England II

In the construction of the Book, a whole whack of work needs to go into it, I've realized. There are stats to obtain, compile and analyze. There are socio-political situations that need to be observed from several different angles to have a better sense as to where the 'real' story lies. There are the myriads of stories from workers abroad needing to be sifted from what are warm, fuzzy anecdotes to what gives a real sense as to what's happening nationally. After all of this, then one can start writing and editing their piece, after which input from people all over the world is required, formatting of pages and ruthlessly editing so that eventually everything will fit into a book you can actually carry without breaking your back. Not an easy job when you've got a bare-bones volunteer corps to do the work, and then you also get occasional numbskulls like me showing up.
It's been quite interesting to do some reading and learning a little bit more of what's going on on this planet of ours, but mainly I've been doing scut work to make the important work easier later on. This runs the gamut of data entry, filing stories and labelling articles to make it easier to find information later.
I suppose what strikes me most is the nature of office work. Never having worked in an office before, there are a few things about this method of working that are odd to me. Firstly, it makes your bum sore, having to sit down at a computer for pretty much the whole day. I'm used to being up and down and walking around every few minutes. Also, since I spend my days talking to, or at, people, the relative quiet and 'humming along productivity' of an office is strange to me. I can also not get over how doing some of these tasks really do take me all day, and into the night. The last thing that is also the strangest to me, besides the quiet, is the lack of touch. This may seem weird, as I suppose office workers would otherwise have massive sexual harassment suits on their hands, but we all know that regular human touch actually improves stress levels, blood pressures, etc. Of course, I'm usually spending a good chunk of my time 'laying hands' on everyone, so I do feel out of sync not doing so here. I've discovered, though, that I'm not particularly bothered by not being in charge or in control; having a boss, and several managers is actually OK, which is good, as I thought perhaps my control-freak nature would have issues.
However, it is good. I'm not entirely sure how useful I really am being to the team (that would be something for my boss to evaluate, I suppose), but otherwise, at least, this is a strange, though pleasant, change from my usual routine.