Back to the Grind

Today is the first day in my 4 week career as a human resource officer that my job felt like work. Don't get me wrong, the past few weeks haven't been a cakewalk. On average I have been scheduled to attend at least 3 meetings a day on top of being trained to do 3 very different HR functions. My head is literally ready to explode with all of the information I am currently trying to process but they never gave me any real responsibility until this week and let me tell you it's ultra glamorous! Please note the sarcasm in my voice here.

My daily responsibilities include entering information into a database, completing forms with information taken from already completed forms, and gently harassing department managers via email to send me another form signed by each of their employees so I can put it in their files. Somewhere my mother is trying to figure out why she paid all of this money on college for me to do a job that a monkey can do. To be perfectly honest I think an actual monkey used to do my job until PETA intervened and made them hire a naive and eager lady like myself.

To be honest, it took me about 3 weeks to even grasp an understanding of what these forms are that I am handling and why it is important that we track what appears to be trivial information. This was busywork for two of my co-workers who have much greater responsibilities to attend to everyday so they were genuinely thankful that I have learned things well enough to take this off their plate. Even though it's not life changing work that I'm doing I do feel a sense of pride in doing it. I took a chance to do something different and I'm doing it fairly well even though I don't fully understand it so I'm back to grinding.

They make me attend all of those endless meetings because when my co-workers are out on vacation or taking a sick day, I will be expected to jump in and take their place. I am basically an understudy for my more seasoned counterparts. I have to learn every aspect of their jobs in case they need my help or they are gone and our director needs information that they normally have. This is a big deal although I'm not sure how often I will really be utilized for this. I am thankful all the same though because I am learning a lot. They treat me as if I am a part of the family that has been there for years. They see my role just as vitally as their own and that makes me want to file all the papers I can just to show them my appreciation. They let me tag along on seminars and meetings off campus which is a great opportunity because it means I get a chance to network with other HR professionals in the community and more importantly, they usually serve great food.

I still feel a little silly dressing up for work everyday because I look at our directors and my manager dressed in their suits and think to myself "They are dressed for a purpose. People will see and listen to them so what on earth am I doing wearing heels to sit at my desk all day?" They always say you should dress for the job you want so I always try to dress as if I'm actually important. The funny thing is, people outside of work probably think that I am. You should see the looks I get at the grocery store when I trot through there after work with my fancy heels clicking loudly. People stop what they're doing and turn to look at me. Some look annoyed but others look impressed. Hopefully one day I will be important and then I can justify spending $200 on a herringbone jacket from J. Crew. Oh who am I kidding, I can justify any clothing purchase at any given time even if I only have $3 in my checking account.....which may or may not have actually happened to me once.