The First Few Weeks of Work!

This post is for my Grandpa, who thinks I have been spending too much time writing about fun things and not about what I am doing and achieving at work.

I’ll start at the beginning, because I hear that this is a very good place to start.

My job title here at Anjali House is Management Support Officer. I am working directly with Simon Ke, an amazing lady who is Deputy Director of the organisation and also mum of David (named after David Beckham and is two and a bit years old). Indirectly I will be working with every member of staff over the next year. There are currently about 13 people that volunteer or work here full time.

In this role, there are a number of objectives that my job description outlines must be achieved within the year. The most prudent of these tasks was the human resources objectives.

Human resources objectives? – you might ask… Well a lot of the documents I am currently creating in conjunction with Simon, include all of those ‘boring’ documents that most of you receive and never look at when you start a job. Things like ‘Grievance Procedures’, ‘Disciplinary Policies’, ‘Job Descriptions’, ‘Organisational Charts’ and the like. These documents will be great as the create guidelines and some direction for the staff that work here. We have also been working on position appraisals and after these are completed the next task will be training opportunities.

There is a lot of work to be done, but everyone is very receptive to the ideas and small changes we have been looking at so far.

My work hours are a little bit different to at home. I work Monday to Friday and start between 8 and 8.15 in the morning, we have lunch from 11am til 1.30pm and then we finish between 4 and 4.30pm. On most Saturday’s I attend a staff meeting at Anjali House, however Sam the Director of the organisation is pretty cruisy if I am going away or have plans for the weekend. In addition, as I seem to chase in all of my jobs, there is after hours work as well. Of course, I am used to this and these are the moments when you usually have the most fun in your work environment. For example, last night we hosted an event at the Peace Café. This included some readings by the students of their poetry and short stories. In addition the movie that was made last year was also played. This movie is very entertaining and had some of the audience rolling around on the ground with laughter.

The students here are amazing, I really love the organisation and what is trying to be achieved at Anjali House.

The other day I got to visit the Young Adult House, a branch of the project that tries to complete the cycle, in regards to assisting the older students find meaningful employment or a pathway to higher education. This is probably my favourite part because it means that we don’t leave the kids high and dry when they finish school but ease them in to an independent and exciting future.

I am looking forward to my extracurricular activity that will begin in the next week or so. A library has just been built on our premises and I am going to start lunchtime reading sessions during the lunch breaks, three times a week.

So there is some information, to stop Grandpa worrying that my life is all just fun and games!