We’re a week in now at the Department of Housing, Local Government, and Heritage. With Ireland’s housing crisis at the forefront of the nation’s political scene, and local elections having just transpired, (EU elections too, but the results of those won’t be published until tomorrow morning) a bureaucracy that would never cross the average person’s mind has found itself the most important government organization in the country.

Head of the Legal Unit, Sarah Farrell, was out on vacation this week, so my first week was spent in something of a holding pattern – getting settled into the office, meeting my coworkers, and getting a few basic tasks to start up with. As I understand it, Ms. Farrell has to sign off on any significant tasks I receive, so I should be getting more work now.

Truth be told, I’m not entirely certain I’ll be in a position to need to worry about managing my time. Given the state of the ongoing housing crisis, the Department of Housing is often too busy to make me busy. That’s not to say I’ll have nothing to do per se, but it does mean that work is something I’ll likely have to actively seek out, rather than something which just falls into my lap each morning. At a previous internship, I had a routine of messaging all of the colleagues I regularly interacted with on Microsoft Teams every morning, asking if there was anything new to do. Even if there wasn’t, and at my pay grade, there often wasn’t, it let people know that I was willing to take any task offered, no matter how large or small.

Is that somewhat debasing? Sure. But that’s what being an intern is sometimes. Yes, of course, I would always prefer to be doing “real” work, but sometimes you have to fill out rote paperwork or put someone’s meetings on the calendar. (I’ve never had to fetch coffee, although I have fetched Diet Coke in the past.) It’s about getting on people’s radar and establishing yourself as willing and able.

At the Department of Housing, I’m in an open office with a dozen or so people of different specializations, although two of them are also in the legal department, so I can ask them for work pretty easily, when they’re in the office. A lot of people at the Department work from home or hybrid. I’ve heard talk that I might be able to get on a hybrid arrangement, which is something of a double edged sword. Would it be more convenient, yes. However, someone who’s not established loses out in the remote environment, since they have to be actively sought out rather than simply encountered in the halls or the cafeteria, and it’s rare that everyone on board is made aware that there’s a new intern you can ask to do things. I’d probably take a work from home arrangement after I felt that I had proven I belonged there and had set up a reasonable stream of work.

There’s not really a lot I can say on time management that’s job-specific at the moment, since I’ve had a real time surplus this week. Nor can I particularly draw on previous internships, since I had a similar situation then too. (intern pro tip: if you finish early, take the day off. Let them know it’s done tomorrow. Inefficiency is so endemic to bureaucracies that they don’t expect things to get done at all)