Not so much true of the first job, which operated a single system for all their titles, and everything about the workflow seemed more-or-less familiar. The second job, however, was truly bizarre. My inner control freak didn't quite know what to make of the outsourcing of Repro, while the multiple workflow systems (one for each of the three external suppliers I was dealing with) seemed a little excessive, and took a lot of getting used to. I often found myself estimating how much time could be saved if it was all done in-house. Must admit, since it was more of a straight admin role than I'm used to, I didn't feel very useful, but they assured me I'd been of great help through a particularly manic period, and that they'd want to call on me again in future, to assist on some of their ad-hoc projects.
Just to make it more fun, it turned out that they have known a couple of my former colleagues and, in fact, one of the current Production Controllers is a former colleague of mine - he wasn't based in in my office, but did often visit back when the both of us worked for the same Publisher - and another of their current staff used to work with one of my former managers at another magazine.
The most interesting things about it all were that I really did enjoy being back in an office environment, and that so many people really do not know the meaning of the words 'busy' or 'hectic'. I was supposedly drafted in to cover in some pretty busy periods, but I never really felt any pressure, and couldn't understand why my temporary colleagues would either. On my last day in the second job, I was allowed to sit idle for a good few hours in the afternoon, because there was just nothing to do. Bearing in mind they were producing over a dozen titles each month (monthlies, bi-monthlies, quarterlies, random supplements, etc.), and that I'd had to monitor three email accounts for copy destined for one magazine, it really looked as if most of the struggle was because of a chaotic workflow. I hinted as much a couple of times, but they told me I was seeing them at their most disorganised because of holidays and maternity leave. By my last day, one of them had revised his opinion, and admitted that it was only in trying to explain their systems to me that they realised how crazy some of them are.
(Addendum 13/4 - Also strange was the differing levels of customer service between members of the team. My first instruction was that any problem artwork should be thrown straight back at the supplier, along with a copy of the magazine's mechanical specifications. When the guy I was covering for 2 days returned, he said that he tended to fix anything - coming from a technical repro background himself - but warned against setting precedents where possible. By the time another of their number had returned from holiday, I had started fixing everything and then asking the relevant full-timer whether or not they'd prefer the artwork to be resupplied... But even here there were differenced between the full-timers. One in particular clearly did not trust a mere Temp to do any troubleshooting so, in a fit of pique, when he said he'd 'deal with' a piece of faulty artwork, I deleted my fixed version and handed over the original, faulty PDF.)
(Addendum 13/4 - Also strange was the differing levels of customer service between members of the team. My first instruction was that any problem artwork should be thrown straight back at the supplier, along with a copy of the magazine's mechanical specifications. When the guy I was covering for 2 days returned, he said that he tended to fix anything - coming from a technical repro background himself - but warned against setting precedents where possible. By the time another of their number had returned from holiday, I had started fixing everything and then asking the relevant full-timer whether or not they'd prefer the artwork to be resupplied... But even here there were differenced between the full-timers. One in particular clearly did not trust a mere Temp to do any troubleshooting so, in a fit of pique, when he said he'd 'deal with' a piece of faulty artwork, I deleted my fixed version and handed over the original, faulty PDF.)
Earlier today, I spent some time at the local Work Club, learning about the dreaded Interview. As with my last visit, it was a lively, interesting and useful event, which went some way to explaining why certain things were so important within the interview proces. Also quite fun to compare and contrast my interview experiences - both as interviewer and interviewee - with those of the others. It's yet another of those things I was quite sceptical about before I went... but, if nothing else, it's getting me out of home, meeting all kinds of people I'd never usually meet, which seems to be helping forestall my inevitable slide back into 'teh mopeyz' while I'm out of work.
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