Job title needed

[Sh4rkyBloke]

Chief Crawlspace Calcium Co-ordinator?

 

[Arch]

Oh dear Arch . Who did you upset to get given that job

Dogsbody Attic Cleaner

Are you kidding? It's great. I get to play about alphabetising and organising and reboxing skellingtons, making stuff fit in half the space it fitted in before - a sort of Krypton Factor puzzle, the sort of thing I love doing and I get paid to do it!

So far the most stressful bit is organising the shipping of some piglet bones to Switzerland via Fed Ex, but I shouldn't have to do that again...

Loving the suggestions so far!

 

[Cycling Naturalist]

Oh dear Arch . Who did you upset to get given that job

Dogsbody Attic Cleaner

This identifies twentysix as a male, and therefore a proper job involves executive decisions, targets, deadlines, bonuses, intense pressure and a staff to shout at.

 

[Canrider]

I've assigned a squad of postgrad students to come up with your job title, Arch.

Have you considered applying for funding to hire a postdoc to assist your assistance? RAE's coming..

 

[Kirstie]

Bit late for any last minute RAE scrabbling around but luckily I think Arch might be exempt...

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Are you kidding? It's great. I get to play about alphabetising and organising and reboxing skellingtons, making stuff fit in half the space it fitted in before - a sort of Krypton Factor puzzle, the sort of thing I love doing and I get paid to do it!

So far the most stressful bit is organising the shipping of some piglet bones to Switzerland via Fed Ex, but I shouldn't have to do that again...

Loving the suggestions so far!

Well good for you - it's your thing (I'm hopelessy hopeless at such organisation )

So HART - Happy Arch Reorganising Therapy

I'm worried about your supervisor now - fitting the job so perfectly to the individual. He/She won't last long

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

This identifies twentysix as a male, and therefore a proper job involves executive decisions, targets, deadlines, bonuses, intense pressure and a staff to shout at.

Hmmph - well I am male - so full marks there.
But zero marks for the rest as I try to avoid/minimise all that other management cr@p. And I try to avoid some of the less interesting (for me that is) stuff.
So manage one's manager is my advice so that your work is enjoyable.

So I'm happy that Arch is happy with her task. Now that is a proper job in my book.


Skellingtons - are those the things boney people wear for muddy walks ?

 

[Arch]

So I'm happy that Arch is happy with her task. Now that is a proper job in my book.

It's a shame I don't think I'll be able to make it last more than a week or so.

Skellingtons - are those the things boney people wear for muddy walks ?

hee hee!

Right, well, job one yesterday was to FedEx a box to Zurich. (woo, sounds very big buisness!). I've never used FedEx before.

Shipment to be billed to the recipient's account - I have the number. We don't have a FedEx account.

Anyway. I can't do it online, that needs a password. So I ring up - having taken some time to find the Customer Service number, which is buried in the website.

Pleased when after two rings, and only one set of "Press 1 for..." I get through to a nice Indian lady.

"Hello, I'd like to arrange a pickup to send a parcel on an account number which is not mine"

"OK, fine"

First Q. What is the company name for pickup?

"Um.. Dept of Archaeology, University of York..."

"Postcode?"

I give it.

"York University? " tappity tappity "That is Heslington?"

"Er, no. Dept of Archaeology is on a separate site. The one I gave postcode for. It's in town..."

So eventually, we get this sorted. I give various details as requested.

Pickup arranged. I check:

"So, the parcel is addressed, labelled with contents. Do I need anything else for the courier?"

"Yes, you need consignment invoice, one original, 3 copies"

"Er, but I don't have those, never having used you before."

"I'll fax them to you"

<scramble to find Dept fax number>

Ok. All done. Go to office to await fax.

An hour later, ring to chase fax. Fax arrives (but new lady says, I could have printed form off internet).

Forms filled in. Leave all with Porter for collection.

Bugger off on afternoon trip to Elvington Air Museum. Just sitting down to un-period lunch of chicken balti and chips in the NAAFI when mobile rings. It's the Fed Ex guy, who is at campus, wanting to know where Dept is. I explain that it's at the pickup address I gave the lady on the phone, which is in town centre about 2 miles away from campus. I have to give him directions to find it.

But the box is finally on the way.





Or is it? Email waiting for me this morning from boss saying it turned out I also needed a barcoded label, which I wasn't told about on the phone, which the courier has left with porter for me to fill in, and pickup will be today...

I'll be amazed if the stuff ever gets there....

How hard can it be, to talk a new customer through the process, and to tell a courier a pickup address, and for him to find the place, on a map? How will they ever find the Institute of Anatomy in Zurich?

Thank god, from now, it's all just reboxing skellies... I hope.

 

[trustysteed]

are the bones ribbed for your pleasure?

 

[Pete]

One question that's been gnawing* at my mind all along.
Did you, while bone-sorting, check that...
Each foot-bone was connected to a .... leg-bone,
each leg-bone connected to a ... knee-bone
and each knee-bone connected to a ... thigh-bone
....
and so on?
I think we should be told (does this apply to animals anyway)?

*is that a good word to use?

 

[Aperitif]

I find all these suggestions a bit marrow nine dead...

 

[Canrider]

Aperitif:

Arch, have I ever told you about the time I was asked to smuggle* bones** into Ukraine?


*Well, 'bring this box as your luggage and hope they don't ask you to open it'.
*Middle Palaeo, mostly rhino I think..

 

[Arch]

I find all these suggestions a bit marrow nine dead...

<aaaahhhhhh>

Took me a while to get that..

Pete, if you mean will I be checking that each skeleton has a full compliment of phalanges, metapodials, tibiae, patellae and femora... then because it's reference material, yes, probably!

But in the day to day work with archaeological material, no, coz it's all jumbled up rubbish and you rarely get articulating bits...

Canrider, no, I don't think I'd heard that one... Was it a big suitcase, or just not a whole rhino?