Surprise Surprise

There are a few of my former work colleagues, as well as myself, turning a certain age in the next month or so. The first of our little gang to celebrate this milestone happens this weekend. She doesn’t work Wednesdays and Thursdays and then has some annual leave that covers the actual day, so her colleagues and friends (?) surprised her today. When she arrived at work, her desk was surrounded by balloons, presents, cakes, cards and all manner of things. She’s not one for a fuss, but she did rather well in accepting the effort that people had gone to to celebrate with her. She did better than I would have done.

I hate surprises. It might be something to do with my ISTJ personality traits. It makes me feel very uneasy, nervous and not in control of what’s going on. If it had been me, I’d have either walked straight back out, or set about popping all the balloons. That’s not to say that I wouldn’t appreciate the effort of those who had done it had gone to, but if they knew me at all, they wouldn’t have done it in the first place. For me, I think it’s also a case of embarrassment, not knowing what to say or where to look, or what to do next. This is why I never work on my birthday.

At school my birthday was always either at the weekend or during a school half-term holiday so I never had to deal with my birthday at school with people either making a fuss or making fun of me. In most of my working life hardly anyone has ever known it was birthday anyway, and therefore a fuss was never made. Then I just started to book the week off that surrounds my birthday.

This year my significant birthday falls on a Saturday, so I’ve actually booked the week before and the week after off. The original thought was to have gone away somewhere with C and R and have a lovely break and experience somewhere else. However, in the current climate that’s not going to happen, and I’ll be unlikely to even be able to see R, so it’ll be a very quite affair instead. And I’m ok with that. I understand the situation we’re in and that there’s no point in going off about what I can’t do, or depressed about not being able to do what I want to. I’m still going to take the 2 weeks leave, got to use it up anyway, and I’m going to enjoy having some time off to recharge the batteries.

When the time comes that we can meet up with R, or that we can go away somewhere, then we’ll do what we might have done in the first place. I shall have that to look forward to.

The Unfamiliar Familiar

Today was my first day back on the hospital site for 3 weeks. I was a little apprehensive about it I’ll be honest. Not particularly about being back at work after a week’s annual leave, but being on site, where there are people, lots of people and patients, lots of patients. I think I was more apprehensive about that than the fact that I actually had to go and sit in my old office to cover for my number two whilst she’s on annual leave, which meant being back with the team that I moved on from just over a month ago.

I went straight to my old office, and set up my laptop and settled back into the smells and sounds that are along that corridor. Then I went in to the main office where everyone else is and said hello. There were a few comments like “where have you been?” but some nice enquiries about how I was getting on in my secondment role. I asked after each of them and how they were getting on generally, and explained that I’d been sitting in my old office for a couple of days whilst V was on annual leave, so if there was anything they needed, to just shout. To be honest, they know what they are doing and are quite capable of getting on with it but every now and then someone throws a curve ball that puts things out of kilter so I was just here to make sure that they were ok. They don’t need me, and that’s fine.

I had occasion to walk through the hospital site where nothing much seemed to have changed since I was last here. Although there was the vaccine hub outside and new tented waiting area. There were fewer people wandering around, only people that absolutely should be here are being allowed in the front door.

At lunchtime I went for what used to be my usual walk around the perimetre of the hospital site. Sometimes that walk became a bit of a chore, doing it because I felt I ought to do some exercise, but also rather boring as you can’t go very far in half an hour. Today, it almost seemed like a brand new walk. The season has been marching on and buds are starting to sprout as the first throws of spring are imminent.

The sights and sounds of a busy hospital go on, with or without you. It was quite reassuring that there was some familiarity about it, even if it did feel a bit odd being here.

Snow joke

All over the UK today people have been posting photos of snow scenes and hastily assembled snowmen. It all looks lovely.

Here though, we did get a quick flurry early afternoon but nothing settled. There is a threat of more snow overnight though.

