Seasonal Work

I spent the first week home applying for temporary jobs. My first stop was a personnel agency to try to get fill-in secretary and receptionist jobs. They told me they would definitely place me if they could, but that the work was a little slow at the moment. My second stop was to sign up to be a substitute teacher for the Norman Public Schools, which only involved attending a 3 hour orientation class. My third stop was to apply for holiday mall jobs at Bath and Body Works and Barnes And Noble. Less than a week after I arrived back in Norman I got my first two receptionist jobs and an offer from Bath and Body Works within a few hours of each other.  At the beginning of my second week I got my third receptionist job, a more permanent assignment working 4 hrs per day for 3 weeks.  Substituting was scheduled to start during my third week back.

The first receptionist job was just for an afternoon while the regluar woman went to have a tooth removed, and my instructions that I received from the temp agency, no joke, were "When you pull into their parking lot you will be facing the side of the building. You will be facing a row of windows. The key is on the ledge of the last window (behind a holly bush). Go inside and answer the phone. At 5pm lock the door and put the key back on the window ledge.

The company manufactured materials for and contructed simple industrial warehouse buildings, and their office was located just off the Interstate about 15 min south of Norman. I had to sit at a desk and answer the phone if it rang and greet people who came in. During the four hours I was there the phone rang 5 times - one was the third sales rep calling for his messages (there weren't any), one was the receptionist's husband, one was a guy selling copier manuals, and two declined to leave messages - and only one person came in (to deliver flowers to the receptionist who wasn't there). I wasn't allowed to use the Internet on the computer so I played on my Iphone (thank god I had one) and kicked myself for not bringing a magazine. The office only had three employees besides the receptionist, and two of them, male sales reps, sat in a conference room and chatted for the entire afternoon, only half the time about work. These guys had absolutely no need for a secretary, and it was obvious that they only had one to make them feel like big shots.

The second receptionist job was way better, an 8 hour gig answering phones for a real estate company while the regular receptionist attended her grandmother's funeral. The people were very nice and friendly, the office was comfortable and inviting, and I got to do real work, making appointments for agents to show houses and calling the owners to confirm times and availability.  During down time I got to check news and email on the computer.

The third job was being a receptionist for a law firm, and once again was a very nice plush environment with really nice people, where I was allowed to use the internet and even got to wear a headset phone.  The regular receptionist had developed a lot of medical problems, and needed to take medication every day before 2pm, but the medication was so severe that it made her extremely drowsy, and she wasn't supposed to take it until she was physically lying in bed.  Hence why they needed a fill-in for the afternoons.