i have adventures (sometimes)

Tuesday 16 July 2013

Property of Work: If Found, Return to Desk

22:38 Posted by Ali , 1 comment
Work almost entirely owns me at the moment and it's making me unhappy. Remember how I laughed at that clause about unlimited compulsory overtime? Yeah, hilarious. Last week I worked every evening and most of the weekend, and have accordingly been hating my life and questioning my life choices.
 
Full credit to a colleague for noticing and getting me called in to the manager's office to talk about it, although that did mean I spent half of Monday crying to her and HR. I defy anyone feeling fragile to answer "Are you OK?" without going to pieces.

It's not the impression I wanted to make two weeks into my new job, and certainly not if it means that the rest of my team gets put under extra pressure because ag shame the precious new girl can't cope. It's not even that I can't handle the pressure. This time last year I was sitting in the library 10 hours a day writing my dissertation. I survived. I also sort of resent the well-intended notion that it's because it's my first real job and the corporate world is so different. And yes, it is different. But that's not my problem.

My problem is that it's the same.

Deja vu.

Friday 5 July 2013

First Week Survival Report

So my first day at work didn't go quite as I'd hoped. Owing to an unfortunate combination of circumstances, by the time I got there on Monday morning I was emotional and over-tired, which meant that after a day of a growing headache and being introduced to 150 people and learning a million new things and questioning my life choices and seriously questioning my life choices, I was overwhelmed and totally emotionally overwrought.

I cried all the way home. I was sort of hoping that I could escape too much attention and go and hide in my room until I felt human again, but luckily for me, I live with the best people in the world. So instead, Darryn gave me a hug and put on the kettle, and Meg gave me painkillers, and Dave offered me another hug, and Meg offered me another cup of tea, and Darryn offered me take-aways, and Leila fed me wontons, and the world felt a little more bearable again.

I love these people so much.

I also love Meg, who isn't pictured.