Snowy scenes seem to make most people feel all magical. The silent fall, often overnight, create some mythical scene. Snow seems to bring a sense of clean calmness to most people. It may be that it instigates memories of childhood, snowball fights, building snowmen or keeping warm under many layers and drinking hot chocolate with marshmallows. A more innocent time perhaps. There’s almost something naive about it.

Last time I was anywhere near serious amounts of snow was when we went to Slovenia. We went husky sledging and snow shoe walking in the mountains. It was one of the best holidays I’ve experienced.

Being the first to leave footprints in the snow and hear the crisp crunch under foot. It makes nature look all the more beautiful.

Today though I was reminded that not everyone enjoys the snow. People don’t like snow for a number of reasons. Its frozen, damp and after a while gets dirty. It changes plans by preventing travel. It can be dangerous especwhen it turns to slush or ice. Some people find totally white landscapes depressing. For some its another reminder that spring isn’t here yet. Some people also find snowmen quite menacing.

Thankfully our flurry didn’t settle so hopefully my first drive back on site for 3 weeks won’t be a problem.

Power cuts

When I was very much younger power cuts were a regular occurance. This was generally due to coal minors working to rule because of pay cuts.

We’d get the candles out from the cupboard under the kitchen sink and play cards or read by candlelight or talk. I don’t really remember much about them being a particular problem, but then as a kid it probably made no difference to my world. I guess if you were trying to work, or cook dinner for the family, or in the middle of something really important it would be really annoying.

During adult life when there’s been power cuts its often a case of a tripped switch, so a quick rummage in the cupboard under the stairs to sort it out. Maybe a dodgy fuse in an appliance.

We had a proper power outage this evening. The whole street went out. It was actually quite exciting in a way. Oooo, wonder what’s caused that? How long is it going to last?

Rather disappointingly, it was only a matter of about a minute before everything kicked back on again. And these days you can check on line to see what happened.

This evening’s little darkened interlude was brought to us by engineers carrying out emergency repairs to the network. By the looks of things there’s been a power cut nearby for some considerable time that is still not sorted, so our little blip may have been connected.

Makes you think about things that we take for granted and only notice when they go wrong. Every day lights go on, kettles boil and water gets heated. I know we pay our bills for that privilege. We never say thank you for making sure that the lights go on, the kettle boils and the water is hot. We only complain when it doesn’t.

Some of the roles I’ve had at work in the past have been a lot like that. You never get thanked for doing a good job every day, you just get complaints when it doesn’t happen properly.

I remember saying at the interview I had when I applied for my Masters course that a patients journey has so many interactions that shape a patients view of the care they’re going to receive, that could go wrong at any stage, with the organisation before they even get to say hello to a clinician.

Firstly the patient needs to get there, so there needs to be good public transport or parking facilities. When they arrive they walk through grounds that need to be maintained. Then walk into a building that needs to be upright, light, heated and equipped. Then either see a receptionist or a self serve totem that means having a computer system that works. Then, maybe if they’re early for their appointment they go for a coffee, so that needs to be avaliable, then of course they’ll need a wee so toilets need to be cleaned and serviced. Then, when they get to the clinic area, their notes are miraculously available, whether paper or electronic. All of that before anyone has said hello.

But we never say thank you for all that. We just take it for granted and complain when any of that system doesn’t work to our liking.

Password Reset

Again, things came in pairs today.

I’m working from home at the moment and have a work laptop. For the last few days its been pinging me a reminder that I’ll need to reset my login password soon. It even counts down the days until the current password expires and suggests that you could do it earlier if you want to.

Why oh why then, was I completely annoyed when this morning I was asked to enter a new password and had to think of a new one. I’ve had a week to think of one. And it’s always when you want to get on with something, so it throws you off your train of thought. And then, the only ones that you think you’ll remember are ones you’ve had before that the system won’t allow you to use again. And it has to be a minimum number of characters, contain at least one number and one non-alphanumeric character. And they still expect you to be able to remember it without writing it down.

