Wednesday, October 30, 2002
It's great getting the afternoon off, but the morning wasn't very helpful. Equipment to be tested, which makes me wonder why on earth they put it in a room with no power sockets? So called down to one of the chaps in my team and promised him a treat. He was a little hesitant, having had experiences of treats before. Then, there were no white coats. We had the choice of wearing offwhite coats blazoned with their owners' names (yes, I have to admit that I don't have a white coat of my own) or retreating back to the other preparation room. Then I manoeuvred the trolley, amidst many jokes about my driving, and we moved the equipment, tested it (and got a sensible result), took it all back, and I went off for my first cup of coffee. Or tried to: ran into the other support guy who wanted some help moving equipment. Are you sure you can do it he kept asking (I work in a very female protective place). Of course I can I kept saying, after all, I can carry a week's shopping with one hand. It was 68.4kg + packing. I'll be a bit more careful what I say in future. We moved two of these babies and I was just heading off for my coffee when this guy cleared his throat and asked if I could just help him with this stuff. I'm on a half day! I said, indignantly. But he helps me a lot, so I helped him and we were just squeezing a box into just the right space when one of his mobiles rang and the sister company was on the phone wanting just a little job done.
Never have I regretted being customer focused so much. So I got back to my desk (didn't even bother thinking about coffee, obviously it was not to be), got the job done and the three others which had been piling up and got out of work two hours late. No doubt it's great for my flexitime, but pretty awful for the half day. It took about three hours to get into a study mood. This assessment is absolutely horrible, I feel I'd be writing it quicker if I was writing in blood. The total so far is 942 words. That's a third of the way through. And I want to go hillwalking at the weekend, but I can't if it's not ready ... this has been a scattered garble of exhausted murmurings from someone who should be reading about qualitative research (or doing the project) and not tapping away on the computer keys.
Never have I regretted being customer focused so much. So I got back to my desk (didn't even bother thinking about coffee, obviously it was not to be), got the job done and the three others which had been piling up and got out of work two hours late. No doubt it's great for my flexitime, but pretty awful for the half day. It took about three hours to get into a study mood. This assessment is absolutely horrible, I feel I'd be writing it quicker if I was writing in blood. The total so far is 942 words. That's a third of the way through. And I want to go hillwalking at the weekend, but I can't if it's not ready ... this has been a scattered garble of exhausted murmurings from someone who should be reading about qualitative research (or doing the project) and not tapping away on the computer keys.
