I use to do finance, and loved it. Loved it so much! Numbers make sense to me. It speaks to me. I see how it is suppose to work. But finance is a full time and very consuming job. In the company I work for now, finance is so busy and I use to work all hours and put 13-15 hours in a day. Even over weekends.
When I got back from Maternity leave, I had to take over from the HR lady who went on maternity leave at the time. I use to work very closely with HR anyway in my finance role, and already had privy to most of the super confidential stuff so me taking over while she was on leave made perfect sense, specially since my finance role was already being covered by a super competent lady, whom I adore.
When she came back I was offered a position in the HR department. The perk was that I got to work till 4. And that meant I got to spend so much more time with Kai.
Working till 5 meant I only got home at 6:20 most days, if i was lucky and did not get stuck in traffic. At the time it meant 30 minutes with Kai before bed time. I hated it. I needed more time with him. In finance it was never going to happen. So I took the HR job. I don't love it. People don't make sense to me The things they do freak me out most of the time. It really is like running an adult creche. But I get to be with my boys. I get to go home at 4, and be home. Be present. I don't need to switch my laptop on every night and check on work / do work, make sure things are balancing etc.
So there you have it. I work in HR. I work in the adult creche department. I don't hate it. But I don't love it either. I have no passion for sorting out people's crap. Just not me. But hey I get to be with my boys from 4:35 every day! Whoop Whoop!! Bonus
I specifically concentrate on the following aspects of staff development:
1. Training - 170 Staff members ranging from illiterate to MBA candidates
2. BB BEE - Making sure the company complies to BB BEE standards, and continuously working on improving our score
3. Induction of all new staff (Their entire induction program)
4. Probationary reviews of all staff members and advise on extensions where needed.
5. Bi annual performance reviews, and analysing the data
6. Personal development plans - Each individual (170) has to have a PDP and I am in charge of setting it up (current major project) and following up on making sure that goals are achieved.
7. Succession planning for all key staff members
8. I oversee the entire payroll function, though I have an administrator who does the physical work
9. I oversee all garnishee's and staff loans as well as training agreements and paybacks.
10. I also, on a side line, somehow (not sure how) handle all the personal and business related work for our Chairman of 73 including his personal and business finances.
11. I somehow get roped into ALL events planning and other corporate events and gifts etc too. (This part I love)
12. I get am the kind of person who also gets involved in stuff, and it leaves very little time for me to sit at work an do nothing. I have so many ad-hoc little things always going on at work too.
I get to work at 06:45 to miss traffic and give myself 30 minutes to post my blog and read over some of my favs, before really getting into work.
Unfortunately my work also involves some travel as we have branches all over:
Cape Town Head Office (Where I am based)
Cape Town Port (15 minutes away from HO)
Germiston - Which is in Johannesburg - 2 hour flight.
Rustenburg - Which is in the North West province. This is a horrible trip as you have to fly to Johanesburg and then drive 2 hours to Rustenburg. This is normally an over night trip as we try to go to JHB on day one, drive to Rustenburg the same day, crash in Rustenburg then go to site the next day and work there, till we head home on a flight that night. This is a super exausting trip. We normally take the early flight out (6 am) which means I am up at 3:30, to get to the airport on time. Then we get to the office in Germiston at about 9 / 10 am. Work till say 4. Then hit the road for a 3 hour drive to get to Rustenburg at 6. Snack on a quick dinner. Sleep. Up at 5, to get to site at 7. Work till 3 then drive 1.5 hours to the airport, for the evening flight out at 5 to Cape Town.
Durban - 2 hour flight
West coast - Lutzville - 4 hour drive from Cape Town
Springbok - 8 hour drive from Cape Town. This one is normally linked to a Lutzville trip. This one is up at 2 leave the house at 3. Get to Springbok at 11 ish. Work till say 5. Then drive 4 hours back to Lutzville to sleep. Then up early to do work in Lutzville. Then home (4 hour drive home).
I don't love the traveling FOR WORK (I LOVE traveling with my family!). In fact I despise it. I hate being away from Kai and Klaus. Specially the overnight trips. It puts so much more pressure on Klaus, though he handles it like a pro.
We are soon going to be expanding the company and will be employing roughly 80 new staff members. They will be situated an hour from Lutzville which will mean a 5 hour drive to visit them. :(
I am getting concerned that I might not be able to switch off at 4 anymore. But I will see how it goes. I just want to be around and present for Kai, and then when he is done and settled, I want to spend time with Klaus. That too much to ask for?
I must say, and this is very important to me. I work for a good, solid socially responsible company. I feel at home here. I know the company and the people. I have been here for 7.5 years. I earn a damn good salary. And in all I like it here. So it's not all bad.
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