hah, I've writted another entry relatively soon after the last one...
I've been busy since my last entry. On Friday I got a call from Jay, my manager behind the bar last year, who is now the overall Bars Manager. Apparently I missed training on Thursday and the cause for this...? My handwriting; it would seem that the dot in my e-mail address is read as a hyphen or underscore.
I was however busy in a good way. I had a good time despite doing what sounds like the boring jobs of DVD training on saturday and painting today.
DVD training, for those who don't know, does what it says on the tin. You watching DVDs about Fire Safety, Data Protection, Food Hygiene and Health and Safety and then do tests on them. I have done those tests 3 times in the last 8 months now having done them when I started last year and when I moved to Butlins in November. Butlins and Haven both being owned by Bourne Leisure.
They are the most boring pieces of 'cinema' that you could imagine. And overall they last about 4 hours? I question that because time was at a standstill so I had no concept of time. The reward for sitting through those was The Battle Of The Bugs - A hilariously bad attempt at making a comedy out of a potential outbreak of Norovirus based around the superhero Viroman.
So, you are probably asking yourself, why was this fun? Well, I spent a fair amount of the time chatting to Ash, the only other returner is the room. This eventually turned into everybody chatting when Jay walked in, and there are a few nice newbies. After everything had finished it was like last year after a shift when everybody sat down and had a chat, only this time there was no alcohol.
I also found out that returners had to get involved in a community project this morning. I wasn't happy to find that my entire weekend was to be disrupted by work when I spent all week working too. But again it was fun. At 10am I turned up to find a dozen people from bars last year not knowing that they would be painting the village hall. Forewarned is forearmed they say, so I at least was wearing the appropriate attire. It didn't really matter that we were painting though; it was a good laugh.
So this weekend helped me make up my mind about one important thing. I know which job offer I'm turning down. It may be a good job prospect, but Holidays4dancers just doesn't have the same spark for me as Haven does, so back behind the bar I go.
This should be a fun year...
Today's title is brought to you by Led Zeppelin and a line from their classic 'Stairway To Heaven'
Sunday, 24 February 2013
Tuesday, 19 February 2013
you know I work all day to get you money to buy you things
A song by probably the world's most famous band of all time. For those of you who like your music I won't have to tell you this, but for anybody who doesn't know that's from 'A Hard Day's Night' by The Beatles. I was picking between that and '9 to 5' by Dolly Parton. Ironically those are representative of the 2 jobs I now need to pick between.
A quick summary for anyone who hasn't read my blog yet (or who has forgotten my job history because it's been that long since I stopped writing): After leaving uni I started working behind the bar in Capone's, the Showbar of Haven's flagship park. By the end of season I would say I was an important and dare I say loved member of that team. I'm currently doing admin work as work experience for another holiday company; a small, almost family, business for dancing holidays. It has the memorable name Holidays4Dancers.
My headache is this - Both have offered me a job, but realistically I can only accept one, certainly on a full time basis. Admittedly it's a good headache to have but it does need to be resolved.
So let's start with the hard day's night, being behind the bar. I absolutely loved it behind the bar. I was working with great people, there was a great atmosphere created by the staff, the customers and the acts, it's an interesting job that doesn't have 2 days the same and I could work a lot of hours. My best for a week was 50.25 but people were doing 70+ through extra hours and I'd like to have a few weeks the same if I go back.
However there are definitely some cons too. It's not ideal working the hours I was. I would regularly finish at 1-2am and not get home until 5. It's less a problem for me, who enjoys that time, than my parents. It's also seasonal, so I'd be out of a job again in November. Finally it's a big company, it's going to be hard to get promotions. I reckon if this year goes well I could be a team leader next year. Then it'd be at least a couple of years until I was a venue manager. So it'd be at least 3 years until I was in any sort of secure job.
A final point of note, I could use this year to gain the experience I need to have an advantage applying for similar jobs at companies, both in Britain and abroad. I know of a company called Siblu that is basically Haven in Europe. My dual language skills would benefit me there.
And then we have the other hand, the 9 to 5. For the last 4 weeks I've been doing admin work, for only my jobseeker's allowance, at Holidays4Dancers. I've been offered the job and if I take it I would still be on minimum wage, same as at Devon Cliffs.
It's pretty much the opposite of the bar job. I'd have sociable hours, although not as many. It'd also be a permanent job in the sense that it's not seasonal. I'd have a 6 months contract to start with, then 2 years and then it would be taken from there. With the direction the company, and it's sister, are going there's scope for quick promotions too.
But the job doesn't interest me as much. Sure I get to play around doing the website stuff but otherwise it's boring paperwork and taking phonecalls and adding files to the database. Yesterday I was in the office by myself and just couldn't concentrate on doing my job. I ended up on facebook playing games, and that's not a good direction to go in.
So I think in principle in boils down to this: Do I want a job that will keep me happy and might get me a few rungs up the career ladder or do I want a job that will probably send me flying up it but off the wall?
Advices please?
I leave you with the 2 songs that represent my choices. Don't judge the choice on the song.
