‘Good morning, my name is Akashdeep Dhillon and I am here for a work experience placement.’
‘Hello, you’re here early!’ said one of the women, who I later found was called Dawn. The other lady, Donna, simply smiled at me as Dawn got her keys out and unlocked the door. She led the way through a further corridor, switching lights on as we walked. We reached another large door which I guessed led into the main office.
‘The code to open this door is 125, remember that or you won’t be able to get in!’ exclaimed Dawn. I nodded in answer and watched her chubby fingers punch in the code, turn the knob and open the door. She was opening the door to my fate for the next two weeks, I did not know what to expect. We walked in and I set eyes on a large, but somehow cosy office, images of this office would be fresh in my mind long after the placement. Endless files and paperwork were stacked everywhere even on windowsills and chairs; I knew I would probably have to spend a couple of afternoons sorting it out. I was right. I didn’t let that get me down though, as I glanced around my workplace. There were many desks, all with ancient, outdated computers and mugs with tea still in them. I was told to sit down in front of one of these desks and wait for a woman called Jude to show me around. After a few minutes I saw a tall, large, friendly woman with snowy white hair and librarian’s glasses approach me. I immediately thought she looked like a goose, especially with her long slender neck adorned with a gold chain. Despite this minor drawback, I soon found Jude to be one of the nicest people working at the office.
I was introduced to all the employees; Dawn, Donna, Louise, Simone, Hannah, Habid, Russell, Sara, plus the bailiffs Ivan and Carol. The kitchen, toilets, fire exit, staff lounge, courtrooms and the waiting room were shown to me and I was briefly told about health and safety regulations, company policies and my duties. I nodded throughout, trying to take all this information in and at the same time asking as many questions as I could, to seem inquisitive and involved in what she was saying. Once Jude had finished her touring, we went back to the office and I met Sue, my supervisor, the woman who I would be reporting to each day. She seemed very organised and efficient plus I was desperate to please her. Sue immediately showed me to my assigned desk and got me doing various post duties, which I was to do everyday. The morning went by slowly and I was given further work to keep me on my toes. The work, I soon realised, was annoyingly repetitive but I carried on, hoping for some variation and for lunchtime when I would meet friends and see how their first day has fared. After a couple more hours of filing and doing tedious admin work, I strolled casually out of the building for lunch, on my way to Coffee Republic. A slight pang of guilt hit me as I was walking because the other employees were still answering never-ending phone calls, typing reams of work and filing huge haystack piles of paperwork, but I knew I deserved my lunch break.
Lunch breaks go so quickly, I thought a couple of days later, as I was typing up some warrant returns on the computer, which Dawn showed me how to do. I felt sorry for her and the other employees, they may like their job but I thought it was extremely tedious and there was no real challenge or excitement. It was the same thing, all day, everyday and I knew now I did not want anything to do with law or working in offices, for that matter, when I was older. However, despite this, the bubbly, chatty workers and their jokes and stories formed a great atmosphere to work in and made the office come to life. I really enjoyed listening to the workers conversations, especially when they were talking about each other! These were fond memories of which I will always remember when I think about the County Court.
I will also remember another particular incident which occurred in my second week. One of the workers, named Louise, was about to leave the office for home when she decided to go to the toilet. A few moments later, we heard screams coming from the room and the words, ‘Spider, spider, there’s a spider in the loo!!!’ Louise is terrified of spiders, so she came bursting into the room, running around frantically, shouting and screaming, whereas everyone was falling about laughing. We thought she was exaggerating but Simone went into the loo to catch the creature, but she came back stunned by the apparently huge size of it, so Russell let it out of the window and calm returned to the office, but Louise was long gone!