Comments | hatter_anon: the catch up begins

hatter_anon

the catch up begins

Apr 27, 2007 12:07

I am feeling a little under the weather today, I think it's just a few late nights catching up with me. I've turned into such an old woman, one week of mild socialising and I go to pieces!

I should be job hunting, the finances are once again looking rather sick. I should be booking accommodation and train tickets for my up-coming visit to Spain. I ( Read more... )

travel, me me me, friends, piccies!

Comments 11

ticklethepear April 27 2007, 14:42:28 UTC

OMG I want to get a job in Europe.

hatter_anon April 27 2007, 14:47:22 UTC

It is rather lovely in the spring. I haven't had much luck job-hunting outside of the UK though, they all seem to want someone with EU visas. At least for the sort of short term, low effort jobs I'm looking for!

complex88 April 27 2007, 17:39:54 UTC

That sounds like such a wonderful trip!

I *hate* office politics, and I'm terrible at them. I basically temped as a lawyer for 8 years, just to avoid all that.

Which? Left me grossly unprepared for a job at the university... :-(

hatter_anon April 28 2007, 07:14:23 UTC

It was fantastic, I'm so lucky to know such lovely people. I don't think I've visited many places where I haven't had someone put me up or show me around.

This is going to sound awful, or arrogant, or both, but I think I'm actually quite good at office politics, or generally negotiating my way through them at least. Thing is I don't like them. In my short career so far I've worked through some God-awful situations, and ok there were a couple of times when I lost it completely instead of handling it like a grown up, but I prefer to call them learning experiences! Right now though I'm meant to be on a 'working holiday'. I don't need that sort of crap. If I hadn't already had a deadline for leaving that place I would have handed in my notice even sooner. Actually I told them that when I left, and the temp agency before that :)

kaseido April 28 2007, 22:52:01 UTC

No, there are definitely people who are good at office politics. It's basically just human nature, so an astute and sensitive person can figure the stuff out and work it.

One of the instructors for my Sustainability class is a social psychologist. She gave a lecture before we started the group-projects half of the semester on how to contribute to smooth group dynamics. But she expressed emotional-content stuff in logical terms that I could process, and it all made sense to me for the first time.

I just suck at understanding and manipulating emotional content in the first instance, sometimes hilariously/appallingly so. Office politics is just one manifestation of that.

But yeah, on semi-vacation, you're not being paid to negotiate your way through all that!

hatter_anon April 30 2007, 07:41:18 UTC

The social psychologist sounds good. I think we all need someone like that every now and then to help us step back and go 'oh that's where they're coming from. The world would be a boring place if we were all the same.

I'm your classic female 'emotional response' type. It's amazing we can even communicate ;)

Thread 5

bushwalker April 30 2007, 05:24:34 UTC

Don't you need an EU visa to go to Spain... well I'm sure all the visa arrangements have changed a lot since I was around. Do you cop any insults from the Europeans for our bum licky efforts in Iraq?

hatter_anon April 30 2007, 07:36:21 UTC

If I want to work in Spain yes, just to visit, no. I'm taking part in a program where I'm essentially a volunteer and I get food and board in exchange for talking English to Spanish people for a week. I'd love to stay longer and work but I've had to settle for some time touristing. Let's just hope the money holds out!

So far I've been mostly among friends who are either too polite to mention it or know enough about my politics to rant with me.

bushwalker April 30 2007, 23:40:43 UTC

What a cool program - talking for food/board. That has to be the perfect holiday job! Last century, we had to have a visa just to visit Spain. It was kind of worth it for the gorgoeus visa they gave us but I'm glad that things are loosening us for us despite our foreign affairs blunderings.

hatter_anon May 1 2007, 07:55:02 UTC

Well let's hope they let me in the country, I've seen conflicting information but most say you can go to Spain for up to 90 days without a visa.

The program I've signed up for looks really cool. It's called Pueblo Ingles (http://www.morethanenglish.com/anglos/index.asp) and it seems to be a growing phenomenon.