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So I recently scored a role doing receptionist and admin work for a small high school. And I do mean small: 120 students from grades 7-12*. It's a selective high school and that's all I'm going to say about it**. Anyway, 10 things I have learned from this job:
1. My boss is awesome. I literally came out to him at the interview and in the meeting with him that I have an anxiety disorder and instead of treating me differently, he's willing to work with me on this one.
(A couple of other students also have mental health issues) He was very pleased that I was willing to jump right in though (he wasn't there when I rocked up, the other admin lady took me through my duties, he came in about 2-3 hours after). My other boss is also awesome, in that we meet up regularly and she's "reasonable." (to a point-I'll be helping with the draft of the school newsletter, but I won't be forced onto it straightaway)
2. I am working with a small team: there's 5 of us, including the operations manager (my "other boss"-the first boss I mentioned is the COO for the school) and the other folks are me, the admin officer (sort of the "go-to" and is also the one that's training me), our finance officer (who handles ALL money inquiries-the only time I am doing any direct cash handling is when students give me their lunch orders and the occasional EFTPOS*** payment) and our IT guy (who still uses AVG on the school computers go figure-my plan is to get him on Avast by the end of the year
)
3. My day is steady: there's a couple of rush periods throughout the day, but otherwise it's literally me, the phone and the computer. The rush periods are mostly in the morning and the two breaks we have throughout the day. So I'm not being overwhelmed or being stuck in boredom mode since I still have to memorise the details of over 100 students.
4. The parents aren't too bad...yet. Luckily I do not have to handle complaints or queries directly, instead they get passed onto the right person, so I am not stuck with listening to someone ranting about how their child is suffering, instead I can transfer them over to the actual complaints person (my manager)
5. The students themselves are actually fairly polite and understanding. One of them is quite a character. As in, every time I ask him a question, he'll give me a ridiculous excuse that is actually somewhat creative (ie "Why were you late?" "Got caught in the matrix."), although it isn't earning him any favours with me.
6. My pay is actually fairly decent-including super, it's a little less than what I was getting when temping, but I'm permanent here, so I get leave entitlements (which I need) but it's definitely more than what I was getting doing childcare. I've also said many times that I would rather get a little less and have leave, then take more and lose those entitlements. (I get the standard 4 weeks/year plus sick leave and public holiday pay). It'll be a little less at the moment because I'm doing 4 days a week, but overtime the view is going to be moving me to full-time.
7. I may be getting a bigger desk space by the end of the year. See, the building the school is in has four floors: we own the building (I think) and have the ground floor and second floor leased out to random tenants. The ground floor tenants wind up expiring in June and we will obtain their lease (hopefully). The plan from there is to convert the ground floor into the administration areas and provide perhaps a couple of classrooms, with our current space (top floor) converted entirely into an Visual/Performing Arts studio. So my little desk space won't be so little by the end of the year.
8. I have KEYS! While locking up at night may not be part of my duties (yet) as the other staff finish later than I will be, I will be opening up. Even better is that I do not have to answer phones until half an hour into my shift. So my first day resulted in me getting keys....I have the keys, I have the POWER!!!! MWAHAHAHAHA!!!
9. Guess who has to help with our school's Open Day coming up soon? I don't think I'll be giving tours or anything, but I'll still be stuck fielding questions from parents. So now I have to brush up on the school thoroughly.
10. I am allowed to deal with random spam callers in my own way, as long as I'm polite throughout the process. So yes, I can tell Windows virus callers that we use Linux, or we use Macs, or that we no longer use desktop computers, instead we use tablets etc. (partial truth: all the kids school computers are Macs, the staff ones are mostly PC) Ditto for the printer toner scam guys. So far my method has been "OK, could you please send an email through to us" give out the admin email (the one I have access to) and then once said email comes through, delete.
*-High school over here starts from either Year 7 or 8 depending on the state you live in.
**-Basically you need to fit certain academic criteria to be selected for this school, these are common in my state and aren't illegal. Basically, if your kid scores great on the test but has a hearing impairment/vision impairment/is autistic, we will still take them in. I have yet to ask what will happen if we get a Muslim student in the school who wishes to do their prayers at lunchtime.
