Is there any job you start where you don't get overwhelmed with information the first day? When I started working at a gas station at 14 or 15, they handed me a list of 100 SKU codes for every product we sold and told me to have it memorized by the weekend. I also had to read through various other policy manuals, credit card procedures, get trained on the cash register, the islands that held the pumps and who knows what else.
But as with anything, you don't learn everything the first day and it's a bit of a learning curve until you get comfortable. I'm sure that will be the case with this job as well. Today was (a bit) overwhelming but it was exciting too – lots of interesting background information, great co-workers (I'm not just saying that because my boss mentioned I had a blog during our afternoon coffee break!) and I can see already that a lot of stuff I learned at library school will come into play in a very real way.
The person I'm replacing is very good about making sure he's not giving me too much too fast (or too little either) which is nice. I've been on the other side of the “training the new guy” coin and know what a delicate balance it can be.
Beyond this entry, I'm likely not going to write a lot about my day to day work because my personal belief is that this is, if not inappropriate, at least risky, especially for a blog where I am very open about who is writing it, including my picture and so on. You never know what comment is going to offend somebody and, as I believe I have mentioned before, although my goal is never to offend anyone with what I write, there was less chances of a negative impact if I offended a classmate or a professor versus if I offend a co-worker or my boss.
I do have classmates who have anonymous and semi-anonymous blogs where they are much more forthcoming and even critical about their experiences in workplaces and co-op positions. That is completely their choice.
This blog has always been opinionated and will continue to be so. This blog occasionally uses language that some may be offensive to some and will continue to. I will continue to endeavour to refer to people by their first name and last initial as much as possible unless the reason I'm referring to them by their full name is well known (or if I just slip up – which I have done, especially earlier in the blog as I was “finding my feet.”) I will occasionally post pictures that some might find funny but others might find embarrassing (usually to me.) That is my choice. I'll live with the consequences if there are any.
My blog has never really been a “diary” type blog about the minutia of my daily life, my pet peeves, or as a platform to attack other people. Instead, it has always focused mostly on “big picture” library issues, technology and will increasingly be about our baby as well as the odd post about Saskatchewan-related news, hockey news and various miscellaneous items that catch my eye.
The entries might not be quite as regular as they were when I was unemployed or before that, when I was in school.
Oh, and I should
repeat that this blog will occasionally have typos, spelling errors and
grammatical errors that aren't corrected. I don't spend a lot of time
editing/re-reading my posts and I know it can sometimes look
unprofessional (especially since these posts are a reflection on myself
and who I am in many ways.) But I hope people realise and accept that,
at least to me, blogging lends itself to a bit more informality than
more professional communication modes.
Tomorrow's entry: “What kind of soup I had at lunch today.”
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