12:08 AM - 02.12.04
research
On the way home this afternoon I went down the alley to check what had happened with garbage pickup this morning. Yep, it was all gone - including the wood container number four son had built the day before. Now that structure was about 4 feet by five feet and solid wood. It was sitting in my garden on the border with the alley. I really can't believe that the garbagemen would remove it, but where could it have gone? It certainly wasn't in any of the yards I passed on the way. The neighbour's bin - the one who is just to the west of me - was still in the alley where the neighbour across the back insisted it couldn't be left and it had been emptied as usual. On the east side all the neighbours garbage was still there. Behind my house - a partial spill of litter from one bag, so I grabbed the broom and swept it up.
The other odd thing about the neighbours complaint was that in winter in Calgary most drivers carry a bag or two of cat litter in their vehicles. When traction is bad because of the ice or when they are stuck, the cat litter is what they spread all over the road in order to free themselves. Litter mixed in with snowfall left on the alley is not necessarily a bad thing in winter. Oh well.
I had gone out this morning to attend that job interview that was offered when I was doing the research about industry requirements for the courses I want to take. Met the one person I became friends with during the election on the bus. She had finally landed a job a couple of weeks ago and seems quite happy with it, although she says there is quite a learning curve to go with it. Working with patients is pretty challenging, people aren't always at their best when they are really ill. We chatted all the way downtown and that helped me with the butterflies.
I walked into Banker's Hall and found it full of Christmas cheer. Bright bold decorations, a youth choir singing carols and the building management firm was handing out coffee mugs stuffed with treats and coupons. I said I was just a "guest" of one of their tenants, but the young lady just urged me to take it anyway. That was a nice way to start the day too. Upstairs I was given all the intake forms for employees before the interview even began. The placement specialist arrived shortly after and we talked for about an hour. It sounds as though there is one contract under negotiation that would suit me well, but I've learned that the timelines for that can mean a month or several, sometimes still without a placement. That placement would combine the legal skills I already have with an assignment in the industry I usually work in. Good combination.
However, what was heartening from the dicussion was the comments the interviewer made when I told her why I had left the last contract. She noted that she had a family member in the police/enforcement profession in another city and that they knew that gangs had infiltrated all levels of corporate endeavour, including the industry I work in. She didn't think I was crazy or over-reacting. We discussed some of the things I've encountered both as a volunteer as well as as a paid worker with respect to organized criminal activities for a bit. A steal to-order ring in the industry for certain. There aren't a lot of people in my acquaintance who can hear what I have to say about that, so it was very comforting to find someone who could. She did say one thing that I found very odd though - she stated that my work in the industry was so specialized that it did create a barrier in some ways. I just showed her the scope of work and areas of interest I had worked in while volunteering. Quite honestly I would be considered a generalist by most of my peers in the industry as well. When I work on records I work across disciplines, something very few other people do and I also take on projects that aren't necessarily records management except in a secondary way. If one isn't in the industry it is difficult to explain the work protocols that are in place in most companies.
When the interviewer walked me out, we passed one interview room with a glass panel. I wasn't really paying too much attention until a movement of one of the occupants caught my eye. I could have sworn it was my supervisor but that would not make a lot of sense. I didn't go back to check, because it would have been way too nosy of me anyway, but it did leave me wondering.
Stopped to see my chiropractor after that. I haven't been to see him for several weeks and it felt like my head was about to come off. I hadn't explained to him about quitting the work situation or about being on antibiotics for so long. He asked about progress and left it at that. He seemed a bit distracted and I wondered if he was still readjusting to life in North America after his trip to Africa. The first time he returned from a mission in Central America it took him a long time to reintegrate into the daily drill here. The contrast is just too great to integrate into one's consciousness I think.
Got a call from one of the HR staff in one of the big law firms I had called when I was trying to collect the information needed on my application for funding to go back to school. I was really having a hard time with the idea anyway. First it seemed like quite an imposition to be calling them for manpower research, but also it seemed fairly obvious that they would be the key employers after such training. The response I got was quite different and I'm glad I had the opportunity to speak with someone though. She talked about their work management using a context that was quite different than anyone else I had spoken with to date. It was obvious she had been in a law environment for a very long time and had adopted their industry's way of interpreting skill sets. That was helpful because it will mean creating a resume that presents my experiences in a radically different way.
One of the strengths of having people in a company for a long time is the continuity and access to the history of the corporation that are critical to understanding how and why things work the way they do. However, that can also be a barrier if there isn't a mix of people new to that work environment. I've probably wokred in 20 different companies in the industry I normally work in over the past decade a a consultant. Each of those companies had the same goals for the work they wanted me to do, but often radically different ways of working toward those based on corporate and governance structures, management philosophy and practices and choices of personnel. What was often one of the first things I needed to do in most companies was demonstrate how many different options there were in ways to approach the workflow management they were trying to create. A lot of the long term staff are so inured to the one system that they have known that they can't even conceive of a different way of doing things. In some ways I heard a bit of that in both her comments and the interviewer's earlier in the day. She had never thought of things like experiences in other industries being transferrable to hers. Quite honestly I've often worked with corporate lawyers in the industry I work in - onsite staff or those on retainer. Ditto for the volunteer work. Same work but different context. Once she warmed up to that possibility she offered me a wealth of useful observations and comments that readjusted my way of thinking about what I was doing too.
When I returned home I emailed the interviewer to ask some questions arising from that telephone call and I think I will be calling one of the agencies I called earlier to also ask for some clarification. Kind of cool that each participant gained something new and useful out of the discussion - maybe?
Anyway it's time for bed. Remind me to tell you about the days news about the vote fraud saga - it's getting even more "interesting". My astrologer friend warned me to keep my mouth shut and my head down for the next three weeks and I know at least some of the reason now - man is he good.
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