I brought some stale sugar back from my holidays

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(Edited)

I left work today wondering if anyone had decided enough was enough and decided to take the short route beside the spiral staircase, over the rails and down into reception. Yeah, still not enjoying this job thing too much.

It was the same though last time I started a new office job for the UN in Valencia. The boys were all talking in Spanish, and I'd been told to work through a bunch of guides and tutorials. It was September in Spain too, much more humid though and the mat flooring in what they called 'the chicken shed', didn't really work that well with the wheeled chairs we had been given - no slight adjustments were possible, and either you smacked your leg against the desk or you didn't.

In time though, around a day, the guys in Valencia soon realised my Spanish was no bueno, which in English means almost non-existent, and so they chose to chat a little more in English so I could at least try to get involved in the humor and feel a bit more welcome. Here in England though, I find myself wishing I was a foreigner who didn't understand a word.

This is it, next week I'm going on a diet

Said the smiley lady at the other end of the desk whilst opening the fifth weird looking cake someone has brought back from a recent holiday. A guy turned round and replied;

I've been sitting behind you for 5 years and I've heard you say that hundreds of times

And a conversation begin around cakes, chocolate, holidays, and sunshine, all of which I have no interest in at present having just returned from the sunshine where cakes were aplenty.

If you hear me slating an 'Ash', I'm not talking about you I'm talking about my boyfriend

Said the girl who sits next to me as she returned from a natter with a colleague close by. I think I have heard 'my' name 10 times today - which would be an annoying break of concentration if I was actually doing any work.

Dieting, make-up, chocolate, cheap jeans from eBay, and when the ladies aren't talking, pretty much silence. I'm hoping that somewhere in the open plan office of around 100 people, there is a pocket of people who put the phone down with a 'prick' and v-signs, or tap the mouse on the desk like they want to crush it, or have formed a Whatsapp group where poor taste jokes and images are frequently shared. I'll need to find these people to keep my sanity.

At present, I'm still going through the 80+ courses, manuals, and policy documents each new starter must complete before starting their job. I need access to a bunch of systems, on premise and elsewhere, and received an update on one request today stating it would be a week on Monday before that was granted. Policy and procedure mad these lot, which I understand to a point considering the industry, but damn, it is a slow and boring start.


It seems though that I will receive my first paycheck at the end of the month, and I'm holding on to that thought a lot each day to help get me through. Most of it is already allocated, but that hasn't stopped me wondering how much STEEM I could get my hands on at the current price of around 15/16 cents - a lot more than writing a couple of posts and curating, and that's with consideration of how lucky I feel I've been with #newsteem's arrival.

Today it is looking likely that I will pass 10 SP in curation, easily double that what has been showing up on Steemworld for the past few months, and the larger accounts must be feeling pretty good about the hundreds of SP that will be appearing in their accounts daily, just for supporting content they like.

Well, most of the larger accounts. Those who haven't adapted to the new ways of Steem, like our favourite chart guy, aren't doing so well - my curation rewards for the past 7 days likely to surpass his. Bizarre that a new approach hasn't been taken yet, although most of 1.5 million SP worth of votes back into the pool each week is pretty good for everyone else.

Work is definitely cutting into my time for Steem, but the current market conditions give me little choice. I've earned above the norm for my SP range though, and so cannot complain and will hopefully just buy my way up!

On the plus side of life, I have been seeing my daughter much more and I'm going to end this post with a selfie taken last weekend, that a dog managed to photo-bomb. Thirteen and a half she is now, and I wonder if STEEM will cover some University costs when the time comes.

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Two days to go until the weekend :D

Ash



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50 comments
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HAhahah, Oh man. I feel your pain. The diet chats, the boyfriend/wife/partner chats. The strictly come dancing nonsense. The bake off... Its endless! It happens in mine too. Fortunately I seem to have dragged the corner of the office I am in down to some dank level of genitalia jokes and cursing at the bosses. I do hate the start of a new job because you have to go through all that not knowing who are fan-dans kind of thing!

Heres to the curation and the wodge at the end of the month!!

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I almost wrote, i need a @meesterboom in the office. They do seem like a pretty lame bunch thus far, but I guess it's early days and they may surprise me.

Diets and he said, she said relationship bollox though - I've not had that, or understood the lingo for years and it is punishing to listen to!

But yes, think of the wodge - it's all about the wodge!

