And so to work. My instructions were to go to an address on the Coventry Road leading out to the airport (and Coventry, naturally) and after an hour on the buses in and out of Brum I walked up and rang on the bell of an office block only to be told that Tony, my contact, didn’t work here, the admin office – he worked at the airport. Which made a stunning amount of common sense given the nature of my job (Stock Controller). So I phoned the agency and the sense hit home there. They phoned ahead and I started walking the three miles out to airstrip land.
Having perked my interest on Friday the job turned out to be, well, monkey work really – counting spare parts in the store room of an air-freighting company. That said the parts were kinda interesting as it’s not everyday you see random bits of aeroplane and large quantities of seatbelts. I was particularly taken with the safety stickers, the like of which you often see stuck around cockpits and engines on planes and, had they just been lying around, would have taken some home with me. But they weren’t. So I didn’t. Still, nice enough people, but just as I was settling into the idea of a dull job for the next month the manager sent for me.
After a wee interview (he hadn’t been told anything about me, unsurprisingly since I’d only been given the job at 4.00pm on Friday) to see what experience I had he outlined what he’s got in mind for me. Essentially it’s data entry – 6,300 records to be inputted by hand into a new database. So far so tedious, only he doesn’t want a monkey doing it as the data needs to be streamlined to make it useful (ie searchable) so I’ll have to use my brain. I’m still in two minds as to whether this’ll be really fucking awful or actually quite good fun but at the end of the day I’m not lugging stuff about in the rain and we have to grateful for small mercies.
The only thing that’s proving a shock to the system is the commute – it took 1hr 45m to get home tonight in the rush hour and I’m well out of practice in that department. Still, serves me right for working on the opposite side of the city and at least I’ll get some serious reading done.
Well, that answers the thought…”Wonder how Pete got on today?” Whatever it turns out like,it’s good to know……”this too will pass”
After years of wage-slavery it has occured to me that the reason they pay you is because otherwise you wouldn’t do it, hence it is *meant* to be tedious. I’m sure there are people who really enjoy their job and derive great satisfaction from it. Me, I look forward to the Friday each week and a getting paid at the end of each month. I’m also looking forward to the twin facts that a) I won’t be able to retire until i’m 70 and b) The Pension will be a mug of broth and some dry bread (if i’m lucky).
If you’re going out to the airport, take the train from New Street instead of the bus. It’s loads quicker especially at rush hour, there are approximately 1 million trains an hour, and it may well be cheaper too.
Ah, but I’d have to get a bus to Perry Bar to get the train. Trust me, after a three hour there and back commute I’ve explored the possibilities…
Oh, and blimey! My mum has finally commented on my blog! This is going to get even more cloyingly gooey than normal if we’re not careful.
Dave – I might well address this point in a later post. If I don’t, remind me.