Photo: graduation day at the language school where I used to work

Every workplace has its pros and cons, so today I’d like to focus on the workplace side of the weekly column topic and share both the good and the bad about six of the places I’ve worked. At the end, I’ll tell you which one was my favourite, and in a follow-up article I’ll talk more about some of the vocabulary that I’ve used here.

One of the first places I worked was in a greenhouse at a garden center. The downside of working there was that it was extremely hot and humid in the summer. It was important to stay hydrated and take little breaks to cool down once in a while. The upside was that it was a beautiful work environment and it smelled great, too! Working with plants was very peaceful and satisfying.

Another place I worked in my younger days was at a strawberryfarm. I drove a tractor (with no cab) in the field all day long, which meant that I was completely exposed to the weather. When it rained, I got soaked, and when it was hot and sunny, I got sunburned. However, the nice thing was that I was able to work by myself all day. It was very peaceful, and I had a lot of time to think. Plus, I got to eat as many strawberries as I wanted!

Later on, I worked in a workshop. Unfortunately, it was often noisy because of all the tools we used and it got really messy, so we had to do a big cleanup at the end of every day. On the upside, the people who worked there were very easygoing and funny, and I was able to learn how to fix a lot of things!

After that, I worked in an entomology lab. For most people, the downside would have been being surrounded by bugs all the time, but I actually enjoyed it. It was a good way to learn about and understand bugs instead of being scared of them. And the big plus for me was that it was my first workplace with air conditioning, so it was very comfortable in the summer.

For most of my career, I worked at a private language school. The most significant downside was all of the unpaid overtime work - lesson planning, making copies, correcting homework, and marking tests are all usually unpaid tasks. That’s just part and parcel of being a teacher. The thing that kept me going was working with really wonderful coworkers and students and learning a lot about different cultures. That may sound a little cliche, but I think most teachers will say that the most rewarding part of working at a school is meeting interesting people and learning new things about the world.

Now I work at home, and the hard part is being a little isolated and cut off from my professional community. There are many benefits, though! The biggest advantage is not having to commute to work. I definitely do not miss rush hour on the subway in Toronto!

So, which workplace was my favourite? While I do miss working in nature, and the school was a very interesting and exciting place to work, I think that at this point in my life I’m quite happy to be working at home. 

See you next time to go over some vocabulary for talking about pros and cons!