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The Wodge! Thats what keeps me going when in a new job! When I started in my place I almost left because it was so stale!! It took a couple of months before I started to hook up with the cool kids, hehe!

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Stale, like the holiday cakes. I feel like I've gone back in time coming home, and these guys are not helping. They also reminded me of these programmes called soaps, that every sad fker watches just to make their lives seem better, argggggh!

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My mum is mad for soaps and everytime I go up there I get regaled with who is what and who is killing/shagging who on all of them. Its murder. I can't imagine sitting watching others badly act living their lives!

I'd much rather watch people do it on steem :OD

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Exactly! Steem is the best MMO going - far more interactive and amusing, once you've spied the reprobates :D

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although most of 1.5 million SP back into the pool each week is pretty good for everyone else.

Is it really that much? 😳

How much Steem is printed this year?

I've earned above the norm for my SP range though, and so cannot complain and will hopefully just buy my way up!

Have been doing this every single day since #newsteem was introduced to us

Have a great one man

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yeah that should probably say, 1.5 million SP worth of votes / rshares.

I've seen you have been motoring along with #newsteem, well done for sticking with it, cheers!

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Dude those type of people is what makes work bearable. I have been working fro home gr over 3 years now and cannot imagine having to go back into that snake pit. I would probably tear out my eyes and tape my headphones to my head!

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Unbearable? Yeah for sure, I wouldn't mind going if the place was empty! I guess I'll need to jump ranks (or staircase) and get my own office/coffin box :D

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All worthy goals. In the meanwhile, give it a few weeks and you can glue your headphones to your head! You know how we do, pretend to hear them not talking to you when you actually have nothing playing...

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Yeah I think i'll be doing exactly that when I've learned enough to get on with the job in peace. Screw the cake n TV talk!

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(Edited)

I can't help it, but every time I hear "Ash", I think of Pokémon.

ash.png

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:D

I've never watched any Pokemon and so happily don't accommodate my name to this rather happy looking chappy.

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Haha, well.. That is Pikachu. The "OG" Pokémon. Your favorite. :D

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Definitely my favorite as it's the only one I've seen.

I'll send the photo to someone who will also appreciate the Pokemon photo-bomb :)

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(Edited)

Lol, sounds like an episode of The Office 😜

Glad you are settling in, even if it’s a bit hard currently.. that last paragraph and photos seems to make it all worth it IMO. 😉

Oh and don’t worry.. you will find your office buddy soon and then the inside jokes will get you through the day!

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I wish it was The Office, then there would be humour! There must be someone I can team up with and shit-talk to pass the time - maybe when I switch to the evening shift..

But yes, the working week ends with a couple of much brighter days 😁

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Maybe tinder can help 🤷‍♀️

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I feel like I’ve eaten too many stale cakes for Tinder at present, need to get the squats going on.

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!BEER

After reading those conversations blubettes, you could probably use one. Cute little dog, and now weekends will feel extra great, no work, no lame convos, and time with that cute daughter, so they should feel great for a bit, although everyday being a weekend day as a retiree is great.

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A beer is waiting for me at the end of the week, well deserved I think!

Two years of freedom have been nice, but have made reality quite tough to adjust to. Enjoy your Thursday off 🙂

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I think I will sleep in, not to rub it in or anything. (slight crooked smile). I dread the day I might have to go back to work, but things do get costlier every year, you can only downsize so much, then it buck up and go back to work age be damned. Maybe I'll become a walmart greeter, if they still have that job, or a cart return person, something with no responsibility when I need to go on the hunt.

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Sounds like every office everywhere...I feel for you. Mine is the same only I have my own and so can close my door and block it out. I rarely do though...Sends the wrong message - Only when @tarazkp WhatsApp calls me and we talk about steem...Or when someone gets a bollocking. That's not often though.

Upside is you'll get all the great diet tips, then be able to fit into those cheap eBay jeans and feel confident enough to eat chocolate again...Then start the cycle all over again.

Weekend: Mucho bueno.

Posted using Partiko Android

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Check out the big cheese with his own door :)

If the food chat continues, I’m going to provide my own diet tips like ‘stop eating all that junk!’ I could do with a cheap clothes outlet though - should probably wait and see what 3 months of stale cakes does to the waistline first though 😁

viviendo el fin de semana!

