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So, I went out for a farewell lunch today... I have three more days of work, but a few workmates are heading off on holidays this week. I'm now full of food (and drink), and I have about five kilograms of Macquarie Dictionary (my farewell present - they figured I could use a decent one if I was going to write all next year) to carry back on the train.
Five years. When I first started here, I'd just finished three years of uni. I'd studied Chemistry and History & Philosophy of Science, and I wandered into my first full time "science" job after seeing it advertised on a website. I had a six month contract, and organised to take a semester off from uni...
During that first contract I put my head down and worked as fast as I could. There hadn't been staff in my lab for a while, and they hired me to clear out a huge backlog of metal plates that needed acid etching so we could finish writing reports about them. Years later, I started to find out where all the site names were from - we've run tests in the Phillipines, Laos, all around Australia, Antarctica, and dozens of other countries.
Apparently, I cleared a few years' worth of specimens in those six months. I was offered another contract: part time during the uni semester, and full time in the holidays. Work hours were flexible, the pay was better than washing dishes, and I got to fill all my days "off" with something that paid my bills. Of course, there were a few glitches on the way - I went for eleven months without a contract, until one was back-dated to cover the gap. I've had many problems with HR since then, as my shift from part-time to full-time and vice versa always manages to upset someone.
I've trained new people in the lab procedures, and watched them leave for other jobs... I've redesigned procedures to make them more efficient, less toxic, and generally kinder to the poor lab technicians who have to do them. I've cultivated a hearty contempt for the committees who design national and international standards, as I'm yet to meet a standards advisor who actually gets their hands dirty in the lab.
I've assembled test exposures inside air conditioning stacks, climbed on rooftops with a digital camera, dismantled buildings to harvest nails and bolts, and dipped a few thousand metal plates in acid. I don't bat an eyelid any more at the thought of using five litres of boiling acid for hours on end. I've been inspired by discussions with some of the brightest minds in the business, and infuriated by the management decisions that have seen those people look for work elsewhere to find secure jobs. I'm proud of the Organisation that I've worked in, and deeply worried about where it's going in the future.
I hope I've left my mark on the lab. When (if?) the Division decides to allow the project to hire new staff, someone will have 80 pages of carefully documented procedures to read through during their training. There are no boxes of specimens waiting in the lab, and I've prepared new steel and zinc plates to last until late January. There are notes on the light metals trials we've conducted, waiting until magnesium sees more use in manufacturing.
I've also learned a lot along the way, and harvested new skills and stories for my CV. I've been involved in OH&S, workplace training, document writing and editing, database design and hazardous lab work. I've spent months working on my own, and worked in teams designing new projects.
Now it's time to leave the lab for a while, although I don't intend to move too far away from it. By the middle of next year I'll have qualifications in editing and writing, and I'll be doing some volunteer work to build more experience. By the end of next year I'll have had a look at communications law, publishing and small business management. I need to get more credibility as a writer before I move back towards science. Right now, I have no idea where I'll end up - I do know, however, that there are skills that I can take almost anywhere. I'll see what happens next.
Five years. When I first started here, I'd just finished three years of uni. I'd studied Chemistry and History & Philosophy of Science, and I wandered into my first full time "science" job after seeing it advertised on a website. I had a six month contract, and organised to take a semester off from uni...
During that first contract I put my head down and worked as fast as I could. There hadn't been staff in my lab for a while, and they hired me to clear out a huge backlog of metal plates that needed acid etching so we could finish writing reports about them. Years later, I started to find out where all the site names were from - we've run tests in the Phillipines, Laos, all around Australia, Antarctica, and dozens of other countries.
Apparently, I cleared a few years' worth of specimens in those six months. I was offered another contract: part time during the uni semester, and full time in the holidays. Work hours were flexible, the pay was better than washing dishes, and I got to fill all my days "off" with something that paid my bills. Of course, there were a few glitches on the way - I went for eleven months without a contract, until one was back-dated to cover the gap. I've had many problems with HR since then, as my shift from part-time to full-time and vice versa always manages to upset someone.
I've trained new people in the lab procedures, and watched them leave for other jobs... I've redesigned procedures to make them more efficient, less toxic, and generally kinder to the poor lab technicians who have to do them. I've cultivated a hearty contempt for the committees who design national and international standards, as I'm yet to meet a standards advisor who actually gets their hands dirty in the lab.
I've assembled test exposures inside air conditioning stacks, climbed on rooftops with a digital camera, dismantled buildings to harvest nails and bolts, and dipped a few thousand metal plates in acid. I don't bat an eyelid any more at the thought of using five litres of boiling acid for hours on end. I've been inspired by discussions with some of the brightest minds in the business, and infuriated by the management decisions that have seen those people look for work elsewhere to find secure jobs. I'm proud of the Organisation that I've worked in, and deeply worried about where it's going in the future.
I hope I've left my mark on the lab. When (if?) the Division decides to allow the project to hire new staff, someone will have 80 pages of carefully documented procedures to read through during their training. There are no boxes of specimens waiting in the lab, and I've prepared new steel and zinc plates to last until late January. There are notes on the light metals trials we've conducted, waiting until magnesium sees more use in manufacturing.
I've also learned a lot along the way, and harvested new skills and stories for my CV. I've been involved in OH&S, workplace training, document writing and editing, database design and hazardous lab work. I've spent months working on my own, and worked in teams designing new projects.
Now it's time to leave the lab for a while, although I don't intend to move too far away from it. By the middle of next year I'll have qualifications in editing and writing, and I'll be doing some volunteer work to build more experience. By the end of next year I'll have had a look at communications law, publishing and small business management. I need to get more credibility as a writer before I move back towards science. Right now, I have no idea where I'll end up - I do know, however, that there are skills that I can take almost anywhere. I'll see what happens next.
Show me show me what is happening
in the world beyond my door
And in time I'll be forgetting
what I have been living for
in the world beyond my door
And in time I'll be forgetting
what I have been living for
