Progress Report

So my blog has been a little bit neglected the past 10 days BUT with good reason.

I had my first house guest (Karel) come to stay for the weekend. He brought wonderful riches from Vancouver and Whole Foods. I am rationing my treats - they're in the freezer. The day Karel was leaving I got a call mid-morning from the Temp Agency asking if I was available that day. I had a few hours to get my stuff together and get to their office. Luckily, the office is in West Byfleet (where Matt's parents lived and I stayed all summer) and only one stop on the train.

This was not as straightforward as data entry. The previous temp girl had royally screwed up the entire filing system. They had fired her in the morning and I showed up in the afternoon. After a quick lesson on how to use the computer systems I was thrown into a heap of paperwork. It was now my job to go through all the work that the last girl had done and fix it.

The place I'm temping is a debt collections agency. The simple way to explain it is that a mobile phone company came onto the market in 2004 and gave people free phones and all sorts of deals. They couldn't follow through with their promises so most people cancelled. The company was very sneaky and in the contract it said you can't cancel even if the phone doesn't work. So now 6 years later all of these people are getting bills for hundreds of pounds when they thought they cancelled their contract. The obvious issue is that I'm way too sympathetic to the people who got screwed over by the mobile phone company.

My job is to deal with the angry letters that the company receives, log them into the computer and figure out the appropriate response. I'm sure that it doesn't sound that bad and I feel intense guilt for complaining about being there since I complained at least as much when I wasn't working.

Part of my general negativity bubble is that my other job prospects are not going that well. I can't seem to get an interview with companies and organizations in my field. I'm persistent and try to re-assure myself that if I was in Canada, I would probably be in the same position. I also try to remember that this is a TEMP job - even though based on the paperwork left over from the last girl my time there is indefinite.

I knew that the relationship dynamics between Matt and I would shift once I was working full time as well. Its hard for me to ask him to do chores and not feel like a nag/the boss/his mum! We're renegotiating the division of labor which resulted in a very fun Saturday night doing laundry. Our dishwasher also broke last week - I was so spoiled having one.

I'm sure that I will get more settled into the office life. People are starting to get used to my 'funny' accent and not asking me maple syrup related questions anymore. It's not all bad. I finish work at 4:30 so I have enough time to go to the gym after work and be home at a reasonable time. I also get to overhear bits and pieces of conversations that the debt collector's make that are really funny.

Some highlights:

"Sir, this is how a conversation works. One person speaks while the other person listens. While I am speaking you need to be listening with your mouth closed!"

"If this phone was taken out fraudulently, I find it hard to believe that someone would make payments on the account"

"If you're going to swear at me then I'm going to terminate this call!"

I have to stick with it and keep hoping that one of my e-mails or applications will yield a positive result.