Chapter 2 - The girl who is

So I found myself on my first temping assignment. I was quite pleased because it was with an educational organisation, but one with a ‘spiritual’ focus. It is also the organisation that oversees the sector to which my daughters’ school belongs. I was to spend a month covering for someone who was on leave.

The minute I walked in I felt at home, the people were nice, the atmosphere was peaceful and while at first I found it unusual to be working in an environment where every meeting began with a prayer, I didn’t object. It didn’t take me long to find my way around and I’ve always been independent so I wasn’t constantly seeking help or reassurance. Basically I just got on with it and everyone seemed really pleased that I did. I got a lot of praise. I felt I was only doing what I was being paid to do at the level I was used to performing. Others felt I was excelling in some way. Go figure. Within a week my immediate manager was making comments about ‘keeping me on’ and telling anyone who’d listen what a ‘God-send’ I was and generally singing my praises high and low. It was nice, if not slightly disconcerting. I really wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary. She spoke to people in other areas and soon I was being asked to do small projects for other people. I continued to do this for a month and then my time was up. The assistant director invited me to a meeting and asked me to stay on for another month working in her area with some other senior people. I agreed. At that time she also strongly encouraged me to apply for a vacancy that was coming up. So I started in the new area and they arranged for me to do four days with them and a fifth day with another team in need of the kind of project support I do. It’s a lovely mix. I’ve had lots of interesting projects to work on and done some fascinating research and data analysis. I also applied for the job as suggested and pretty much just got on with my work.

To cut a long story short, my application was welcomed, I interviewed for the position (there were other applicants too) and yesterday they offered me the job and I accepted. That should be the happy ending shouldn’t it? And it is, in many ways. I actually love it here. It’s an organisation that is a good match for a) my career interests b) my personal values and c) my academic goals.

So why am I not jumping for joy?

I’ll try and explain tomorrow.