The second week back at work - the technical details.

This week I thought I would test out the local bus route and try going in to work later.

Official hours are from 06:45-15:45. Although this is more flexible for the office workers many people travel on the works bus so those are the hours they keep. Because it was convenient so did I, though getting up at 05:15 in the morning wasn’t that much fun!

The work in my new department is more dynamic and involves interaction with other businesses based in Europe. It is not really practical for us to leave work as our European counterparts return from lunch break. In order not to rack up mounds of over-time my new colleagues tend to arrive a couple of hours later than the works buses.

At first I thought this would be a serious transportation problem for me but there are a couple of convenient buses and unlike our previous apartment, where I had a strenuous 10 min walk up steps then a steep hill in order to reach the bus stop, at our new place the bus stop is round the corner. The bus even makes a second pass, stopping across the road, if I miss it the first time.

So this week I had a trial run on the late start. The first time I took the earlier bus which was pleasant but left me hanging around for half an hour.

Then I tried the later bus. It is supposed to arrive in town 16 minutes before my train leaves – plenty of time.

This bus does a short turn through Gesher Haziv (local kibbutz) which explains why it has a longer journey time than the earlier bus. Unfortunately the timetable doesn’t take the rush hour into account and at the time we were supposed to be arriving at the terminal we were, in fact, just getting stuck in one of Naharia’s dreadful traffic jams!

The first stop close to Naharia centre is down the road from the train station so I hopped out and with a brisk 5 minute walk made the train with several minutes to spare. Not perfect but acceptable.

The next day I tried the same bus. Sadly for me the driver was new to the route. Not only did he take his merry time at every stop he totally fritzed up in Gezer Haziv taking the long route round and adding 5 minutes to our journey.

I ran to the train and with 30 seconds to go thought I had made it but the idiot guards had decided to close the doors a minute early and I had to stand and watch as my train rolled out of the station. Then I waited 40 minutes for the next train.

The only plus side from getting in so late was that I walked through the gate with one of my new work colleagues and we had a pleasant chat on our way to the office.

The next morning I met another colleague as I got to work. He also happens to be a neighbour and kindly offered to give me a lift so I may not need to brave the vagaries of the bus schedule in future.

Naturally I have done a little more than travel to work. I also received my work phone, a Nexus 4. This is not just a fun perk it is so I can check my email and messenger in case any urgent problems crop up out-of-hours. The phone vibrates every minute or so to announce the arrival of an email and every so often I need to check them.

At the moment I am still enjoying the novelty of my new phone so it is quite fun.

My phone, charging as usual.
H (super-duper 3G) 24/7 really kills the battery.

But the phone isn’t quite enough so I need my personal laptop connected to my work desktop.

The first day I tried it the install program squeaked up an error message.

Techie guy, “That’s because you don’t have anti-virus. Install this.”

I installed it. Still the error message.

Techie guy, “Phone us when you get home and install another program so we can see what is happening on your computer.”

Me, “What if that program won’t install?”

Techie guy, “I don't know”, impatient sigh.

Me, “I’m trying to be practical and I really don’t want to install a dozen unnecessary and unhelpful programs on my laptop.”

Techies guy. “I’m trying to help you here.

All this was said in the usual tone of a friendly techie talking to a middle-aged woman who he assumes knows nothing about computers. You know, kind but condescending.

Eventually we agreed I was probably strong enough to drag my laptop into work so the techies could check it out in person.

Next day I turned up to a 14:00 appointment with my techie friend and he was nowhere to be seen. At 14:25 I began to get a bit pissy as it had been a 10 minute walk in the sun from my office to his and I didn’t fancy a repeat performance. Finally he turned up hot, bothered and apologetic so I smiled.

I smiled even more when 10 minutes later, after trying to demonstrate how an expert would deal with my computer, he was getting the same error message as I was.

After a few more minutes he gave up and we; me, him, and the laptop, trooped upstairs to the tech genii. I asked if I should leave it with them but they claimed confidently, “It’ll only take a few minutes. Have a seat.”

