Update on My New Job

It has been almost a month and a half since I started my new job. I am going to share an update on how it is going so far, what I actually do, and how it compares to my last job. Originally, I was going to publish this post when I hit 30 days into my job. However, due to Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania coming out very soon, I will be inactive on social media to avoid spoilers since I never see movies during opening week. During that time, I will hit the 30-day mark, so I will try to publish this post before I go on my social media hiatus. Again, I am not sure how long I will be inactive (depending on when I see the movie), but I will still be working on posts during that time.

I briefly mentioned in my job offer post about where I will be working and what my position is. However, I won’t go into specific details about it due to confidentiality and work policy reasons. Basically, I work for the state, and all I am doing is processing documents and data-entry work. It is not as complicated as doing banking transactions. Plus, everyone is all new, so we are all learning and figuring it out together. Something that I did differently when I started my new job is that I asked a lot of questions to establish strong communication between me and my manager. I also took advantage of the training sessions that were offered before my first day just so I can familiarize myself with the industry. At my last job, the only training I received was watching a bunch of videos plus attending a virtual orientation on my first day. The orientation was not on zoom though, and I did run into some technical issues. The videos themselves were uninteresting and it took a while to watch all of them. To be honest, it didn’t train me for everything I had to do for that specific position. It also didn’t give me enough time to do the hands-on portion of the training where I had to shadow someone on the teller line. That partially contributed to why my job performance wasn’t that great aside from that fact it was a toxic work environment. I also don’t know why I could’ve done a lot of the training at home since it was all virtual. With the training for this job, I was able to do most of them at home, and a few were in-person/hybrid.

One big difference with this new job is that it is very casual. I don’t have to dress up in business attire; I can just come into work in jeans and shoes. The main reason why the dress-code is causal is because the office is in freezing conditions. I don’t mind the cold environment as long as I dress warm, and there are heaters available. I especially like wearing my tennis shoes because in some of my past jobs, I had to wear dress shoes and it got very uncomfortable standing and walking around in them during the long shifts. I even tried to wear them to my last job, but it wasn’t allowed because only certain sneakers were acceptable. I also don’t have to clock-in/clock-out for work, so I don’t get penalized for coming in late (which hasn’t happened yet). Besides, my manager comes into work late every day since they live far away, and traffic out there can get pretty hectic. There are some days where I have to stay late due to deadlines, but I don’t have to stay that late unlike the night shift who sometimes stay until 5:00 in the morning. Unfortunately, I am not able to get time off due to another reason I will cover later on, but I get the weekends (and state holidays) off to make up for it. My last job had me working on some Saturdays, which I did not enjoy since it was stressful especially if I worked the entire week with no days off in-between.

For the actual work I do in my job, it is pretty self-explanatory as long as I do it efficiently and quickly. I have gotten used to the process, and it is not that stressful. I also don’t have to deal with customers since this is not a customer-service facing job. The one problem I had with my last job is having to deal with customers who can get very rude and scream in your face all day. However, you are only doing what management and store policies tell you, and you are taking the blame for it based on the customer’s perspective. Most of the time we just wait for the documents to come in from another office. During that downtime, we are free to do whatever we want such as using our electronic devices to watch movies or Youtube videos (heck we can even sleep if we want to)! There was even one week where there was no work the entire day, and we still get paid regardless. I wish every job was like that where you can do nothing at certain times, and not get in trouble for it. However, I wished we would get a couple days off after the big deadlines since most of us stayed up late to do a lot of work. When there is work that needs to done, everyone is very supportive and we help each other out.

Update: So I actually did get a day off even though this job didn't allow time off. In fact everyone got a day off each day due to it being slow. Not sure if this will be the only time I have a day off (that is not a weekend or state holiday). I am also not sure if I will still get paid or not for my "unofficial" day off. In fact, I don't get paid for working overtime, but it is still a good amount.

So far nothing bad has happened in my new job unlike what I had to deal with in my last job. There was one minor issue where everyone was doing one task for a while, but my manager recently decided to give some of us different tasks. For example, I was originally sending scanned documents to the printers. However, I am now doing data entry work logging in the documents that arrived. The reason for this change was because one time we took 45 minutes processing 6 documents, and that was considered too long. I was thinking to myself how could I take so long on processing those documents since I thought I was doing them quickly. I even took a look at the documents to see what took so long to process each of them. This also reminded me of the time when I was told I was taking too long on processing transactions. The only difference is that my manager didn’t say specifically who was taking too long, but rather to the entire team. I guess we share the blame equally, so that no one else feels isolated and the process is really a team effort. For now, the change is temporary, and I don’t know if I will ever go back to my old task. I just hope I don’t get called out again for being too slow in my job performance which will make me anxious. This job is in a fast-paced environment but it is not like my last job where I had to deal with a lot of customers, and sometimes we were short-staffed. I also hate it when my managers ask to have a talk with them for a moment, and most of the time it is never good news.

Other than that, I haven't had any problems with my new job. The only other issue with it is that it is temporary which explains why I can’t take time off. 30 days into the job also means the halfway point, and it is going to conclude in the beginning of May. That means I have to once again do the tedious process of job searching. I have tried to do some light searching, but there is nothing that sticks out. Plus, I don’t have time to do an interview since I will be at work most of the time, and it also violates the ethics guidelines. I also still don’t know what I want my dream job to be; I thought I knew at first but now everything is up in the air. I hope I am able to get a job soon after this one is over, and it doesn’t take long like the last time. If things don’t work out, I can always reapply to work at the same company, but I am not sure if I want to do the same position next year. There are other positions for this particular job, but I chose this data-entry/document processing position because it was the only one that I felt confident doing since I know nothing about politics.

That is an update on my new job so far. To be honest, it isn’t a stellar job, but it isn’t as bad compared to my last job. I haven't gotten any written warnings or talks from management, and I don't get blamed for any mistakes I make. I no longer come home stressing about work and so far, I haven’t gotten burnout. I do have to wake up early again to go to work, but I have the weekends to catch up on my sleep. Even though this job is super casual, I can't slack off. I am still working like there is pressure on me, and just so I don't have the same experience with my last job. Even though I am working all the time, I still have time to do the things I love like watching the latest Marvel movies and shows like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. I will be sharing another update on this job when it is completed, and hopefully I have another job lined up by that time. I don’t want to write about it any further because I got off work late when this post got published, and I am a bit tired. Therefore, I am putting myself first by concluding this post so I can catch up on some sleep. Plus, I am trying to get this out before I go on social media hiatus. Until then, I hope the rest of the time in my new job goes well, and I actually survive.