Busy week

So, for a brief two days I had a job! It was a very bizarre job... One of Australia's largest banks had new emergency evacuation procedures for one of their buildings and they needed the maps changed in the building. I thought I'd go around to each floor and change maps near the fire doors or something. But no, the job was going around to every desk, grabbing this little booklet with emergency procedures (if there was one at that desk), sticking in a sticker with the new map, and then putting the booklet back on the desks. Really. And the bank hired not just one person, but 2 of us, paid at $20 an hour (about the low end of what you'd get paid for a temp office job), to do this menial task. Some of the easiest money I've ever made... I got the assignment Tuesday and then worked Wednesday and most of today. I was told on Tuesday that my working partner was another traveller named Rick. The name didn't bode well, I imagined some frat-boy American jock, but Rick turned out to be a pretty nice English guy who's already been travelling for 8 months. We got along well, so working together went smoothly. We got a rhythm down and a good way of splitting the work, though both of us couldn't believe we were being paid so much to do this.

The office itself, which had 6 floors, was mostly a call center. Various parts dealt with all sorts of aspects of bank business from credit card problems and ATM problems to internet and phone banking to mortgages and personal loans. It was interesting sometimes to listen in on calls, esp when the customer was obviously angry, or the bank employee was getting frustrated, heh. Also, as we went around plucking the booklets off people's desk, I got a bit of an insight into the person or at least got to see what sort of things they decide to decorate their work area with. Common things were personal photos like wedding or kid photos, support for a footy team, celebrity photos, one guy had Barbie dolls, which worried me, another guy had Star Wars Mr Potato Heads, there were animal photos, small plants, birthday cards, not to mention all sorts of reference sheets that were actually work related. I think these people are much more into personalizing their desks than people at my work. Oh, but then there were also lots of award things. Remember, this is a call center, so it's all about your stats and call times and sales and achievements and noting just how well you're doing compared to the others in your team. So a lot of desks had various awards the person had received, or there were things on the walls tracking how well a team was doing, or noting who had the most sales, or just photos of the team and a little questionnaire about the person's interests and background, or goals for the month, and on and on. The whole building felt like a friggin' kindergarten, all "Julie has been awarded the Gold Star for August! Go Julie!" Ugh. Though maybe part of me is a little jealous that they get such direct feedback, I mean I don't really want to be tracked so much, but it does give incentive and you know where you are or if you need to improve.

It was interesting to see an office building here and compare it to what I'm used to. Though dressing for work is more formal here (guys area almost always in at least a shirt and tie, and women are dressed quite smartly as well), the building itself had some awesome break areas. There was a lounge with TVs and some games (pinball, foosball, arcade games) on every floor along with a big kitchen area and lots of seating. Fresh milk was provided for free to all the fridges for use in coffee and tea. The toilets on each floor had a shower and lockers, I guess esp for use if you bike to work. It was pretty nice, well, I'd steal their lounge areas if I could.

Two things that made me laugh that I saw there... One was this poster posted in the ladies restroom that gave visual instruction of how to use the toilet. There were little drawings showing that you don't squat over the toilet with your feet on the seat and you don't squat over the floor in front of the toilet, but you sit on the toilet. Maybe it was aimed at foreigners who may not know how to use a Western toilet? I dunno, but it was really weird. I was curious to see the one in the Men's room... The other thing was in the booklets we were updating. One page in there was for bomb threats, and there was a bomb threat checklist. So if a potential bomber calls up with a threat, you're suppose to go over this list and note things about their voice, what their demands are, what background noise you can hear and so forth. Of course. No worrying about your life or anything.

Anyway, Rick was really nice, we chatted quite a bit during lunch yesterday and then I had a drink over at his hostel after work and met some of his friends and played pool. Today we got done early and left just after 2. And I'm free and unemployed again! Good thing, I need the sleep. I had to get up at 7 to get to this job on time. That's just not right...