I can’t believe that I have been working in the office for almost 3 months. I don’t really have a “typical week” at work but I’ll try and give you an idea of what I am usually up to and also give a bit about my recent trip to Westminster.
Mondays usually mean Nic’s tape. Nic dictates letters on to a tape to be typed up. The letters can be from visits to Nic’s surgery for constituents, thank you letters from Nic relating to invitations Nic has taken up or replying to correspondence that Nic has received or sometimes there are little pieces of information that Nic would like to remember for future meetings. Depending on what Nic has been up to the tape can be anything from 10 minutes long right up to 1 hour I think was the longest so far. Once the tape has been typed I email it to Nic to check he is happy with the letters.
As Nic is almost always busy I don’t normally receive the letters back until Tuesday at the earliest. Once Nic is happy with them- then all the letters need to be produced. For each letter I need to either create a new case on Caseworker or update an existing one if the case is already active. All the information we hold for the case (name, address, telephone number, email address) is put onto caseworker and then a brief description of the case is added so we can see what is happening. The letter is then produced through Caseworker and printed off. I then envelope the letters which is rather therapeutic (weird I know).
As part of the apprenticeship I am studying for an NVQ in Business and Administration and Wednesday is when I go to college. At college I get to pretend I am 17 instead of 27. When I first started at college I felt like I stuck out being so old but I’ve got used to being there now and don’t feel any different to the other students (most of the time). This is going to sound strange but I actually enjoy the Maths and English classes as I am doing things I learnt whilst at school but have never used since. The Technical Certificate lesson is also interesting as it focuses a lot on the regulations around working in an office that you don’t realise apply such as Health and Safety, Discrimination and Data Protection.
Thursday
Thursday is my day off. Recently they have been taken up by doing the school run, midwife appointments, pregnancy classes and generally getting in the way at home.
Friday is a day where anything can happen. As my desk is in the same room where Nic holds his surgeries I need to move. Depending on how many people have appointments with Nic the office can resemble a waiting room but for the rest of the day Nic is usually on visits so I’m able to get back to my desk.
This job has been a bit of a whirlwind and different to any other I have had but I’d say the biggest difference and perhaps the most exciting so far has been the training. I am used to going to a head office in some obscure business park to do training but I got to go to Westminster to do some training recently with the others from the office.
We travelled down in the afternoon and when we got to London we headed up to Westminster to meet Jack who works in Nic’s parliamentary office. I felt a bit like a tourist when we got there as I was taking loads of pictures and Andrea managed to take a picture of me taking a picture. We met Jack who took us to a rather nice sports bar inside The Palace of Westminster.
After a bite to eat on The Tattershall Castle (which has a local connection as it used to be the ferry across The Humber before the bridge was built) it was back to Parliament and into the chamber of The House of Commons. There was a debate going on and the chamber was sparsely populated but once the Division Bell sounded to signal a vote MP’s seemed to appear as if from nowhere. It turned into a rather amusing game of spot who you recognise, which I was better at than I thought.
After the vote we saw Nic hand in the petition on teachers pensions from Frederick Gough School and John Leggott College. Nic then took us down to The Terrace which has to be seen to be believed at night.
It nearly ended in embarrassment for me though as I nearly spilt my drink over Ed Balls. Luckily for me it was only nearly.
The next day was the day of our training course which was about the support we can get in the office from Westminster. Before the course though we managed to go on a tour of Westminster which was fascinating and the guide even gave us the history of the different areas we were in. I managed a spot of shopping in the gift shop and I was really surprised about the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) offices. I was expecting them to be massive but I don’t think there were 10 people there. One of the most impressive parts of the Palace of Westminster is Westminster Hall.
Soon it was time to get back on the Tube to get back Kings Cross and home. It was a tiring couple of days but thoroughly enjoyable and it would be great to go back again.
