Job Description, and let's all go to Amsterdam

My dad suggested I copy this section of my email to him into our blog so everyone knows what my job is. So:

I am the receptionist for a big UK company's recruitment arm at their Edinburgh branch. They do permanent and temporary jobs, public and private. The previous receptionist left at 2pm today so I'm on my own now. She'd only been there 2 weeks herself so I think I learnt as much from her as I could - now I need to pin someone else down and make them explain all the stuff I don't know. It's a very busy office, the phone barely stops ringing and they have lots of people coming in the doors. I had an odd experience today, an older man than normal came in - I thought he was in his 50s but his passport said 40s (maybe a hard drinker). I got him to fill in the form and because of his age double-checked with the consultant that he was supposed to do the assessments. When I went to interview last week I had to do an assessment as well - it's almost insulting, there's data entry and then literacy/numeracy which swung between being easy enough for monkeys, and difficult enough that it wasn't testing anything (like your ability to do long sums - hello we use computers now). So I sat the bloke down at a PC and was talking him through it and tried to make sure he knew it was just a standard test and not a reflection on him per se. He didn't believe me and told me what qualification he had and said he didn't want to do a literacy test. I offered to call the consultant and let her know so she could come down and chat anyway, but he was so offended by the idea someone wanted to assess him that he just left. I think that will happen occasionally, one of the consultants told me they get people who think temp work is beneath them so they behave poorly and of course get bad references and then it ends up back-firing on them. I felt like telling that guy I knew how insulting it was because I was in that seat last week, but I decided not to. So that was interesting. Otherwise I will just be setting up the office how I like it and trying to convince people that a filing cabinet and using an email calendar would be beneficial. I can't believe they don't use a calendar!!! Six years ago at Centacare, an organisation seeminly stuck in the dark ages, we were still using a calendar. Every morning I have to email the team to get their appointments for the day, and then I make up an excel spreadsheet so I can keep track of it (it was in word but I've moved it to excel - who uses word??) There are only 2 meeting rooms so if the consultants have double booked, we run out of rooms. An electronic diary seems an obvious solution and I find it hard to believe they don't have one. In some ways the UK does seem rather advanced, but in others it is so far behind it's laughable.

That was from Wednesday. Thursday and Friday went fine. The mornings tend to be manic; the phone doesn't stop ringing and the consultants all seem to book their interviews and assessments before lunch. With a small waiting room and only 2 assessment computers and 2 meeting rooms, there can occasionally be people standing around for something to free up; amazingly it doesn't happen too often, and most people can see why there's a wait. The older gentleman from my email has been the most awkward moment so far; most people who come through the doors are fairly young and know the ropes. What's really nice is to see the people who have been offered jobs; they are always so happy about it and often seem to not believe it was as easy as it was. I still can't believe I'm in a job where my duties include sorting mail, opening and closing the blinds, and tidying newspapers. I know there's a lot more I could be doing but I still haven't had someone to sit down with and go through it all. Friday was pay day for 500 temps so the phone did not stop at all; we only have one girl doing the payroll and she'd just got back from 2 days off so she was absolutely swamped. I told her she would have to show me some basic payroll stuff so I could answer the more basic questions; she laughed and said I didn't want to know. I wanted to tell her about my job at United and that I actually do want to know because it would save me, her and the people calling a lot of time, but she was too busy. There's also several folders on my desk of things I'm pretty sure I'm meant to do, if only I knew how. I'm still getting used to phone numbers and the names of companies (the woman who deals with the utilities contracts had to tell me that when I wrote 'SG' on my emails she didn't know if I meant Scotia Gas or Scottish Gas - who knew they were two different companies?) as well as accents - people everywhere say their names really fast and it's even worse with the accent. On Friday I got invited to after-work drinks and dancing afterwards. Because I knew Toby was going to make pizza for dinner I said yes to drinks and made them promise to invite me out dancing the next time they go. I figured I'd stay for one or two, and not be the first to leave. But at ten past 7 and after two drinks, even the staff I would have called the old ones were hanging on and the girl who said she'd come for 1 was halfway through her third. So I was the first one to leave. I was absolutely shattered from 4 whole days of work after 5 weeks off, and really wanted to get home.

Toby has taken to being a house husband with great gusto. Well not really but it's been nice to be cooked for, and have a clean house when I get home from work. I can see why housewives were so popular, with men anyway. We have had to agree that I will leave my 'hand wash only' garments in a different laundry basket from now on, to avoid any further confusion, but that's been the only misunderstanding so far. He's doing study for his Microsoft course and lots of investment kind of stuff which he would be better at explaining. I do know he's making fake money while we sleep, and that the beeping from the computer means something's happened on the world currency market.

Plans for the weekend include a trip to the Botanic Gardens, a movie and a drink tonight, and booking a trip to Amsterdam. We're both keen to get out a bit more which is the whole reason we're here after all. Love to all back home and happy Father's Day to all you dads (and dads-to-be).