Work information

I work at XLcom (a communications and IT company) where I have been since July 2004.  My position as Office Manager involves lots of different things including accounts (receivable & payable), sales, computer support, customer service and of course answering the phone.  The business was sold to a new owner in March this year, and our future looks bright.  It's a great place to work with a small but good team of staff, and I have no intention of moving again - no more redundancies!

My "other" job is at the Alice Springs Turf Club, where I work as Clerk of the Course.  That is the mounted assistant who helps the jockeys when the racehorses get difficult.  I have been doing this job since 1984, except for a break for a couple of years when I was busy with my younger son, James.  For years I used our quiet (most of the time!) little Quarter Horse, Beaver (Topend Docs Beaver Bar), for this job - until he moved to South Australia with a good friend.  Now Haji Baba the wonderhorse has taken over and I am very, very proud of how he is handling it.  I've done the job on at least six different horses over the years (maybe more), and Beaver was probably the best;  unfortunately though he is now quite arthritic (at 21 years of age) so was battling a bit with the hard work.

I worked as Office Manager at Bernie Earthmoving & Excavating Pty Ltd., a complete change for me after my years at CSIRO.  As the previous Office Manager left before I started and could only spare a couple of hours to show me a small part of the job, I had to work it all out on my own.  This included teaching myself how to use the MYOB Accounting program, and as I've always liked both working with figures and operating computers, I thoroughly enjoyed it.  However, after a year the business closed and I became redundant once more (though it has now started up again!)

For 19 years I worked for CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems at the Centre for Arid Zone Research.  Although I started there solely as a typist, my job evolved over the years to also include various administration and reception duties, IT support, and web page design and maintenance for both internal and external webs.  I started at CSIRO on a part-time basis, was changed to full time for over ten years, and then went back to part time.  Then I was made me redundant!  The process was very upsetting at the time and was handled very badly, but now I realise that it was all for the best as I am much happier in my new job.  I am really glad I no longer work for the Government, and I doubt I'd ever take a Government job again.

Last revised: 29 October 2006.

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