sweet like a chika-cherry-cola
It's been a little over a month now since I took this new job, and I haven't written about it once. Since the honeymoon period is definitely over by now, here goes.
There are goods and bads about the place, just like anywhere. One issue is how completely disorganized the place is--there's stuff old merchandise hanging around everywhere, and things get lost. My office was a complete mess when I got here. The books of clipart and program manuals were strewn around everywhere and in piles mixed with old artwork--some films for screening, some finished twill work (like patches)--various catalogs, and the To Do box. My bulletin board was bare and boring, with just a page of merchandise sizes and a fraction-to-decimal chart. The window was so dirty you could barely see through it, and it was dark on my side of the room because the fluorescent lights had been taken out. Even the light table was dirty, which made it hard to tell if the films had spots on them or if the table did. (You could tell two messy guys had this office before me.) When I had spare time, I went house in there. I reclaimed the To Do box, washed the light table and window, had them get me light bulbs, organized all the clipart books, manuals, and catalogs, and either chucked old artwork or stuck it on my board for color. (The window and light bulbs were the important things, actually--light is very important to me.) Yesterday, I even tackled the top drawer of my desk and threw out the junk. Now I have two hilarious pictures of John, Pat, Kusy, and their Fraggles from a trip to Canobie Lake Park sitting on my desk and a lego ninja Rohaan gave me atop my monitor. And I have a small container of Play-doh there too. Now all it needs is a good vaccuum. How's that for desk personality?
Another annoyance is the communication here. They have a habit of not telling me everything I need to know to do the job, and then coming back to tell me I did it wrong. Well, yeah, maybe if you'd told me that the letters were supposed to be 1" high or in Arial instead of Collegiate the first time, I would have done it that way. My philosophy at this point is if they don't have time to tell me how to do it right the first time, I hope they have time to tell me to do it again. Which brings me to my next irritation: doing things over and over. I'm the type of person who does everything in her power to get it done right the first time--I hate do-overs. I never wrote rough drafts for papers, never played characters that were too much alike, don't even reread books very often. (They have to be phenomenal if I do.) I've had to get myself into the mindset that what I'm passing on to the next department is a "test": If the test goes through, great! If not, it was just a test.
And getting up at 5:50 AM to be at work at 7 AM was a challenge at first, too. I like getting out mid-afternoon though. I think I've gotten the early thing down now--I'm not passing out at the desk like I used to. I miss being up at night though, so instead, I stay up late on the weekends. It's probably bad for my internal clock, but I don't care.
There are a couple things that could go either way, good or bad. We have lots of old technology in here. There's a printer that you need a magic touch to get it to eat the paper, embroidery files are stored on 3.5" floppy disks, the beige Mac I do that work on is probably older than me, and other stuff. Needless to say, this causes some problems, but I actually have a good time with it. It's fun playing with disks again and finding ways around old software. The other is the lack of a team atmosphere and the fact that I don't get to interact with anyone very much. My office is in a room in another empty room where the beige Mac is, separated from everyone. Sometimes I go hours without seeing anyone, but at the same time, at least I'm left alone to get my work done.
There are definitely some major plusses though. Since I'm mostly by myself, I'm not bothering anyone with my bebopping around as I work. My dress code is a t-shirt and jeans which is awesome, though I look nicer some days. The work itself is fairly easy--people come in with designs, and I have to recreate them in Illustrator for either screen printing, engraving, or embroidery.
You'll think I'm crazy, but my favorite thing to do is the color separations for three- or four-color printing. I put all the pieces that are blue on one layer, all the orange on another, etc. and print films for each color to match up. Sounds easy, but you have to think about which color should go down first and if the films overlap enough to make it easier for Sylvia and Norm P. to print without having "holes" in the artwork. It's like putting together a puzzle. :B
The people here are pretty nice, too. My boss, Mark, is pretty laid back though forgetful, and you can never find him. He also has a distinct habit of answering his cell phone while he's talking to you and walking off, never to be seen again. Or not answering the phone when customers call. And emailing me things when I'm on the other side of the wall. The little old French ladies in the stitching room are fun, and I sit with them on my breaks. They're entertaining--they have the women's bathroom plastered with all these muscley guys in shorts. There's one younger guy, Matt, who might be in his late twenties, that I sort of share my office with, but he's usually down in Engraving. He's my go-to guy if I have questions because Mark is always AWOL, and thankfully, he's patient with me.
So to answer everyone's questions, I'm generally having a good time here. I have a fair amount of downtime because I get my work done so quickly, so I feel a little lazy, but it doesn't drive me crazy like it did at LHA. Over there, it bothered me that they hired me as a temp to help them get work done, and they had no work for me to do. At Maine Awards, I have no work to do because there are no orders and because I'm just that awesome. There's a difference. :)
In closing, it is so nice to have a job I don't hate.