Home from work...

[annwfyn]

...and mostly quite tired.

I have a definite feeling that I'm growing weary of this job. Every once in a while I'll still come across something shiney, but mostly it is just a long and slightly grinding process. I put photographs in folders. I take them out of folders and scan them. I put them back into folders. There's not a lot of engagement with the object, and it's all reminding me why I drifted away from archive work.

I'm also pondering two conversations I've had recently with people about my work conditions.

As an explanation, I work from 10 am to 5 pm. I have half an hour for lunch, and sometimes a 15 minute coffee break in the afternoon (although that didn't happen today). There is no internet access at all, and as I'm normally working in a pair (one person digging through boxes, another putting away, for example) I really do just work solidly for the entire time I'm there. My mobile is meant to be put away, as P&O like bags and personal possessions kept tucked away whilst we're working and we don't have our own desks.

It is a nice office - people are friendly, P&O provides its employees with a free lunch from Pret (normally a sandwich and a cake, and there's free fruit, juice, tea and coffee) and as I count as a casual worker, they are pretty relaxed about what hours I work (they just don't pay me if I'm not there) and me taking time off if I need it.

It's not traumatic, but there are days when I do feel a bit cut off from the world during my working day, and I can get a bit jealous of those people who get to bounce e mails at work, or browse LJ, or even who get ten minute patches of brain dead downtime during the day.

I was chatting with one of the girls at work, and she said she thought P&O was quite a cushy environment - no one sits on our shoulders much, we get a free lunch, and she's never had a job where she's been able to send e mail or take loads of breaks etc. A week or so ago I was chatting with a friend from school and she was mildly horrified at the idea of working like that, without real breaks and with only a half hour for lunch.

I was wondering. How does my job sound to you? What is your working life like?

Comments

[mangochutney04.livejournal.com]

I'd probably miss the communication with the outside world via the internet in that kind of environment. We can only surf the web at lunch and I work pretty intensively at other times but it's nice to just get quick emails in from hubby, family, friends to add light relief and break the day.

I'd say half an hour for lunch is fairly standard these days, that's what I've typically had - not legally but actually - i.e. if you want to get your job done between 9 and 6pm...just enough to nip out for a 10 minute walk and get a sarnie. I've found I've always legally had an hour but never used it.

Afternoon breaks though - what are they?!! Have never had breaks in any job although our sales floor get them as they work intensively on the phones. Chutney also gets them as it's a logistics environment. I sometimes have to force myself to get up from my desk in the afternoons, especially now with the backache so if I'm lucky I take 5 mins in the loo and linger a little longer over washing my hands or I send an email to Chutney or a friend as 5 minutes of downtime - I don't even have the excuse of making a cup of tea or coffee in the kitchen anymore as I'm off caffeine so it's a quick fly by the water machine for a refill.

I knew someone who looked into it all legally and even just being sent to make a cup of tea for your colleagues counts as your break away from your desk so we're not being cheated.

I'd say your free lunch is absolutely fantastic, esp being from Pret (where I end up spending way too much money on their salads), your breaks are fairly normal when you add them up and if you can do without the internet during the daytime and keep in touch with the outside world by phone on your breaks AND the work is what you enjoy doing then I think it's cool.

[mangochutney04.livejournal.com]

PS Just to add that I would say 10am to 5pm are also pretty fantastic working hours so the breaks etc considered within that context don't sound so bad really. I've got 9am to 5.30pm contracted hours but almost always work til 6pm or just before, 5.45pm, 5.50pm, unless I have to be somewhere (very occasionally til 6.15pm or 6.30pm) so I think, compared on that basis, your breaks are fairly cool.

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

The working hours are quite nice - in general I like the job, but I do sometimes feel very cut off from the world. It has only really got to me once - Jeremiah passed out while getting out of the bath, put his shoulder through the wall, and had to be rushed off to the doctor and I didn't know anything about it til I got home from work, six hours later.

That did make me feel a bit 'meh'. I have since given Jez and Ginnie a landline number for my boss, but I do wish there was an easier way to get in touch with me.

I also sometimes wish I could have an occasional five minute breather when I've been doing the same thing for two hours.

Other than that, I don't think the working conditions are awful, although I do get awfully jealous when I get home and see these long e mail threads between friends who have been chatting online all day at work.