woolcovered

Well, I've just boarded the southbound subway car at Downsview Station, this seems like as good a time as any to scratch out a quick entry for later post.

Anyway, I've decided to go in super-early today, literally taking the first bus that comes up to North York - this puts me on probably the third train out of Downsview? Basically, today's a pilot run of just how early I can make it into the office.

Those who've known me for even a little while probably have a hard time believing that I would be willing to go to bed before 10 and wake up before 5am to go to a job, but the fact that I genuinely don't mind is probably a good sign that I want to do well here.

For those who don't know, I work in SIMA (here comes the acronymns) - Strategic Issues and Media Analysis. I big part of our branch's job is to brief the staff of the Minister in the morning. So, although I technically am slotted in for an 8:30-4:30 p.m gig, a lot has already really happened by the time I roll into there - a morning media scan (we do three a day in total) and two meetings (first with the Minister's staff, then a conference call with other offices in the province) have usually wrapped up just as I arrive at 8:30. I've been lucky enough to shadow my boss on two of the latter meetings, and they were quite useful!

Because we work in 'Issues', these meetings are basically here for us to hand over a media clippings pack, but more importantly, to tell the folks the key things we/they should be aware of. I'm pretty sure we're there to provide guidance if they want to select a response, but I haven't received enough insight into the process yet to get that down.

My reasons for going in early are partially tactical as well. Today I'm seeing how early I can get in, so that I know how to bank time for later. I'm entitled to a monthly perfect attendance bonus, and my Ortho and other appointments in Guelph will make it very difficult to actually deliver on this. So, in order to keep my 'bonus' (and to show my boss I'm serious) I'm going to figure out how to bank time early in the week to make up for what I miss. The goal is to always have more than I need to call on.

I think I've established a pretty good impression in the first week, staying late a few times to get projects out of the way. It's pretty crazy, my boss is already throwing stuff at me to do! I'm really glad I took the time to sit down with him before I started, 'cause I really feel like we've wasted no time - I literally hit the ground running on the first day. He's basically going to give me every opportunity to learn, and is clearly happy to have an intern along. I even mailed out my first little task to about 100 or so folks on one of our mailing lists, and he was visibly enthusiastic to see the task come to fruition. Needless to say, I left the office feeling pretty good yesterday!

Anyway, looks like I'm pulling into Museum (the stop before Queen's Park), so I should probably pack up the Palm!