I've not been sleeping especially well the past couple of weeks, and work has been a bit of a roller coaster so I've got very little motivation to do much of anything, although feel I need to be reasonably productive as there are still things I have to do. I'm going to see my cousin for a walk and a birthday lunch on Saturday, then have an Easter/birthday lunch on Sunday... and that's it! I need to do a grocery shop in there somewhere too as I'm making something for Sunday (thinking along the lines of a lemon mousse cake). There's going to be five of us. We're having an Italian Columba cake for dessert (hooray!), and there will be plenty of wine and food.
I've registered for a number of online writing retreats and festival discussions this month. There's a new Welsh Crime Writers' Festival, and as this is their first year, and it's an unusual one, they're offering loads of talks and discussions online for FREE! So I registered for most of them the last week of April through to May 3. I've also registered for an online writing retreat via The Guardian's Masterclass offerings, 'Finding Your Voice', which is hosted by Kate Moss, Abi Dare, and Kishani Widyaratna. It was only £32 and sounds fantastic. I attended Sleurthfest two weeks ago - my first online conference of any kind - and got a lot of great information from it. They had an exceptionally scaled-back version of the annual conference, with only about seven talks compared to a number of normally about 40 talks, presentations, discussions, booths, etc., so for what it was, I enjoyed it. Some of it didn't apply - the marketing of your published book, for example - but I got a lot out of the editor/agent query letter and synopsis talk, as well as the Clues and Misdirection talk, which is why I originally signed up.
If I'm not actually writing, gathering information and ideas is still part of the process, so I'm pleased I'm at least making a more concerted effort around it. It's easy enough to sit and listen to someone talk, take notes and process. And there is always, always, something to learn, or that might give you that little spark of inspiration you need to get started again.
Work is beginning to get to me a bit. My new colleague is lovely, sweet and funny, but I'm not sure I have an emotional and empathetic/sympathetic well deep enough to continuously prop her up and calm her anxiety. Actually, scratch that: I know I don't. She came back on Tuesday from a couple of days off and was so upset to find emails and work to do she was crying (I cover her job while she's gone, but I focus on the priority stuff - getting jobs booked, etc. - and will leave some of the less urgent items for her. This is a carryover from my previous colleague). I got the impression that she seemed to think that because there were jobs waiting to be booked, I was apparently NOT doing her job. Never mind that on Friday I cleared up what she hadn't completed to that point, booked the jobs that came in on Friday and then cleared/changed/booked jobs on Monday. I couldn't get to everything, so I left what was left for her return. About 10 jobs?
I think it boiled down to a mixture of her assumptions that everything would be cleared and she'd start with a folder empty of jobs - I can do nothing about her personal email inbox - and me perhaps saying 'I cover your job' without being specific. I don't know. Anyway... I tried to explain things as best I could, then took about three hours to help clear stuff up, which took time away from things I needed to do...
Should I have helped? There are actually two answers.
Yes, because otherwise it wouldn't get done. She struggles to get all the jobs booked over the course of a week. She's painfully slow because she's so focussed on not making a mistake, they start to pile up, she gets stressed and frustrated, people start calling to chase booking dates, her anxiety increases and I have to soothe and support and then I help because otherwise it wouldn't get done...
And
No, because it's not my job. All this is taking time away from work I need to complete, leaves the office manager literally typing reports all day and taking time away from tasks she also needs to complete, leaves the accountant having to do filing that isn't her responsibility and taking time away from what she needs to do. Realistically, as the accountant says, let her get on with it and deal with the consequences.
To be fair, it is reasonably busy. People are anxious to get surveys booked with the clock winding down on the stamp duty holiday, which ends in June, and it can feel relentless. I understand that. Our surveyors are struggling to keep up, our booking dates are sitting at a minimum three weeks ahead, we have a new surveyor who's just started and finding his feet, and we're all feeling the pressure. It's not where we were six months ago - or even three months ago - but it can be pretty overwhelming. So, it's not that I don't have sympathy for her. I do, and we're still in a weird time where there's no full complement of staff in the office. The office manager is in today, though, and is going to have a chat with her about...stuff...and I hope everything (at least as much as possible) is sorted out. I commend her for not wanting to feel taken advantage of, nobody should feel that, but at the same time, she needs to recognise how it's affecting the rest of us. I think a lot of it goes back to the (lack of) training she had. If I or the office manager had been able to at least be there while it was happening, I think things might be a bit different. I have said this to her.
She has also had no previous experience with surveying and starting a new job is always a struggle for a little while. It's a very big learning curve, so I'm trying to be as supportive and helpful as I can.
Anyway. I'm complaining too much - I've never won an employee of the month prize, and know I have a tendency to slack off if given the opportunity. Perhaps this is payback. I'm just frustrated because I want her to succeed and be happy but right now it's very uncertain. She has her three-month review at the end of next week, so I guess we'll see how it goes. If she's unhappy, she needs to say so. If she's feeling taken advantage of, she needs to say so. Ultimately, I feel it's entirely her decision whether she stays or not.
I had a blog writing trial with the proofreading company which I thought might work into some part-time income but unfortunately wasn't successful. I was initially disappointed, as I thought it would have been a nice part-time gig, but after a little thought, I realised that I would have been quite resentful of the time needed to focus on it and that it wasn't quite my niche. So, I'm okay with that.
I had my first vaccine jab last week and it went very well. Quick and painless. I was very tired the next day, but otherwise, I've been fine apart from a tender arm. They were super efficient too, and the whole process took less than 10 minutes from arrival to departure.
My full bloodwork got done the week before that and my chat with the nephrologist the following Tuesday was very positive. Everything is right where it should be: cholesterol is spot on, all the numbers and whatever else they needed to see is excellent, so I'm very relieved. It means only an annual check to monitor things now, and she said to just keep doing what I'm doing (mind the salt!) as it was all looking good. I did tell her that I get quite fatigued and have taken to taking an OTC iron pill (14mg = 100% daily iron requirement) and she was fine with that. And yesterday I had a health check with my new surgery which, I didn't realise, was to do an intake to see what sort of health issues might need to be ascertained. Whoops! Apparently, because I'm already aware of specific issues and on it, it was a bit of a waste of time, although I now know my blood pressure (low) and they have some notes on my file. Hopefully, all the bloodwork information will arrive soon and they'll have all the information they need.
Otherwise, have polished off two more books and am most of the way through a third. Hoping to clear at least one or two more this weekend. The weather is slated to be warm, so maybe the best place to read will be the reserve. That would be a treat!
Have a safe and enjoyable Easter weekend!
3 comments:
Happy Birthday, Happy Holidays, Happy Easter to you!!!
It's hard starting a new job because of course you're slow and it's stressful, but at the same time, bursting into tears because you come back to work and ALL of your work has not been done is just ridiculous. I don't envy you having to deal with that, but hopefully she'll become more confident in time. Oh, and happy birthday - I would sing it to you but there's not much point really is there!
Hi MW - Thank you so much! To you & D as well xx
Hi Treaders - yes, that's just it. As the office manager said to me, 'not sure who comes back from holiday and doesn't expect emails to be waiting?' There's a lot involved in her job, not all of which she's doing. I hope she'll become more confident as well but, even more than that, a teeeeeeeeeny bit faster. Don't know! Anyway. Thank you very much! xx
Post a Comment