Today was my first full day of work! Finally. So I haven't updated my blog about my internship because my start date has been delayed a few times. First, my site supervisor emailed me and told me not to go in (for a whole week) because she and the head of the department would be out all week. She said they were sick. Then, I got an email from the CAPA internship team telling me not to go to work because they needed to talk to me.
I went in to the office, not knowing what to expect. Did they not want me anymore?! I thought the interview went really well...
As it turns out, the office I'm interning with (the Candidate's Office) is under restructuring. My site supervisor and the department head were told that their work was redundant. Basically, there is a possibility that they will be fired and their duties be merged with a different department. :0
However, they still wanted me to intern if I was okay with it. My work will be slightly different though. Instead of working for only the Candidate's Office, I will be working for the Diversity Unit and the Conference Forum. I thought this was a good improvement! Now my projects will be more varied and I will get a chance to meet more people and learn different things. But I still feel sad for my supervisor Maddy and the department head, Tamsin.
On Wednesday I went to the office for a little while, and Maddy explained the situation. She is very friendly and despite all the chaos, she's working hard to make sure I have a good internship experience. She showed me around the office and introduced me to a lot of people, including Roxanne and Vicky from the Diversity Unit. She also showed me where all the tea and coffee are in the kitchen :) After our short meeting, we concluded and agreed that I would show up the next day at 10am.
So I showed up on Thursday! Finally. I was a little bit nervous because I didn't know what to expect, but everyone I had met seemed very nice and very helpful. I arrived and was soon led to my computer. The way the office is set up....it is an open floor plan. So all of the "departments" are long tables set up next to each other. Diversity Unit shares an 8 person table with the Candidate's Office. Interesting. I then went through the logistics of getting an email, user name, password, desk supplies, cuppa tea, and my first assignment.
Vicky explained to me what the Diversity Unit does and what I would be doing that day. My first task was to: write a better version of a working draft regarding the newly passed Equality Act. The Diversity Unit wants to send mini pamphlets to local parties and local members to make them aware of the new requirements of this act that concern equality for disabled people. In other words, they want to tell members that they must be inclusive and outreaching to disabled people. They must print party information in braille or larger fonts (or audio recordings) to give to the blind. Among other things, they must also hold meetings, conferences, and voting polls in accessible buildings. The Diversity Unit is also working on a campaign to have more members and potential candidates who are disabled people. ("Disabled people" is the politically correct term).
So what I did....I took a long document that was in complicated legal jargon and re-wrote it into a 4 page draft. It had to be clear and easy to understand/read. I also made it more attention grabbing and looked up facts from the Office of National Statistics to add to it. I'm not quite done yet but I showed my supervisor what I had put together and she told me it was looking great!
Then in the afternoon the Conference Forum gave me a task. For the upcoming Conference in March (which I'm going to!) they have to register everyone and go through background and security checks. This is very important because security must be very tight. They don't want any incidents because so many high profile people will be at the Conference.
I was assigned to do some quick administrative things. I had a list of people who were already registered and accompanying pictures. Some of the pictures were badly taken so I had to edit and crop them so they could be printed as an ID.
And that was it for my first day! Not bad. My favorite part was the tea :) People take tea breaks almost every hour. And when they go get tea it is polite to ask everyone in the neighboring vicinity if they would like some too. "Anyone like a cuppa?" That's the polite thing to do, and that seems to be general office etiquette here in England. So needless to say...I had several cups of tea. It's quite delicious, especially with tea biscuits. However, I realize I need to learn how to make some good tea, because eventually it will be my turn to offer it to everyone else!
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