Day 127 – 21 July 2014
I’d spent the weekend helping my eldest daughter move into her new house. For two days I have been moving and erecting furniture, driving the van and laying paving flags and so I was glad to get back to work this morning for a rest though my aching limbs had other ideas. It was nice to have done some physical work for a change however. It reminded me of when I had a summer job on a building site, which was a long time ago, and when I worked in warehouses. I really enjoyed those times and the last couple of days have stirred some memories.
Most of the things I do these days require mental effort (and a lot of tongue wagging). The most tiring thing I ever do now is to walk up to the top floor in County Hall and I must admit that I enjoyed doing some honest graft. A change is as good as a rest as they say.
My first meeting of the morning didn’t start until ten which gave me a chance to take the van I’d hired back. Before it started I settled myself into our new hot desk area in the lower ground floor. Since we’ve moved out we’ve set up a space for people who need to work here. As it turns out it is the coolest room in the building and so perhaps we should rename it as a cool-desk area. ICT are leading the way in agile working (so we should be) and it feels good. I think that would be a good subject for our monthly newsletter.
At the regular Customer Focus Board we again spent most of our time talking about the Customer Relationship Management business case. Our issues lie, as they do with every complex organisation, in the balance between the investment in technology and the changes in business processes required but the business case has come together now and is at a place where it is time to make a decision. Alan is the lucky one who will be taking it to Corporate Management team and, as all of his colleagues told him, we’re right behind him.
After lunch I drove up to Dale and Valley Homes in Bishop Auckland for our quarterly review. They are one of the three housing groups that form part of the County Durham Housing Group (or CDHG which officially proves we have run out of four letter acronyms – and before anyone starts I know it’s not an acronym but just some initials). Their issues were very similar to those of East Durham Homes but it is essential that we maintain good relations with them as key customers.
I used one of the fleet cars and of course I needed a pen to record the mileage before starting off. Will we never learn? Unfortunately the Citroen C3 didn’t have air conditioning so it was a warm drive. Still, when we got there an ice-cream van trundled into the car park. Two Fabs and a Twister cooled us down.
Learning points for today: Scarcity of time is a bigger issue than scarcity of money; school holidays are good times to drive into work; school holidays are good times to dig up the roads; Fabs are now a pound and: I shouldn’t let these things worry me.
Today’s enjoyment rating 8/10 – warm.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 