As previously mentioned, the poor blog is suffering from neglect as I have started a "stage" and sit about fifty hours a week in front of a computer screen, which effectively removes any motivation for blog - writing I may have at weekends and the like.
But today a brilliant idea struck me. Why not blog from work? Actually I had thought about this already but in a fit of eager-beaverishness I had quickly dismissed the idea. Really, how could I use the time that is rightly my dear employers' to such shallow ends? Well, now that I've been here three weeks and am bored and demotivated (not so much by the job but... well more of that in a bit) I think it is time to get back to the old ways (i.e. blog about stuff rather than work, cf months of May & June).
Soooooo, here we are again.
Maybe a word on the new job.
I work for touteleurope.fr (check it out if you speak french, it's actually a really cool site).
TLE (as it will henceforth be referred to) is an website that provides news, information, analysis, reports & al on all things european union-y. It's a relatively new, under a couple of years I think but is part of a much bigger structure known as Sources d'Europe. It is funded by the French governement and the European Commission, though the latter is graciously withdrawing it's funding on 31/12/07. The first week I was here there was a certain amount of fuss over whether the site could survive without the Commission's money, but this is now better as private companies have been talked into giving TLE some funds. TLE will however have to move. Yes, a word on our office.
TLE is, basically, located in the most beautiful office in the world. The last building on the prestigious Boulevard St Germain, it is opposite the Assemblée nationale (parliament) and a two minute walk from the Place de la Concorde. We have a huge flat on the last floor of the building, all white paint and marble columns, maybe 200 sq meters for all twelve of us working here.
My office, which I share with E. and M. , two others stagiaires, and A. and R., my superiors (R. is the editor), is circular, set in the tower-roof of the building and has seven windows through which I can see various Parisian landmarks : place de la Concorde, Eiffel Tower, Invalides, the river, Sacré Coeur and the Assemblée nationale. Very nice indeed.
My job involves all kinds of exciuiting stuff, press reviews, article writing, report updating, news feeds selecting, buyt all of this has boiled down in toa kind of routine (not in the bad sense of the word) which is as follows :
Whoever arrives frst (of the three stagiaires, the other two cruise in a bit later) picks up the newspapers from the local kiosk and starts to read : la Croix (catholic), L'Humanité (communist), Libération (left wing), Le Figaro (right wing), Le Monde (centre left), Les Echos (business and economics), La Tribune (ditto) and whatever weeklies there are that day. At the office one scans them to pick up anything to do with the EU. This is for the press review which is put online (along with a synthesis of the day's story) and sent off to the suscribers (it's free).
This actually takes most of the morning, the longest part being putting it all in the software (typo 3) and sending it/putting it online. Once a week we also send off a newsletter which is invariably late (due to be sent on tuesday pm, to wednesday am, to wednesday pm) and chaotic to write up.
In the afternoon we get down to our little tasks. I have the honour of sifting through 300 RSS feeds (links that come from other sites), chucking the ones that have nothing to do with the EU and classiying those that do. I also write up the 'in briefs' that I collect from the various institutonal sites. other than that we work on a certain number of projects. My first one (very traumatic) was on driving licences in the EU. I am currently doing one on an EU immigration policy and updating the enlargement pages.
In fact, I will soon blog about the immigration policy, which is illogical and weird at best.
Hours are usually 9 to 6 though i've done 8.30 to 8. My salary is 370 euros a month, which is just a third of the minimum wage and lunch vouchers are not included.
But the biggest issue is the boredom. You would think that a newsroom belonging to a company employing just 12 people to handle all the info coming out of the EU would behectic, but it's not. Or maybe it should be, but the superiors float around giving us the odd job, but rarely come back to us with feedback on what we've done. So when I have done whatever was asked of me, it's just boooordom. Thank god for blogs.
But today a brilliant idea struck me. Why not blog from work? Actually I had thought about this already but in a fit of eager-beaverishness I had quickly dismissed the idea. Really, how could I use the time that is rightly my dear employers' to such shallow ends? Well, now that I've been here three weeks and am bored and demotivated (not so much by the job but... well more of that in a bit) I think it is time to get back to the old ways (i.e. blog about stuff rather than work, cf months of May & June).
Soooooo, here we are again.
Maybe a word on the new job.
I work for touteleurope.fr (check it out if you speak french, it's actually a really cool site).
TLE (as it will henceforth be referred to) is an website that provides news, information, analysis, reports & al on all things european union-y. It's a relatively new, under a couple of years I think but is part of a much bigger structure known as Sources d'Europe. It is funded by the French governement and the European Commission, though the latter is graciously withdrawing it's funding on 31/12/07. The first week I was here there was a certain amount of fuss over whether the site could survive without the Commission's money, but this is now better as private companies have been talked into giving TLE some funds. TLE will however have to move. Yes, a word on our office.
TLE is, basically, located in the most beautiful office in the world. The last building on the prestigious Boulevard St Germain, it is opposite the Assemblée nationale (parliament) and a two minute walk from the Place de la Concorde. We have a huge flat on the last floor of the building, all white paint and marble columns, maybe 200 sq meters for all twelve of us working here.
My office, which I share with E. and M. , two others stagiaires, and A. and R., my superiors (R. is the editor), is circular, set in the tower-roof of the building and has seven windows through which I can see various Parisian landmarks : place de la Concorde, Eiffel Tower, Invalides, the river, Sacré Coeur and the Assemblée nationale. Very nice indeed.
My job involves all kinds of exciuiting stuff, press reviews, article writing, report updating, news feeds selecting, buyt all of this has boiled down in toa kind of routine (not in the bad sense of the word) which is as follows :
Whoever arrives frst (of the three stagiaires, the other two cruise in a bit later) picks up the newspapers from the local kiosk and starts to read : la Croix (catholic), L'Humanité (communist), Libération (left wing), Le Figaro (right wing), Le Monde (centre left), Les Echos (business and economics), La Tribune (ditto) and whatever weeklies there are that day. At the office one scans them to pick up anything to do with the EU. This is for the press review which is put online (along with a synthesis of the day's story) and sent off to the suscribers (it's free).
This actually takes most of the morning, the longest part being putting it all in the software (typo 3) and sending it/putting it online. Once a week we also send off a newsletter which is invariably late (due to be sent on tuesday pm, to wednesday am, to wednesday pm) and chaotic to write up.
In the afternoon we get down to our little tasks. I have the honour of sifting through 300 RSS feeds (links that come from other sites), chucking the ones that have nothing to do with the EU and classiying those that do. I also write up the 'in briefs' that I collect from the various institutonal sites. other than that we work on a certain number of projects. My first one (very traumatic) was on driving licences in the EU. I am currently doing one on an EU immigration policy and updating the enlargement pages.
In fact, I will soon blog about the immigration policy, which is illogical and weird at best.
Hours are usually 9 to 6 though i've done 8.30 to 8. My salary is 370 euros a month, which is just a third of the minimum wage and lunch vouchers are not included.
But the biggest issue is the boredom. You would think that a newsroom belonging to a company employing just 12 people to handle all the info coming out of the EU would behectic, but it's not. Or maybe it should be, but the superiors float around giving us the odd job, but rarely come back to us with feedback on what we've done. So when I have done whatever was asked of me, it's just boooordom. Thank god for blogs.
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