I have been working for almost three weeks already here in a Non-government Organization called Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities. Got the job of admin assistant and it's something different from the last few years of working in the gaming industry.
People might wonder why I took on the role of admin assistant when I had already been a supervisor and manager in the other companies that I have worked for. Well...frankly speaking, the only way I could get a manager position with the experience that I have is if I stick to the gaming industry...something that I really don't want to do anymore. I want to play the games, not manage them. So, getting a "normal" job is really hard for me. Some companies didn't really take my experiences seriously because of where I came from. So, I was unemployed for almost a year with no hope of getting a job. Until my aunt told me about the opening of admin assistant.
Honestly, at first I really didn't want to work here. It's not because of the huge step down from my previous position but mostly because my aunt works there. Pride has gotten in the way and I really don't want to make it seem like my aunt put me there. Also, because I wanted to get a position in the HR to actually use the things that I had learned back in college. So, when she first mentioned it to me, I said I'd think about it (but forgot about it afterwards). I still would have rejected the offer when she mentioned it to me again but I had a chat with a friend. He told me to take the job reasoning that I really didn't want to work in the HR but I wanted to write more. But becoming a writer by profession isn't really easy to do, even he a professional writer himself took a job in a call center so that he has money to spend on the interim while he is writing his next work. So he told me to take a job that doesn't require to do much thinking so that I can have more time thinking of plots and story lines rather than what to do if something goes wrong in the office. Less mental work in my day job means more mental work in my writing. And he was right. With everything handed to me with instructions, I don't really need to thing much in terms of making decisions. This means that my mind was free to wander and think about the stories that I am currently making.
Anyway, I have been working now for three weeks and I'm getting the hang of it little by little. And with only three weeks here, I have already experience a couple of things...Well, three things really that was most memorable to me.
First off was the fire drill. I have never experienced a real fire drill, with real smoke and fire engines outside the building and "injured" people being carried out in stretchers. They also made the lights flicker to make the experience a little realistic. It was scary to think that it might really happened in real life. Frankly speaking, it was also a painful experience since the office was at the 35th floor and we have to use the fire exit to go down. That's using the stairs to go down 35 floors. On a good note, it was going down so gravity was with us that time. But even with gravity helping, it was still painful. My legs were shaking when I've reached the bottom and my legs were stiff the next day that it was really hard climbing up and down the stairs or any elevated area. The pain lasted for 5 days until my muscles must have gotten used to the walking and the climbing that I do everyday to go to and from work. All in all, it was a good experience. A learning experience to be exact but an experience nonetheless.
My next major experience was "closing shop". Well, I don't really work in a store but it felt like the same experience as closing up. It was the day after the fire drill and I was finishing some stuff that was left for me to do by my boss who went on leave. So, I kept busy the whole day but the whole 8 hours of work wasn't enough to finish what I was suppose to be doing for the day so I have to say a bit. I did end up leaving the office around 8pm (pretty early considering I was used to go home around midnight) but everyone left before me. So I was alone to close the office. Aside from checking the lights and airconditioning if they're closed, I have to also close the door and lock it with both the top and the bottom. The bottom wasn't a problem. The problem was locking the top lock.
I'm not midget short. But I'm not a very tall person as well. So locking the top lock was a challenge. Since this was the day after the fire drill, my legs were very stiff and tip-toeing was very painful. When I tip-toe, I could put the key in the lock and turn it half-way...but that's about it. So, looking for a thing to step on was the challenge. I searched my bag for something solid to step on to no avail. And there were not that many people on our floor so asking for help wasn't an option either. It was a good thing I wore rubber shoes that time. It was a bit hard, that when I took them off and placed them on top of each other, it held me and it was high enough to turn the lock fully. Tired and in pain, I went home.
The pain in my legs continued towards the David and David Concert (see separate blog entry here).
Then, my last experience just happened last Tuesday.
The week before, the office scheduled a get together after office hours to play bowling. So everyone was there even for the people who didn't play bowling. So, last Tuesday, we tried to "close shop" at 5pm so that we can have more time to play bowling and still go home at a reasonable hour. We played two rounds with the same team. It was a tie. The first match, my team won and then the second match the other team won. It was fun. It was good to see people relax especially when you always see them so busy that you're afraid to talk to them in the office because you don't want to disturb them. I warmed up to them a bit. My boss called me the "silent achiever" because I was quiet in the office and I'm a small person (almost like a kid in their eyes) so they were a bit shock when I made three strikes, and a couple of spares.
All in all, it's a good experience. A different experience than what I was used to so it's good for me to experience new things. I told myself, if I wanted to really stay away from the gaming industry, I have to do a good here. It's not so hard to do though, people are really nice here and very helpful. And since I am just using this job as something to do while I write, it's nice to know that I can do it right.
One thing that I am hoping for now, since this is an NGO, I hope that I can stay here long and the organization gets enough funding to stay long as well. :D
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