Thursday, September 22, 2005

new job. nothing like new shoes.

i know what to do with new shoes. you put them on and parade around town. but i don't really know what to do with this new job. this is the first *real* office job i have ever had. when i taught kindergarten, there was always something to do or some vomit to clean up. as a legal aid-er, i was alone in a cornfield and no one knew when i spent hours on end googling and smoking. but now i'm in a real office with a real cubicle and i'm not sure what the rules are.

if i don't have a project i'm working on, do i need to tell the lawyer that or is that bugging him? it's only my third day so i'm still trying to feel out the pace of this place. but i feel like it's wrong to blog for 20 bucks an hour when i would do it for free and that, at this rate, i ought to do something more productive or helpful like help some people adopt a guatemalan kid. do you think a blog could adopt a child? or a puppy? or a chia pet? i've gone too far. please advise on what to do when there's nothing to do in a cubicle.

2 comments:

Sarah said...

Ah, the cubicle. See the blessing/curse of the firm life is that work is measured in both content and time. So, technically if you do all of your work super-fast, you can't relax. Nor can you go home. All of the time must be accounted for and billable [at exhorbitant rates] to someone. Conversely, if you, say, worked in a movie theater, you'd take tickets for the agreed-upon 6 hours and then leave.
So. If there isn't that much work generally, do what you get slowly. When it gets busier, you can impress them with your speed, your ability to 'step up to the challenge' and ease of multi-tasking. If there's really, really nothing to do, stretch it as long as possible and then drop the lawyer an email (or I guess in person if necessary, not preferable.) The rules of the office... but everyone's different...

Erica said...

Boredom on the job breeds creativity. This is how whatelsedoyouhavetodo was born!