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Man, I gotta say...My door saves people’s lives at times; If I didn’t have the chance to close it, lock myself in, who knows what might happen and how many throat-punches I may deploy!

Seriously though, I’m pretty lucky to have my own space, not many do here.

Some diet tips will surely demonstrate your quality to your colleagues. Maybe lead them in an hourly star-jump or burpee sesh.

”Hey, future heart attack victim, put the donut down, get off your ass, and star jump with me. Now ya maggot”

A modern-day office-oriented Richard Simmons...Or military Drill Sergeant style.

Seriously though, you might as well just cave in, fill your drawer with cakes and fit in. They make all sorts of active wear these days. Spandex and elastic waists...They always fit! 😂

Posted using Partiko iOS

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I have a feeling there would be some glazed looks in I mentioned 'burpee' or

That's what I say when my baby burps

Yeah, I need a door, or some headphones.

We don't have drawers at these desks, everything people own is lumped on them and reshuffled each night by the cleaners - one of the highlights thus far was working out how to plug the cables back into the 3 screen device thingy, I padded that task out to 30 mins on Monday :)

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Hmm, one of those new fandangled open plan offices huh? You should start doing a few stretches yourself...Lead by example...Drop and bust out some push ups...It's catch on, and if not at least you'll stand out! :)

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Oh the joys of the UK "not", Enjoy your stay, bet you bugger off before January :-)

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January is a nasty month in the UK, but I’m giving myself a year. If I still have thoughts of skipping the stairs then I would say it’s probably best to find something somewhere else. Cheers :)

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The best part of course is you get to hang out with your daughter, that in itself should outweigh the negatives of the UK, I would hope. :-)

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That office environment you describe gives me flashbacks and chills. It's the price of going mainstream I guess. You gotta do what you gotta do.

Happy to see you getting to spend some time with your daughter and some big smiles there too. It reminds me of this :-

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Yeah that’s pretty much it, a very small chance I’d be in this town if not for her. Come on Steem blockchain!

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Hi @abh12345!

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!BEER x10000

Open offices...that really must be hell on earth. On that behalf I am just luckily sometimes that in surgery everybody just needs to shut the hell up :D

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haha, that's a lot of beer - the bot didn't quite have enough!

I think I'm going to invest in some decent headphones soon :)

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I would suggest noise cancellers even. I have those for in trains and planes and it really blocks out annoying humans... they aint cheap but you will not regret it a second

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Sorry, you don't have enough staked BEER in your account. You need 6 BEER in your virtual fridge to give some of your BEER to others. To view or trade BEER go to steem-engine.com

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Sorry to hear you're bored already, Asher...

That kind of conversations was the reason for me to spend my lunch break in the car when I was still working. Fortunately, I never had to work in an open office. OMG, I would go crazy....

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Fortunately i can make it home for lunch, which is where I am now, and make it back within the hour. I have no plans to continue the mornings conversations whilst I'm eating! :D

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(Edited)

Your office environment sounds like the perfect setting to carry out some rhetoric psychology research @abh12345. It has always fascinated me to look into the ways people not only comprise, but also make sense of their world through studying their rhetoric :)

As well as you I am very pleased with the changes in attitude I have already been able to notice with the arrival of #newsteem. It feels like is already something we all could take pride in being a part of. It has been quite a journey. But, with quite a long way to go, though.

Your daughter is lovely. She has a beautiful smile!

All the best to you :)

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Hi Abigail :)

Thank you for stopping by and catching up on my life back in England.

I do agree that the office space, and the interactions between people, would be a great subject to study. The variety of laughs - embarrassed, fake, real, I think could be a topic alone :)

I'm glad to hear you are enjoying this #newsteem movement - the changes in the rewards model and the Tribes have been a change welcomed by most I think. You are right though, there is a long way to go and we have to stay the course for some years yet if we are to benefit fully.

Thanks again, and yes I agree, my daughter has a lovely smile, and a good heart to boot - very proud dad indeed :)

Best wishes to you!

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Don't jump, Asher!! I fully believe that you will be paying for your lovely daughter's college tuition with a few Steem!

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:)

No I wont, today was a little more interesting and so I shall continue with the stairs.

And that is a nice thought re:college tuition, I really hope so!

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And then there’s work... which is a great big pain in the arse!

It’s rarely a pleasure, except on a Friday afternoon!

As to buying Steem you may as well buy BTC and wait for signs of an upswing!

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