It's a cultural thing innit.....................

Things have been a bit different here at Quotidian Towers this week as I have actually been working!

Yes folks.......That thing where you leave the house each morning, go somewhere else, moan about your journey, and look forward to coming home again.......Although in my case it’s only an 8 minute walk so I can’t moan much.

It’s only a few weeks temporary work via a staff agency, but anything is better than nothing just now. In this case it consists of telephony, admin and reception duties for an organisation that provides careers guidance and other personal counselling to teenagers - Or, as I am trying to remember to more correctly remember to call them, “Young People”.

As my only interaction with this age group since I left school myself, has been to occasionally say “Big Mac and fries please”, this has come as somewhat of an odd experience, not to mention an endless source of amusement to my friends. Thankfully however it has not proven to be as much of an ordeal as I first imagined it might.

They may come in a whole range of tribes and sub cultures, some more monosyllabic than others; but none appear to bite, and most seem to respond well to a calm, friendly greeting.

Whilst this I would never in a million years have the patience or motivation to work with “Young People” as a career myself, the (mainly all) women at the drop in centre are incredibly dedicated, patient and sometimes, dare I say it, very maternal with their clients, faced as they often are with a rather non-committal attitude in return for their efforts, and a clearly ludicrous lack of funding from government.

Well it beats the last temping job I did before Xmas anyway….unloading articulated lorries at midnight, outside in the cold.... An experience of a different kind.