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

[cairmen.livejournal.com]

Sounds about average. It's all down to what you find important - I'd find lack of Internet access irritating but not critical, and a free lunch is nice. And no Management From Hell is definitely good.

The only major sticking point is breaks. That's Not Good - it's probably illegal, and it's certainly costing your employers money (since people provably work less well without breaks).

(I sometimes take breaks, if I remember. I work better when I am taking breaks, and I tend to get ill after a long while of intense work without them.)

[kathminchin.livejournal.com]

Actually the break's better than the legal minimum which is 20 minutes every six hours

[cairmen.livejournal.com]

Really? Shit. That's insane.

[adze.livejournal.com]

What cairmen said, really. I've gotten used to jobs where e-mail and the internet is only a click away, but now that I'm cutting down, I'm discovering that it makes you more productive without the distractions.

The free lunch is pretty good, but I'd be a little concerned about breaks. The Working Time Directive is a big part of what I do at the minute, although it's mainly when it comes to larger scale stuff for us, as in how many hours you can work in a week. That said, it does break down how much you are supposed to work before you take a break. I think that with the 15 minutes afternoon break, your ok, but it's close. It is slightly skewed by the shorter hours, though.

Personally, I think the job sounds dull, and I know exactly how much a dull job can affect people's mental state, especially if there are no distractions. On the up side, it sounds absolutely stress-free, whereas the job I have is the opposite. We have horrible deadlines, and customers to deal with, and that causes a lot of stress, on top of it being pretty damned dull, too.

[twisted-times.livejournal.com]

It's worth checking Health & Safety regulations as well. If you're sat in from of a monitor you're supposed to take a 20 minute break every two hours. I would hope that if you're standing up all day something similar should apply.

[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.

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

It's low stress, but is getting rather dull. Thankfully I've only got another three weeks and then I'm down to 2 days per week, which will make me much happier.

[mangochutney04.livejournal.com]

Hi Annwfyn - it's the other half of Mango Chutney (The one that can never remember which one he/she/it is). I've found that you only really start to look at the conditions of your job when you don't really like it anyway. I'm one of the few lucky ones that LOVES there job. I do 7am to 5.30pm 5 days a week (a whole extra day per week on my contracted hours) for which I get a handsome time and a half and all the gossip from my boss in the 2 hours before everyone else gets in. But personal email and use of the web is strictly limited to lunch times and after hours. You learn to live with that. Having worked in companies where you can surf the web and chat away on email you soon realise that everyone around you is not working and deadlines are fast approaching - not so good if your conscientious.

I suppose though that I'm lucky in that I work with 16 great guys in a company that helps people hear again. I've got the worlds best boss who looks after her guys, loads of friends from around Europe and a good working enviroment (we have a revenue of aroud £2-3 million per week!) That and they've just promoted me.

[wildrogue.livejournal.com]

Pretty cushy actually. Okay the hours are long (9-6) but we have 'net access all day and the official policy really is that your manager definies how much 'net use is too much. As long as the work gets done they don't much care.

Technically we get an hour for lunch but we rarely take the whole lot - that said nobody complains if you take a long lunch now and again or looks askance at those of us who are out the door dead on 6.

People are friendly and for the most part seem to like what they do, which is really good. I like my job.

[anonymous-james.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that it's a "break from the screen" which actually means change in job function, rather than an actual break.

[anonymous-james.livejournal.com]

My official hours are the standard 9-5:30, 37.5 hour week. If I do more than that I don't get paid overtime - instead I'm paid enough so that any overtime I do or don't do is covered. I have a lot of responsibilities and my departure time varies between 5:30 on the dot when the going is good, to 7pm+ when I'm feeling like there's a good reason to. Noone forces me to stay late though.

Internet access is there, but if you use to much you get asked to explain why it's so high. Ultimately though if you're doing your work, they don't care overly much.

[castorpollux23.livejournal.com]

Hmm... free lunch, short hours... sounds pretty good to me, actually. My job is great... research, I get breaks, 45 minutes for lunch, but on the downside, if there is a crunch (and there often is) I'm doing lots of crazy things like working 50 hour weeks, but that's not too bad.

