Workin´ Girl

Today was supposed to be my first day of work here at the University (people call it "la UNSIS", pronounced "oon-sis"). Through a serious of fortunate events, I actually got put on the books starting July 18th, which was really great because it was the last day of work before 2 weeks of vacation! So I am going to be paid for the 2 weeks of traveling I just did! And it also means that this initial 6-month contract ends January 18th, and my year anniversary will be July 18th, rather than August 4th...

La UNSIS has lots of rules and regulations that all staff have to follow, and apparently it can be very cumbersome and frustrating at times. Earlier today a woman who just left the University introduced herself, and then continued to complain about all the things wrong with the system here... But the bottom line is that there has been a lot of "corruption" and abuse in other university systems in Mexico, and to counter and avoid that, la UNSIS has resorted to over-regulation. So that explains some of what I´m experiencing here...

My working hours are 9am-2pm, and 4pm-7pm. Most people leave campus during the 2 hour break, to eat lunch at their homes (I´ve found that if I eat something quick I have time for a short siesta!). The time clock system is run by fingerprint, so I scan my right index finger when I come in and when I leave. It´s IMPERATIVE that we clock in before 9am, and that we clock out not a minute before 2pm. As in there is a line of people (all staff, not just the English teachers) waiting for the time clock to click to 2.00 so that they can leave for lunch). Same deal for the last part of the day, I MUST clock in before 4pm, and clock out not a second before 7.00.

It reminds me a little bit of when I was working at Ford, my hours were SO fixed that I remember we would just be staring at the clock waiting for it to be 4pm so that we could leave... Hopefully that will be the only thing these jobs have in common!!

More description to come later...