minor improvements

Finally, finally, those of us in the downstairs annex office moved upstairs this week. I'm now sharing an office with the technical writer. We get along fine - both drink tea, both need quiet to write (which we don't get upstairs, ironically), and both read a lot. We've shared the office for two days, and we've already exchanged book recommendations and decided the door stays shut and the space heater stays on.

I also finally have an office phone, which is good because I have a habit of forgetting to bring my cell phone with me when I leave for work in the morning, and I don't see that I should have to use my cell phone for work anyway, since the company isn't paying for it.

Unfortunately, my work responsibilities are beginning to get on my nerves. When I first arrived, my initial task was to clean up the message library. I was told to do any editing and re-writing necessary to get the messages in better shape. Fine. Makes sense. I can do this, and it's a good way to get familiar with the content. Finished that task. Now I'm editing the writing that the freelance writers send in, and tracking things on spreadsheets. So I'm a staff writer who isn't writing, and they're paying me a writer's salary not to write. Basically, I feel like an admin copyeditor, a huge step backward. I've been told that they want to get a traffic coordinator to take over some of what I'm doing so that I can focus on writing, but now it sounds like that might be on hold. Indefinitely. If that's the case, then this job as it stands now isn't for me, and I'll have to start all over again finding another job. I give them until January at the outside before I give up entirely.

When I first signed on, I couldn't shake the feeling that this company was a bit scatterbrained, and didn't quite have their act together or know what they wanted. Given how I left my last job, I put my misgivings about this job down to wariness after being burned, and should at least give it a chance to show its true character. I'm not sure I like what I've seen. Hence the six-month deadline, which I think is reasonable for things to get straightened out and/or for me to find a new job. I don't know what else to do.

My saving grace is this grad program - at least I get to write all over that. Speaking of which, I have two papers due on Sunday, so the weekend will be spent finishing those. At the moment, it's the only thing making me feel productive.