Today, I had the opportunity to experience work-life with my mom since it is take our kids to work day (TOKTWD). She is a supervisor in the call centre in the Gateway building at Coast Mountain Bus Company.

           

While the office was very quiet for most of the time, I could hear typing on keyboards, people taking calls, and talking when my mom was introducing me to her co-workers. I also got to hear previous calls that were made from costumers (most wondering about bus locations, what buses to take to get to a certain location, or complaining).

 

I couldn’t smell much but I could smell a faint scent of a library or a book, otherwise I could not smell very much.

 

From my mom’s office window I could see New Westminster and Coquitlam. I could also see many other buildings right beside the office and there was a sky train station connected to the building. There was also a bus stop and many cars that I could see from down below. The whole building had 7 levels and all floors were shaped like a circle. On the level my mom works on there were many other small office spaces where they would take calls and emails. My mom’s office was one of the very few offices that had a door. In my mom’s office there were some paintings of places in Vancouver, office stationary, her computer set up, her co-workers computer set up, and a cork board with schedules and work letters. Other things I got to see were during my mom’s break. We went down to the lost property office (where she often goes on her break). It is a small room connected to a big room at Waterfront station in downtown Vancouver (next to Rogers Arena, science world, and BC place). Because they collect items left on all transit transportation and my mom receives a lot of calls about people losing items on the bus, she has access into the room. There were lots of umbrellas, bikes (shown in pictures below), wallets, phones and so many other items I would have never expected to be left on public transit so often. (one of them even being teeth!)

           

The building felt very cold in the office and I had to wear a jacket, but it also felt very spacious, big, and comfortable with a blanket.

One thing that would motivate me to get up every morning to attend work everyday if I were doing this job is how fast things go. Whenever there is a problem (which I witnessed) she and the other supervisors were able to solve it within less than 10 minutes. I do not like when things go slow so it was interesting watching how any problems were resolved so fast. Another thing I enjoyed that would motivate me to get up every morning to attend work was my mom’s break when we went to the lost property office, I was very surprised and invested as to how much and what people lose on the bus.

 

Thank you for reading!