The Daily Grind

For the first time in over 3 years I am back in paid employment.  I was tempted to write 'back at work' but the reality is that I have been working by butt off the past 3 years, of course that was unpaid employment in the home.  Being a stay at home Mum is extremely hard work, so much so in fact that I decided to take a break and return to the workforce.  I am doing part-time hours, although 30 hours is almost close enough to say full-time when you add in an hour and a quarter per day of commuting and then all the prep work to get out the door.  Then work doesn't really finish at the end of the day it just flows into household responsibilities and before you know it, the day is done and it's time to start preparing for the following day.  I'm glad I only work 30 hours, but my pay reflects that and with daycare for the twins and motoring expenses it hardly seems worthwhile at the moment, but hopefully at some point it will make sense and it will help us to achieve some of our goals.
So far I have enjoyed my new employment experience, I have had a fairly intensive 2 week induction and next week I head into more on-job training which I am looking forward to.  The hard part is getting back into the daily grind, forcing myself to adhere to a new and very structured routine and making everything else work around it.  It has been exhausting using my brain in such a different way and taking in all the new information and processes.  I have met so many new faces and had a whirlwind introduction to the organisational culture and all the diversity of personalities that make a place tick.  It can be very overwhelming but I have been keeping up.
I aim to exceed expectations and make this role everything that I know it can be.  For now, setting myself up for success is key and that means forming a strong support network, building sound relationships - particularly within my team but also across the business, staying organised, streamling processes where I can and keeping on top of the workload.  That should all be no problem :-)