I know Euorpe is more liberal...but come on!

Sometimes I wonder what the hell am I doing here?

Ok, not sometimes. All the time.

For those that don't know, I'm stuck in a job situation that is, you could say, less than ideal. This is my first paid job in the Netherlands, and I've been working here about nine months now, since the beginning of September. I thought this job would be good because it is in a young company, with young people, and the company was growing bigger constantly (in employees and in profits). Well, I've found out the negative side of this: growing too fast does not give you time to build proper office procedures and infrastructure needed in correctly managing people or projects. Hiring people quickly does not give you time to fully screen a person's personality to see if they a) have some sort of intelligence to be able to make their own decisions b) are counterintuitive and unable to properly function in an adult work environment c) are respectful of other people and d) are children.

These things, added together with mindless production work of copy/paste all day long...can really wear you down and damage your soul. Of course many many people in this world do not enjoy their jobs and go through life like a zombie, day in and day out. I am at that point, for several months already. But when you feel like you will go postal-that is when you know you have to get out. Everything here is counterintuitive. There is no communication or decent management of people (or projects)...and certain people won't even greet each other in the morning and never say a word to each other at all- just ignoring them. But why do I want to come to work to be treated like a I'm in kindergarten and have such strict rules as not even being able to eat what i want at my own desk because it smells, according to some people who never had a problem with it until now.

Well, besides the personnel here, what about the work culture? Is that the same here as in the US? Well, I know Europe is considered much more liberal than the US in general culture, but i can see now a blending of the two, where one world overlaps the other. I work in Amsterdam, known world-wide for their Red light district, legal prostitution, and open views on sex. I didn't think this would ever enter my work world, but it has. And I'm finding the exact opposite idea of professionalism is supposed to be. I guess even in an international company, the roots are still Dutch.

One of the girls I work with is out on vacation for a month. She was helping moderate a contribution based community for extra 'fun things' to put on your product (that this company sells). part of the content you can upload (and then others can download at home) are pictures for this product...for the start up screen and the shut-down screen. In the few rules that have been developed since this launched a few months ago, was that any offensive photos or photos with advertising would be taken down from the community...but, in true laissez faire fashion, they're letting the community do its own thing. If there is full nudity, I take it off of the community. But if no actual parts are showing, like a woman wearing a small small bikini, it stays online. There are no rules yet on how many times something should be flagged before it comes off line (youtube and google have mechanisms in order of course for their user-shared community, obviously they cannot moderate thousands of contributions a day). But for now, we don't have that system in order, so I am moderating it for a reason.

Anyways, the situation today lead me to get rather riled up about this this. I removed two pornographic photos today alone. Another one was left up only because it didn't show the actual body part...it was a woman's behind bent over in a suggestive position, but she had underwear covering the specific area to be covered. It wasn't like a hippie running thru the field naked- this was a suggestive photo. Anyways, this got me riled up because why should I be looking at these photos to begin with, at work?? at 9 o'clock in the morning? And the fact that I am going into discussion about what is hard core and border line porn with my supervisor. He wants to test the waters and keep it up. I think nudity is nudity and all forms of it should be taken off. But I am only one person, and a female, and an underling who they care nothing about and don't even recognize that I am an educated person...apparently I'm not representative of their customer base. But I can guarantee that their US customers will not like it. They may be Dutch, and European, but they have customers world-wide who don't want to wake up in the morning and think they're downloading one thing, but get porn instead. There isn't even a warning screen before saying "some things may be offensive" or not even the word "community-based". But with the company's name attached to it, they are the ones who will be seen as distributing porn. And of course, you don't have to download stuff your product if you don't like it, but having the option to and seeing the thumbnail version of it--you're still submitted to seeing it.

