New work…

Hello my Friends,

So, I have this new job – full-time, and I am not kidding, it takes pretty much all of my time.

Let’s start from the beginning – some time before Christmas I made an appointment with HR to take paperwork for my physical, they say come Friday between 12 noon and 5 pm. So, I come at 3:30 pm (and again it is a 20 miles drive for me) go to their office and … they are gone already. Luck. I had Helena and Michal with me so we go to my new workplace. The place is closed for public but they let me in since I am an employee and my kids check the place out in five minutes flat. They come to me and ask “where is the rest of it?” Unfortunately it’s only what it is, so we go home. After Christmas I go again to HR this time around 10 am to have higher probability of finding working people there, I leave over 10 pieces of one kind or another of paperwork, go to the doctors’ office and get the check-up for work. I deliver it the same day. It was one of the most productive days. Then there is my first day at work – Monday January 2nd. I get there at 12 noon, meet my fellow co-workers and we go for job training. The guy asks us if it is OK for us to stay until 6 pm. It is a surprise for all but me, they did not bring any lunch because nobody told them training will be long. I have been already to one of such trainings before on one of the Sundays in December. That one lasted 7 hours, but it could have been done in about 2. Anyway, the guy said six o’clock and we started practicing workshops – making rockets made with film canisters fueled by fizzing tablets, observing the magical color change in red cabbage extract after adding lemon juice or soap, making plastic out of milk. The experiments were not very exciting for me but they sure are for kids. The training ended at 5:30. They told us to come to work at 10 am next day. We sure did come as directed and mostly observed what others (December people) did with kids, around noon a woman named Magda comes and makes a power trip about dress code – no sweaters (despite the fact the place is chilly), no patterned shirts, etc. The guy who was targeted was explaining himself that nobody instructed him about the dress code, and Magda did not have problems with his shirts before. Obviously Magda made a show just for us – January people. Around 5 pm she made another power trip just for us – she comes and says we can not go home at 6 pm because the place is open till seven. I step up and ask her “Could you tell me what is your position here? I know that Kinga is the boss but who are you?” and sure I get an answer “I was hired here on a position but I do something different now.” – “Yes, but it is not the answer to my question.” Then she goes “How did you come up with 6 pm for leaving?” Again me “we are hired full-time, this means 40 hours a week, 8 hours a day. 10 + 8 is 18 and if someone can not do this much it’s his own problem” Honestly I do not know how I got guts to stand up for myself and my January friends but I did. The way they treat you at the beginning is the way they will treat you all the way. From next day on we were not asked to stay overtime. I knew they would not pay us over-time, they did not do it for December people in spite of the fact December guys worked 12 hours a day sometimes.

So this works is great – you can loose as much as 2 pounds per week (I am about 7 pound down after 3 weeks), your learn how to stand up for yourself (example above), how to make allies (instead of team we have “them” and “us”). You learn negotiation – I have contributed to the victory of limiting hours of operation of Humanitarium from 9 am  – 7 pm to 9 am – 5 pm weekdays (it was really slooooooooooooooow after five every weekday). You can practice self control (which I try with varying results). You can also forget about your education, despite the fact they asked for people with degree in Science now we need to forget about it. Last but not least you do not need to worry about skin cancer – we work in a hall without windows so I have no idea what kind of weather is outside.

I feel so cheated and tricked. I left one place where people were fighting (but at least I could use my brain and talk to others there and had a break every 45 minutes) and ended up in this swamp. I do not regret leaving my Vocational school. I am very dissapointed with my current position.

On the bright note our family is now bigger – no, I did not give birth to anyone – we have a puppy! 2 months old male sheltie (sheatland sheep dog) – Robin (From Batman and Robin, since he is so petite). Helena made a web site for him and I hope she will make an English version one day.He is cute and smart. I will keep you posted about his achievements. For now he can do “sit, come, drop” commands, he understands “ick” (“fe” in Polish) and he can find treats hidden under plastic cups. Kita – our 1,5 years old, dominating cat is uneasy about Robin. She growls and hiss at him most of the time but she did not attack him. Which reminds me of the story – Robin sleeps in the living room in his kennel (safety reasons). One night (his third after arrival) I did not close it tight – I did not think he could get out – so you can imagine my shock and fear when I came in the morning and the kennel was empty! I was convinced Kita killed him and stashed up somewhere but I have found him with Helenka’s help, behind a couch sleeping peacefully on Kasia’s quilt. I do lock kennel now.

So, long

Anna