Selasa, 03 Februari 2009

Internship in the Directorate General of Tax

8 new interns was assigned to the tax office in Cengkareng; including myself. 6 of them finally had something to do while 2 of them had absolutely nothing to work on. As some of you might guessed, I'm included in that two.

This is my second week in my internship yet there are still no relevant assignment for me. I realize it's difficult to give me any tasks knowing the fact that I have zero competence in handling tax. However, this is only true if all 8 of us was left with no work at all.

It is a fact that 8 of us are assigned to different section in the office. Maybe I'm just lucky that my section doesn't really need extra help. I can live with that. It's just that adding to having nothing to do, I also have no computer and I have to share a table with another intern. Yes, "that two" who had no work is actually sharing the same table. What's awful is that we are not provided with two chairs. Sometimes I have to seat on top of a carton box.

I have to improvise. I spent most of my time reading standard operational procedures, employee code of ethics, tax rules, or just about anything related to tax. Luckily when an employee has to leave the office, I am allowed to use his/her computer. At the very least I have more access to .... Yes, more access to materials related to tax. The more I read, the more I forget. :)

There's not much to do accept reading, reading, and reading. All day long I was bored, sleepy, or sometimes hungry. Desperate measures have been taken into account to drove away the boredom. I played games in my cellphone. I listen to music. I even convert some of the movies in my collection to 3GP format so I could watch it in my cellphone.

It's a pain to not being able to do anything productive all day long. I am not denying that I enjoy the relaxed working environment, but to be able to relax from 07.30 AM to 05.00 PM is not fun.

Nevertheless, I am still grateful to what I have right now. Not everyday I get to go to an office without anything to do. I just hope I still have enough tricks up my sleeve to prevent me from dying out of boredom.

2 komentar:

  1. i cant believe somebody (with actual pay and good job)wrote this. maybe you're not meant for this, young man. your country in dire needs of exquisite talent such as yours, but certainly not as absolutely-nothing-to-work-on official. what was your boss thinking? its a pain to read this...

    BalasHapus
  2. :)

    First of all, I can't say I don't have a good job at hand but you have to know that I don't think I'll be getting any paychecks anytime soon.

    About the absolutely-nothing-to-work-on, I don't think I should be blaming my boss on this one. I have to admit that most of us interns had no basics on tax. So it's natural to give us a more common tasks that requires less knowledge about tax. The six of us was fortunate enough that they are assigned in sections (divisions) with such tasks. While the other two who had absolutely-nothing-to-work-on was assigned in a more specialized section where common tasks are rare. That being said, there are times when those two actually had something to do; just not much.

    Hopefully I don't cause you any more pain.

    :)

    BalasHapus