My Building Never Sleeps

Almost done with a very intense and important meeting with my supervisor, all of a sudden I heard a.... marching band. In the middle of the afternoon on a thursday. Of course, if you're working in my building there's technically nothing that you should be surprised at, because in a year of working here I've realized that the most unusual things tend to happen right next to it! Below, are just a couple examples:

Example #1: The marching band, along with a set of cheerleaders, arrives in front of my building in a Seattle Duck Tour boat/bus... whatever that thing is called. All those people pour out of it and station themselves in front of the entrance. The cheerleaders do their routines and a steady stream of passers-by walk right in the middle of them. The whole shebang is there because of the opening of the new U-W floor and the fact that they just won a football game. Totally understandable, but hilarious nevertheless considering the time of day and the fact that the rest of the offices in the building are attorneys and medical professionals.

Example #2: The traffic is off the hook. Police have blocked out Union St. starting from 6th Ave. and down till 4th Ave. The SWAT team truck pulls up. There's been a bank robbery on the corner of 6th and Union involving a bomb threat. My entire office gathers by the window on the 11th floor that overlooks Union perfectly to watch what will happen. The SWAT team truck doors open and out comes a... Robot. It's gonna go into the building and try to disharm whatever explosives it may contain. Not that curious about what will happen next, and concerned more for my safety than a happy ending to the story, a bunch of us quickly pack up and leave... Better safe than sorry.

Example #3: We look outside draws by an unusual amounts of smoke in our windows. Across the street there's a bus on fire! Firetrucks fill the street making traffic really BAD. I really have nothing more to add to this one actually.

Example #4: Starbucks people downstairs talk about a client who streaked by in the morning in nothing but a speedo. They say he lost a bet... I guess that's something you'll only see from the first floor instead of eleventh...

It's a fun working life in Seattle!

Admin Woes

If you've ever worked as an administrative assistant (a.k.a legal slave, a.k.a executive babysitter), you will know what I'm talking about. What the heck is up with the entire office' expectation that the admin knows everything about everything?! Really? You are going to pay me the lowest wage in the office to take care of all the crap that you don't want to deal with and than blame me for it? You are paying me to write names on forms, enter data, answer telephones, and put appointments on your calendar. You are NOT paying me nearly enough to provide directorial advice, counsel and compose people who you have angered, fix hardware and software issues like an IT pro, and pick up your slack.

Ok. So out of the goodness of my heart, I wouldn't mind being your contact while you take your two week vacation, even though that's not on my job description. But out of the goodness of your heart, please TELL me about it and let me know what kind of things I might be dealing with as a result of that! How the heck am I supposed to know your workload (and 14 other people in the office)? I'm an admin, not a psychic!

I'm not even going to go into all the ways that admins aren't generally treated as people in the office. But honestly, stop blatantly taking advantage of us. We aren't a machine that can magically solve any problem that comes up. We also can't keep absorbing more and more work as an entire department decides to "delegate." We don't have anyone to delegate to! And if you are going to keep delegating, stop expecting it to be done right that minute! Honestly, with 15 people also expecting that, we aren't sitting at our desk all day waiting for you to show up and give us something to do. Use your head once. Do the math!

Oh and also... before you yell, please make sure we really are wrong. Or before you go and rant on us to the big boss. Try letting us know you are upset about something in a gentle way. Most likely there's a reason for something missing (like you took it home to work on, and then forgot about it, for example,) or neither you or anyone else has ever communicated to us that we are supposed to be doing whatever we are not doing. And please, PLEASE don't expect us to have our hearts and souls in our work at the expense of family, hobbies and social life. I mean, do you really expect a college graduate with a major that has nothing to do with what your industry is, doing annoying, unappreciated, never-ending busywork, on an entry-level salary, to be REALLY in love with what they are doing?! Get real! We got this job to support our families, social life and hobbies, not to abandon them.

Ok, I think you got the point. Other than everything above... I'm happy to be your admin (and the other 14 people's in the department.) I like helping people. I like learning new things (and I am.) I just don't like unreasonable expectations that aren't properly compensated. Otherwise I'd volunteer.

No Place Like Home

I was born in a thriving, full of life and entertainment, European city, and since moving to United States have always aspired to go back to the urban lifestyle. So starting work in Seattle was like a dream come true. I was embarrassed to admit it at the time, but after graduating college my only "career aspiration" was to work in a high-rise in downtown of a large city on a higher floor than 6 and to wear cute office clothes to work. Well, I guess I have successfully achieved my professional goals :) I work in downtown Seattle, on eleventh floor. Luckily for me, our dress code is "business casual," which allows me to go as dressy as I want. It's also lucky because after only a few weeks on the job I realized that dressing professionally every day is about as much fun as cooking three course meals every day. Three times a day. For a family of twelve. It takes a lot of effort (and a lot of clothes!). I also realized that I should've dreamed bigger and wished for a workspace by a window. Right now I am effectively plopped in a cubicle in the middle of a large room. My view is grey cubicle covering in three directions (ok I'm lying just a little bit. I wallpapered the walls with colored paper. But they were originally grey!) and a professionally painted wall. A color that slightly resembles burgundy and brown, but is not quite either one... Basically I might as well work in a middle of a corn field in Montana. It wouldn't make a difference. Dreams really do come true!

So the reason this post is titled "No Place Like Home" is because I was going to write about how much I love it at home when I go back over the weekend and how much of a country girl I am at heart at the same time as being an urbanite. But it looks like I veered off the topic and have written enough for the day, so maybe I will dwell on my homey habits tomorrow instead. I don't feel like changing the title though. So I won't. :)