(no subject)
I wasn't fully aware of it, but it's been roughly a year when I first touched down in Fairbanks to see whether or not I truly wanted to live here. I guess I now know the answer! Amazing to think how much stuff can happen over the course of a year.
I've been enjoying my job as a maintenance tech so far, but I've had those occasional stressful times where I wasn't sure on what to do, or there was a particular deadline on getting an apartment ready for a tenant to move in. Obstacles like these were usually overcome, though, and I usually learn a new trick or two to make work easier or faster. Considering that I entered the job as a relative newbie, I have gained a LOT of great hands-on experience. I'm sure there'll be just as much more to learn, provided that they like me. For new guys such as me, we're put under a three month probationary period before we're deemed "truly employed". Certainly, it's made me a bit nervous because of my greenhorn status in this line of work, given how I've been relatively slow compared to others and my constant stream of questions. But, I've also felt a little flattered because as my knowledge base expanded to a point where I could address 95% of the issues, I've been assigned to COMs on my own. This actually came as a surprise to me since we normally worked in pairs, but I'm guessing due to recent short-handedness we've been spread out a little. At least there weren't any orders to replace the kitchen or bathroom flooring so far (which generally requires 2 people to ease things dramatically).
In other news, the summer solstice has come and gone, and now the days are getting shorter. I'm pretty much accustomed to seeing daylight all day, but I did invest in a pair of eye covers to help me fall asleep better. I think the only pet peeve I have of the constant daylight is that when it starts to hang low in the horizon it shines right into my west-facing apartment. That heats it up to above 80 F. Ugh. Clouds or rainy weather helps to allay that, though, heh.
I've been enjoying my job as a maintenance tech so far, but I've had those occasional stressful times where I wasn't sure on what to do, or there was a particular deadline on getting an apartment ready for a tenant to move in. Obstacles like these were usually overcome, though, and I usually learn a new trick or two to make work easier or faster. Considering that I entered the job as a relative newbie, I have gained a LOT of great hands-on experience. I'm sure there'll be just as much more to learn, provided that they like me. For new guys such as me, we're put under a three month probationary period before we're deemed "truly employed". Certainly, it's made me a bit nervous because of my greenhorn status in this line of work, given how I've been relatively slow compared to others and my constant stream of questions. But, I've also felt a little flattered because as my knowledge base expanded to a point where I could address 95% of the issues, I've been assigned to COMs on my own. This actually came as a surprise to me since we normally worked in pairs, but I'm guessing due to recent short-handedness we've been spread out a little. At least there weren't any orders to replace the kitchen or bathroom flooring so far (which generally requires 2 people to ease things dramatically).
In other news, the summer solstice has come and gone, and now the days are getting shorter. I'm pretty much accustomed to seeing daylight all day, but I did invest in a pair of eye covers to help me fall asleep better. I think the only pet peeve I have of the constant daylight is that when it starts to hang low in the horizon it shines right into my west-facing apartment. That heats it up to above 80 F. Ugh. Clouds or rainy weather helps to allay that, though, heh.