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It's the end of the week as we know it
Nov. 2nd, 2002 04:49 pmYou know, I feel substantially better than fine. I know, I know, it's only the end of the first week in the job, and the first seven weeks are just training, and indeed, the first week is just Personal Development Training, but so far I'm very impressed with the company as a whole (or at least those bits that I've seen of it). I've yet to meet anyone who wasn't friendly, nice and reasonable, the company is obviously structured around the idea that if you treat your employees well, train them to do their jobs and assign competent people to manage them, you get a lot more done, and the food is divine. So divine, in fact, that on Friday I switched to the salad bar as I was putting on weight.
I've spent most of the first week feeling exhausted in the evenings. I was stressed at the run up to the job (which still feels a tad unreal to me), so I hadn't been sleeping that well, and then the actual course kept me constantly thinking, discussing, preparing and doing from 9-5 and actually made me stretch myself for long periods to get things done (for the first time in goodness knows how long). It was certainly the first time in ages that I was working with 8 other smart people for hours on end. So I'd arrive home in the evening feeling shattered and be bugger all use around the house. I'm sure once my brain actually ramps up into gear I'll be coping a lot better
Not, it has to be said, that I haven't been coping when I'm at work, it's just left me drained at the end of the day. I've actually been enjoying it very much, learning techniques for obtaining effective specifications, planning effectively, holding effective meetings, and giving effective presentations. I'm sure the observant amongst you (and possibly Nick too) will have noticed the emphasis on effectiveness. Each section would generally start with some examples of ineffectiveness in the subject. I mean, who hasn't been in ineffective meetings, seen ineffective presentations, etc. The trainer we had was one of the best I've ever had and had obviously been through similar situations herself, giving clear, concise tips to avoid common problems, getting lots of input from the group without allowing us to go off on tangents and generally held our attention very well.
The week culminated with 24 hours of stress. At 12:10 on Thursday we were handed a "multi-task project", consisting of 8 seperate tasks that had to be performed in time to give presentations at 2pm the next day. Each person would manage a single task. No person could work on the task they were managing. No person could perform work on any task until they had a plan for their time. A person couldn't put together a personal plan until they knew what tasks they would be working on and what the plan was for that project. The projects couldn't be planned until the overall project plan was finished. And the overall plan couldn't be started until we had Terms of Reference (including Background, Objectives, Scope, Constraints, Assumptions, Reporting and Deliverables) for each of the eight tasks. Once we had all of that and the tasks had been carried out, we then had to give the presentations to an audience of 15 people consisting of our future managers. Can you guess how we felt?
There were a variety of things thrown in our peth - for instance one of the tasks was to make a 5 minute video designed to attract people to join the company, while we also had to video 30 second clips of each task being carried out to go with each presentation. All this with one video camera, two tapes and no editing equpment (so whatever order the clips were shot in had to be the order of the presentations). Oh, and three of the tasks were set half a mile away from the building in different bits of Edinburgh, so the camera had to be out and about for an hour and a half, and then back for the short film to be made.
Oh, and the task I was managing was specified to start at 3:30 on the Thursday, which was utterly impossible, as I realised at 2pm. I then had to persuade the Project Manager that this was the case so that he could go and tell the trainer/project sponsor, who congratulated us on spotting it so quickly, and gave us a postponement until the following morning.
So, as you can see, things were a tad busy, although we got everything finished in time, everyone did their presentations admirably and it all came together at the end. I ended up managing one task, working on 2 of them and appearing in the short film, keeping me dashing madly in circles for most of the time. I can honestly say I've learnt a lot, gotten to know my fellow workers a lot better and feel quite enthused about seeing what the next few weeks have in store.
After things finished on Friday we all went down the pub together for a few drinks, I then went on to "Old Orleans", a chain restaurant that sold me asome kind of cajun spiced chicken, bacon and cheese thing which just melted in my mouth before carrying on to see Donnie Darko which was very entertaining with a delightfully opaque ending.
And now I have to go and do the dishes that have been piling up for the last couple of days.
I've spent most of the first week feeling exhausted in the evenings. I was stressed at the run up to the job (which still feels a tad unreal to me), so I hadn't been sleeping that well, and then the actual course kept me constantly thinking, discussing, preparing and doing from 9-5 and actually made me stretch myself for long periods to get things done (for the first time in goodness knows how long). It was certainly the first time in ages that I was working with 8 other smart people for hours on end. So I'd arrive home in the evening feeling shattered and be bugger all use around the house. I'm sure once my brain actually ramps up into gear I'll be coping a lot better
Not, it has to be said, that I haven't been coping when I'm at work, it's just left me drained at the end of the day. I've actually been enjoying it very much, learning techniques for obtaining effective specifications, planning effectively, holding effective meetings, and giving effective presentations. I'm sure the observant amongst you (and possibly Nick too) will have noticed the emphasis on effectiveness. Each section would generally start with some examples of ineffectiveness in the subject. I mean, who hasn't been in ineffective meetings, seen ineffective presentations, etc. The trainer we had was one of the best I've ever had and had obviously been through similar situations herself, giving clear, concise tips to avoid common problems, getting lots of input from the group without allowing us to go off on tangents and generally held our attention very well.
The week culminated with 24 hours of stress. At 12:10 on Thursday we were handed a "multi-task project", consisting of 8 seperate tasks that had to be performed in time to give presentations at 2pm the next day. Each person would manage a single task. No person could work on the task they were managing. No person could perform work on any task until they had a plan for their time. A person couldn't put together a personal plan until they knew what tasks they would be working on and what the plan was for that project. The projects couldn't be planned until the overall project plan was finished. And the overall plan couldn't be started until we had Terms of Reference (including Background, Objectives, Scope, Constraints, Assumptions, Reporting and Deliverables) for each of the eight tasks. Once we had all of that and the tasks had been carried out, we then had to give the presentations to an audience of 15 people consisting of our future managers. Can you guess how we felt?
There were a variety of things thrown in our peth - for instance one of the tasks was to make a 5 minute video designed to attract people to join the company, while we also had to video 30 second clips of each task being carried out to go with each presentation. All this with one video camera, two tapes and no editing equpment (so whatever order the clips were shot in had to be the order of the presentations). Oh, and three of the tasks were set half a mile away from the building in different bits of Edinburgh, so the camera had to be out and about for an hour and a half, and then back for the short film to be made.
Oh, and the task I was managing was specified to start at 3:30 on the Thursday, which was utterly impossible, as I realised at 2pm. I then had to persuade the Project Manager that this was the case so that he could go and tell the trainer/project sponsor, who congratulated us on spotting it so quickly, and gave us a postponement until the following morning.
So, as you can see, things were a tad busy, although we got everything finished in time, everyone did their presentations admirably and it all came together at the end. I ended up managing one task, working on 2 of them and appearing in the short film, keeping me dashing madly in circles for most of the time. I can honestly say I've learnt a lot, gotten to know my fellow workers a lot better and feel quite enthused about seeing what the next few weeks have in store.
After things finished on Friday we all went down the pub together for a few drinks, I then went on to "Old Orleans", a chain restaurant that sold me asome kind of cajun spiced chicken, bacon and cheese thing which just melted in my mouth before carrying on to see Donnie Darko which was very entertaining with a delightfully opaque ending.
And now I have to go and do the dishes that have been piling up for the last couple of days.
