Tag Archives: government

When Things Get Slow

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Lately, things have been a little slow in the office. It’s summertime, so folks are either at the fair, at the lake, or in the fields.  While my coworkers definitely have a steady stream of work coming in, sometimes work slows down for the intern. It only takes so much time to transfer the calls that come to the main line, enter the mail when it comes between noon and one, monitor my email, and answer the door. Now that I’ve gotten into a groove with my work and things have started coming in intermittently, it’s easy for me to run out of things to do. And while my manager is great about giving me casework to do, sometimes you find yourself waiting for responses from all of the agencies or constituents you’re working with, and there’s nothing you can do to move forward.

At first, running out of things to do really freaked me out. I felt like I was going to get in trouble for sitting idle, but really I just hadn’t been given enough tasks to fill the day. It takes time for employers to assign tasks to interns, and, at least in my job, assigning work to the intern can sometimes make their jobs take more time. So I’ve gotten good at filling the days so that they don’t feel like they’re dragging on for forever. The tips and tricks I’ve learned for keeping busy on the slow days are also good ways to break up the day if your work feels really tedious or monotonous. As always, here are some things to think about and try if you ever find yourself stuck!

1. Offer to do someone else’s busywork. When I get low on things to do, I pop by each of my coworkers’ offices and see what’s stacking up. I’ve had coworkers ask me to enter their business card contacts into Outlook, file documents hanging out on their desk, print letters and stuff envelopes for them, and other tasks that are obviously important but not necessarily a top priority. They acknowledge that it’s not super exciting, but they still really appreciate it. If you help them out with stuff they wish they had time to do, people will likely pay you back twofold.

2. Let your supervisor know that you’re low on work. I’ve gotten tactful at asking my manager for more to do–at first I felt really bad bugging her, but I’ve found that giving people warning helps ease those worries. Keeping a list of what you need to do can help predict when your work will come to a standstill. When you get towards the end of the list, poke your head in your manager’s office or shoot her an email letting her know. My favorite message is: “I’m getting towards the end of my to-do list, so if there’s anything you need, feel free to send it my way.” This way, they won’t have to scramble to find work to give you, and you’re less likely to have to wait for them to find something for you.

3. Internet! (Productively). Because my coworkers do outreach (and some of them also work for my lawmaker’s campaign on the side), they’re responsible for knowing what’s going on around the state and attending events with or on behalf of my boss. We also keep an eye out for awards people have gotten or other exciting things like that (we had a lady in town who turned 103 last month) and send out letters congratulating them. So browsing the websites of local newspapers or–I’m serious–Facebook can actually be a good use of time. Reaching out to contacts way out wherever to see what’s been going on can also be helpful. If your office isn’t doing outreach, figure out what news (or even gossip, *wink wink*) is relevent and useful in your industry, and start poking around. You’ll learn a lot, and you may be able to contribute something really useful. Also try stalking the websites of other important people or companies in your industry–in my case, I look at people who are campaigning for political seats in my area, for example, and at people or organizations my coworkers are visiting soon for outreach. This helps you keep up with what’s going on out in the world from your desk chair.

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That Allie Brosh–always full of wisdom.

4. TV! (Also productively). If watching the news (CNN, CSPAN, BBC, PBS, local news, The Weather Channnel…) is relevant to your organization’s or office’s work (e.g. if the Supreme Court is handing down an important decision, or what Congress is up to can affect what’s going on where you are), tune in and keep an ear trained towards the TV. If you don’t have a TV nearby, check out Twitter–if you have to, make a “business” Twitter that’s just for news outlets so that your very important work doesn’t get interrupted by Kimye. Unless keeping track of Kimye is part of your work (I spy you, Pitzer alum with a job at MTV!). In which case, carry on.

5. Change the scene. If I can, I grab something I can do not on the computer–reading the newspaper, marking up a draft (again), or sorting what I should file and what I can shred–and take over the countertop near my desk. Standing up and moving somewhere else gets my blood moving and helps me not feel all sluggish from sitting in the same place in the same position all day. If standing for a while isn’t your thing, moving somewhere else (in my office, I could take over the table we use to greet people, or even turn around and use the back part of my desk) can be just as good–it gets your eyes, ears, and hands away from your computer screen for a little bit and gives your mind different work to do for a few minutes. Even just getting up to go to the break room for a quick snack (I am a regular patron of the little bowl of chocolates in the back) will help keep things from getting really monotonous.

6. Take a late lunch. Don’t ask me why this helps, but it does! If your lunch time is flexible, try taking your lunch more than halfway through your day. Since I get to work at 8 and leave at 5, I normally find myself taking lunch at 11 or 12. But if I take lunch at 1, that means I get back between 1:30 and 2, so I have less time left between lunch and close. Since afternoons are the time when the day seems to go by so. slowly., I find it helps to cut the afternoon time shorter by making my morning longer. I know it sounds goofy, but bring a snack to tide you over till a little later in the day, and you’ll see what I mean.

7. Check your email and update your to-do list. Realizing you missed an email asking you to do something because you were poking around the website of the local telephone cooperative isn’t fun. It’s easy to zone out when things get slow, so be sure to keep your email open and updated. Adding every little thing to your to-do list can also help keep you focused and make it easier to get back to the work assigned to you as the slow period passes.

As I was writing this, I kept wondering whether this problem is unique to me–do you get slow days, or are you always swamped? Do you have tips for dealing with either of those situations–what do you do when you’re slow or swamped?

Hello, my Name is…

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People always call my boss by her first name.

I took a call from a man a few weeks ago who had a question about her view on something–he started out by calling her by her official title and last name, but then interrupted himself: “You know,” he said, “I just don’t feel like I can call her Sheriff Jones. I just have to call her Jessie.”

