Work, Work, Work

I’m really enjoying work at the moment.  I was thinking about this today, as I sat in a meeting where they were telling us how we’re all (probably) going to get our jobs re-classified.  As far as I can tell, this means we’ll get paid more money for doing the same thing, which is entirely fair enough, as radiographers in this State are currently badly undervalued.  We are the lowest paid radiographers in Australia.  

The usual argument for this is that the cost of living is lower.  It used to be, but has pretty much caught up with the other states.  It’s much the same now as in England, in that newly qualified radiographers can’t afford the mortgage on an averaged priced home.  It’s just that an average home here is much bigger. And only one storey high.  And made of wood, plasterboard, and a bit of superglue.

Anyway, in this meeting, I realised that I haven’t been all that bothered about the fact I’ve been given a role very similar to my Clinical Tutor job back in Manchester, but am being paid 2 grades lower than I was.

I still enjoy radiographing people, and there’s lots of it to do.  The people I work with are, on the whole a great laugh, pleasant and interesting.  I’ve always enjoyed training students, so it’s great to be heading that up again.  I’m also in charge of Continuing Professional Development.  That’s new to me, and a bit scary.  I’ve been given a blank slate really, the role is mine to run with to see what I can squeeze out of it.  It’s all a bit nebulous and airy.  At least when you’ve got an x-ray request card in your hand, you know exactly what is expected of you, and get instant feedback on if you’ve done a good job or not.

We are rostered (on the roster, which I prefer to call a ‘rota’, which is what we called it in Manchester, although I can see the benefit of ‘roster’ when you come to try to make a verb of it in the past tense - it’s easy to say someone was rostered somewhere, but rota-ed? roterd? rota’d?) in shift groups of about 6, who you work with all the time unless you are doing a side job for some of the rota/roster like me.  Mine is a really nice group, all.  We’re making efforts to be more sociable too.  We’ve been 10-pin bowling (I came last. Twice. I think there are different gyroscopic forces in the southern hemisphere), had a Barbie, and have plans for monthly pub visits.

I really like the shift pattern too.  Never a fan of routine, it’s nicely varied in a repeating kind of way.  I do 5 daytime shifts, weekend off, 7 daytime shifts, then Monday - Wednesday off, then 7 PM’s (15:30-23:30), with 4 days off after.  Sometimes the 7 PM’s are replaced by 7 nights, but at only 7 and half hours long, they are a piece of cake compared to the 12 hours I did at MRI.  

It’s still a long way to get there. I currently cycle 9 km to the train station, where I have to buy my bike a childs ticket to cramp up in a corner way to small for me, the bike and the 3 commuters who are worried about me getting oil on their suits to stand in for the 45 minute journey.  I’ve become very adept at sleeping, reading or listening to my ipod in various contorted positions.  Still, I’m glad we live where we do, as it’s near the better beaches, the hills and the wineries.