Why am I so adamant about arguing about this with a company I don't care much for anymore? I'm more upset that I have to look at and moderate this kind of material. What I look at on the internet or joke about with friends is something I'd rather do on my own personal time. But I do not want to do it for my job or joke about it with my supervisor. I think this is extremely absurd to be in a 'professional' environment. I could say, I don't want to look at these images anymore, but then they'd give the one extra job of 20 minutes a day to someone else...they won't change how this works because of me. I don't want to give this extra responsibility up. And I gladly wanted to help out in the absence of a co-worker, but I didn't want to look porn at work!

several issues at hand here - not only professionalism, but also the whole completely different discussion of community based content and how you monitor and protect both the freedom of speech and the protection of people who don't want to see this 'offensive content'. but there are other outlets for this, and it shouldn't be on such a widely known and used product that this company sells. there are pay for service websites for that. and if you really want that kind of content on this product, then you probably need some help. i'm sure this will come back to bite them in the butt. it sure wouldn't be good marketing if people knew *** was supporting pornography.

a quote from the movie Austin Powers about the dutch comes to mind: "I don't speak freaky-deaky dutch, you perv-boy!" Hmm, what an interesting image of the Dutch--

And interestingly enough, I stumbled upon an article related to community based content on youtube...whether or not they should change their content rules to prohibit any video supporting al-qaida....no less than 30 minutes after I had this 'discussion' (monologue really since i'm always interrupted and my supervisor never listens anyways) with my supervisor.

Last day, on to the next

Thursday was my last day working at Strowis (the youth hostel). It was the busiest day of the entire year. How fitting that it was my last day. A large group of about 20 youth left on that day, as well as a large percentage of the other guests. Which means that a lot of the beds needed to be changed and the rooms be totally cleaned after the mess left behind from a group that stayed there a long time. Usually the rooms are cleaned and done before 3pm. Today the first floor wasn't even started til 330 when I got there. Usually I would stay for my 4 hour shift, but often on Thursdays I stay a bit longer and sometimes have dinner there. I was there til almost 930pm..it was busy the entire time. It was a bit strange to think that was my last time there to work. But I enjoyed working there for the last 5 months. I wish I would have been able to have a bit more contact with the guests, like talking more to them...but it also depends on the guest themselves....some individuals are more likely to talk since they are traveling alone. Those that are more comfortable with English also talk more. The Italians and Spanish that filled the hostel in august purely to smoke weed, obviously did not talk much...due to their poor English... and being stoned. I worked with some interesting people, I learned how to make cappuccino, and I helped the continued success of a tourism business in Utrecht. I also spent my time with other people for several hours a week, instead of being alone in my apartment the whole time.

Friday night I went back already, but this time for a party- it was the 9th anniversary of the opening of Strowis. They had drinks and snacks, and a lot of the people involved in getting the place up and running returned for a good time. The party was held in the common area on the first floor, so guests were also there taking part too.

I plan on going back to stop in and visit and drink a tea every now and then. Strowis is a part of my Utrecht experience. I started my time here in Utrecht 5 years ago there...its still part of me.

Tomorrow I begin my first paying job in the Netherlands..and the first paying job in over 6 months. I'm sure it will be an exhausting week getting back to a routine.

Missing the foam

Since the weather is so nice out, I'll keep it shorter than usual today. Yesterday was very busy at the hostel, and I checked in many Italians...I also made some coffee and espresso on the machine. I attempted several cappuccinos, but i can't get the milk to foam...I don't know what I'm doing wrong. So basically its a coffee with warm milk. it still tasted good. but it wasn't the right thing. i was supposed to leave between 7 and 730, but I ended up there til after 8pm because it suddenly got so busy. I also cut some more cheese slices...fun times. Since yet another soccer game was on tv, I didn't really spend any time talking to the Dutchie.
So, today I have the 'day off'...but its already mid-afternoon...I have to go to the grocery store once again - its like i go there everyday :-(
Tonight I actually am going out and enjoying some night life. I'm going to a concert at one of the clubs here in Utrecht, listening to some drum and bass. Finally! I can act my age again! Gotta get out and go to a bar/pub/club for once!
Have a fabulous Friday!