My first week at work

By -
25-Jan-2011

After a ten-month holiday, I'm back at work! Last week, while I was waiting for the paperwork for the job offer, I came into the University of Sydney, Workplace Research Centre for a visit. I asked to come in since I hadn't been to the Uni campus or been able to meet anyone face-to-face yet. They kindly put on a “morning tea” with the department with a selection of yummy cakes! I think I'm going to like it here :-)

The HR department was still working on my contract and they asked me when I'd like to start work...”Well,” I said “As I'm already in your office... I guess as soon as possible!” So they asked me to come in the following Monday. I would just like to add here a little reminder to myself for the next time I think it would be “jolly good fun to go live in another country for a while!” There are reams of paper-work and forms to be filled out. The hardest part is to even find out what those forms are! Someone at work joked with me “1 form down, 99 to go.” But I think they were almost serious!

On my first day at work I was shown three projects, so at least I won't get bored! I've now been assigned to two of those. One is a really interesting, huge study called “Australia at Work”. A legislation named WorkChoices was implemented in 2006 (which was very unpopular with most workers). The study was set up to investigate how this legislation affected working lives in Australia and how working lives have changed regardless. The study is a survey which started in 2007 with over 8,000 people across Australia. These people are surveyed every year for five years. During this time WorkChoices had been repealed and replaced by the “Fair Work Act”  implemented in January 2010. Well at least that's a brief description of my understanding of it so far. Please visit our public website for more information.

On my second day at the WRC, after we finished work everyone went to play lawn bowls. It's the first time I played it and I enjoyed discovering it's not just for retired folk! It was a great way to get to meet people in the department too.



Comments

sly said…
So are you a curiosity there or do a lot of non-Australians work there?
6 April 2011 at 09:22
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