Katherine

Friday, December 07, 2007

This year I’m attempting to reduce my carbon footprint and take the bus to work.

7:10am After a couple of snoozes on the alarm, it’s time to get up. This year I’m attempting to reduce my carbon footprint and take the bus to work. It takes me about ten minutes more than driving, but I don’t have the agony of sitting in traffic jams and it has the additional bonus effect of helping with my other aim for the year – lose some weight and get fitter. I have to walk up a big hill to the bus stop, then it’s a brisk ten minute walk through Nottingham city centre to get to the office. I’m sure I’ll be a lot less positive about this when the weather is colder and wetter.

Jane Torville also opened the outdoor ice rink – a first for Nottingham.

The Christmas lights were turned on last night so everything is twinkling. Jane Torville also opened the outdoor ice rink – a first for Nottingham. Disappointingly, I can’t see much of the ice rink as I walk through the Market Square, but am pleased to spot the ‘Glühwein’ stall (mulled wine to you and me) on the continental market, and make a mental note to sample some one evening this week.

9:00am Log on, check my emails, delete the spam (no, I don’t want any Viagra thanks) and see what’s on the agenda for today.

No two days are the same...

I’ve only been with L&P since the summer, so there’s still plenty to learn. This is my first stint in a marketing communications company, and it’s so far so good. No two days are the same really. As PA to our Finance / Production Director, Carol, my days can be quite varied. In general though, I’m responsible for all things financial. I’m now also getting to grips with the production side of the business, which makes my day far more interesting.

9:30am Time for our production meeting – the creatives: Neil, Jaymi, Mark and Daniel, Carol, Jamie (the Production Assistant) and I meet regularly to go through our work, and what needs to be completed / started / revised in the coming week. During the first few weeks, much of this went completely over my head. Weights of paper, velvet stock, pantone references, DL brochures, gate stitched, barracuda pop-up stands… words that meant nothing to me. Now, four months down the line, I’ve actually seen a lot of these things in the flesh, so to speak, and the fog is clearing.

We arrange to have a debrief tomorrow with Martin, our Managing Director, for a new job. It gives everyone the opportunity to learn more about the clients and their products and needs, and also means everyone gets involved and can input ideas, even me! This one is for a furniture design company; that’s all I know so far. I make a note to read the information we have on the server.

10:20am Today’s main task is to prepare the media schedules for one of our big clients, Pancosma, a world leader in the animal feed market. We handle all their marketing and today I’m deciding which publications to put the new ads in, and how much it will cost the client. This is my second stint at this, so hopefully this time it will be a breeze. I already have the contact details for all the magazines, and have emailed my requests for the rate cards for 2008. Then it’s just a case of making sure we get the best rates and whacking it all into a spreadsheet. This time I even help out the studio and include a chart with all the ‘tekkie’ info – page sizes, type area, minimum dpi, hi-res PDF (check out the terminology – I impress myself). I email the schedules to the client for approval.

Aaaargh! Crisis! My Outlook has died.

11:45am Aaaargh! Crisis! My Outlook has died. This can’t be happening. Thousands of emails lost. After a few vain attempts with the aid of the Microsoft website and a stint by Carol and Neil, I give in and phone our offsite support expert. After the description of my tale of woe, he tells me it sounds doubtful that I will get the emails back, not even one. I nearly cry (added drama for effect).

The PC guru accesses my PC remotely, which is quite amusing to watch. I see him try all the things I tried, but then he uncovers some hidden files and does some technical wizardry… I leave him to it and wait for him to call back.

12:30pm In the meantime, rather than sit doing nothing, I look for something else to do. It’s amazing just how much of my work is done on PC. I’d say it’s probably 90%. So what shall I do?? We’ve had a delivery of L&P brochures that we’re sending out to existing and (hopefully) new clients. I become the mailroom girl and start ‘stuffing’ envelopes for the next hour or so and take my lunch.

It’s all in a days work to him, but to me, Christmas has come early.

14:30pm Eventually I get the call back. Good news or bad? He’s my saviour and has recovered every single email – what an absolute relief. I can’t thank him enough. In fact, I probably go on a little bit too much and he seems rather eager to get off the phone. It’s all in a days work to him, but to me, Christmas has come early.

15:00pm Now I have my sacred emails, I can get back to work. As is always the case with the law of sod, I now have lots of non-PC work on my desk! I have a huge pile of invoices to check through and amend from Jamie and a 4-page French Pancosma brochure to proof-read from Mark. Did I mention my day was varied?

17:30pm This takes up much of the remaining couple of hours, which pass uneventfully, as I’m still recovering from the Outlook saga. It’s time to go home already.

Cadging a lift is acceptable to reduce my carbon footprint in my opinion, as it’s car-pooling.

Now, am I going to get a lift home, or is it bus time? Cadging a lift is acceptable to reduce my carbon footprint in my opinion, as it’s car-pooling. Plus it’s raining...

Actually, it’s neither the bus nor the car, for the next hour or two at least. A few of us decide to go for a drink next door. That’s an added bonus of working where we do – there are three pubs on the doorstep. So we wind down from our day, sipping half a shandy, or something similar...