And that’s just the front log in screen. Everything you want to access in a different system also requires a password. But with a different number minimum character length, so you can’t use the same one. Then it’ll tell you that’s its too similar to previous passwords so think of another.

Then there’s the system that requires you to enter a new password, but then its going to send you a new verification code so you can’t access the system until you’ve had that email. And that email may take 24 hours to get to you.

This was the second password reset request of the day.

I need to get into this stuff to be able to get on with work. I understand the need to ensure everything is secure but surely once you’re in the main front door system, you should be allowed to access everything within it without the need for 27 different sets of log on details.

2020 Review of the Year

OK, so let’s join the band wagon of a review of the last year. After all, its been a very different kind of year. Every aspect of every part of life has been impacted one way or another.

Career – started the year thinking it was going to be another year of same old, same old. For the first 3 months that’s exactly how it was. When covid hit it put a lot of things into perspective and I made a decision that, to be honest, had been brewing a while. An opportunity came along to get back into project management, albeit on a secondment. I had to take it for my own sanity. Even though I didn’t start in the new role until December, the thought of it being there was enough to see me through some really horrible months.

Ringing – various ups and downs along the way. Normal routine of Sunday service, monthly quarter peals and weekly practices turned into nothing at all, then maybe 5 people of a Sunday but no practices, then down to just the 2 of us. It looked like we could have gone back up to 5 again for Christmas Day but at the last minute it was not to be. At first I didn’t want to embrace the virtual world of #bellringing. It just didn’t seem worth it. But by May I was running my own weekly practice for family and friends, joining in the odd other online practice and starting to run a monthly district practice and organise a monthly 10 bell practice. Taking full advantage of ringing methods that I wouldn’t normally get to ring in a tower.

Home life – I suppose this is where its hit hardest. We haven’t been able to gather as a family for all the usual events. Mum’s 80th birthday, the May “counting”, R’s birthday, Dad’s birthday. No holiday, no ringing weekends. No visits to North Lincolnshire or Hemel Hempstead or Nottingham. No Cake International Show. We did manage to get a couple of day trips to see R when we were all allowed to mix in small groups again but towards the end of the year it became impossible again. We did set up a regular fortnightly family Skype so we could all keep in touch and at least see each other on a screen if not in person.And of course Christmas was very different. No car boot present swap, no drinking Baileys with R. Just a low key day with C, and chatting with family on Skype.

Cakes – as we haven’t had the usual gathering I’ve not needed to bake as many cakes. I did make a small one for mum’s 80th, a friends 60th and Dad’s birthday, but they only needed to be small ones. I have tried some other bakes instead and been mostly up to date with my BakedIn boxes. I’ve tried a few other recipes too, and did manage to get to a socially distanced class with my favourite teacher at @thecupcakeoven to learn how to make cakecicles and heart gems. I didn’t need to make a Christmas cake as we’re not massive fans of it and we got so much food in the hampers that people sent us. I’m hoping that there’ll be more opportunity for cake in 2021.

I suppose I’m quite fortunately really in that I’ve still been able to go to work and keep some semblance of routine. I’m reasonably tech savvy so have been able to embrace video conferencing and Ringing Room. And of course, the most important bit is that I have managed to stay healthy, as has the rest of the family.

Nothing is going to dramatically change as the clock strikes midnight and a new year starts. But there is hope on the horizon. My colleagues are going through an incredibly tough time and are on their knees trying to keep everyone else healthy but with little support and those idiots that flout the rules and put everyone else at risk. But I do have a sense that we will come out of this the other side. Things will be different and we won’t go back to the way things were, or at least I hope not. We have proven that we can work and play differently.

Models and Metrics

One of my current tasks is to write a strategy for data quality across our Trust. I’m needing to find out a lot about it and have been reading around the subject a fair bit to get some background information together.

One of the things I came across today was The Model Hospital. Its a digital information platform that helps with productivity, quality and efficiency. You can use it to benchmark against other NHS Trusts on all manner of things. It’s got some key metrics that trigger notification where there has been new information added. It churns out some fab looking charts. I might be spending a while rummaging around this gathering data.

