Yesterday was my first day of work at UNESCO Bangkok. It was a strange day, since none of my “bosses” were around – my own boss had broken her leg about a week ago and wasn’t feeling well on Monday. Many of the professionals (P level staffers in the UN HR system) are often jetting around on missions, as our office is the Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education as well as the subregional cluster office for the countries of the Mekong region.
I had a chance to meet with the UNESCO director as well as some of the other staff (at their all-staff meeting). Gordon Johnston, the Program Coordinator (who pretty much assumes the deputy directory role) and I chatted for a bit and he showed me around a little. I thought it kind of funny when he referred to the bureaucracy of the UN several times. Nevertheless, I think this building houses a ton of super smart people (Mr. Johnston calls the UNESCO Bangkok office a think-tank), maybe I’ll get smarter via osmosis!
My office is a little library desk in the library, right now. I have access to the Internet on my laptop now, too, as they’ve put in a few WiFi spots in the building, although their firewall blocks off most programs right now.
I’m pretty excited to have started, although I’m recovering from my trips to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Chiang Mai, and Krabi which really drained me. I’ve moved out of my old place, and now I’m staying with a friend of mine, Ryan. Also, I’m really changing my daily schedule to have some semblance of discipline: waking up early, going to bed early, starting to jog again… And at 4pm, the office empties out!
Well, this job will be pretty challenging: building databases, completely revamping their web site (and sub sites), and doing information architecture stuff. It’ll be quite an adventure getting all this work done.
Good luck with the first few days of work! Establishing a daily schedule, and getting into the swing of things is tough!