One month in and keeping my head above water. Just.

Day 26

I don’t know what prompted me to start counting the days like this. Just trying to keep track of everything, I guess.

I got into the office this morning with the aim of using the first hour to get myself prepared for the day ahead. Well, that was swallowed up as Mark pounced as I walked towards my office door. It didn’t take long to realise just how agitated he was and how much he’d been stewing over the weekend. It took a while for him to calm down and for me to find out more about what had happened other than he’d had a run in with Stuart, late Friday afternoon. Somehow, I’d missed the fallout just after it had happened.

Still that was my hours preparation for the days meetings blown. And eventually I had to find a way to wrap it up, so I could get to my first meeting, for which I felt somewhat ill-prepared for. Not the start to the week I was hoping for, and something else to add to the list of things to deal with!

I finally had my first formal meeting with Paul today. I understand he’s busy, and after the welcome he’d given me, I thought I’d have a bit more contact. Just hasn’t quite happened that way. I guess it’s a way to let me get on with it and not interfere. Anyway, we covered quite a bit of ground in our meeting. Not quite sure how he thinks I’m doing, but seems happy enough so far.

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Day 27

I managed to catch up with Stuart first thing this morning, before I started my round of meetings. I really wasn’t prepared as I just happened to bump into him in the corridor, but as he’s hard to pin down and I’m struggling to find time for anything else, this seemed to be the right opportunity. I broached what Mark had told me with Stuart. Oh, I guess I should have seen it coming, Stuart was dismissive and essentially told me he thought Mark was out of order. After several minutes of telling me what I should do, he excused himself for another meeting. Hmm, great – how is this going to get sorted?

The rest of the day was seemed to be filled with meetings on I don’t even remember what… though the one on office space took me by surprise. Does this really have to involve me? Really?

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Day 28

I managed to have a couple of one-to-one meetings with individual members of my team. Finally got them in my calendar so I’ll be meeting them once a month. Although I’ve had informal chats, I’ve not yet managed to have formal meetings until now. Interesting to get a better understanding of them and Lucy seems ambitious. I’ll have to see what this means and what I can do to support her. Mark still seemed raw from his confrontation with Stuart. I’m not yet sure how to resolve this. Mark does seem to bit abrasive and I can see how that annoyed Stuart, and Stuart is strongly opinionated from what I’ve seen. And whilst Stuart is Mark’s superior, Mark has a valid point. Why am I involved? In the end I told Mark that I was having an ongoing conversation with Stuart to buy myself a little more time.

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Day 29

Argh! Paul was landed with a stupidly short deadline and in his wisdom decided to delegate. So now I also have a stupidly short deadline for a detailed report on a swathe of activities that right now I’m aware of, but can’t honestly say I know in much detail. I know I should know this stuff. But I’ve just not had time to get into everything. And suddenly now I have to.

I’ve managed to get some meetings rescheduled, but still it’s going to be some long nights and a very long weekend. Not sure how I’m going to get this done, or even how good it’s going to be. It’s either going to be a sharp learning curve or possibly crash and burn when Paul realises just how little I know…

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Day 30

Finally, I’ve got to the end of the week. Still got a crazy amount of work to do, but at least I won’t have meetings to interrupt me. I got some dismayed looks at home when I mentioned I’d have to work this weekend. I know they understand, but it’s hard trying to stop work from taking over, yet this report is critical and I really don’t have much choice.

I did however keep my one-to-one meetings with the other two members of my team. Amanda seems on top of what she’s doing, which is great. Joe, as I’ve noticed before, came with lots of points he wanted to discuss. Things he’s not happy with. Not yet sure if he’s expecting me to sort all these out for him or just whether it’s his way of letting off steam. I guess I’ll find that out soon enough.

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Day 32

Sunday evening and I’m exhausted. I’ve been starting at the report for a while and realised I’m no longer taking it in or adding anything of any value. Somehow it’ll have to do, but I am dreading to find out what Paul thinks of it.

I need sleep, but I’ve got a manic week ahead and there are things I’m behind with including a mountain of email.

And I’ve still got this thing between Mark and Stuart in the back of my mind. Ugh.

Right, time for bed.