***-Electronic Funds Transaction at Point Of Sale. As it sounds. The only time this will likely come up is excursion payments and the occasional term fee payment.
1. My boss is awesome. I literally came out to him at the interview and in the meeting with him that I have an anxiety disorder and instead of treating me differently, he's willing to work with me on this one.
(A couple of other students also have mental health issues) He was very pleased that I was willing to jump right in though (he wasn't there when I rocked up, the other admin lady took me through my duties, he came in about 2-3 hours after). My other boss is also awesome, in that we meet up regularly and she's "reasonable." (to a point-I'll be helping with the draft of the school newsletter, but I won't be forced onto it straightaway) 2. I am working with a small team: there's 5 of us, including the operations manager (my "other boss"-the first boss I mentioned is the COO for the school) and the other folks are me, the admin officer (sort of the "go-to" and is also the one that's training me), our finance officer (who handles ALL money inquiries-the only time I am doing any direct cash handling is when students give me their lunch orders and the occasional EFTPOS*** payment) and our IT guy (who still uses AVG on the school computers go figure-my plan is to get him on Avast by the end of the year
)3. My day is steady: there's a couple of rush periods throughout the day, but otherwise it's literally me, the phone and the computer. The rush periods are mostly in the morning and the two breaks we have throughout the day. So I'm not being overwhelmed or being stuck in boredom mode since I still have to memorise the details of over 100 students.
4. The parents aren't too bad...yet. Luckily I do not have to handle complaints or queries directly, instead they get passed onto the right person, so I am not stuck with listening to someone ranting about how their child is suffering, instead I can transfer them over to the actual complaints person (my manager
) 5. The students themselves are actually fairly polite and understanding. One of them is quite a character. As in, every time I ask him a question, he'll give me a ridiculous excuse that is actually somewhat creative (ie "Why were you late?" "Got caught in the matrix."), although it isn't earning him any favours with me.
6. My pay is actually fairly decent-including super, it's a little less than what I was getting when temping, but I'm permanent here, so I get leave entitlements (which I need) but it's definitely more than what I was getting doing childcare. I've also said many times that I would rather get a little less and have leave, then take more and lose those entitlements. (I get the standard 4 weeks/year plus sick leave and public holiday pay). It'll be a little less at the moment because I'm doing 4 days a week, but overtime the view is going to be moving me to full-time.
7. I may be getting a bigger desk space by the end of the year. See, the building the school is in has four floors: we own the building (I think) and have the ground floor and second floor leased out to random tenants. The ground floor tenants wind up expiring in June and we will obtain their lease (hopefully). The plan from there is to convert the ground floor into the administration areas and provide perhaps a couple of classrooms, with our current space (top floor) converted entirely into an Visual/Performing Arts studio. So my little desk space won't be so little by the end of the year.
8. I have KEYS! While locking up at night may not be part of my duties (yet) as the other staff finish later than I will be, I will be opening up. Even better is that I do not have to answer phones until half an hour into my shift. So my first day resulted in me getting keys....I have the keys, I have the POWER!!!! MWAHAHAHAHA!!!
9. Guess who has to help with our school's Open Day coming up soon? I don't think I'll be giving tours or anything, but I'll still be stuck fielding questions from parents. So now I have to brush up on the school thoroughly.
10. I am allowed to deal with random spam callers in my own way, as long as I'm polite throughout the process. So yes, I can tell Windows virus callers that we use Linux, or we use Macs, or that we no longer use desktop computers, instead we use tablets etc. (partial truth: all the kids school computers are Macs, the staff ones are mostly PC) Ditto for the printer toner scam guys. So far my method has been "OK, could you please send an email through to us" give out the admin email (the one I have access to) and then once said email comes through, delete.
*-High school over here starts from either Year 7 or 8 depending on the state you live in.
**-Basically you need to fit certain academic criteria to be selected for this school, these are common in my state and aren't illegal. Basically, if your kid scores great on the test but has a hearing impairment/vision impairment/is autistic, we will still take them in. I have yet to ask what will happen if we get a Muslim student in the school who wishes to do their prayers at lunchtime.
***-Electronic Funds Transaction at Point Of Sale. As it sounds.
The only time this will likely come up is excursion payments and the occasional term fee payment.
I should totally do this! 
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