I mentioned in my last post that I had some reasons for not posting. One of these has been that I have taken on a second job. Regular readers will recall that after leaving the Council we moved to Builth but unfortunately were not able to stay there permanently. On returning to Cardiff I became a freelancer, doing part time hours and this has worked brilliantly. With Andrew's very erratic days this has fitted well, with the flexibility to include running the home, taking care of the dogs and incorporating voluntary work/hobbies. I've also been so pleased too that it's meant I've been able to provide lots of support for Paula - things like attending appointments, or taking care of the dogs when she needed it.
Anyway, I was mooching about on Gumtree and saw an ad for part time work in a large public sector library (not the Council) with a contact via an employment agency. I contacted the agency and went through the recruitment process. This was a revelation. After years of being in the public sector, I was used to recruitment being painfully slow and just not working very well. Typically, loads of forms, paperwork (at least part of which will get lost or mislaid at some point) and the whole process takes weeks if not months. For the agency, things were very different. Before they would even consider me as a candidate my nationality/entitlement to work was checked out, plus all my paperwork (certificates and so on). Referees HAD to be contactable by email (how sensible and refreshing). Then I went through an agency interview which was followed up by signing paper contract, email correspondence confirming me as a candidate (again,no painful wait for letters) plus arranging for an interview at the employer, along with some other candidates. Interview duly took place, discussions were held on suitable dates/times/shifts of working then I received a further email confirming details. Just before starting, I had details sent to me by email of the log on for the agency portal. This allowed me to go on to the website, set up my bank account details and act as my main self administering area for recording time, booking holidays, downloading payslips, amending personal details, etc. This was a revelation. It worked brilliantly and was smooth and easy. After doing my hours, each week I fill in the timesheet online (an easy drop down menu with the days and dates already filled in, along with my agreed hourly rate), this is then sent to the employer for electronic verification, then back to the agency and pay hits my bank account shortly after - system even lets you set up an automatic text alert for this. After years in local government, I shudder to think how much time I wasted in either filling out my own timesheets in various locations or pointlessly signing other people's before they got sent somewhere for various levels of further administration and eventual payment. Local government has layers of people in finance and HR who do things like manage personal files, record changes of address (not always accurately it must be said) - the agency has pretty much managed to strip out all of this - the employee does it themselves. When I see the furore in the media over local government cuts it seems the wrong things are being cut - much of the public sector still does things in the way I've mentioned and it takes a whole load of pointless time and resources.
Anyway, back to the job. I do three shifts a week (nine and a half hours in total), with odd hours (one of th reasons it appealed to me) and the post is temporary until June. I am really enjoying it - being self employed at home can be quite isolating and I like meeting the new people, learning new stuff and enjoying the change of scene. These days, 98% of books are self issued or returned, so assistants do things like helping with IT queries, take bookings for special requests, help people find things, book meeting rooms, sell stationery, shelving, tidying and so on. Having good IT skills has been a real bonus, as has the fact I have used an academic library myself when doing my MBA. I'd say over half the queries we have are IT related, e.g. printer won't work, how do I do a certain thing in Powerpoint, saving files on personal areas on servers, integration of software into saved work e.g. programme called Endnotes for academic references and so on. I've also been so impressed by the courtesy and politeness of the majority of the students - many of them are from overseas and have impeccable manners. As the extended opening hours are an experiment, we also have to do hourly surveys of the numbers of students and hand out questionnaires too to guage their views on the opening arrangements. All in all, it is proving very enjoyable and I'm sure the time until June will fly by.
Anyway, I was mooching about on Gumtree and saw an ad for part time work in a large public sector library (not the Council) with a contact via an employment agency. I contacted the agency and went through the recruitment process. This was a revelation. After years of being in the public sector, I was used to recruitment being painfully slow and just not working very well. Typically, loads of forms, paperwork (at least part of which will get lost or mislaid at some point) and the whole process takes weeks if not months. For the agency, things were very different. Before they would even consider me as a candidate my nationality/entitlement to work was checked out, plus all my paperwork (certificates and so on). Referees HAD to be contactable by email (how sensible and refreshing). Then I went through an agency interview which was followed up by signing paper contract, email correspondence confirming me as a candidate (again,no painful wait for letters) plus arranging for an interview at the employer, along with some other candidates. Interview duly took place, discussions were held on suitable dates/times/shifts of working then I received a further email confirming details. Just before starting, I had details sent to me by email of the log on for the agency portal. This allowed me to go on to the website, set up my bank account details and act as my main self administering area for recording time, booking holidays, downloading payslips, amending personal details, etc. This was a revelation. It worked brilliantly and was smooth and easy. After doing my hours, each week I fill in the timesheet online (an easy drop down menu with the days and dates already filled in, along with my agreed hourly rate), this is then sent to the employer for electronic verification, then back to the agency and pay hits my bank account shortly after - system even lets you set up an automatic text alert for this. After years in local government, I shudder to think how much time I wasted in either filling out my own timesheets in various locations or pointlessly signing other people's before they got sent somewhere for various levels of further administration and eventual payment. Local government has layers of people in finance and HR who do things like manage personal files, record changes of address (not always accurately it must be said) - the agency has pretty much managed to strip out all of this - the employee does it themselves. When I see the furore in the media over local government cuts it seems the wrong things are being cut - much of the public sector still does things in the way I've mentioned and it takes a whole load of pointless time and resources.
Anyway, back to the job. I do three shifts a week (nine and a half hours in total), with odd hours (one of th reasons it appealed to me) and the post is temporary until June. I am really enjoying it - being self employed at home can be quite isolating and I like meeting the new people, learning new stuff and enjoying the change of scene. These days, 98% of books are self issued or returned, so assistants do things like helping with IT queries, take bookings for special requests, help people find things, book meeting rooms, sell stationery, shelving, tidying and so on. Having good IT skills has been a real bonus, as has the fact I have used an academic library myself when doing my MBA. I'd say over half the queries we have are IT related, e.g. printer won't work, how do I do a certain thing in Powerpoint, saving files on personal areas on servers, integration of software into saved work e.g. programme called Endnotes for academic references and so on. I've also been so impressed by the courtesy and politeness of the majority of the students - many of them are from overseas and have impeccable manners. As the extended opening hours are an experiment, we also have to do hourly surveys of the numbers of students and hand out questionnaires too to guage their views on the opening arrangements. All in all, it is proving very enjoyable and I'm sure the time until June will fly by.
No comments:
Post a Comment