Knowledgebase Articles

BYU Independent Study is creating a Knowledgebase--which is basically a fancy way to say that we are pooling all of the knowledge of every worker at Independent Study and putting it all in one place. It's kind of like Wikipedia for BYU Independent Study. In order to make this knowledgebase work, we have a special team (of which I am a part) to write tons and tons of articles, addressing every single issue that any student anywhere may need help with. Ever. It's kind of mind-blowing to think of how many articles we will be writing in the next two months.

We've only been writing articles since last Friday, and already I want to shoot myself. Writing articles is not as fun as you would think it is. It is one of the most boring tasks that you could have at Independent Study, I'm just sure of it. I would rather be talking to an angry mother who's trying to get her son graduated by Friday, but the son has to submit his portfolio assignment, request the final two-way express, and by the way the only proctor in their area is not available to administer the test. That should tell you just how much I hate writing these articles.

I'm going to give you a little example of what goes through my mind as I sit down to write a Knowledgebase article.

"Ok, I'm at work, I'm kind of awake, and my computer has finally loaded all of my programs, so what should I do? How many calls are there? Oh, none. Well, I guess I'll get started on the articles...but maybe I've got some important email from my professors. I'll go check Yahoo first."

I go and check Yahoo, and delete the four Spam emails that have found their way into my inbox.

"Well, no pressing matters from school. Maybe there's something good in my Gmail account."

There's nothing in my Gmail account.

"I can't go to Facebook to 'check on my English class group', so I guess I can start working on the articles." (P.S. My English Lit class really does have a Facebook page that why have to contribute 500 words to per week)

I open the program where our Knowledgebase will live, I open the Google Doc that tells me what articles need to be written, and I open the Excel spreadsheet that has all the information for the article (there's a lot of windows open on my computer by this point).

Then I just sit for a while.

Deep breath. "I am going to write an article now. Come on, Ashley, claim one of the articles in the Google Doc." I claim an article. "Good girl, now open a new article page and get it over with."

Eventually, I write three articles. Then I go to get a drink of water. When I come back to my chair, I just look at my screen. If I wait long enough, my phone starts to ring.

"A call! Woohoo!" I close all the article-related windows and take the phone call. It only lasts three minutes.

"Ah, dang it. Now I have to write more articles. How long to I have to keep writing these articles?" I look at my clock and it's only 8:30. I work until 12.

"Well, that's no bueno. Let's get to it, I guess." I write one more article.

"I can't do this any more. Please don't make me write any more articles." I look at how many articles I've claimed. I've claimed four, and my teammate has written six.

"Ok, I'm going to write two more articles, and then I'll be good. That's as much as my teammate has written, so that'll be good, right?"

I write one article.

"I can't take it any more! Do I really want to be on Special Projects? I can tell my boss I don't want to be on the team any more. But this is great for a resume. But how many articles do I have to write? They aren't paying well enough to do this. But they are paying me."

I write one more article, and the cycle continues.

Ok, so that's a little exaggerated. But not by much.

It's that time again

Yesterday at work I got really bored. No one was calling in for help, and we don't have any projects to do, so I was just basically sitting there, spinning around in my comfy desk chair. I could have been doing homework, or studying for one of the two midterms that I have this week, but no. Sometimes you just have to sit and spin in your comfy desk chair, you know?

And then I went to cheapflights.com. Now I'm planning trips to Madrid, Verona, Greece, and London (for the Olympics). I love traveling. It's always so worth it, even if I'm poor when I come home.

Working Girl 2.0

I officially finished training today! I took my final test and everything, and now I am taking calls completely by myself. It's kind of nerve-wracking, actually. Then again, there's always people who are willing to help me, so it's not so bad.

This week was interesting. I made one girl so happy that she wanted to hug me, and then I made another girl cry. I requested finals and certified a proctor. I helped recruit at least two people to Independent Study, which was awesome. I also got a ton of homework done because the phones were so slow. I'm not a slacker, I promise!

Hopefully, things will continue to go up from here. I get paid today, so for me, this job is the best job ever!

Working Girl

I started my new job today! It was very exciting, and also very frightening because it was snowing when Mom and I started up to Provo, and we were late by the way, and as we were driving up to the Point of the Mountain, my gas gauge just dropped like a ten pound rock in water. I had just filled up the tank Saturday night, so it shouldn't have done that, but my gas gauge is all whacked out, so we weren't sure. Mom and I were scared we were going to be stuck in the middle of the freeway, in the cold, driving sleet, at 6:30 in the morning--and I had to be at work by 7. Yeah, not a pleasant situation. Luckily, we got to a gas station, filled up my car (it was basically full, by the way), and it to Provo. I was only three minutes late. Way to go, Mom!

So today was just training, but they packed in so much information, that I'm worried I won't be able to remember it all. There's still a whole week left of training, though, so hopefully I'll master the system by next week. They kept asking me if I had any questions. I HATE it when people ask me that because I can never think of any questions to ask. What do you do in that situation? I just kept saying, "I can't think of anything now, but I'll probably have questions later." I hope I didn't sound like an idiot or anything.

I'll probably have some interesting stories for later. At least I'll have something more to write about here!