Very much appreciated. I really need to confess that I was half-cut at the time of writing this. Went out for dinner and drinks with friends, but it was still on my mind.
It is unfortunately a case that affects a lot of people. The problem though is that I feel that the manager has indicated that it was just me that will be let go. Her reasoning was that I ask a lot of questions. Which I suppose is true. In three months working there, there are still cases that baffled me. The thing is - every case I asked others on, they didn't know. Yesterday she told me I should know these, but in many cases, she had no idea either. She also states I've done things I know I've not done.
I asked how I worked the copy machine, because well, I've never used the copy machine before.
"Yes you have" is what she said.
I didn't know where to submit documents because there are so many piles and I've never had to accept documents by hand before.
"Yes you have".
I also feel kind of annoyed because I actually
did my job. As much as I love my friend who started working at the same time, he doesn't actually do anything. He was not on the rota for a good few weeks, of which he also doesn't know why as he never asked for time off. Plus he has been caught doing nothing but sit on his phone, and not answer any enquiry calls on numerous occasions. One other girl admitted to just dodging the calls too. That's something that really bothers me. A lot of the staff seem to not care.
When I asked why in particular, she said the quality of my work was fine, but referred to one incident last week. The incident in question went like this:
- Guy comes in, asks to have something copied and submitted
- I copy it, give the guy his original, he leaves
- Ask senior staff where to submit it. I'm told we "can't take it", as it says it has to be submitted directly to the school via email. As a result, we're not even allowed to have it, as it says on the paper itself. I decide if it's sensitive data we shouldn't have, I should put it in the shredder box. This isn't a shredder. It's a box where we put sensitive data for shredding from an outside company.
- Other department comes over, demanding this copy. I tell her I put it in the box. She freaks, demanding why, so I explain that the senior staff member told me. We then rectify it by opening the box, and getting it back out. Document is handed over, that was it.
When I told her that I was following procedures for Data Protection, she admitted it was right but said it was a "special case" that I clearly couldn't have known about. In the end, what's happened happened, but it still feels incredibly shitty. She decided to tell me before my shifts next week because she didn't want to "ruin christmas", which she kinda already did.
She also probably doesn't realise that it's also my birthday in 2 days. Regardless, the time of the year doesn't really matter. The silver lining I want to take from this is I learned more, made some money and now I get more time for university work. People were warning me against working during my honours year, and I can see why.