Training days

So I've been MIA because I've been in an Admin training class. I'll be in there in a couple of hours again today. The class doesn't start until 9am......I wish I could just come in when it started. Wouldn't that be nice?!

I was apprehensive about doing this training. I hate being away from my work desk because I always have so much going on. That's not me being all uppity about my job - that's just the way it is. But I love it and wouldn't have it any other way. If I'm going to be here for 10 hours a day I'd damn well better be busy. If I'm not, I'm asking for more work because I'd rather be swamped than sitting here twiddling my thumbs.

However. This class is actually pretty good! I can't fully explain the scope of my "office" here. It's not your typical place. I work for Procter & Gamble and our offices are at the Gillette World Shaving Headquarters. Once P&G bought Gillette we moved here. (yay, working back in Boston. Loving the frigging commute. yay.) So, this place is very unique because there are so many different facets. I know I'm not even going to cover them all but we have the plant where the manufacturing (of a few product lines) goes on, we have the Sales section (most are located out of their homes and do not have actual office space here) we have research and development, marketing, finance, legal, purchasing and on and on. There are multiple "buildings" to our offices. For instance, I'm in "K" building while many people are over in "G" building. Confused yet?

So, the class. I am really loving it. I am meeting and interacting with people that I normally would never interact with. I recognize a lot of the faces from the cafeteria or walking from building to building but I would never be able to sit and have a conversation. One of them is Executive Administrator to a big wig and wants to go get drinks sometime because we live in neighboring towns. She seems really nice and right up my alley so I said hell yeah.

It's funny to see just how different the job "administrator" is around here. People have NO idea what I do. Just because we are all tagged as administrators doesn't mean we do any of the same things. We definitely do not. I guess that's why I shudder when people ask me what exactly it is that I do at P&G. It's so hard to explain! I am an administrator. I am not a secretary. There most definitely is a difference. I do have to do travel for my immediate manager but I do not take her phone calls. I do plan meetings on a small scale, for say 8 people and then on a large scale, planning our year end meeting for 63 attendees, soup to nuts. I love it. But I also do analytical work. I run reports and compile spreadsheets on how our products are doing compared to our competitors. I do powerpoint presentations that are taken in to a customer to try and get our products on their shelves. I'm putting this in "laymans" terms. My work is more complex than that and there is much more that I do but this will kind of okay, not really give you a general idea.

So, one more day of training. One more day of interaction. One more day of networking with counterparts and I am really looking forward to it. I think this is going to turn into a more regular thing with the Boston Administrators and I'm really hoping it does. I think I would enjoy that very much. Life is good!