This is a digitization effort to preserve a 15-week physical record of my Industry Based Learning (IBL) journal. The original content was part of one of my first website efforts – hosted on the now defunct DezzaNet ISPs personal home page platform. View the journal index on my main Coles Myer (IBL) page.
Friday 6 July, 2001
As arranged weeks earlier, I “visited” the Hoddle Street building at 10:00am to meeting up with my supervisor. With the other IBL student – there were only two of us IBL students assigned to Coles Myer (CML) – we were introduced to the Coles Myer IT department. We were both to be assigned to the Communications Voice & Infrastructure team, so we were shown to our future work desk area, where we would “live” for the next 5-6 months. Leaving with defined job descriptions of the two roles we would choose from, we both left the meeting with mixed impressions of the company – physically as well as socially. While the outside appearance of the Hoddle Street building was akin to a factory or prison, the inside facilities were actually quite roomy and comfortable.
2014 enhancement: The facilities themselves were a reflection of the 1980s office environment with generous storage facilities. Whilst not cutting edge, everything was of an adequate work standard for 2001.
Monday 9 July, 2001
Starting at 9:00am, my official work at CML began with the administrative duties of organising computer accounts and work passes so that we had necessary access to logging onto the computer. My supervisor was not due to arrive until 10:00am so I spent the time learning how to use the desk phone. I had two tasks assigned to me – the first was to research and find reviews of the success of Voice Recognition technology. The other task was to edit a PowerPoint presentation. Whilst both tasks proved to be challenging and time-consuming, I was able to successfully complete them on time and to a suitable quality standard. I actually decided to spend additional time that evening to do some extra research. During the day, I had three meetings. Now, going in, my only knowledge of a “meeting” was something big and official, where a formal agenda and structure was planned. As it turned out, these meetings were much more informal and were merely discussions.
2014 enhancement: The eagerness I brought into work was clearly present from Day #1. Such was my attitude to the work that I even brought work home on my first official day of work!
Tuesday 10 July, 2001
I decided to come into work at 8:00am (considered early) so as to maximise time spent on research as well as working on the PowerPoint presentation. These two tasks continued to preoccupy my time for the remainder of the day. Throughout the day, I also began to familiarise myself with Microsoft Outlook and the calendar suite of functionality. The only concern of the day was access, because my building pass had not yet been finalised. When I arrived at work I had to wait for one of the permanent colleagues within the team to let me in. I was able to finish work at 4:30pm, having sorted out the completion of temporary access forms, which was a temporary measure to providing me physical building access.
Wednesday 11 July, 2001
I started the day again at 8:00am and progressed steadily through the two tasks at hand. The relaxed and informal environment allowed me settle in quickly. With several members of the team busy with their own meetings, I continued working on the presentation. I was pleasantly informed that I could count the hours worked at home as part of the working week, and thus was introduced to the concept of “time off in lieu” (TOIL). To date, that meant I had already worked 16 hours in the office and a further 5 hours from home. That evening, I spent an additional 3 hours at home, partly now motivated by this new policy learning.
2014 enhancement: Whilst TOIL is a great concept, and the extra day off on the odd occasion is invaluable to getting personal chores completed, there needs to be balance – excessive working from home is one of the signs that I now recognise whereby a lack of work-life balance could be under effect. Also, it can back-fire in the form of inefficiency. However, as I was able to prove back in 2001, I was simply very keen and enthusiastic about the work.
Thursday 12 July, 2001
Today, I attended a presentation at Nunawading at 10:30am. The presentation had an audience of Coles managers and proceeded until lunchtime, Since I had arranged with the other IBL student for a lift to the venue – from her place to Nunawading, my place was on the way – it did me the luxury of sleeping in slightly. After the presentation we ended up settling for a quick-lunch at McDonald’s… Arriving at Hoddle St at 1:00pm, we worked until 5:00pm when I was also given a lift home.
Friday 13 July, 2001
Today, I had several meetings where my work on the presentation was used by my supervisor before the team manager. The manager was very pleased with my work and my work was subsequently shown to my 2-up manager, aka the Communications General Manager.
As a whole, the first week was a fast pace, with plenty of work. It was not quite like being “thrown in the deep end”, and there was little down-time for an idle mindset to develop.
2014 enhancement: Partly, this view of the week was my own doing; after all, I had voluntarily done extra work from home. The culmination of the meetings and showcasing on the Friday helped to reinforce the good work completed.
