So, I start at a new archive on Thursday: unnamed as I don’t want to rule out slagging it off in the future. That is unlikely to happen, however, as I’m only there once a week and 50% of the customers are family historians and family historians are my favourite people in the world. No, really.
Anyway, the best things about working in an archive are:
A) you get to drink tea all day
B) If you are hungover you can go and work (hide) in a dark corner where no one can see you slowly dying.
C) There is always the vague hope that hot young historians will start using the archives.
So, please can you all tell me about the non-working aspects of your working day.
I usually roll on to my bus at 9am and (unless bus is raided by police) I arrive at uni in time for classes at 10am. I eat lunch in the postgrad club because it is brilliant, the music is great, the food is nice, they have a marvelous selection of German beer (which I don’t have for lunch but I know it’s there!!), I have a key, and you only pay for your first cup of tea (with the exception of days we don’t get a lunch break, then I eat in class…grrrr). Sometimes we go back to the postgrad club later to play pool and/ or drink beer.
So please tell me more. Do you make tea for everyone? Do you eat in the canteen? Is the food nice? The people? I’m nosy, but this stuff really interests me. Thank you.
11-Feb-06 at 10:58 pm | Permalink
I’ve only been Irish since I was born – a mere 51.5 years ago!!
My working day starts at the ungodly (back to religion see) hour of 0530 when I crawl cursing from my pit. That isn’t as bad as it used to be since I now start work in Oxford at 0730 rather than 0600. Journey time is around 45 minutes. There isn’t really much social activity since everyone tends to be somewhat shellshocked by the terribly anti-social hours we work. For those who are interested (I suspect not many) I work in the paint shop of BMW Cowley plant where the new MINI is built/assembled/thrown together (delete as appropriate). My week consists of 3 shifts. Friday and Saturday are dayshifts and Sunday is a nightshift. Collectively we are referred to as the Weekend Shift/those tossers on Weekend shift/any other insulting term you want to insert. Since we work when most others are playing golf or whatever, we get the blame for any unfortunate production losses. We are not there to defend ourselves see! It was ever thus, since I spent 4/5 years on nightshift at another company and it was exactly the same there.
Foodwise I eat sandwiches rather than spend money in the canteen. It’s also quicker when you are trying to spend a meaningful 15 minutes (Sat+Sun it’s 20) break. You don’t want to be trudging downstairs and queueing when every minute is precious my precious.
I can’t believe someone is “interested” in this stuff!
Anything else I can amaze you with? Please let me know…
12-Feb-06 at 12:07 am | Permalink
>My working day starts at the ungodly (back to religion see) hour of 0530
See, that just makes me feel bad.
>I can’t believe someone is “interested” in this stuff!
I have some strange interests, admittedly. Maybe ought to get out more.
Thanks for your response anyway.
12-Feb-06 at 11:20 am | Permalink
I wish my lawyers of sorts not to be 28 at any point(DrumKit4B-Day).1 month before from Tom’s Birthday is what 51.5 is either small print or an actual date. Obviousley out
Man once told me a long story, i didn’t understand it totally, in fact there was an element of egging-on but we frequently played cool hand luke at the Monopoly Board. That is a pure sense of Love.
Where is the frequency in a half???
I Goddamn know, when utopia is set all over the universe we half to admire , one laughs at his.trying to get out of what, he is saaying; a while back.
Black=White
a*i*r* ny i heart
Rye
13-Feb-06 at 8:00 pm | Permalink
> hot young historians
The google results for this phrase do not indicate a gushing forth of candidates I fear.
13-Feb-06 at 9:09 pm | Permalink
Thanks for doing that useful research for me. Nevermind, I’ve always fancied being one of those fierce spinster type ladies traditionally found in archives.
15-Feb-06 at 1:49 am | Permalink
It’s all about cups of tea. Teams that drink T together are the most productive!
15-Feb-06 at 11:08 am | Permalink
> please can you all tell me about the non-working aspects of your working day
I rise at either 07.20 or 07.50 depending on which train I’m going to catch to Livi. If it’s 07.20 I get the 08.22 and if it’s 07.50 I get the 08.52. I get up 10 minutes earlier these days as I’ve started to eat porridge oats for breakfast.
I walk from my flat on the Grassmarket up past the strip bars and down Morrison St to Haymarket station, ducking and diving to avoid the commuters who have just arrived in the Capital. The train journey is supposed to take about 20 minutes but this isn’t always the case. Upon arrival at Livi we privileged IF staff get to hop into our own 8-seater taxi which waits for us. If there are more than 8 of us we get the driver to call another cab – the company picks up the tab. However, if the train has arrived on time (hardly ever) there is a public bus that I get as you travel for free with a valid train ticket, and if there’s public transport then I’ll use it, goddamnit.
Tea breaks at work are normally at 10.00 and 15.00. We have quite a large ‘tea posse’ consisting entirely of blokes from 3 different teams whose ages vary from about 27 to 42. The chat ranges from heated political debate to the most debauched subjects you could possibly imagine, most of which should not be repeated on a page like this. Abuse is given and received in abundance at these tea breaks, which can last anywhere between 15 and 45 minutes. Because of this camaraderie, work isn’t always a chore.
