Hiya all. It is absolutely freezing here, I cannot believe how abruptly winter arrived. The Dublin Christmas tree was lit last night. Beautiful, old fur tree. It was really sad though, because it was pouring rain last night, so almost no one was there to appreciate it. A ton of work went into it, they had a choir, people in costumes, Santa, etc. Mince pies in the shops and mulled wine. Went to the Galway Christmas market this weekend and had a corn dog!!! They don't really have corn dogs here, I know they aren't very Irish, but can't turn one down. Sam enjoyed having his first one as well.
Started taking the bus, it's sooo convenient and only costs 1.70 each way, though half the time they only charge me 1.25. Not to bad compared to the cost of a tank of gas.
Work is going well. I just finished my stint in the Employer Relations Information Unit. It's the section in charge of answering simple questions, reviewing handbooks, policies and basically making sure companies do things right so they don't have an industrial relations dispute on their hands. I got to answer phones on Friday and deal directly with member companies, which was pretty exciting for me. I also have an article published in HR Databank, the publication of the ERIU unit. Only members have access to it, but I was pretty excited. It was on temporary agency workers and tenure.
Now I am in the industrial relations section. This is the meat of the internship, but sadly not as appealing. I don't mind the case preparation, but I find sitting in on cases to be incredibly uncomfortable. A lot of people self representing who don't really know what their doing and are annoyed at their employer or ex-employer, but don't really have a case. So you just feel sorry for them. And sitting across the table from someone sitting on their own trying to make their case is just a bit sad. I don't know...not really what I was expecting. But, I do enjoy writing submissions, which is the case that is then read out to the Rights Commissioner or the Employment Appeals Tribunal. This week I'm down in Galway for a pretty major case, so it will be interesting to see how that pans out.
Hope all is well with everyone!
