Monday, June 02, 2014
College didn't teach me how to file things
So, we moved our offices around on Monday, because the work flow and storage issues were greatly improved. Now I'm in an office by myself down the hall from the main office suite, and it's great. Quiet. WARM. Unlike the storage closet/Arctic freezer in which I previously worked.
But there are all these boxes in my office that are leftover from the move. And they're filled with... stuff. Just random stuff from the old office. Papers and other things, and I don't even know what is IN these boxes. Do I need the things in the boxes? All the things? Or does the fact that I cannot name a single item in any of the boxes negate the need for me to retain them? Can I just toss them out all at once?
The fact is that I struggle with maintaining a useful filing system. I can do anything on a computer that you want, but those old "secretarial school" courses like Philosophies of File Maintenance, or whatever - they just aren't taught anymore.
I can b.s. a research paper on the themes of loss in Virginia Woolf's "To the Lighthouse;" I can identify the parts of a cell under a microscope with 90 percent certainty; I can mostly tell you how World War I started and how it relates to current tensions in the Baltic states... maybe? I can at least Google it fast enough so you won't realize I don't know. As long as we're texting about it.
But I never learned how to touch-type properly; how to create and maintain a physical filing system; how to track an office budget; how to handle interoffice politics; or how to take and organize correspondences and meeting notes.
I learned those things via internships and trial and error (except for the filing system, obvs). Unlike my mother. After graduating from Jacksonville State University, and obtaining her teaching certification, my mother taught these skills to adolescents and adults for much of her life.
Who has two thumbs and didn't listen to her mother? THIS GIRL!
Anyhoodle. So I have boxes in my office. Lots of them. If anyone needs me, look for me in one of them. Where I will probably be taking a nap.
I can b.s. a research paper on the themes of loss in Virginia Woolf's "To the Lighthouse;" I can identify the parts of a cell under a microscope with 90 percent certainty; I can mostly tell you how World War I started and how it relates to current tensions in the Baltic states... maybe? I can at least Google it fast enough so you won't realize I don't know. As long as we're texting about it.
But I never learned how to touch-type properly; how to create and maintain a physical filing system; how to track an office budget; how to handle interoffice politics; or how to take and organize correspondences and meeting notes.
I learned those things via internships and trial and error (except for the filing system, obvs). Unlike my mother. After graduating from Jacksonville State University, and obtaining her teaching certification, my mother taught these skills to adolescents and adults for much of her life.
Who has two thumbs and didn't listen to her mother? THIS GIRL!
Anyhoodle. So I have boxes in my office. Lots of them. If anyone needs me, look for me in one of them. Where I will probably be taking a nap.
Welcome to box land! We should make a support group & take classes from your Mom. Or, maybe we can take turns trooping the group through each others' boxes until all are filed away & tidy... or at least noshing through same until we can figure out a better system. LOL!
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