My team mates and I grudge paying 27p for every cup of tea we drink so we buy our own tea bags (which are nicer than the ones in the canteen) and use our own mugs for tea – a quick rinse under the tap in the bogs is the closest these mugs get to a decent clean. A couple of the water coolers in here provide hot water too but they’re frequently used so occasionally you have to wait while the water heats. A nice LCD display on the front tells you the temperature – arriving at the water dispenser when it’s sitting at 50 degrees is heartbreaking.
Lunchtime usually involves a trip out in someone’s car to some of Livi’s top shopping centres to pick up a sandwich. I am Disciplined Boy and normally have my own lunch in with me but I go for the ride anyway to get a break from the office (we don’t have any windows in this godforsaken place). On a Friday we break with tradition and go for a ‘Special Lunch’ which normally involves a sit-down meal in a pub/restaurant or occasionally a fast-food outlet. Occasionally alcohol is involved but it’s rare.
I turn my back on the boys from time to time (OK, maybe a couple of times a week) to go out for lunch or a drive with my special work friend which is a nice break from the norm.
I hope you enjoyed this insight into the non-working aspects of my working day.
15-Feb-06 at 2:33 pm | Permalink
Mine starts at 7am. Stretch, moan, mutter.
7.15 – Omg it’s 7.15.
7.30 – Shower utopia. This bad boy is the grandaddy.
8.00 – Hair & puss acceptable, jeans & trainers selected. Eject.
8.02 – Begin the hour long walk into town. Fabulous.
8.55 – Stop off at Margiotta in Stockbridge for breakfast action.
9.00 – At work, in the loo brushing my hair and having a whizz
9.10 – Make a cup of fortnum & mason earl grey, take trainers off and curl up in my chair.
9.15 – Make some calls.
Morning is pretty variable. Meetings, ideas, waking up, etc.
1pm ish – Grab some lunch and take it back to work
1.15 – 6.00 – Designey stuff, exchanging comedy with the boys.
6.00 – trainers on, iPod in, walk home
7.00 – wank and a cup of tea
15-Feb-06 at 10:38 pm | Permalink
See, I knew it was all about the tea.
Thanks for the excellent detail!
Well, that’s me kicked out of the pool comp after an epic struggle. Too late, I calculated my optimum pool playing pintage to be one and three quarters.
16-Feb-06 at 12:17 am | Permalink
Ooh! I have a work schedule, I do!
I get up, have a stupid 80 minute bus journey (15 minutes by car) that is full of interesting smells (ethanol yesterday, vaseline today), arrive at work at about 9.40 only to wait in the cold for people to turn up and let me in, and then I shamble to my desk, and read new episodes of the webcomics I like.
Then I ask if anyone wants coffee or tea (it is early at this point, few people are in, I will not have to make many cups of coffee). I then sit down, take a sip of my coffee, recoil at how bad it tastes then feel guilty that I may have poisoned my workmates. I spend the rest of the day utterly silent and listening to music in my headphones (it is better than the music on in the office, which is invariably Ian Brown), trying desperately to suppress the urge to flee or weep.
Now and again I’ll join in with a conversation only to say something hideously inappropriate and/or homoerotic, and quickly put my headphones back on. Now and again the boss will come in and talk to me, which are good times, as I find myself able to actually converse with him. He is in his thirties. I have insane difficulty talking to the people my age. They seem like well-adjusted nu-indie Kaiser Chief NME readers with functioning lives, and it makes me feel irrelevant and past my prime.
I do not leave my desk all day, as going out anywhere would involve having to be outside in Fife, which is not an enjoyable experience.
Lunchtime is around 1.15. I eat 2 apples very, very slowly, then check my email. I do not put anything too racy in my emails as I have the unfounded paranoia that my boss reads them somehow (which really puts the kibosh on my slash fiction email list. I’ll never finish that Street Fighter R/G epic).
I head off at 4.30, and mumble ‘bye’ to people, then whistle all the way down the corridor. Then I stand outside some waste ground and wait for my dad to get me. While waiting I listen to disc 1 of 69 Love Songs by the Magnetic Fields. Every day. If I don’t, something bad will happen.
The work itself is okay, though. But no-one needs to know about that.
16-Feb-06 at 1:22 am | Permalink
Spoken to Ruth recently? just wondering aboot it
16-Feb-06 at 10:56 am | Permalink
milne:otter L O L.
Lends itself well:
Jilly:weasel
Aaron:beaver
Stu:ferret
CJ:squirrel
19-Feb-06 at 6:15 pm | Permalink
rel=”no follow”
Qu’est-ce que c’est svp?
Is this just to scare off google or can it stop people seeing that you have linked to their sites?
20-Feb-06 at 3:22 pm | Permalink
god, I just read mine over. I’m such a man.
20-Feb-06 at 9:36 pm | Permalink
> nofollow
A tool against spammers (though for the moment we are ahead).
> svp
Ah right, s’il vous plait.
Man I get no time to enjoy la web at home any more *sigh*
20-Feb-06 at 10:11 pm | Permalink
A12C4
21-Feb-06 at 10:04 pm | Permalink
These stories are actually all strangely interesting, excellent.
> Aaron:beaver
Thanks for that bean ; P
Hey I’m going to see Lawrence of Arabia on Thursday! On the big screen! And P Moseley is coming! I am excited.
21-Feb-06 at 10:23 pm | Permalink
>CJ:squirrel
I like squirrels. My favourite word in German is Eichörnchen (squirrel).
08-Mar-06 at 10:01 pm | Permalink
HOT CUEING ACTION