Which platform?

Yesterday I had a number of virtual meetings both at work and for #bellringing in the evening. This has consisted of using various different video conferencing platforms.

At work we use Starleaf which enables meetings and video conferencing, screen sharing and so on. You have to send your attendees a link with a meeting ID and password and you can dial in on a phone instead.

We have a fortnightly Skype meeting with family members and our daughter. You need a log in for that and connect with other users first.

We use Zoom for #bellringing meetings and to support RingingRoom sessions. Similar to Starleaf with the ability to run polls and breakout rooms as well. I have acpaid Zoom account which often means I’m the one setting the meeting up. Again you can send attendees a link to access the meeting or dial in.

Tuesday evening I was on a meeting with the Communications & Marketing workgroup and we used MS Teams for the first time. It seems to have similar functions to Zoom and Starleaf although it did take a bit of getting into. It wasn’t particularly intuitive at first. Once you get into it it made a bit more sense but I haven’t figured out how to add files or calendar dates yet but probably need to spend a bit more time rummaging around it to get myself acquainted with it. We’re supposed to be getting this rolled out at work eventually.

There are so many different platforms being used for various things sometimes it’s a wonder that it all works. So many log in IDs and passwords to remember.

Self portrait

I’m going on a course soon to do with work and as part of the preparation they’ve asked me to send them a short bio and a photograph of myself to go in the course pack.

I HATE having my photo taken. There are very few of me about, I’m not photogenic and why the heck would any one want my ugly mug staring at them.

Also, the request for bio information stated “send a brief profile write up mentioning your role, hobbies and anything you’d like the other participants to know“. The first two bits are easy. I know what my job is and, well basically its bells and baking. But how would I know what other people might want to know about me. How far do I take this?

My favourite colour is burgundy, I like orange Smarties. I drive xx car, I have un frere et deux soeurs (as we used to trot out in French classes). Married, daughter, home…

How much could anyone possibly be interested in?

I turned to trusty old Google and typed in “what should I write in a short bio”. Google suggested that I should include my goals and aspirations, the 2-3 most impressive and relevant achievements and a quirky fact about myself.

OK, so the Smarties thing is in. Hmm, goals and aspirations. To get through life as best I can, you can’t see what’s coming round the corner. 2-3 impressive and relevant achievements. I don’t know. I’ve done some stuff and some of it has been OK but I’m not sure that it’s relevant to the course context.

I’ve kept my bio very short. It’s of little interest to anyone else I’m sure. It’ll be interesting in itself to see how much and what things others have written.

Optimistic October

Every month I download a copy of the Action for Happiness Calendar. I don’t always do what it suggests but sometimes things are relevant or a good reminder to do something positive. As today is the 1st October, todays new month starts with writing down your most important goals for this month.

OK, where to start….

1. Get new job description – I am aware that a secondment opportunity is in the offing and its something that appeals to me. I know that the JD is being authorised, so the job should be being advertised soon. Need to sharpen up my Expression of Interest notes.

2. Find more ways to spend quality time with C and R – there has been an awful lot of things going on at the moment with work, ringing meetings, talks etc that sometimes it feels that C and I don’t spend any real time being together. Getting to see R now is more difficult too as her working patterns have changed so her days off no longer coincide with mine. I need to give some priority to finding things that we can do together that mean we spend actual time with each other to the exclusion of it being perfunctory, like putting in a new front door. Sure, we will spend time together to do that but it’s a job that needs doing, not something that is necessarily spending quality time together.

3. Focus on some PR activities – as you know I’m the PRO for both my local #bellringing association and the Central Council of Church Bellringers and we need to get some more good news out in the public domain.

4. Bake – I want to carry on with the weekly baking challenge of making something from the collection of magazines that I’ve accumulated.

5. Lose weight – probably counter intuitive given #4, but I really must put more effort into this area instead of just playing at it. My overall health will thank me for it.

There are probably many more smaller ticket things to focus on too, but by spending more time on each of these bigger areas, my whole wellbeing should be much improved and I will feel more resilient and ready to tackle most things.

Thank you for the thank you.

