Sometimes, life throws up the most unexpected symmetries.
At the beginning of the year, there were major problems with snow in the South East of England. Guess what we have at the moment. There's major road and rail problem. End of term activities in schools have been cancelled. Eurostar trains have been breaking down in the Chunnel.
And, of course, the big talk has been about having a white Christmas.
Here on Merseyside, we have had some cold days and nights - it was -4°C last night and our garden pond has been frozen solid for the past three days. But we've not had it as bad as elsewhere. Nevertheless, I turned back on my way to Quakers this morning. Compacted hailstones on top of frozen ground meant that driving conditions were not easy and so I decided that discretion was the better part of valour. Pussy cats have been noticeably in their baskets or on the bed.
At the beginning of the year also, Ian, Steve and I went to Walsall to give a workshop. Last Friday, I drove down to Walsall on my own to give a training session. The temperature was in the minus range for the whole journey down. I was glad to be wearing a woollie in the car.
This was the job from hell that I have been dreading for some time. I had been detailed in my absence (whilst ill) to deliver training on how to manage a bespoke online booking system which is to be launched in January. The programming development will not be completed before Christmas (ie development will continue after the training has been delivered). When the training was commissioned some months ago, it was done on the basis that the materials would be 80% recycled and 20% newly created. It turned out to be completely the opposite with me having to create pretty much all of the materials from scratch.
I have not been a part of the background discussions so I knew nothing about the business requirements which underpinned the project. I was working with a piece of software which I have had but a passing acquaintance and that some months back now. I didn't receive a full scoping definition for the training which was required until the day before the training was due to be delivered. The website needed to be ported from a development server onto a staging server with external access (if this didn't or couldn't happen, it was a show-stopper) and this wasn't accomplished until mid afternoon on the day before the training was to be delivered.
Frankly, the background project management was a mess. Nevertheless, I did what I could to save the day and produced some supporting materials which at least allowed Connect to be seen in a reasonably professional light.
I think that my part went well. Even by the end, the participants were thanking me for my efforts. I've been asked if I would go down again to deliver some more and different training.
However, half way through the afternoon, the participants suddenly started asking why the system did things this way and not that and why it didn't do things which were crucial to the efficient and effective operation of the service.
I couldn't answer.
I had to fall back on not being the Project Manager and not being present at the Project Initiation meetings.
What I really felt like saying was that the Project Manager at our end has completely misunderstood what you want and didn't think to ask questions when it became apparent that what was being provided was misconceived.
I rather think that the excrement is going to come into contact with the air ventilation system on this one. If my understanding is correct, what is being required by the client is not simply a minor tweak to the system but a major philosophical overhaul potentially requiring a complete re-write.
In other words, it's a disaster.
Luckily, a couple of weeks back, I got my defense in early by putting together an extended suggestion for our company suggestion box detailing how commercial training could be improved but really saying that Connect's resource management, project management and process management are inadequate. Anyhow, on Tuesday, when I return to work, it ceases to be my problem as I shall be dealing with an intake of new people onto our social training programme.
I've also headed off another little challenge to my terms and conditions of employment from, of all people, Jill, my line manager. Normally quite docile, out of the blue, she challenged the way that I calculate my Bank Holiday entitlement. With a bit of help and support from Roland, who after all spends his life dealing with these sorts of issues as a trades unionist, I put together a fairly cogent rebuttal.
My apologies for not responding sooner to your email but I wanted to check some facts first.
Let me say straight away that I believe that this discussion will be overtaken by events when we move into our new premises in January. Like many members of Connect's staff, I believe that there will be an announcement soon afterwards explaining that, because that building remains open throughout the year, the practice of closed days will cease in 2010. When that happens, of course, the incidence of Bank Holidays will be visible to everyone.
Nevertheless, since I started working a four day week in February 2004, I have believed that my contractual arrangements with Connect are very simple.
I work for four days a week - 80% of the agreed working week. And therefore…
- I take 80% of my agreed salary.
- I take 80% of my agreed holiday entitlement.
- And I take 80% of the statutory Bank Holidays which would otherwise be available to me.
- There are 8 statutory Bank Holidays in the calendar year.
- 80% of this total is 6.4 days, a figure which is quoted directly in my contract.
- This is the entitlement I have worked to for the past six years.
I was told in February 2004, that my agreed day for not being in work at Connect would be a Monday. Because a number of statutory Bank Holidays occur on a Monday, I am allowed to take compensatory days in lieu by arrangement with my line manager so that I do not lose out. In six years, there has never before been any question about some Bank Holidays being included in the total and some not.
If you check the records (particularly for 2005 and 2006), you will find that I have requested differing numbers of lieu days each year depending on how many of the 8 statutory Bank Holidays have fallen on a Monday. I have made no secret of this and all of my requests for the years 2004 - 2009 have been granted without question.
I submit that, whatever other arguments there may be, this arrangement has now become part of my terms and conditions of employment.
However, as I said at the beginning of this email, I do believe that this discussion will become irrelevant in a short space of time.
Nevertheless, simply for the record, and on advice, I decline to accept your proposed re-interpretation of my contractual terms and conditions of service after six years of transparent implementation.
After some background consultation, there has been a complete withdrawal and an apology for any confusion caused.
What remains interesting is that there has been no contradiction of my claim that closed days will cease next year. That was pure speculation on my part but it would appear that I was close to the mark. Many of my colleagues will not be happy with that.
Anyhow, just three more work days before the mid-winter festival.
Apart from inducting new trainees and then providing them with a day's worth of extra training to fill in, I have to cover some administrative duties for my line manager who is taking annual leave, I have some Internal Verification work to do and I have a report to write from the discovery workshops that I ran a couple of weeks back.
I shall be in need of the rest when it arrives.