Hard Day's Night - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlDdcCzKjsc
9 to 5 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpKAA2VxWY8
A quick summary for anyone who hasn't read my blog yet (or who has forgotten my job history because it's been that long since I stopped writing): After leaving uni I started working behind the bar in Capone's, the Showbar of Haven's flagship park. By the end of season I would say I was an important and dare I say loved member of that team. I'm currently doing admin work as work experience for another holiday company; a small, almost family, business for dancing holidays. It has the memorable name Holidays4Dancers.
My headache is this - Both have offered me a job, but realistically I can only accept one, certainly on a full time basis. Admittedly it's a good headache to have but it does need to be resolved.
So let's start with the hard day's night, being behind the bar. I absolutely loved it behind the bar. I was working with great people, there was a great atmosphere created by the staff, the customers and the acts, it's an interesting job that doesn't have 2 days the same and I could work a lot of hours. My best for a week was 50.25 but people were doing 70+ through extra hours and I'd like to have a few weeks the same if I go back.
However there are definitely some cons too. It's not ideal working the hours I was. I would regularly finish at 1-2am and not get home until 5. It's less a problem for me, who enjoys that time, than my parents. It's also seasonal, so I'd be out of a job again in November. Finally it's a big company, it's going to be hard to get promotions. I reckon if this year goes well I could be a team leader next year. Then it'd be at least a couple of years until I was a venue manager. So it'd be at least 3 years until I was in any sort of secure job.
A final point of note, I could use this year to gain the experience I need to have an advantage applying for similar jobs at companies, both in Britain and abroad. I know of a company called Siblu that is basically Haven in Europe. My dual language skills would benefit me there.
And then we have the other hand, the 9 to 5. For the last 4 weeks I've been doing admin work, for only my jobseeker's allowance, at Holidays4Dancers. I've been offered the job and if I take it I would still be on minimum wage, same as at Devon Cliffs.
It's pretty much the opposite of the bar job. I'd have sociable hours, although not as many. It'd also be a permanent job in the sense that it's not seasonal. I'd have a 6 months contract to start with, then 2 years and then it would be taken from there. With the direction the company, and it's sister, are going there's scope for quick promotions too.
But the job doesn't interest me as much. Sure I get to play around doing the website stuff but otherwise it's boring paperwork and taking phonecalls and adding files to the database. Yesterday I was in the office by myself and just couldn't concentrate on doing my job. I ended up on facebook playing games, and that's not a good direction to go in.
So I think in principle in boils down to this: Do I want a job that will keep me happy and might get me a few rungs up the career ladder or do I want a job that will probably send me flying up it but off the wall?
Advices please?
I leave you with the 2 songs that represent my choices. Don't judge the choice on the song.
Hard Day's Night - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlDdcCzKjsc
9 to 5 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpKAA2VxWY8
Hello, I've waited here for you...
I fail pretty badly at keeping this up to date. That said it does also feel like a lot more than 3 months since I made an entry, and there was a good reason right at the start of that.
So I set up this blog to let you, the reader, know how moving to Butlins went for me. Not so good as it turns out. I was up there for 2 weeks before I suffered what can only be described as a mini breakdown. Given the problems I had at the end of my time at uni I hurriedly got out of there. It's a shame because I was up there with 3 great people from Devon Cliffs (Meg, Jamie and Mickey) and did have a good time with them, it was the work that got to me as I was cleaning apartments by myself.
I came back home and took some time for myself to recover, and before I knew it it was Christmas. Once again it wasn't anything special, same as any year. I kind of got stuck in the habit of not doing anything, but by mid January finally got round to going to the job centre. I started a work experience place with a dancing holiday company doing admin.
That's been going really well so far, I've been offered a job there if I want it and I've also been offered a job back behind the bars at Devon Cliffs. I need to make my mind up about which one to take still, and it's such an important decision that I shall write about it in my next entry.
In keeping with my old entries I shall continue to provide a link to the reference in the title. This time it's my favourite song, although a couple from the last album push it close - Everlong by Foo Fighters. And if you're lucky (by which I mean when I get round to recording it) I may (will) post a video of me playing it. But here's the original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBG7P-K-r1Y
So I set up this blog to let you, the reader, know how moving to Butlins went for me. Not so good as it turns out. I was up there for 2 weeks before I suffered what can only be described as a mini breakdown. Given the problems I had at the end of my time at uni I hurriedly got out of there. It's a shame because I was up there with 3 great people from Devon Cliffs (Meg, Jamie and Mickey) and did have a good time with them, it was the work that got to me as I was cleaning apartments by myself.
I came back home and took some time for myself to recover, and before I knew it it was Christmas. Once again it wasn't anything special, same as any year. I kind of got stuck in the habit of not doing anything, but by mid January finally got round to going to the job centre. I started a work experience place with a dancing holiday company doing admin.
That's been going really well so far, I've been offered a job there if I want it and I've also been offered a job back behind the bars at Devon Cliffs. I need to make my mind up about which one to take still, and it's such an important decision that I shall write about it in my next entry.
In keeping with my old entries I shall continue to provide a link to the reference in the title. This time it's my favourite song, although a couple from the last album push it close - Everlong by Foo Fighters. And if you're lucky (by which I mean when I get round to recording it) I may (will) post a video of me playing it. But here's the original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBG7P-K-r1Y
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)