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| Thursday, May 04, 2006 |
| On Assignment |
Ata began a new assignment today. Thursdays and Fridays, 9-4, for the next 6 weeks. Or thereabouts.
It is in many respects a nice job. Good people, quiet office, no phone-answering, precious few phones even ringing. Everyone works away, diligently and quietly. I am told that most of the other occupants of the room are database administrators, with the exception of the 3 or 4 of us off in one corner. There is natural light from big windows, a consistent supply of biscuits, and the kitchen is well stocked with assorted hot drinks and an automatic espresso maker. There is a happy hour on Friday afternoons from 4pm, when the Company supplies beer. Ata does not drink beer, but she recognises the value of improving employee morale by making people feel valuable. And if that takes a couple of beers on a Friday afternoon whilst everyone chats, so be it. There is, apparently, a gym as well - in the building next door - which is exclusively for Company employees at a Very Minimal Cost. On the whole, Ata is beginning to feel that if she were offered permanent work there, she might not say no.
Arriving at the Assignment today, however, was a little daunting. After being ushered through the door and up to the third floor, Ata was shown a desk. A large desk, with a computer workstation and a pen.
"Here you go!" the Supervisory Person said brightly.
Ata had a sudden flash to the episode of Black Books where Fran gets a job through one of Manny's shady underworld contacts, but no-one tells her what to do. Being too frightened of telling someone that she doesn't know what they want her to do, she pretends to work. It turns into a nightmarish spiral of increasing responsibility without any hint of the actual position.
Fortunately, this was not to be. Ata was instructed, and spent the entire day doing this:
1. Create the archive file.
2. Rename the archive file.
3. Drag the old file into the archive file.
4. Check for any attached files.
5. Mark it off on the spreadsheet.
6. Do it again.
Apparently they recently swapped from one system to another, and this must be done to place the old files into order in the new system. Ata is a very diligent worker, and quickly picked up the basics of the task. Create-rename-drag-check-next. Ata would have thought that a script could be written to do this, but then, who is Ata to question the arcane ways of Information Services.
So if anyone wants to know what Ata will be doing on Thursdays and Fridays, 9-4, for the next six weeks - see above. |
posted by Ata @ 5:28 pm  |
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