The Crary Lab job so far

9-2-12

So I thought I’d talk a bit about my new job (formely ASLO, Assistant Supervisor of Laboratory Operations and now ALO, Assistant of Laboratory Operations) and feelings about it after the 1^st week.

The first week was mainly training, and I have to admit it was stressful.  There is just tons of stuff we have to be doing, and it is overwhelming.  I am also the person in the lab who has been out of science the longest and the only without an advanced degree, so that is stressful being a bit behind them in terms of lab operations and science.  So this adds to my stress bc I want to prove myself and show I can do the job, not just good, but above and beyond. 

We definitely work hard and the full 10 (sometimes plus) hours per day.  Part of why this job has been a bit stressful and difficult is that I have been comparing it to shuttles last year.  This job definitely has some perks over shuttles: I work more directly with the researchers, I have access at all hours to the lab and it’s phones, fast computers, and private rooms which is nice in a place where computers and rooms with phones and privacy are limited.  I also getting a lot more money which is nice, and there is a good chance that I will get to go out to the Dry Valleys which has always been a dream of mine.  But the thing that I miss so far (after 1 week) was all the amazing fun and relaxed culture we had in shuttles.  Crary lab is definitely not a relaxed place and you have to be on top of it all the time.  In shuttles, you could act goofy all the time, except when driving.  Also, I will miss listening to music all the time like I could while driving.  And of course in shuttles, we actually had a lot of free time, which was nice.  Since we work 60 hour weeks, there is not tons of free-time.  And since nowadays we almost need to spend almost an hour each day just answering emails and all that, these things take away from that free time.  In crary lab I don’t have the chance to look at emails, pay my credit cards online, do birthday gift amazon shopping, read the news and espn.com, etc during work, so I must do this in my free-time.  In shuttles I always had time to do all that and more on the internet, so that was nice.  And another thing that I liked with shuttles was how there was 27 of us, and we were one big family.  It’s only week one, so we will see how the Crary family develops.  There are about 9 of us from IT to supply to haz chemicals working in Crary.

Perhaps the biggest thing I will miss though with shuttles was getting around the base, driving around outside, going on the long drive out to the airport looking at scenery the whole time, and having access of the vehicles to go look at cool things when they were reported.  In Crary, we spend most of our time in front of computers or in the lab.  The other day, there was some gorgeous light on the peaks as the sun was getting close to rising (still hasn’t risen yet!), so we got to go outside for 5 mins to take some pictures and look at the mountains.  It was cool and everyone in the lab was just so excited.  And at that moment, I was really missing shuttles bc I was thinking, “dang, in shuttles we were out driving around (with the option to stop), all the time.  Definitely in this job, I will hardly have anytime outside, it will only be during my own free-time recreation, whereas with shuttles, we were just always out in the beauty, looking at Erebus, the island, penguins, etc.  I mean there are chances with this job that if you didn’t make an effort on your free day, you may never see penguins. Actually shuttles was probably the only group last year where everyone in the work center saw penguins, and we saw them all the time.  Shuttles also had a super sweet schedule in that you had 2 days off, compared to 1 in crary, and the hours were very flexible.  So if you wanted to do something on base during your normal working hours, it was easy to switch around.  And lastly, with shuttles you were much more out in the community.  Driving all around it.  Picking up all sorts of people.  People knew who you were.  Everyone knew Shuttle Guy.  But people in Crary are much more of recluses.  Most people don't know workers in Crary.  I have no idea who the people were who had my job last year and neither does anyone, bc we are so confined to crary.  We do know all the grantees, but not the town population so much.  I hope for that to be different for me this year.  I love activities, so I hope I will still be out and I will make lots of friends.  I hope people will know who Science Guy is.

I would be lying for sure if I didn't say that I missed shuttles.  However, it is just the first week and the job will get easier, and I am excited to be trying and doing something different and to be working more closely with science.  Also it is nice hearing everyone congratulating me on my job, bc it is an impressive job on the base, and I would say that a lot of people are jealous.  So I guess I am lucky to have had two of the best jobs on the base

Today Jerod and I are going to go play some bball as it is our day off.  And this afternoon we are going to head off to castle rock to look at the full moon and hope that maybe we can see some auroras!