It's True

Less than a week after I started my job, a recruiter reached out to me about a potential employment opportunity, and since then, I've had a slow but steady trickle of recruiters wanting to connect on LinkedIn. It's nice to feel wanted, but it's frustrating to see how true it is that the most valuable asset in finding a job is already having one.

August

In Israel, August is a nebulous time. By unspoken national agreement, it is nearly impossible to find childcare in August. This is the month of family vacations, of "Camp Ema", of taking off a day here and a day there to patch unfillable holes in the kids' schedules, of spontaneous and unofficial Take Your Child to Work Day. Or, in some special cases, Days. I'm hoping that when September 1st rolls around in two days, our resident eight year old with the Nerf gun will finally leave my floor and go back to school.

How It Looks

So it turns out that the "ketchup" ruling has already gone into effect.

Thus, Osem proudly says "Ketchup" in Hebrew all across the front of their bottles of ketchup, as they have always done. Heinz now says "Ketchup" only in English, though they've added a really big "Since 1876" which didn't used to be there. On the back, in Hebrew, Heinz wrote "Tomato Seasoning" and on then their blurb about how they use delicious sun-ripened tomatoes together with their long-standing knowledge and desire to make their unique recipe: no other tomato seasoning tastes like this. 

This is completely ridiculous. The best part, though, is that Rami Levy still knows what's up. In their inimitable style, they write whatever they feel like on their SALE signs, customers and government be darned. This week, Rami Levy decided to go with their customers rather than the government, posting signs that will lead to minimal confusion. The top sign says, "Ketchup 750g - Osem" and the bottom sign says "Ketchup 700g Heinz." What's tomato seasoning? The employees need to know where to put the sign (kind of), and the customers need to know what the sale is for (again, kind of). Ketchup. They're both ketchup. And they're both on sale.

It's Happened

Due to the low percentage of tomato paste in their world-famous condiment (6%), Heinz will no longer be able to market their better-on-hot-dogs sauce as ketchup in Israel. Osem, however, with at least 10% tomato paste in their ketchup, is fine.

Real Work

Yesterday, I finally finished enough training to start actual work. My supervisor told me not to worry about how long it was going to take me to complete even very simple tasks. So no pressure, just lots of excitement at finally getting to work like the big kids, instead of being stuck in class like a little kid.

The Recruiter

I got a LinkedIn message from a recruiter the other day. She had a position to fill, and wanted to know if we could talk about it. Well, that was flattering and somewhat unexpected, if also irrelevant. Where was she for the last year and a half?

Something Different

I just realized something weird about my orientation. This is the first tine in years that I came into a new workspace and wasn't immediately given a tour of alarms, fire extinguishers, safety showers, and escape routes. It's so... so... banal. I'm sure my parents will be glad my new workplace is so dull.

Not a Drug Deal

Husbinator bought a lot of vanilla beans online recently, and Aunty Em split the order with us. When the vanilla beans finally came, I brought half of them to work. That day, Uncle En took a cab to my building and I met him downstairs. We exchanged a few pleasantries,  I gave him the goods, and he gave me an envelope of cash and left. Luckily, Aunty Em included a baggie of homemade cookies along with the cash, so it wasn't too much like a drug deal. Really.

Feedback

Here's how I know I've dressed up for work: I dropped my car at the mechanic a few mornings ago to get a new battery, and the mechanic warned me that if I touched anything  in the garage, it would make me dirty. No mechanic (including this one) has ever felt the need to give me that warning before.

TGI... T?

Overheard while getting a cup of coffee in the office this morning (translated from the original Hebrew):

"What a week!"
"I know, right? I'm so glad it's finally Thursday."

It took me a minute to process that: yeah, Thursday's good, it means you're nearly there, but why such an intense level of relief? Oh, right, there's no work tomorrow.

Because the Israeli workweek is Sunday-Thursday. Which I've known for a long time, now. But "Thank G-d It's Thursday" still isn't something that my brain expects to hear.

Artificial Traffic Jams

There was horrific traffic on my way to work this morning. Horrific. As I was getting off of the highway (at last!), I saw what had caused the backup: although the right lane was completely clear, it was occupied by a parked police vehicle, and the officer was standing on the road, partially blocking the next lane. Kind of annoying, but who knows.

As I drove on the next leg of my commute, which about of a 1/4 mile on another reasonably major road, I again used the brake pedal rather than the gas pedal to move forward, if you want to call it that. And again, I saw that the backup was due to a police car parked horizontally in the right lane, with a policeman standing between it and the next lane over... looking intently at every car that crawled past. Oh.

So that's how we cordon off areas for search in this country.

What Does Family-Friendly Mean?

I keep hearing that Israeli corporate culture is very family-friendly, which makes sense given how obsessed the country is with kids. Forget a village, it takes a country to raise a child. But still, where a 43 hour workweek is the norm and schools don't go that late, how family-friendly can it really be?

I shall tell you.

In one of today's training sessions, the guy giving the training got a phone call. Well, he got tons of phone calls throughout the meeting, but he answered one. First, he apologized to us like he really meant it, then he took the call. 

"Hi, Penina, what's going on?" 

Pause. 

"What? But I told him he couldn't!"

Pause.

"Let me talk to him."

Pause.

"No, but--"

Pause.

"I told him no, please let me talk to him."

Pause.

"Put him on the phone."

Pause.

"Hi, sweetie, what's going on?"

Pause.

"You have how many friends over?"

Pause.

"Right, but I said you couldn't."

Pause.

"The party's over; don't make Penina crazy; I'll see you when I get home; I love you; bye."

The development team leader gave us an embarrassed grin and shrugged.

I said, "August. What can you do?"

And the meeting moved right along.

The Job

I started my job on Monday. The first two weeks are training, which is mainly videos/web conferences explaining what broadcasters need to do behind-the-scenes before they air stuff, and how our software lets them manage that. I take notes and play with the software during the lectures, and type everything up afterwards. Oo, ah. But it is cool learning the industry-side of something as ubiquitous as television. It also has the added advantage of giving me complementary information to what Husbinator's learned since he became a recruiter for the internet-advertising world.

What else? Going from no schedule at all to working 9 hours a day with a 30-minute commute is kind of intense. Like, super draining. But I'll get used to it again.

Working in an office that keeps a well-stocked kitchen for their employees is fun, especially when well-stocked means fancy-pants American cereals (Honey Nut Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Raisin Bran) along with bread and all of the typical Israeli things to put thereon (chummus, gvina levana, cheese, matbucha, cole slaw, egg salad, cucumbers, tomatoes, and, shockingly, cold cuts). Free food is a significant perk, but honestly, not having to pack myself breakfast or lunch is an even better perk.

I've liked everyone I've interacted with so far (yay), and I really like my supervisor (double yay).

Also? The office has floor-to-ceiling windows all along one wall, giving a gorgeous view of the edge of Jerusalem and the surrounding hills.

The best perk though? Seriously? The office is air conditioned. It's been over 90° for two weeks already, which is not at all normal for this region, and on Sunday, the high/low was 106°/88°. Our house is not air conditioned, though it's something we began discussing very seriously about a week ago. (And before you all start wrangling me about our favorite person, he is attending an air-conditioned camp in a wonderful lady's house for the next week-and-a-half or so.)