Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Being too good at the mundane

At my internship there are the cool jobs I have to do, and the much less cool jobs.

The cool jobs aren't really that cool, just by comparison they are cool. For instasnce, calling up agents to see which famous actor, actress, director, or writer is available for a certian project and when they are available. Or reading a book, comic book, screenplay, or what have you and writing up some coverage for the boss. And even compiling lists of older movies with similar themes and plots as ones currently in development.

Jobs that aren't so cool involve the making of the coffee, compiling master lists of actors, writers, and directors, photocopying screenplays, and especially photocopying novels.

The problem being, I'm pretty good at the not so cool stuff. I know how to use excell pretty well, I actually make coffee professionally (well if you consider starbucks professional), and for some reason, I am the fastest photocopier - especially when it comes to novels. You see, when copying screenplays, plays, teleplays, or manuscripts, those just get fed quickly into the machine. Novels, published novels to be precise, come bound so one can't just feed it into the machine, one must go page by page, flipping through the book, to make a copy. I seem to be able to do this faster than my fellow interns. Not that much faster, but enough that I wind up the one doing it to save time.

The down side, not only do I hate the monotony of the photocopy machine, but when I'm out making copies, my fellow interns get to do the cool stuff (comparitivly anyway). Thus, I am penalized (of sorts) for being good at my job.

It's a really lame thing to complain about, especially as I like my fellow interns and wouldn't want them labouring away in the dark recess where the copy machine lies. But it's a pain and I'm in a complaining mood. So there.

My passover post (which I have been working on, put far more time and effort into a blog post than probably healthy) will drop sometime early next week, after the craziness that is passover has, er.. passed.

3 comments:

rawbean said...

I was photocopying a bound book a few weeks ago (a few chapters) and my wrist was getting sore from constantly rotating - maybe you can say you think you are getting carpel tunnel syndrome it they keep picking you for this task!

Liz said...

Dawg, I can't wait for that Passover post to drop. I bet it's the bomb.

Can you try and institute some sort of rotation for that sort of thing. Or, I bet if you went around bragging about how fast you are at it and how no one can beat your time that would stir up some fierce competitive spirit in your fellow interns.

Hazed said...

I was just thinking, would it be appropriate to ask a fellow intern if they'd be willing to switch tasks for a day or two? If you were to say, "I've been stuck in copy-hell for days. I would really appreciate it if someone would trade with me for just a day or two." what do you think would happen? Would your "boss" be okay with that? Oh, and what's with Nonny's ebonics? We should totally make fun of her for that.

Glad to see you back, Ami. I've missed you!