 

(Note: No, my boss isn’t a sheriff, and no, her name isn’t Jessie Jones. But she would be awesome at it if she was.)

 

Then again, I’d probably never hear the end of it.

Then this week, one of my coworkers noticed something. “When did they start writing ‘Jessie’ on our newspapers?” The folks in the main lobby keep our daily newspapers for us when they arrive in the morning, and I pick up our copy on my way up to the office. They write each office’s name on the front page so we know which is ours. When I first started, they were writing “Jones” on the front page, like they were doing for the guys in the office, Senator Butcher, Representative Baker, and Mayor Candlestick Maker. But sometime in the last week or so they stopped writing “Jones” and started writing “Jessie.”

 

I’ve even heard folks refer to her as Jessie and others by their last names in the same sentence–“If I don’t get a response from Jessie, I’ll be contacting Butcher, Baker, and Candlestickmaker too!”

 

Now, being, well, me, I was immediately skeptical of all this. Why only use her first name? She’s the first woman from our state to hold her current position, and she was also the first woman to hold several prominent positions prior to her election to this one, and it’s very obvious that she’s popular, at least baseds on the calls I get to the office.

 

But is it a sign of disrespect that folks call other leaders and politicians in our community and state by their title or last name and my boss by her first?
My boss herself doesn’t think so. The coworker who noticed the newspaper thing told me that she asked our boss if it bothered her. She replied that no, it didn’t bother her–in fact, she loved it. She loves that people feel comfortable enough with her to call her Jessie.

 

The more I think about it, the more I have to agree with her. While calling her by her title is certainly respectful (I definitely call her that in person), the fact that people call her by her first name does not put her at a disadvantage as a politician–who would you rather vote for, Mayor Candlestick Maker or your best buddy Jessie?

 

As I’ve said before, this part of the country can be a funny place. I’ve had men call me “sweetheart” on the phone before (and he was not a 90-year-old man thanking me for helping him with something, either–he was a 40-something guy who asked me whether he “needed to repeat his phone number, sweetheart”). And, full disclosure, we’re one of those states that currently has lawsuits pending because of our gay marriage and abortion laws. But at the same time, folks out here have a reputation of being friendly people (if not always the most forward-minded), and I think that my boss is right to take it as a compliment.

 

In fact, that’s my career advice for the week, folks–if you’re representing people, you need to make sure they like you. A lot. Enough to vote for you and maybe even donate some of their hard-earned money to your campaign. Or, if you’re managing a company, follow you and not despise you. It’s a delicate balance, though–people might not take you seriously if you don’t take yourself seriously. But my boss is really good at striking this balance: people take her seriously because she’s smart, speaks directly, and doesn’t back down from the principles she promised people when she ran for office. But she is also a casual, friendly, smiley person who is as quick to crack a joke with you as she is to hit you with a hard question when she needs to. So if you’re doing your job right, you might as well take the compliment and run with it.

 

Thoughts, folks? Would you rather be called by your first name or title? Is one more respectful? Does it depend? Have a good week!

Square One

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I was a late bloomer at Scripps.

I declared my major at the last minute, after considering close to everything. I ultimately declared a legal studies major. As backwards as it sounds, I realized after I declared it and took more classes in the major that it was my dream come true, and nothing could ever compare. My on-campus and summer jobs and programs have all been related to foreign languages, journalism, and education. All of these experiences were incredible, of course, and I grew in so many ways through them, but they only satisfied some of the very specific requirements that (apparently) need to be met to motivate me to go to work every day.

And I won’t get out of bed for anything less, doggone it!

But the bad news is that I’ve only really known all this for less than a year, so I have no work experience in government or law. I knew I needed to find a government internship this summer. Finding one was really hard. I’d had a bunch of great experience, but I just didn’t have the background to prove I could do the job. I applied to work on Capitol Hill, and didn’t get the internship. Honestly, I was so relieved. I knew I wasn’t ready yet.

So I scaled back. I went local.

I ended up getting an internship working for a really incredible lawmaker in my home state. I started my job a few weeks ago, and I really, really love it.

The office I’m working in has way fewer employees than does one on the federal level, especially since the state I live in is so small. My office has four full-time people plus me, and I never feel like I’m the smallest voice or the least important person in the room. But I am definitely the littlest fish in this pond—all four of my co-workers are so talented and experienced, and I am so lucky to get to absorb everything they’re teaching me.

I also get to do more than I might otherwise as an intern. Of course, there’s the normal intern-y things like photocopying, printing mailing labels, and transferring phone calls to the people who actually know what they’re talking about.

Of course, I’ll plug you right through.

But I do get to take calls from folks who just want to express their opinions regarding the job my lawmaker’s doing and I get to draft letters in response to their concerns–basically, I’m representing the lawmaker to the people who will eventually have to decide whether or not to vote for her. My manager also lets me take on casework, which means that I get to help people who are having trouble with government agencies like Veterans Affairs or Immigration Services. Again, I’m representing my lawmaker, AND I’m learning hands-on about the federal bureaucracy and how to navigate it. Definitely not just intern-y stuff.

While answering phones in what feels like a regular, old office and living at home sounds much less sexy than “I have an internship on The Hill,” I’ve learned so much already, and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the summer holds.

So my advice to those of you in the same boat as me: don’t be afraid to start small. While those really prestigious internships are great opportunities, you might actually get more responsibility if you’re in a smaller office that has less intense (but still super important) work to do. Recommendations are priceless, and it’s even easier to impress your boss when they’ve only got four people in the office, rather than forty. Keep an eye out for those little gems! Most lawmakers have state, district, or outreach offices, depending on the level of government, and most of those offices need interns.

A start is a start, no matter how small. Don’t be afraid to run with it and see what you get!