As my contract is coming up for renewal again and there are two fulltime positions available I am in the odd position of having to apply for a job that I am already doing.  It is extremely weird updating your CV to include you current job knowing that your manager is going to see it.  You don't really want to be seen as tooting your own horn but you also can't sell yourself short or else you could do yourself out of a job you obviously can do!
On the plus side I have had an excellent week so far.  I am off reception - YAY and have occupied my days with lovely things like filing and watching job seeker seminars and reading through training modules.  They discovered today that I had not completed the orientation pack that I should have done in my first week.  So this afternoon I answered questions such as "Who is your manager?" and drew a seating plan of the office with each desk labelled with the person's name, phone number and position.  Next week I am off to "Training School" where I will learn to be an Unemployment Case manager for real.  Not flying by the seat of my pants and hoping that I am not lying like I do at the moment.

I am currently getting paid three times the amount that I got for wiping old people's arses for, as Mr Pigalina puts it, "sitting on" mine.  Alas, I think he does not appreciate what I go through everyday.  It is me that cops the flack when there are no appointments available.  Me who gets accused when the money has not been paid.  It is me that has to fill out forms for people who cannot read or write whilst managing a never ending stream of inquires from impatient people.
Whilst doing all of this I file everyone elses papers and process their paperwork to save them from having to do it.  I listen to stories and offer a sympathetic ear (sometimes I care, often I am pretending) and  make sure client's aren't left waiting too long.  It is a hard job keeping everyone happy.  Every morning I dread going in, but when I am there it is fine.
It is for these reasons - it's not that bad; I get paid alright and I like my workmates that I have to be VERY careful about what I write on here.  I long to write about the seedy oldies and bogans (so many) that hit on me, the crazy names and the downright mad people but I can't!  There is a zero tolerance at work for "breaches of privacy". 
Please, understand my pain.  I long to share my experiences with the world, but alas I cannot.  Unless I want to go back to sales.

Remember (or pehaps you are looking forward to) that great year you had when you and all of your friends turned 21 and it was parties nearly every weekend?
I am going to a 30th this weekend. 
It has begun.

Seems I will have to be on my guard whenever I leave the house.  I have been spotted twice in one week.  No, it is not fans of my oh-so exciting and earth-shattering blog.  It is clients from work.  I was seen having a hot chocolate with friends last weekend by someone who works at the cafe, which they informed me of when they came into work the other day.  Today when Mr Pigalina pulled up at an intersection I could see a lady at the crossing intently peering into the car as she tried to work out how she knew me.  I knew her and tried my hardest to look straight ahead so as not to catch her eye.  
We were told at our recent meeting about data integrity and client confidentiality that we are supposed to behave well at all times.  If we are up to no good such as blowing a whistle dressed in fluoro clothes at a rave whilst "tripping out on dirty dog" or perhaps something harder, someone could identify us as employees of the Ministry and that could bring them into disrepute.  Do they really expect thousands of people to behave everytime they go out?  Even at birthdays and other such causes for merriment?  And would people really dob someone in for having a few too many at the pub?  Probably yes actually.  Gracious, I shall have to watch myself, we don't want a "Pigalina caught having fun scandal" now do we?  That will mean I will have to be careful and maybe cut back on doing things such as this (never!):

My next job was where this blog all started and you can read about some of my great experiences in the archives.  As if you would.  It was in an electronics store, which you think would be pretty sweet but due to lack of staff and very demanding customers I went a bit doo-lally and started hoping to get hit by a car so that I could have a few weeks time-out in hospital.  I have since learnt that I could have gone onto a Sickness Benefit on the grounds of stress.  Why do I never know such useful things at the time?  Instead I left that job and moved to the job I spoke about at the start.
At first I didn't enjoy it much, there didn't seem to be much to do.  Soon I began to appreciate the laid back nature of the job and the people that I worked with.  When I left it was only because I had to, I had been covering maternity leave and with the baby not only out but almost a year old I had to go.  There was nowhere for me to stay.  
This brings me to my title and the reason that, apart from having been away on holiday for two weeks, I have not updated my blog in a while. I am now working for what I suppose most people would call the unemployment office.  Currently I am the receptionist (though in the future I will apparently be training and being given clients to manage.)  This position is fabulous for meeting colourful characters and hearing long-winded life stories, such as this.  However, as much as this would be great blog fodder I am unable to use any of it!  I had to sign a secrecy agreement indicating that I would not do such things.  I am not even sure that I am allowed to tell Mr Pigalina about my interesting day.  Well, I am certainly not allowed to tell him who I saw and why.  Mostly though the stories that I hear and people that I meet are incredibly depressing and make me so glad that I have the life that I have. 
I have discovered since working in my new job that you can legitimately be off work and receive money (albeit a small amount) for tiredness and a lack of motivation.  What?  I could have been off work this entire time? 

Man I get bored.

Well, on March 1st if I have no job I have to get down to Maccas.  Fingers and toes crossed that the couple of jobs, I am picky, I have applied for will yeild a fantastic result.