manner which was prescribed to me by my superiors. The phone rings periodically, but it rarely comes to my desk. I don't do anything glamorous or even remotely interesting, but at least I'm getting paid (and quite a bit more than they could probably get away with), and the most remarkable thing is this: when there is nothing to do, they let me do nothing. Busy work is conspicuously absent from this startlingly pleasant and bearable work environment. A woman offered to sign into the computer for me so I could go online (it being my first day I politely declined; maybe next week). Nobody is frustrated or irritated that I'm reading. I've never been in a situation where I could sit and do whatever I pleased--read books, send text messages to old friends, go on facebook from my phone--and get paid and not be slacking. When there is work to be done it is brought to me in very small amounts and I do it and then there isn't any more work for a while.



I will certainly finish my next book by friday. I may need a new bookshelf by christmas. There has always seemed to be some sort of balance between how much work you actually do and how much you get paid; either your job is easy, or your job pays well. This is not going to buy me a luxury car, but it's more than I made at my last job. And I unfortunately had to bust my ass there. For as disappointingly mediocre a person as I've turned out to be over the last several years this is probably as good a turn as I could have gotten.



If any of you have really good book recommendations (preferably stuff that doesn't suck; pretentious is ok, old is ok, boring is discouraged) please post them or PM them to me. I'm already running low on reading material.

[/ QUOTE ]

[By-Tor]

[ QUOTE ]
paragraphs included... LFS, thanks man

[/ QUOTE ]

tl;dr

[img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]