Juggling
My day at work - the background is that all of our clients seem to want things live on the first Monday of the month. We're getting more and more jobs, so more and more meetings and quotes, but lately I've been doing project management, or really more project shepherding - get the stuff to the client to review, get the comments back from the client to the designer, back and forth all day. Really, I should be doing something more strategic, but in a small company you have to help do everything, including answering spam phone calls of people fishing for the MD's name and address.
We had four big projects due to go live on Monday. Then we got two more new little projects to do today (both of them fell through, though, actually). Clients were being very slack about reviewing things and getting comments back, and I'm working with two people who are new so we don't know each other yet and there are lots of changes (I'm learning that multiple design rounds are just part of the learning curve, so projects with new clients always blow way out in designs and concepts, and project management and meeting time, and that's just the investment you have to make - fortunately the learning curve is steep and by project #2 you give them stuff they approve in about ten seconds without changes). I was feeling frustrated at the beginning of the week because I couldn't get anyone to do anything. But mid-week I started just asking people, and it's working.
Today I had about 8 balls up in the air the minute I got in, but then there were two emergency crises from left field, and then three more bugs and difficulties with a big client, and four people in the office were gone all morning to a meeting (so I had to answer the phone - everyone else is either an uncomfortable non-native English speaker or had headphones on), and so by lunchtime - I didn't even take any lunch, just held a sandwich in one hand and scrolled through things with the other - I had at least ten balls in the air at once and three of them were on fire.
But I asked people to do things, and after the team got back from the meeting two of them asked if they could help with anything, and the clients did what they were told, and the bug got fixed, and things were delegated and approved and ticked off, and the balls started to fall, boom, boom, boom, right into place!
This kind of day is always hard - I usually lose my voice about halfway through, from stress, and my neck hurts now from computing rapidly and from holding my muscles tense - and there are some phone calls along the way that make you put down the phone and go, "F* ck!" and put your head in your hands, but by the end of it I felt great, I had a rush, I felt like I'd really accomplished something. And learned something too, I think - you can accomplish just as much by just having the adrenaline but not the negative stress and panic. Our new little designer, who's I think from Thailand, is a great example of this, he's so calm all the time - and so talented and fast and competent - that by late this afternoon I was trying to be more like him.
So, if I can manage the negative emotions, the stress and doubt and feelings of powerlessness, I think I will not just love my job but really really love my job. I already feel kind of important, it's great when I feel accomplished and calm in a crisis, but if things go right I am building to a truly senior managerial job, which feels good, it feels like something that I as a person can aspire to. I like aspiration. I like adrenaline, too, and I guess that's both the fuel to get there and the reward you get as you do.
We had four big projects due to go live on Monday. Then we got two more new little projects to do today (both of them fell through, though, actually). Clients were being very slack about reviewing things and getting comments back, and I'm working with two people who are new so we don't know each other yet and there are lots of changes (I'm learning that multiple design rounds are just part of the learning curve, so projects with new clients always blow way out in designs and concepts, and project management and meeting time, and that's just the investment you have to make - fortunately the learning curve is steep and by project #2 you give them stuff they approve in about ten seconds without changes). I was feeling frustrated at the beginning of the week because I couldn't get anyone to do anything. But mid-week I started just asking people, and it's working.
Today I had about 8 balls up in the air the minute I got in, but then there were two emergency crises from left field, and then three more bugs and difficulties with a big client, and four people in the office were gone all morning to a meeting (so I had to answer the phone - everyone else is either an uncomfortable non-native English speaker or had headphones on), and so by lunchtime - I didn't even take any lunch, just held a sandwich in one hand and scrolled through things with the other - I had at least ten balls in the air at once and three of them were on fire.
But I asked people to do things, and after the team got back from the meeting two of them asked if they could help with anything, and the clients did what they were told, and the bug got fixed, and things were delegated and approved and ticked off, and the balls started to fall, boom, boom, boom, right into place!
This kind of day is always hard - I usually lose my voice about halfway through, from stress, and my neck hurts now from computing rapidly and from holding my muscles tense - and there are some phone calls along the way that make you put down the phone and go, "F* ck!" and put your head in your hands, but by the end of it I felt great, I had a rush, I felt like I'd really accomplished something. And learned something too, I think - you can accomplish just as much by just having the adrenaline but not the negative stress and panic. Our new little designer, who's I think from Thailand, is a great example of this, he's so calm all the time - and so talented and fast and competent - that by late this afternoon I was trying to be more like him.
So, if I can manage the negative emotions, the stress and doubt and feelings of powerlessness, I think I will not just love my job but really really love my job. I already feel kind of important, it's great when I feel accomplished and calm in a crisis, but if things go right I am building to a truly senior managerial job, which feels good, it feels like something that I as a person can aspire to. I like aspiration. I like adrenaline, too, and I guess that's both the fuel to get there and the reward you get as you do.
posted by Ellen at 11:21 pm
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