[Formershyguy]

I work in Data Entry for a big publishing company. I specifically choose jobs where I don't have to deal with people on the phone so this is ideal. Its through an agency and initially they wanted someone for 2 -8 weeks but I've been here now over 2.5 years. This is my longest temp job, would be nice if it could become permanent. My boss works from home 2 days a week now and shes mostly in meetings so don't see her that much, not that she's a terrible boss or anything but sometimes she can get a bit stressed!

Up til January of this year I also had a weekend job as a cleaner in Youth Hostel which meant cleaning rooms. Mainly dorms. It stressed me out a lot because I just wanted to get it over with and leave. I got annoyed when guest were still in bed especially as they had to leave, when my co workers were bloody slow so I'd end up having to help them sometimes, my boss would sometimes have a word with me over me missing things, like not cleaning things properly. Even though shes some petite Romanian Girl she had a very loud voice, almost like she was shouting. I know it must have been hard for her but I was still annoyed and it would put me in a low mood for the rest of the day.

I've had much worse jobs and I have learnt to stick to something I'm happy as opposed to going for something that pays more with more stress. I've had horrible bosses, worked with horrible people and just not fitted in certain places, especially Warehouse and industrial environments where people are more vulgar, less educated and mostly talk about football which I hate! I've had loud mouthed bosses or people make comments about my quietness and made issues over it. It was so annoying like one time when I worked in the evening for a Parcel company in Data Entry and this girl remarked "oh so you do talk then" because I maybe I answered a question or spoke, can't remember.

The thing is you will encounter people who are friendly and sympathetic and know how to behave around you. Other people are just plain ignorant and don;t fully understand Social Anxiety or Shyness. They just label you weird or quiet or rude as if being able to socialise is normal and easy but we all know that its not.

So I've learnt to be very careful what jobs I choose. I'm lucky enough that I established a good reputation with an Employment Agency who knew the kind of work I liked doing and my exact specifications i.e no telephone work and no customer service.

I've had some really nice jobs, like 6 months of filing in a room with another girl who I got on with really well and plus we had a radio. The rest of the office was open plan. But as soon as she left I was asked to take on different work and work with a team of people. It wasn't so bad but I loved that tranquility of being in that room.

But even a simple job can bring problems like when I worked for this company for a couple of months. One day I couldn't log into my computer because my Login had expired. I was too afraid to tell anyone. My boss at the time was in meetings I think. I managed to go virtually through the whole day almost not being found out until this woman in my team asked me if I had received her email and I had to say I didn't as my computer wasn't working. My boss seemed a little angry at me telling me I had wasted a whole day. I felt like crying. But I didn't want anyone to see me crying so I mustered up all the energy I had and pretended everything was fine, said goodbye making them think I was coming in the next day as usual but didn't. I emailed my consultant at the agency telling her I wasn't the right person for the job but she never got the email and I had a voice message on my phone from another person from the agency. So I merely sent her an email explaining that I wasn't right for the job. So now I don't think I can ever work for them again.

This has happened a few times with other employment agencies either because something like this happened or they had me using the phone when I explicitiy told them I didn't feel confident on the phone. I had to email agencies to make excuses. Thankgod we live in the internet age otherwise I don;t know how I would have handled it. Maybe write a letter and post it through the door lol!

I did once try doing Market research over the phone and could barely get through the day. Twice I tried this with 2 different agencies. The first Agency were really understanding and nice about it but the other wasn't so much. The woman on the phone said "that was only 3 hours, not what I call giving it a go" but for me that was absolute torture. The problem with some Employment agencies is that the more jobs they can fill, the more money they make so they might be a little economical with the truth. If you say you don't like using the phone they might say "oh theres only about 1% phone work involved" But you might end up answering the phone for most of the day! Thats why you really have to be specific about what you want in a job.