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

I get paid £5.50 per hour, so it's not quite the lap of luxury! However, it gives me CV points, and puts some extra money in the bank and that's got to be a good thing.

[madwitch.livejournal.com]

My work is remarkably relaxed as long as the work gets done. Wandering out to the shops or whatever is all fine, light net surfing, etc.

But it wouldn't be for everyone. It's an office full of boys, and they're used to being an office full of boys. There is one other girl there, but she usually has an ipod on when she's not on the phone, and sits with her back to the rest of the room. I have been tested thoroughly the last 2 weeks. The slightly off colour jokes, the drug jokes, the comment about how we should all put backgrounds of naked women on our desktops to freak out someone from head office (a test I passed magnificently by demanding the right to use naked man pictures instead), all designed to see if I would 'fit'. Me, I couldn't possibly care less about this kind of chatter, I'm used to it. Because what they're also like is the kind of boys who hold doors open for you and carry stuff and so on.

This has all meant that the office stays relaxed and light-hearted. Apparently they were all worried that I'd be a teenage airhead or something. So I think I rather like it.

[castorpollux23.livejournal.com]

It is. Especially since it is really really hard to get something in your field right offf..

[satyrica.livejournal.com]

yeah, I did some work-experience as an archivist and it seemed to have that air of quietly but studiously getting on with relatively repetitive work under your own steam, which seemed a bit too staid to the sixteen year old me

last job had a half hour lunch break, shift-worked 8 hour days (they often spilled over but you could claim the time back,) no other official breaks although you were pretty much in charge of pacing yourself and management weren't too bothered so long as you were generally on top of it all, no personal internet use (but we were supposed to be out on the street 85% of our time anyway) but they were v. relaxed about personal phone use

[vulgarcriminal.livejournal.com]

My job pretty much doesn't care what time I get in, what time I leave or what I do during the day. As long as the project work I have is completed and the courses are setup, they aren't fussed.

I dread having a proper job :(

[pmp.livejournal.com]

I honestly don't think I could do your job, not because it's particularly traumatic (it isn't) but because of the monotony involved.

I can definately sympathise with your feelings that you're weary of the work because I know I would be. Still, there are upsides I can see, the hours are good and the free lunch is a definate bonus as it saves the same as another hours pay basically.

[twisted-times.livejournal.com]

I think it's an actual break, but my recall of Health & Safety regulations on this topic is a bit rusty. I used to know it inside out because I temped and did nothing but data entry for weeks at a time...

...

[reindeerflotila.livejournal.com]

9-5 mon-fri one hour lunch breaks each day. However, I often work more than that. I enjoy my work as it is a combination of several things in HR> I get teh techy aspects with the System, I get the HR confidential behind the scenes "OHMIGOD how do we communicate this without everyone leaving?" stuff and being privvy to all the naughty shenanigans people get up to.

Your job sounds good in many ways, I like the repetitive nature and the seclusion. You only really get the kind of internet/spod opportunities with office jobs within companies/org's with lax internet and email policies :P

ours for example is wide open to abuse. "unrestricted as long as it does not affect your work".

Hahahahahahhahaaaaaaaaaaaa



You should count yourself lucky you don;t have astro_dust's job.

[ms-rodger.livejournal.com]

My hours, internet etc are defined only by the need to get the work done (so that means being able to phone other people when they are also at work, for example) and by my responsibilities to my colleagues (they need to be able to have my feedback quickly quite often, and I currently have the only key to the Scotland office!). I need to have some interaction during the day! (So I usually do more emailing of friends etc when I'm on my own in the office and haven't got any meetings that day).

The voluntary sector, see, has to make up for comparatively low pay by being more relaxed about other stuff. Or is it just that my boss is in London?!

I really value my autonomy, and variety, so I think your current job sounds like hard work, but worth doing for now because it's temporary and good on the CV. I spent 9 months in a call centre after I graduated! Hang in there for now!

[eladriell.livejournal.com]

Be glad ye got a job. Full stop.

Never had any internet crap when i was workin, but then again, you dont get puters in a field. bloody office types! :P

seriously though, you got a cushy job. really. really really.

Re: ...

[pmp.livejournal.com]

My internet access is "until I get caught" :)

Oh look, guess who runs the monitoring software??