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I have now worked two days at one of the hill offices of Not the IRS, and it's dramatically different from the valley office. By which I mean, first, there are a LOT fewer clients -- which is not really surprising; it's a temporary seasonal office and also in a slightly weird location as opposed to in the heart of the Meadow St. business district -- and second, Hill Boss is, as I was told, a lot stricter about How We Do Things than anyone down in the valley office. This results in a fair bit of boredom for me as a receptionist.
I've been able to fight some of that by making a lot of phone calls on my first two days, but a number of those were one-time things to remind clients from previous years that Not the IRS exists and would like to do business with them again this year. And I got through the entire list of them, because I am efficient like that! They'll probably get called again in a few weeks if they haven't called back to schedule appointments, but that's a few weeks off, and until then I have very little to do beyond trying to confirm appointments for three days in the future, greeting walk-ins and getting them set up with appointments, and answering the phone if and when anyone calls. And since it's not a very busy office... *shrug*
Hill Boss doesn't want people to be online while on the clock, and I'm pretty sure she would also disapprove if I tried to read a book or write fiction, so I think I will be doing a fair bit of staring blankly into space. Oh well, at least I get paid for it!
I brought brownies in for the office at large, as I did last week for the valley office. I also purchased some office supplies out of my own money, because apparently temporary seasonal offices are way down on the bottom of the company's list of who gets the good stuff in anything remotely approximating a timely fashion. So now we actually have a box of pencils, and a little handheld plastic pencil sharpener. (Seriously, the office did not have pencils. Even though official policy specifically says that receptionists are supposed to use pencils to write client names on certain forms, so if the clients leave we can erase their names and reuse the envelopes.) I showed Hill Boss our nice new tiny pencil sharpener, and I think she now thinks I'm awesome. My evil campaign to be well-liked continues apace, mwahahahaha!
Hill Boss says the office gets really dead in March, but she'll make sure to give me at least one day of work per week. I reminded her that I'm also available for the other hill office and the valley office, and she called Valley Boss to talk about that among other things, but Valley Boss was out of the office so I won't know if that came to anything until tomorrow at the earliest. *crosses fingers*
(I did some calculations, btw, and it turns out that if I work 6 hours at Not the IRS, I earn almost exactly one day's worth of my unemployment benefits. (Pre-tax, in both cases. Yes, this means my hourly wage is pathetic.) This week I work two 5.5 hour days and one 8.5 hour day, which means I will come out slightly ahead, financially speaking, since I still get one day of benefits -- those are calculated on a four-day work week basis -- plus that extra 1.5 hours of paying work. Not to mention, it just looks better to be working, and I feel much less emotionally muddy when I am doing something vaguely productive.)
I've been able to fight some of that by making a lot of phone calls on my first two days, but a number of those were one-time things to remind clients from previous years that Not the IRS exists and would like to do business with them again this year. And I got through the entire list of them, because I am efficient like that! They'll probably get called again in a few weeks if they haven't called back to schedule appointments, but that's a few weeks off, and until then I have very little to do beyond trying to confirm appointments for three days in the future, greeting walk-ins and getting them set up with appointments, and answering the phone if and when anyone calls. And since it's not a very busy office... *shrug*
Hill Boss doesn't want people to be online while on the clock, and I'm pretty sure she would also disapprove if I tried to read a book or write fiction, so I think I will be doing a fair bit of staring blankly into space. Oh well, at least I get paid for it!
I brought brownies in for the office at large, as I did last week for the valley office. I also purchased some office supplies out of my own money, because apparently temporary seasonal offices are way down on the bottom of the company's list of who gets the good stuff in anything remotely approximating a timely fashion. So now we actually have a box of pencils, and a little handheld plastic pencil sharpener. (Seriously, the office did not have pencils. Even though official policy specifically says that receptionists are supposed to use pencils to write client names on certain forms, so if the clients leave we can erase their names and reuse the envelopes.) I showed Hill Boss our nice new tiny pencil sharpener, and I think she now thinks I'm awesome. My evil campaign to be well-liked continues apace, mwahahahaha!
Hill Boss says the office gets really dead in March, but she'll make sure to give me at least one day of work per week. I reminded her that I'm also available for the other hill office and the valley office, and she called Valley Boss to talk about that among other things, but Valley Boss was out of the office so I won't know if that came to anything until tomorrow at the earliest. *crosses fingers*
(I did some calculations, btw, and it turns out that if I work 6 hours at Not the IRS, I earn almost exactly one day's worth of my unemployment benefits. (Pre-tax, in both cases. Yes, this means my hourly wage is pathetic.) This week I work two 5.5 hour days and one 8.5 hour day, which means I will come out slightly ahead, financially speaking, since I still get one day of benefits -- those are calculated on a four-day work week basis -- plus that extra 1.5 hours of paying work. Not to mention, it just looks better to be working, and I feel much less emotionally muddy when I am doing something vaguely productive.)