They good-naturedly joked and tried updating programs but after half an hour told me I should probably return to my office while they worked on it.

A couple of hours later they phoned to say they hadn’t figured it out and maybe I could find another computer at home to use. (I was considering swapping with my daughter.) As I went back to IT I met the techie who had been working on my laptop. He laughed and said his colleague was trying one last thing before they gave up. The colleague seemed to be enjoying the challenge and said he actually had two last things to try. Thankfully, the second thing worked!

In between all this fun I have also been trying to learn my new job. It is interesting but quite involved and I still have a lot to learn before I can work independently.

Each action is time sensitive, triggered by progression through the process. At first this was confusing as many processes are happening at once. It is a bit like a song sung in canon. The overall harmony is beautiful but it takes concentration to single out the individual melodies.

Last week I sat down to work out the time table of each process and it was amazing how much it has helped.

Thursday came around very quickly and I was surprised at how fast the week and passed. Even better is that I have realized I don’t dread going to work anymore.

Back to Work!

Well, my first week back to work hasn’t been too bad.

The first day I wasn't totally reassured about receiving the salary and benefits I requested. During interviews and when offering me the position they told that HR had agreed to my terms. Now I have accepted the position they are back-tracking first on one thing and now another. But it seems that everyone is trying to be as honest and straightforward as possible so I am hopeful.

And naturally in the morning I couldn't get past the security gate because they don't have a record of me doing the safety course!!

Luckily (unluckily?) this is not the first time I've encountered this problem so a few well-placed phone calls ensured they let me through. Now I just have to make a billion and one phone calls to solve the problem. At times like this it is such a relief to be familiar with the system.

A short intro:

At the end of 2010 I returned to full-time work. Although a qualified bookkeeper with many years of experience I was a little nervous re-entering the workplace.

I signed up with a couple of personnel companies and scattered my CV across the internet. Surprisingly quickly I received an interview at a large Israeli concern. The offer was a position working in the finance department which seemed to fit my experience and abilities. The less attractive part of the offer was that I would be working through a sub-contractor on a two-year contract. And there was a lengthy commute.

The commute was tiring but bearable when public transport was working ok, hellish and exhausting when it was not. I seemed to have chosen to return to work at a time when both the road and public transport systems were being 'improved' and there were days when I believed my commute was trying to kill me!

The work itself was interesting. We had been taken on for a large project so the work was intense and required a lot of over-time.

At first everyone assumed that at the completion of our contract we would be taken on permanently, as had happened with previous contract workers, but following management changes it become clear this would not happen.

My boss was not willing to part with me so quickly and even though I was given my notice last month she put my name forward for other positions.

A few days after my contract ran out I was accepted.

Reading through the correspondence gave me the urge to start humming the theme to the Onedin Line

So here I am back at work. The surroundings are familiar, close by are the people from my previous department. They have been very supportive and were pleased to see me back. More surprisingly (in a very pleasant way) acquaintances who I saw maybe 5 minutes a day or less and said hello to in passing have greeted me warmly and remarked on how glad they are to see me back, how they had been hoping a position would be found for me.

The work itself looks interesting although I haven't yet started doing much because the bureaucracy surrounding the settling in process makes it almost impossible to concentrate. The first day was spent setting up my computer, the second day was spent figuring out why my computer wasn't set up properly and then completing those pesky safety tests.

But my new boss hasn't let me languish in a pool of boredom while the technical details are sorted. He provided me with documents and presentations explaining various aspects of the business and a detailed manual which makes surprisingly interesting reading. He's also very thorough on the details; helping me set up my computer properly, ensuring I get office supplies and introducing me to everyone around the new workspace.

I have also been reading through correspondence to get an idea of work flow and how things are done. It means that I don't feel lost jumping into the middle of the project and gives me an idea of what is involved and what I will be expected to do to contribute to the whole.

By Thursday I was tired and and looking forward to the weekend but unlike the previous few months I wasn't counting the minutes until I could grab my bag and walk out the gate. That seems like a good start!