It has been over a month since I last posted, which is rather shameful really. The reason for this is that I took the rather risky decision to hand in my notice at the shop and take my chances among the ranks of the unemployed.
As it turns out, it was a rather good move - I emerged blinking in the sunlight and was unemployed for a grand total of four days before the temping agency I'd signed up with came up trumps and had me placed in an office job.
Yes, I have sold my soul a little bit, but they're a nice bunch and I still have access to all the tea and hot chocolate I can manage, along with a fair few cakes, so not much has changed really.
If I'm being honest, I'm not exactly sure what it is I'm supposed to be doing because my job description's rather vague; I've mastered the art of 'looking terribly busy', which seems to be about all you need to get by in an office environment and it certainly seems to be doing the trick - everyone's been telling me how well I'm doing, so I must be doing something right. Apart from that, it's all databases and emails and occasionally researching statistics about potholes (don't ask). I do a lot of filing - or at least, I'm handed pieces of paper that I don't really understand, and I separate them from kith and kin with cardboard dividers and put them into ringbound concentration camps (occasionally I torture them further by putting them through the binding machine, how cruel), blindly following the instructions of my predecessor, who's off on maternity leave.
The boss likes me because I always pop my head around his door to see if he wants a cuppa whenever I'm on my way to fetch myself one. It seems to make him very happy, and I like to be nice to people who are giving me money, just in case they change their mind about it all.
I, in return, have my evenings and weekends back for the first time in about three years. I can't understand why people get so depressed about Monday mornings - I'm still reeling from the delight of having had two whole days off in a row (though I suspect this novelty will wear off fairly soon).
It seems like an excellent arrangement, really. I was even hired on the understanding that I'm not hugely interested in carving out a career in the sector and am actually planning on buggering off back to academia as soon as possible, so it's not like I've completely sold out. I hope.
So, I suppose I am now The Office Temping Graduate technically - though I still spend an inordinate amount of my time in coffee shops (firmly on the other side of the counter). The blog will definitely continue - if only to unleash the rest of my menagerie of weird and wonderful former customers - but there might be a few more spreadsheets than before.
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