News of the Res

[resonant]

Sorry if I owe you an e-mail/a comment reply/seven hundred billion dollars. I sort of accidentally got a job.

For several years, I've been the person on call when the church secretary goes on vacation or gets sick. Well, early in October the secretary left suddenly with no notice, and whee! I'm a church secretary now!

I don't actually have the job on a permanent basis; the Personnel Committee has to update the job description first. (It's a Presbyterian church. We like committees.) But my chances look good.

This working for a living every day thing? It's for the birds. I was enjoying my spouse-sponsored arts grant. On the other hand, I wasn't actually doing much in the way of the arts, so I suppose it's just as well that I'll be earning a little money and coming up with some projects that will use my nifty list of skills and interests.

Even if I have to spend all day long using Windows XT and Microsoft Publisher. Bleah.



Things I had forgotten about working in an office:

- There is an astonishing amount of unhealthy food. All the time. No sooner do you get rid of one batch than someone brings in another batch. Also: The people at this office are good environmentalist Presbyterians, which means that when there are doughnuts, someone comes around at the end of the day and puts them away in Tupperware, so the next day, in violation of all nature's laws regarding doughnuts, they haven't been thrown in the garbage; they're still there.

- At least a third of the time when people are at work, they're not working.

- And in my office what they do when they're not working is come out and chat with me. I'm an introvert, damn it! I like you, but don't make me talk! I come home from work so starved for solitude that even answering e-mail seems like more human contact than I can bear.

- Gossip! I've only been involved with online gossip, not the kind that involves people you sort of know in real life. I've been hearing all sorts of dirt on the former pastor, who apparently ate nothing but hard-boiled egg whites and spent some of his vacation time getting cosmetic surgery. Also, people I like turn out to be people who think Halloween is some sort of demonic holiday. It's gotten to the point where every time I see someone's name on Caller ID, I have to say to the others, "It's Marge, and if you know anything bad about her, please don't tell me, because I don't want to know."

- Working with paper all day long really dries your hands and cuticles up. I'm bleeding from four fingers.

- Packing a lunch is a big pain in the neck. But eating takeout every day makes me feel like I've swallowed a bowling ball, not to mention making the whole office smell like hot grease all day.

I have a crazy co-worker who thinks "dago place" is an acceptable substitute for "Italian restaurant." One of the volunteers is a mad Scotswoman whose husband is still trying to teach her tact after fifty years of marriage. I can tell when electric bills come due because people call in looking for help and I have to tell them we're out of money until the end of the year.

I expect to have much to post about, if I can bear to get this close to conversing with people.

Comments

[ngaio]

Headphones. Trust me, in a chatty office headphones are your salvation. I love my crazy, noisy, TMI-full and tact-less department, but some days I just stick my headphones in and listen to something loud and ignore people.

Lunch solution for me: make loads of something and freeze it in portions, take it out of the freezer the night before et voila! (assuming your workplace has a microwave). I don't do thinking about food, it makes my head hurt.

[celli]

Ah, people. :)

*hugs*

[viggorlijah.livejournal.com]

I second headphones because they make it clear without being rude that you're listening to something else.

Office gossip is toxic - the less you hear and participate in, the easier it is to work, unless you're manouvering for a promotion and need to be plugged in.

I have done office stints and while I enjoy the sensation of desk! people in tidy clothes! coffee machine! work hours! etc. at the end of it, I want to go home and not talk to anyone for HOURS.

And re: Halloween, this year was the first that we explicitly did not celebrate. We were also instructed to take our kids out of Halloween-participating school stuff. The reasoning is that Halloween is not a church calendar holiday, and has become a day in which evil is celebrated. There's a really good argument to be made about mocking the devil, that Halloween is when we laugh at evil, but then, what about the other 364 days of the year, and also can young kids get the distinction? I'm not talking about Samhein, the wicca festival, but about commercial and traditional Halloween which is mostly about candy consumption and fear.

Anyhoo! Congrats on the job!

[she-obstipui.livejournal.com]

Please don't be offended by this question from a relative stranger, but you seem like a good person to ask. I'm half-Presbyterian, half-Christadelphian, brought up loosey-goosey Pres/low church Anglican/Christadelphian--in other words, a whole lotta mess.
I'm not an Anglican, but I love *certain* things ie Advent etc. I've noticed you seem to incorporate a mix of traditions. When I try, whatever church I'm currently attending disapproves. How do you deal with this?

Also--wow, your work situation sounds crazy. I think it's a law of nature that no matter where you are, there will always be a mad Scot.

[beadattitude.livejournal.com]

I didn't know you worked at a Presbyterian church! I'm Presby preacher's kid and sister and miss not having such ilk here in the wilds of Western Ma. Congregational is just not the same. Especially when my dad was very Obama-like. Evangelism seems to be a dirty word up here.

Congratulations on your new job? And go you for stopping the gossip! I also know about people/talking burnout although I'm an extrovert. It happens to my sister too and she no longer likes talking on the phone unless it's more expedient to do so.

[beadattitude.livejournal.com]

Also, my dad instituted a "Pastor's emergency fund," over and above the pastoral care fund to be used at the pastor's discretion about items like this. Might be an idea for next year's budget. He also had this neat trick of getting stewardship season pretty much sewn up before Dedication Sunday, but he did have the advantage of a big-city church.

[snailbones.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on the new job - it sounds, um, stimulating!

I so know what you mean about craving solitude at the end of the working day - do people never hush up? *g*

[jacquez.livejournal.com]

Ugh. I guess since you have to answer the phones, headphones are a no-go, hm?

