Working 9-5, but Just for Today

It’s Friday! For all of you busy employed workers, it’s the end of the week and you’re probably taking it easy, relaxing in your business casual, chatting with co-workers about the upcoming weekend. For me, it feels a bit like a Monday. Today is the Day of the Temp Job.

This morning did not start off well. First off, I had a lot of trouble sleeping last night. I’m not sure if I tried to go to bed too early (I’ve been staying up late and sleeping in a bit lately) and my body wasn’t used to it, or if I was nervous, or what the problem was. Whatever the case was, I felt like I was awake for pretty much the whole night. You know that feeling when you’re half asleep and half awake? That is the kind of sleeping I did last night. My alarm went off irritatingly early at 5:30am. Sadly, it takes about 45 minutes for me to get downtown, so I had to start about an hour earlier than I’m normally used to getting up for work. I remember in Dallas, when I was commuting out to the suburbs in the morning I used to look at the stand-still traffic in the inbound lanes and think “Haha, Suckers!” because it had to take at least an hour to get downtown. Today, that was me. Luckily, I got on the train far enough north that I was able to snag a seat but at each stop people kept jamming themselves in the car until there was barely any room to move. It was driving me crazy because the more people that jammed in there, the worse it started to smell. That gross I’ve been walking for a bit outside/wet woolen coat smell.
But lucky for me, I made it to the building on time, which made my morning quite a bit better. As a matter of fact, I was early. Score one for me. If I have one work related (more like life related, come to think about it) fault, it is that I tend to run a bit late. But not today! :)

So I’m here. And it feels nice to be working again. Granted, today I’m an all out corporate receptionist. I may have complained while working at the ad agency of being a glorified receptionist, but after working here for a bit, I’m realizing that I did A LOT more than just answer a few phones there. Because here, I’m legitimately just answering phones. And checking in guests. But that is it. Nothing else. Not making coffee or making copies (which is fine by me!) Not doing the grunt work for anyone else. Just answering a phone call or 10. And yes, I’m just a temp so they probably wouldn’t bring up anything for me to work on, but from what I can tell, this person’s normal job description is to be the general receptionist. Which is fine by me. It’s kind of nice to not be stressed with huge piles of work or profuse deadlines.

So this company is huge and very professional. I’m used to working for the ad agency and at a trendy boutique hotel, so I’m not quite accustomed to the system they’ve got going here. I’m out in a huge lobby by myself. The offices are closed off behind me. You have to have special clearance to even access the offices. Each department has their own admin that fields their calls, so I’m pretty much the general operator. It’s weird. I have zero supervision up here. Luckily, everyone has been really nice so far. But even still, temping is definitely going to be an interesting experience.

Working at this huge professional company downtown has me thinking about what type of job I’m looking for. I have been pretty much applying for any Marketing Associate/Ad Agency Account Assistant position that I can find, but I’m really starting to question whether or not I want to remain in business. I’m trying to think about what I really like about corporate or business related jobs. And so far, here’s what I can come up with:
· I love getting dressed up in business clothes
· I love commuting on the train
· I love coming downtown
· I love feeling “important” enough to get to wear cute business clothes and work downtown
· I love going out on lunch breaks with co-workers and complaining about annoying customers
· I love having a desk and/or a cubicle to decorate
· I love having business cards with my name on them

And what I hate:
· Being scared of screwing something up
· Being scared of/annoyed with/hating my boss
· Frustrating clients/customers that are so rude or just don’t get it
· Being stressed out about work outside of work (Or taking work home with me)
· Being micro-managed
· Staring at a computer all day
· Not being allowed to have a flexible schedule
· Anything related to sales or financial statements/budgets
· BEING BORED
· Feeling like my job has no more meaning than to make “The Company” rich.

So looking at both lists, I see that the stuff I love is just the silly small stuff that comes along with a corporate job. The other list is pretty much the job description.

This is frustrating because my degree is in Marketing. I’ve worked for an advertising agency and the hospitality industry for a few years. It seems financially daunting to go back to school considering I’ve got a gazillion dollars in student loans already and a few credit card bills rolling in. (Gulp!) But it seems just as daunting to have to work at something that I dislike for the rest of my life.

I’m probably just being cranky, and not working for about a month has made me soft and idealistic and full of dreams. Hopefully I’ll luck out and score a permanent position somewhere that has a fun, creative, relaxed vibe and I’ll be happy to continue working in business. But the job descriptions I’m reading now make my stomach hurt.

It’s only 11:30? Unbelievable. I don’t know if this day could go any slower. But yay! At least I’m working!