I completed some job applications when I first arrived in Pretoria, and they paid off quite quickly. I just got hired as an Office Manager. For those who are new to this – as a dependent spouse of a U.S. Diplomat, we are entitled to work at the U.S. Embassy in Federal positions. Indeed, there are several jobs within an Embassy reserved just for spouses.
At my last post (Warsaw, Poland) I was in a highly visible management office, in which I dealt with almost every other department in the Embassy. This meant I was smartly dressed, and the office was the model for office decorum and protocol.
This week I started my new job in the Security Engineering Office, down in the basement of the Embassy. The office is basically 8 guys who repair every aspect of embassy electronic security systems – from cameras and sensors, to electronic doors and safes. Two are US Navy SeaBees. They cover every US embassy and consulate in Southern Africa as far North as Kenya – so they basically use this post as a base station between TDY assignments to these other posts. Most of the time, 3/4 of them are gone out of the country two to three weeks every month.
Anyway – it is good that we work down in the basement, behind a large steel door with scramble key pads and a large spin-dial to keep everyone else out. Like most military maintenance units I have been exposed to, they have a language that would make most Sexual-Harassment officers run screaming. I half expect to see nude Playmate posters on the wall and empty beer cans on a peanut-shell covered floor – but fortunately it isn’t that bad yet. Fortunately – no one smokes or worse, chews tobacco, in the office. Nice!
Jeans, T-Shirt and sneakers are the office attire.
This place is night and day difference from every other US Embassy office I have ever been in. But I like it!
The starting pay is $36,000 a year, with 8 hours of annual leave per month and retirement benefits. Not much, but at least I am working full time!
