Becoming a Tech Writer

I hear of a job opportunity as a tech writer that is about 40 minutes from my house. I take a bus there, get off and walk through what looks like an old European village. I reach the company and am greeted by the last tech writer that worked for my company. She tells me that I'm really going to like it here. I'm a little bit confused as to whether I'm there for an interview or if I'm starting the job. The brick building is a bit run down. The interior has peeling light green paint and dark red carpeting. I get tour of the facilities and then they want to show me my office. I say wait, I need to talk to HR. I'm pretty sure that I haven't accepted a job offer and they are acting like I have. First of all, I ask them, what's my salary going to be? It's got to be high enough to be worth giving up my job that is 15 minutes from my house. $175,000 they tell me. Wow, you want to pay me that much? And I would only have to be a tech writer? Sounds like a good deal to me.

So I let my ex-coworker show me to my office. She brings me to a room which looks like a bedroom with windows to the outside. The room is large, about 15x15 feet, and has a closet but no furnishings. Looking from the window, I can see an old mill next to a stream, very picturesque. My first real office with a door. Her office is adjacent to mine in the interior of the building and doesn't have a window. I ask her were the bathroom is. She brings me down the hall and shows me a large bathroom with communal tubs. She says that you bathe in here and proceeds to draw herself a bath and climb in. There are several bathtubs which are made by half height tiled walls with a seat built in. You would be able to bathe and chat with the person next to you. I'm beginning to feel like this is not a workplace but some kind of commune that I can't leave. But it doesn't matter because I'm getting paid so much.

Observations: I have been caught up in a blog writing contest that I had entered and it was the final night for voting. I also have spent the last week at work writing the on-line help for my software program. So for some reason I transformed myself into a well-paid writer in a commune!