I am a bit of a data nerd and love a good spreadsheet or set of facts to chew through.

Recording multiple metrics shows whether our processes are good enough for our service users and plots us against our peers and across the whole NHS Acute Trust sector.

This will be handy in identifying what is system related, operational or corruption data from elsewhere.

I can feel my nerdity peaking. I shall spend the day tomorrow fully immersed.

And to go with it, a special delivery arrived today from a #bellringing friend as a thank you gift, which I’m absolutely loving 👇

Wonder what else we could measure and benchmark in our everyday lives?

A Fortunate Find

As you know I’ve moved to a new role and a new office. The desk I’m now occupying used to be inhabited by someone else.

I was reluctant at first to move anything that belonged to the previous inhabitant, as I wasn’t sure whether they’d ever be back, or swoop in one day to reclaim their territory. However, I have since found out that said person has left the organisation altogether. Therefore, the assumption can be made that they no longer wish to claim their abandoned items. I felt vindicated then for going through it all and taking mugs and coffee pots to the kitchen and sorting through some papers and books. Amongst the books were a Prince 2 manual, slightly more up to date than my 25 year old copy, and a set of books on service strategy design, transition, operation and implementation.

Such a fortuitous find as I am now in the world of writing service strategies!!

I’ve been having a bit of a read through them and they will definitely come in handy. One book has already helped me formulate a number questions to ask. I’m sure they will become very useful in the next few months.

Is it a sign of the “meant to be”? Only if you believe in that sort of thing.

Flying visit

I needed to pop over to my substantive department to get them to start working on a specific task.

At first my ID badge wouldn’t let me in the department. How rude, I’ve only been gone a week! I set an individual off on the task required but needed to hang about to check he’d understood everything properly.

I decided to kill a bit of time by having a wander about and say hello to a few people. It was interesting how many of them didn’t respond. Even when I joked that I’d only been gone a week had they forgotten me already, only one person responded.

Now, I could take it personally, as a slight that they feel abandoned, or ignored themselves, but given that some of them hardly spoke to me when I was there before, I won’t take it to heart.

I went and sat in my old office for a while, which now feels a bit desolate and empty. I stared at the walls that I had put photographs my daughter had taken on, that were now bare. The photographs are now on the wall over my home office desk instead, no room in the new office.

Already I felt like a bit of an outsider. It brings into stark reality that everyone is replaceable and life goes on. I’ve never felt that I’m irreplaceable and have in fact tried to foster a culture that is not reliant on one single person to make it function.

I’ve always tried to encourage staff to have the confidence to make decisions for themselves, or at least know where to go to for help. I don’t want to be the bottleneck to progress, nor the sort of person who is unwilling to share knowledge in a vain attempt to hold some power over others, or some misguided sense of superiority, or feel threatened by someone else knowing more than me.

Information is for sharing. Knowledge is for those that want it. The team will move on without me and I shall always blow their trumpet.

Questions, questions

This coming week is going to be a week full of asking questions. As part of my new role I need to understand the detail of what I’m being asked to deliver and how what else is going on will impact, or vice versa.

I will be asking a LOT of silly questions I’m sure. But a silly question is not a silly question if it has to be asked. It is because there might be no immediate, obvious answer to the questioner. One might learn a lot through observation but in this time where we are barely meeting in person, it makes it difficult to observe.

Google provides many an answer and I’m not afraid to put that to good use. Then there’s the stuff that I already know or have some familiarity with. By targeting questions from a How? or Who? starting point, I’m more likely to get a better answer, or even framing it as a suggestion “I thought I might …” It might be off the mark a bit, but at least it would show some thought process. Framing a question correctly will make the question seem a little less silly.

Most colleagues are really helpful and are happy to give advice and support. Some are even willing to help further. It doesn’t matter how far you climb you won’t know everything and at some point, will need to ask that silly question.

Today I shall fully embrace that.