Someone at work gave me a thank you gift yesterday morning. Another team that my boss manages is going through consultation and Wednesday was interview day for the top jobs. One of the candidates came to see me last week and asked if I could help her with some interview preparation as she’d never applied for a post this high up before. Interestingly, the post is higher banding than what I’m on.

Anyway, I spent over an hour with her last week talking about the sorts of questions she might be asked and I said that she would need to pay particular attention to management skills rather than purely technical knowledge. A role on that level is more about strategy and managing other people rather than doing the graft work and knowing all the ins and outs. Its a little bit more of understanding office politics and dealing with very senior management, liaison and so on. Stuff I have done and do do in my current role anyway, I’m just on a lower pay band, but let’s not go there.

So, having spent some time with this person, we’d talked about the sorts of questions she might be asked, and the questions she should ask back. The interview happened but she didn’t get the job.

Apparently she’d spent all night worrying about it that she’d hardly slept, she had been worrying about the minutiae of detailed technical things instead of the strategic level things, so she didn’t perform well on the day. Of course they’d asked her some technical questions but wanted to know more about her and her ability to think laterally and outside of their own current structure. Precisely some of these things we’d been over. She was disappointed but mainly with herself as she knew that she had not performed her best because she hadn’t slept. She also said that her heart wasn’t really in it because it would take her away from what she knows and felt that she applied because she was expected to.

She was profusely thankful for the time that I’d spent with her and had bought me a gift by way of thanks. I did say that I wasn’t sure I deserved it as she didn’t get the job, but she said that she was appreciative of my support nonetheless.

Thank you for thanking me 😁

Sweat the small stuff

We are often told not to sweat the small stuff. Don’t get worked up over trivial things. And mostly that’s how I roll. I don’t very often get worked up over incidentals. People have written books on the subject to help us have a more stress free life. However, sometimes the small stuff is worth sweating over to make a difference to someone else.

I used to manage a team of over 250 staff who worked around the clock. They were the lowest paid staff in the organisation. I used to think that they couldn’t possibly have anything to worry about, they’d turn up to work, do their job then go home again. They didn’t have to worry about budgets and rosters and equipment and processes and management performance audits. That was until one of them came into my office one time and broke down in a hysterical fit of sobbing. Dear God, now what do I do?

I shut the door behind her, handed over the box of tissues I always kept on my desk then waited without saying anything. Once she’d gathered her composure she went on to tell me a whole raft of problems at home that had been building up over a period of months that had now all come to a head. Her father had been taken ill suddenly and passed away, her child was being expelled from school for antisocial behaviour, she’d found out that her partner had been having an affair and had just emptied their bank account and run off with the other person and because she was so low paid she would not be able to afford the rent and bills on her own. Quite understandably her world was collapsing around her and the only constant was coming to work. Jeez, and there’s me stressing over a bloody management report in my nice single person office, with a window a nice secure home and social life.

It hit me then that everyone has something going on in their life that maybe they don’t want the outside world to know about, or they try to keep private.

This particular person downloaded all her troubles. I didn’t necessarily have the answers, although made a couple of suggestions to deal with the immediate issues. At the end of a long talk she looked at me thanked me for listening and not judging her.

Sweating the small stuff could mean something simple like being kind and courteous to each other. Sweating those kinds of small things could make a real difference for someone.

Sweat the small stuff and make a difference.

Hello again

As you know I was off work last week taking some annual leave and doing all sorts of random things which was thoroughly enjoyable. At 07:30 this morning I was back at my office desk.

The first thing to do was navigate logging back into my PC trying to remember the new password I’d set the day before I went on leave. Then opening the email inbox to see the 290 new emails received over last week. Didn’t think that was too bad actually. I can hear my number two in her office next door talking to someone so I’ll have to wait for her to update me on what’s been going on.

Then time to check the diary to see what I’ve got on this week. I’m interviewing for new staff this morning and have 3 candidates, all internal, to see. Then a conference call later on. The rest of the week is a patchwork of meetings, investigation interviews and video conference calls. Good job I’ve got my strong, home ground coffee with me.

So, here goes, let’s get Monday underway.