There is an organisation whose job it is to monitor and
regulate the super payments for contractors within the building and dry cleaning
industries in Queensland. I realise this sounds ridiculously niche but it keeps
dozens of people in a job so I guess there’s a need for it.
Once upon a time this organisation needed an admin temp
to do some data entry and filing etc and that temp was me! So I started working
at Qleave, upstairs at a suburban shopping centre and it was actually kind of
awesome. The ladies that work there were nice and friendly, the work was
repetitive and pretty simple and the pay was pretty good. Good enough for me to
save up for a trip to Canada even.
I worked at Qleave on and off for about a year, leaving
to go and do event gigs and then calling them up and coming back for a few
weeks/months depending. One of the best things about this place was the lunch
room. It was the best I've ever worked with. It looked like an IKEA display room, big, bright and
airy, with a large screen TV and Wii set up in front of big red retro couches.
The office had an ongoing Wii tournament and you could join different teams and
be a part of comps, games could be organised for whenever all the team members
were available so there was always a game going on to watch/play.
Fantastic
idea – all offices should take note.
The rest of my day was filled with data entering the
application forms from builders, filing the bottomless trays of forms in the
massive compactor room or trying not to fall asleep during the tedious staff
meetings where issues such as ‘who owns the blue mug that is always sitting in
the drainer’ were resolved. (This issue is not unique to Qleave – every office
eventually boils down to people losing their mind over the kitchen).
We’d all sit around chatting about whatever, the weather,
the construction next door. I remember one lady was looking for a new house and
each day we’d all chat about the pros and cons of whichever property she was
looking at, and whether her budgies would have enough space. Another lady was
having issues with her son and would alternate between not talking at all and
ranting about something completely unrelated. A third woman lived on a boat and
had the most outrageous sense of humour –she told it like it was but was so
much fun at the same time. She was forever shocking the other women. And
finally, there was the quiet, polite, easily shocked lady who was so sweet and
helpful – I’m sure she stopped the others from killing each other pretty
regularly. So that was our team, plus our manager who was fun but frustrated.
She was closer in age to me than the rest of the team and the other ladies showed
her very little respect as they had been there years and years and this lady
was relatively new. It did make for an awkward workplace at times.
However, for the most part it was good; easy work, fun
activities, friendly people. I learnt a lot more about the building industry
and particularly about projects going on in QLD. If you ever go for a job at an
admin place, check the kitchen or lunchroom. It can tell you a lot about a
place.
This type of job is good for people that like sitting,
being indoors and not having any responsibility – just turn up, do your thing,
then leave.
If you’re after a challenge, or like to be outdoors or
really really don’t care who’s blue mug that is, keep looking.
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