So I’m back to work today and thoroughly exhausted having only just acclimatized to west coast time in the last few days, so I didn't fall asleep until close to 3am last night. Typical. The good news is that the time difference is helping me in my pursuit to become "a 9.30am arrival person" a la the majority of the agency as I didn't get up until 7.30am today - whoo hoo - and then various factors conspired against me to delay me getting ready - well not really I was just arsing about trying to shake myself awake. Anyway I had a lovely time touring the Pacific North West - adored Vancouver, so much so I will be rooting for them against Boston in the Stanley Cup final tonight. The Canadians we met were sooooo nice and Vancouver smells amazing what with the ocean and all the tree-life - although I don't feel as well rested as I would like what with only 4 and a bit hours sleep and also feel like a total lard arse having eaten and drunk my way across the area - amazing wines from the Okanagan Valley in Canada, although they have such a small production that you can't buy them outside of the country unfortunately I got back into work to the news that one of my account directors is leaving to take a senior position with…drumroll please…our client, so now he’s going to be the one signing off on our scopes and calling us up at all hours with his demands!!! Weird eh!! I was kind of annoyed at him actually because he emailed me on Monday while I was still in Vancouver and which said "Any chance you can dial in @ 11am? It’s about me and my plans."
Oh well, if it's about YOU and YOUR plans then of course I will drop everything and dial in while I am supposed to be relaxing and forgetting about work so that I can return feeling refreshed, recharged and super motivated. Um, what part of the concept of VACATION are you failing to grasp??? Pht my calling in was so not happening, so I responded and said “no I am on vacation”, but then spent the morning feeling guilty about it which irritated me even more. Seriously, I was hopping mad that he'd even think to ask me such a thing especially since he isn’t leaving for another 6 weeks or so and hasn’t officially resigned yet. It didn't help that none of my team emailed to let me know the scoop - although they assumed the account director had emailed me himself - but there was no way I was asking and I'd forgotten about it by the afternoon. Anyway I found out from my team when I got back into the office today. It was quite hard not to tell the account director off this morning, but I squelched my irritation and gave him a congratulatory hug on his new role. Gotta keep my clients happy!! I'm such a suck up!!
It will be interesting to see how he deals with working client-side since he’s been an agency person for over a decade and works agency hours. He’s usually in close to 7am – a fellow non-9.30am person - and works through to 7pm – so I am curious to see how he copes with having a team of people who can’t get out the door fast enough come 5pm, I’m sure that’s when his former colleagues at the agency will feel his presence the most as he’ll know full well that we’ll still be slaving away.
Anyway I shall post about my trip soon, but in the meantime…go Canucks!!!
I also hate the guilt I have sometimes for rejecting extra work, though I DO have the right to do so ('coz I'm merely setting my own limits in terms of work-life balance). So I can relate to the feeling of wanting to kick my own ass for feeling that guilt he he...
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, having good relations is important in life, esp. in work life, so I think it's smart to keep your clients happy. :-)))
Can't wait to read about your tripppppp!!! :-D
you think that's bad. I was in Las Vegas on holidays with my Mum, who is the state administration manager for a stock broking form here in Australia, when she got a text message from one of the people who works at her office b!thing about the air conditioning and asking if she could do something about it from half a world away!
ReplyDeleteHi Amel, you and I are definitely on the same page. My friends feel the same pressure, I think it's because we are responsible people, but we need work/life balance too.
ReplyDeleteHi Anon, thanks for commenting, I cannot believe what happened to your mother, what is WRONG with people that time off cannot be respected. I've put my foot down with the account director, you have to nip this behavior in the bud, but if he becomes a tyrannical client...well I'm out of there.