Go Bag / Hobo Bag when doing short-term roles

I have had a lovely break after my last role and was able to sort out a lot of admin for my mum - and there was a lot .

As her financial manager, I have to lodge accounts with the ACT Public Trustee every year to get audited. Some documents can't be obtained online and require you to go into a physical branch to get the paperwork. Given that so many banks have closes their branches, sometimes the wait in a physical branch is several hours on a weekday and not even possible on a weekend given that the banks close at midday. I also sorted out some NDIS paperwork and collated all the documentation for my security clearance revalidation.

It wasn't all admin, I also read a lot of books, did a lot of baking, watched a lot of tv shows and movies, created a lot of fan videos, wrote a LOT of fan fiction (think hundreds of thousands of words) and had a lot of afternoon nanna naps... but now I will be start a new gig on Monday.

This will be the second time I've had a role with this agency and the third time I will be working with the main point of contact. As everyone who has worked with me recently knows, this is what I love about doing short-term roles. Not only do I get the opportunity to learn lots of new skills, I also get to know lots of wonderful people and frequently get the opportunity to work with them again - often in a different capacity or at a completely different organisation.

The only constant is that I know that I'll be working for people who I can work with, know my personal circumstances and know what they're getting i.e. there are no nasty surprises on either side.

When people say it's just a job and you can't be happy at work - this is so not true. It's totally possible to love going to work, to not have a sick feeling in your stomach on Sunday night...It's 100% possible to feel valued and appreciated at work.

When we send a foster dog on their trial adoption, they always go with a Hobo Bag.... similarly, in advance of my new role, this weekend, I've packed and refreshed my Hobo Bag / Go Bag which I have tweaked with and finetuned over time.

As someone who these days tries to only work in the same place for 3 months at a time... although occasionally I weaken and do 9 months ...I have pretty much figured out what I need when I go to a new workplace.

Some workplaces provide pretty much everything and really pamper their people ... some places provide pretty much nothing except boiling water. I have to laugh a bit when I think back to my old law firm days when they used to give us unlimited beverages, snacks, evening snacks. We even got lovely sit down evening meals when we worked late. When I was working in Beijing, I still remember the outrage between the offices when daily fresh fruit was discontinued in one office (not mine).

But I digress. This (for the most part) is my current go bag:

1. Ergonomic keyboard, mouse and trackball. A lot of organisations try to buy this stuff for me all over again, but I prefer to just bring my own equipment and double check with IT ahead of time that it's ok to bring and plug in.
2. Coffee, tea, thermos, mug. I prefer to bring my own beverages. I've learned that people almost never seem to like the coffee place in their own building and the 'Best Coffee' is always a 15-30 minute walk away. The irony is that during this beverage walk, you will inevitably see people from other places coming to your building because their coffee place is bad and the best coffee place is in your building. Personally, I prefer piping hot coffee and I don't really like the time lost doing the hot beverage walk so I try to come fully stocked with my own beverages. Also, I'm so not a coffee snob so pods, coffee bags and instant are totally fine for me.
3. Mini chopping board so I can cut fruit.
4. My colouring-in book diary and gel pens. As anyone who has worked with me knows - if you ask to borrow a pen during a meeting it's going to be a gel metallic/glitter pen sorry
5. My own headset. Most places provide Jabra ones these days but I prefer a headset where the mouth piece goes left to right and not vice versa :D
6. My own name tag. One place I worked made a name tag for me even though I was only there short term so when I left I asked if I could bring it along with me since it would probably be handy given my short-term gigs :D
7. Glasses. Yes, those are three pairs of glasses that you see. Reading too much as a kid made me shortsighted for most of my life, but now I have Old People's Eyes / Overly Short Arms and I am not as shortsighted as I used to be, but I need glasses for long distance work, glasses for reading up close and glasses for the medium distance i.e. computer screen. I have written a Suno AI song in honour of my current predicament. Yes, those who work with me have to endure my love of Suno.
8. Random Crap. In the bag that is literally named "Random Crap" there's stuff like fruit knife, antihistamines, Nurofen.
9. My favourite snacks. I also bring in baked goods once a week. In my last role, they were such good baking guinea pigs that I would bring in baked goods 3 times a week. This was partly because although I prefer to work 5 days in the office and only work remotely if I have a Mum Emergency, that workplace allowed people to work two days remote and three days in the office so there was frequently a rotation of people in the office so if I only brought in baked goods on one particular day, a certain group of people would always miss out.
10. Other. I also always bring my own stationery as that varies sharply in terms of workplaces and I also bring my own tissues because even when workplaces provide them, they're usually the Not Nice, very thin ones.