heckler

This is something I wrote for a section in my local newspaper, called the heckler. You write 450 words on something that makes your blood boil.

‘I sort of remember what’s its like to be overworked, to be so busy its gets to 5.30 before you realise. But for the last four months I have sat infront of a computer hearing my brain cells die.

I’m a graduate. I did well in my HSC, went onto uni, where three years later I left with a degree. After a year of travel I returned to Sydney, looking for a job. Unsure of what I wanted to do I applied for graduate positions with the government.

I thought it was prestigious, important work in a challenging environment. So I filled out my application forms, which were essay length in the hope that my writing would stand out from the hundreds who applied.

Then I processed through a wide range and variety of interviews, group activities and cognitive tests to ensure that the cream of the crop are offered the jobs. So after all this, I returned to my parents home, living off them while waiting for a phone call or if you are unlucky, an email.

I did get that phone call, and so in September last year I moved to Canberra to start up a job in the public service. So, you may ask, what do I have to complain about? I’m in a great job, with a career path of promotions ahead of me and all the benefits of the public service.

Yes, the department I am in is pretty good, the hours are good and I love flex time! But I have been placed in a junior position and so four months later frustration and boredom have set in. I am supposedly a ’star’, a high performer both academically and personally. I have shown I have many skills – leadership, decision making, communication and so on. Yet I spend my days idly waiting until I have been at work for the required 7 hours and 25 minutes!

I started my graduate position with a group of 8 others. At least 2 will be leaving by July, not even staying for a year. And 3 more, including myself, won’t be here at the end of the year. All because we are bored. And what makes my blood boil is the waste of time and money, all the advertising and resources spent on recruiting new graduates, and training us up once we are in the service, then to have half leave within a year!

So if you are an employer reading this, create a working environment that engages staff! and don’t make me proof read your documents, that’s not what I went to uni for! (oh yeh, I’m writing this at work).’

grad blues

a new year update. after returning to Canberra after a great Christmas holiday in Sydney I was feeling pretty blue. It has gotten a bit better and the fact that i know everyone else is feeling the same way helps a bit, but basically I’m bored. I did get some interesting challenging work today and yesterday but that has been approved and sent off to the big wigs, so now I am back to not having much to do at all.

I got this quote off news.com.au and it sums up exactly how I am feeling:

‘ I think looking at graduate level is a good example of why people become frustrated at the under use of their skills. Employers seek graduates who are high performers both academically and personally. They want graduates to have demonstrated so many skills, such as leadership, decision making and so forth. These are the ’stars’. They are then placed in junior roles where the skills they have built up are not being utilized. Frustration and boredom soon follow. In the future employers will need to create a working environment that provides a level of flexibility and independence still not accepted, in order to engage staff.’

There is nothing more to be said.