I always kept a pump bottle of moisturizer on my desk at work. It's not just the paper, it's often the air.

And what ngaio said about lunches! I keep my freezer stocked with single-serving containers of stews, curries, meat-and-veg, stirfries, etc. so that we never have to think about lunch if we don't want to. Just grab & go. Let defrost under the desk in the AM, and by noon it's ready to nuke.

[livrelibre.livejournal.com]

Ah, welcome to Office World! Tips: avoid the staff lounge and folks with candy dishes; seconded on the headphones, freezing pre-prepared meals or sometimes the "healthy" frozen dinners, and avoiding office gossip (unless it's with people you trust, even better, if you need to know to avoid the big gaffes, do it over drinks offsite); lotion at your desk; and a big old dose of "la la la I can't hear you" and avoidance or polite "let's not go there" for the craziest, most bigoted coworkers (I just have to work with you; I don't have to agree with you). Congrats on the job!

[panisdead.livejournal.com]

Hey, congrats on the job, or at least the parts that you like. ::g::

I hear you about the lunches. I haven't tried the pre-prepared frozen idea, and I think I will, but what I actually don't like about packing lunches the number of snacks involved. (I'm gone from the house for something like 10 hours; just a frozen entree isn't going to cut it). I did not know eating could be this tedious.

[giglet.livejournal.com]

Aren't offices full of people *exhausting*?

Re lunches -- I manage by packing a bunch of small containers with different things that taste strongly of whatever they are. I have little containers (like duck sauce comes in) that I fill with olives or almonds or fruit. And then a bigger container of something that's actually good for me. bentolunch is good for inspiration, although I have neither the artistic talent nor the inclination to put that much work into my lunches.

Congrats on the job!

[worn-words.livejournal.com]

I would suggest headphones too, but as a secretary I'm sure you need your ears open and free most of the time.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

You've got a job!!!

You're all growed up!!

Congratulations!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Alas, I have to answer the phone, so I doubt headphones are going to be permitted. But I'm definitely going to take your lunch suggestion, one of these days.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Strangest things in the world, people.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I don't think headphones are going to be an option, as I'm the one who answers the phone.

My feeling about Halloween is that we're not laughing at evil -- we're laughing at boundaries. (Between alive and dead, between real and fantastic, between scary and thrilling.) And candy, of course.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I've noticed you seem to incorporate a mix of traditions. When I try, whatever church I'm currently attending disapproves. How do you deal with this?

I guess most of what I do is think and talk about various traditions; any church that didn't approve of that would obviously be the wrong church for me. If I were actually creating my own rituals involving elements from various religions, I guess I'd need to be a Unitarian.

no matter where you are, there will always be a mad Scot.

Hee! I've got some Scots ancestry myself. I suppose that if I look around and don't see a mad Scot, it must be me.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I still consider myself an Episcopalian, but I can't be active in a diocese that still doesn't believe in ordaining women. I generally like and approve of the Presbyterians I hang out with, though.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

We probably have a fund like that -- I'd have to as Pastor Fixit if she's got some money squirreled away -- but we get so many requests. This very day I was on the phone telling someone, "We have food and furniture, but we're out of money." I hate having to do that.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Stimulating would be the word! The job description focuses on the phone, the bulletin, and the newsletter; it says nothing about days like today, which I spent getting referred from one gruff retired military guy to another trying to locate an honor guard to participate in our Veterans Day service.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, yes, headphones aren't going to work. But I seriously am going to make a big sign that says, Newsletter Deadline. Interrupt At Your Peril. I control the printer. I can do these things.

I'm working on creating a stock of lunch items -- so far I have two kinds of mini muffins.

[beadattitude.livejournal.com]

a diocese that still doesn't believe in ordaining women

Oooh, grrrr.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, the office is so small that there is no "staff lounge." There's a triangle formed by my desk, the printer, and the table where the food sits precisely in my line of vision.

I think I'm going to have to bring in some sliced apples or something just for balance.

[beadattitude.livejournal.com]

Yeah. It's very hard. Especially when they're crying. You don't have any deep pocket members that might lend an extra hand, maybe?

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Wow, that would be difficult. I'm shamelessly addicted to bento boxes, and I'm trying to let them inspire me to pack marvelous lunches, but so far it's either ham sandwiches or dinner leftovers.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Yes! People are a lot of work!

I'm totally bento-obsessed, though, yes, not so much with the making little faces out of seaweed. I told myself I was buying all those bento accessories for the kidlet's school lunches, but now the truth comes out.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't think headphones are going to be an option. Some days it seems like a Darth Vader helmet would be the best plan.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Really I think it ought to be possible to retire periodically so as to actually be able to live your life. But money is a good thing. Also human contact, in moderation.

[worn-words.livejournal.com]

hi! I just changed my username (used to be squiggle_bunny) and for some reason it took me off all the friends lists so I'm just dropping a note to let everyone know.

[viggorlijah.livejournal.com]

Like the night of the dead on Babylon 5! Man, that was a great episode. We didn't miss Halloween that much surprisingly, even without candy. Now if I can get the kids on board with fasting until Christmas.....

What about one of those bluetooth headphone things? Some of them automatically switch over from music to answer the phone when it rings and can be plugged into regular handsets.

congrats from SB

[(Anonymous)]

Congratulations on the more congenial aspects of your new job, and condolences on the less so parts.

I work in an open plan office--the sign thing has worked for me when on deadline, but overuse renders it invisible to chatty coworkers.

What has helped me with the insidious snackies (which are visible from my desk, too)is looking up the portion size and allowing myself one serving per day. And my daily workout lifting 10 month olds ("Radek" is helping me type this).

Best of luck!