by Hayley Solich

Created on: August 02, 2007   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

MONEY ISN'T EVERYTHING!

It was a great opportunity. They wanted me. They needed me. After all, they had invited me to take up the position. Therefore, they would be providing me with all the support I needed, or so I assumed, for it was not a position for which I had applied.

When I started the lucrative five-month contract with a government agency as a HR Projects Officer Equity, I had no idea what it would cost me. I quickly found out that nothing in life comes without a price and in this case, I paid dearly. My lesson learned: A high salary doesn't necessarily equate to a high level of job satisfaction and personal happiness.

Full of enthusiasm, I had sacrificed a lower paying but highly satisfying job. I arrived on Day 1 and my brief was to review the HR policies relating to Equity. There were three, with eight pages in total. As I had a strong secretarial background, I anticipated having the job done by lunchtime on Day 1.

Sitting at my desk, I spent most of the first day reading and re-reading the three policies. I went home feeling a little bored but nothing too drastic. It was the first day. I just needed to settle in and make friends or so I thought.

Day 2 came and when I arrived, my Supervisor told me to "make myself familiar with the policies". I sat down, read and re-read the policies. I made some notes, dissecting them. Correcting any typographical errors or name changes, I felt that I could recite the three policies off by heart by the end of the day.

The rest of the week dragged by and then the next one as my Supervisor went on holidays. My only task for two weeks was to review the policies! To stop myself going insane, I regularly ventured around to each desk for a chat to break up the monotony. For someone who is predominantly a hands-on people person, this job was so hard.

Finally, my meeting with the Supervisor came around. I gave her the review drafts and told her I had finished. She looked at me with her superior eyebrows raised and said, "That should have taken at least four weeks." Internally, I shriveledit was a definite reprimand. Somehow, I had failed and she hadn't even read a word. I obviously hadn't put enough energy into the review, or so she intimated. Discussing various aspects of the policy, she spent the next hour correcting every term that I voiced incorrectly. For example, if I said "Equal Opportunity", she said, "Equal Employment Opportunity." She intended to intimidate me and it worked. Before ten minutes were up, I was a babbling

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