12/07/2012

So anyway, this work thing. Started on 9th October. It’s now 7th December. That means I’ve pretty much been in it for two months. Got the hang of all the basics now; my main duty is to enter orders we receive onto the computer system. It’s simple. There are only a couple of things I have to remember, really.

After the first couple of weeks they got me answering the phone. I suspect that’s pretty much the main reason they wanted to take someone new on – there’s only Christian, the customer services manager, who’s full time in the office, and he was the only person on sales. There’s Mel, who’s full time, but she only deals with accounts, so she doesn’t really answer the phone at all. Michelle does warranty, and she will answer the phone for technical queries, but she’s only part time. Really I don’t know how Christian coped when it was just him. Then again, he’s quite easy-going – he probably didn’t think anything of letting the phones ring while he was already on a call. Whereas I feel guilty, and feel like I’m failing at my job, even though realistically there’s nothing I can do.

It’s actually a Dutch company. They manufacture decorative fires and stoves. Niall – the MD for the UK arm of the company – describes our products as ‘the Rolls Royce of the fire industry’. He’s prone to exaggeration, but I do see what he means; some of the fires we make are not fit for the normal living room. One, the Cosmo, is nearly two metres long – a room’s got to be pretty damn big to warrant that. Plus you’ve got to have pretty deep pockets – the fire alone is eight grand, and it’s not the sort of thing you can just put in a room and dust your hands, happy with a job well done. No, you have to build it in to the room. Definitely a £10k plus job.

I’m learning as I go, really, with all the technical things. Pilot assemblies, thermocouples (primary and secondary), burner bars, PCBs, gas valves… flueing can be complicated at times – especially when it comes to Powervent, which is a special flue we developed that can run up to thirty metres (fifty metres, soon) horizontally. Compared to normal balanced flue, which can only run about five metres horizontal (depending on the fire). A lot of the calls we get from customers are about their fire not working, and so far I haven’t been able to solve any of those by myself. Almost every time I get one I have to ask Christian, or call Joe or Sean (our two engineers) to see if they know how to fix the problem. Annoying thing is, whenever Christian or Michelle get those sorts of calls they can just say “get it serviced; the flue/pilot injector/gas valve is probably a little blocked” or “change the batteries in the receiver and it’ll be fine”. I try that and I get rebuked. Kinda knocks my confidence a little.

I’m doing pretty well though, with the phones. Before I started the job I hated answering the phone. Any phone. Never really spoke to anyone on the phone except my mum, my whole life. Had to get over it though, if I wanted a job, and it hasn’t been as bad as I thought it’d be. In fact I’m much more comfortable now than I was two months ago.

Calling customers (as opposed to dealers, which is what I do most) is still a little weird, because I only really call them to discuss a problem they’re having with their fire, which, as I’ve already said, I’m not very good at yet. In the future I’ll be doing more warranty stuff, which will be more stressful, because it’ll involve trying to arrange engineer visits. From what I’ve heard of Michelle’s conversations, not many of our customers are happy to go with the date you’ve given them for a visit. But we only have two engineers covering the whole country, so really the first date we assign a customer is the only one we can do. So that’ll be fun.

At the minute I’m on minimum wage. Technically it’s an apprentice role, so it might only be thanks to my age that I’m getting minimum wage. I have been told, though, that I’ll be moving up to about eighteen grand a year minimum when I’m fully trained. I’ve also been told that eventually I’ll be on the same level (work-wise, so I assume pay-wise too) as Christian, who’s technically my boss at the minute. Hopefully that’ll mean I’ll be on at least 20k in a couple of years or so. I’ve had two pay packets so far – one full one – and we’ve been doing pretty well with our finances. Way better than we would’ve been if we were still on benefits. Got some awesome presents for my girl for her birthday and Christmas, which wouldn’t have happened before. We can think about moving into a bigger place now, too. When I get my first pay rise (upon finishing training, which should be at the latest March, I think) we’ll be in even better standing, and we should be able to put quite a bit into savings for the future – most notably for children.

The down sides to the job are that I have to get up in the mornings, when before I could snuggle in bed with my girl ’til ten, eleven, twelve if I wanted to; I’m drained when I get in from work and don’t want to do anything other than sit here browsing the net, playing games, watching television; I’m getting practically no writing done whatsoever; and I don’t see half as much of my girl as I was doing. Then when I do see her it seems like the only things I have to talk about are work-related, which annoys me; I don’t want to bring work home with me. I don’t want it to take over.

That’s probably a problem most people in the world have to deal with. Being in a menial job they don’t really care about or have much of an interest in, which starts to eat up all their brain-space, all their time.

I want to write, but I have no energy or enthusiasm to go ahead and do it. Not sure where all this is coming from. Maybe it’s just that I don’t actually have to think about it, it just flows out. Makes it a lot easier to do than working on a story.

Though, saying that, I think I’ve run out of things to say, now. Not feeling quite right, yesterday and today. Sort of a sad feeling that I can’t shake, or even pin down. I think I just want to be with my girl. No work, no plans, no interruptions. Not even sleep getting in the way.

Having chest pains now. Probably indigestion from the chocolate and vodka.

Bleugh.