Hump Day Careers / day in life

Been a while since I did a hump day careers or day in the life. But last Wednesday felt exciting as went into the office with people in my team for first time since March 2020.

In March 2020 I was doing a different job. I did go into the premises a few times during 2020 – to sit in an empty office to work and not see anyone knew.

In July 2021 I started a remote working job. However originally some of my team including my manager worked in Leeds office. Therefore a few of us went in last week (August 2022)

Getting to Leeds involved trams to Sheffield station. Then train to Leeds and few minutes walk to the office. I bought a day ticket for the tram costing £4.60. The return train ticket was £15.

I set off from home about 7.30 and arrived at the office 9.30.

My manager showed me around the office floor. In the kitchen there was a free drink machine so I got a hot chocolate 🙂

Most of the day I was just continuing with the usual studies I lead. But I did take the opportunity to discuss various work things with my manager and other team members. It was also good just to chat to my colleagues face to face as usually we just do voice calls.

At lunchtime 4 of us went to Marks and Spencer food stall to buy lunch. But then everyone ate at their desks; I hoped we would sit in the kitchen together. I had king prawn and basil pasta salad and a couple of blackcurrent sundaes.

I had a second hot chocolate in the afternoon.

I had a meeting until 6 therefore I was last of my team to leave but there were other people still in the office.

As I only left at 6, I went to a nearby pub for food before the train home. Had aimed for 19.19 train but due to a delay and platform change did not leave until nearly half past. I got home just before 9.

Sorry if you have read all this, the day was not actually that exciting. But I enjoyed getting out of the house and talking to colleagues face to face! The day went faster than at home. We hope to all meet again and block out some time so we can all go out for lunch together. I’m keen to do that but not too often due to travel time and cost. None of my team have decided to go in regularly. If I had an office to go to in Sheffield, I would want to go there regularly.

Wonderwall360 Hump Day Careers: Thanks Jackie Weaver for explaining my job

My current job is not the easiest to explain; but this week I have a shorthand to explain. That is assuming you get the Jackie Weaver reference. If you do not here is a viral clip:

Jackie Weaver

My job is basically to avoid situations like in the video. I’m a Governance Assistant at a university. The job is about supporting the university committees. Including having processes to get good people on committees and having documents that clearly document the role of the committee and it’s members; to avoid those situations. I prepare agendas so members know what they are there to talk about.

And yes we have STANDING ORDERS which detail how meetings should be conducted.

Have you any questions about my role?

Blogmas: Wonderwall360 Hump Day Careers: My current role

I started a new role January 2020 in administration. It was a change on direction from my previous career in clinical trials due to my latest position in clinical trials ending as it was maternity cover. I felt excited to work in a different sector.

It does not seem real that I have been doing the role for nearly a year. Administration seems to be a skill in itself when sole purpose of role rather than having a job where do your own administration due to the precision required; I still feel very new! Since March I have worked at home alone due to the pandemic. To clarify I’m not completely alone as we can keep in contact with technology but it is not quite the same and think I I have missed out on information I would have naturally absorbed from discussions around our desks if I had been in the office.

In 2021 I foresee several more months working from home and developing on the role.

How has 2020 been for you career?

Hump Day Careers: International Clinical Trials Day

Today is International Clinical Trials Day as it the anniversary of the first clinical trial by James Lind in 1747 into the causes of scurvy. Today there is research being done to find a covid vaccine / treatments. Any drug or vaccine that is developed needs to undergo rigorous clinical trials. Therefore there is numerous roles in this sector and have performed a few of these one the past.

Wonderwall360 Hump Day Careers: W to the F and the H and what do you get WFH…

Many people are doing the WFH at the moment or if you are not familiar with office jargon working from home.

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I thought I would share some of how WFH is going for me. My alarm is set at the same time it was when going to work 7am. And I log on by 8.30. However, I have been lie in longer. So the gap between getting up and logging on has been decreasing.

It happened so quick it was hard to get ideal office set up. At the moment my laptop is on top of a pile of books (photo on Instragram Wonderwall360);I have plugged in a separate keyboard and mouse as for my neck, I like my screen high up.

We have a team video call most days at 10am for informal chat to replicate saying hello in the morning. We also have a virtual chat group which I people may say hello on in the morning. There is someone who is conscientiously splitting time between home schooling and full day of work divided into blocks alternated with blocks with his children therefore he uses the chat to log on and off. The 10am meeting means between my dressed kind of work appropriate at least top half. So no strapless tops / dresses. I may be wearing a decent top albeit perhaps tie dye but with jogging bottoms. I kind of don’t want to waste wear and tear of proper work clothes at home. I was wearing dresses and bare legs at one point but my home office does not get the sun so was bit chilly to do that.

It can feel less productive than being in the office for example can not just ask a question to someone next to you and keep going. Instead contacting then takes time and interrupts your flow. Not being in the office you interrupt each other less conveniently again affect flow of work.

Due to nature of my job then I’m finding it simple to log off after I have done my required hours; this may not have been the case in other roles I have done.

It On a Friday at 5pm we have a virtual meeting set up for drinks to help people transition to the weekend. Not everyone attends those.

It can be tedious feeling chained to the laptop alone , in an empty house during the day. However I feel lucky that I’m earning my usual wage. I think without working fulltime, I would be very bored with so many hours to fill alone. Although we are working remotely at least working means I will get some human interaction each day.

This is my current work life. Are you still able to work? Are you WFHing?

Wonderwall360: Hump Day Careers : Virtual Teams

I imagine some of you like myself are working in virtual teams at the moment.

I have worked in virtual teams across the global. I do find it helps to have met in person the people you work with.

April 6 years ago I was in Billerica. A unit of my company who’s work downstream from me was vital to me was transferring work from Billerica office to South Africa office. Therefore myself and South African managers flew over to Billerica.

As well as the meetings and work in the office; the socialisation outside the office helped to bond us as a team.

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I arrived late at night. In addition to the first night, I was there for a further 2 nights. The first night we went out for Japanese teppanyaki restaurant where chef cooks food in front of you. Therefore that was great fun. The last night was a Friday night, myself and South African colleagues spent evening in the mall. I shopped independently then met to go back to the hotel. On the Saturday we started a duck boat tour of Boston together; we split partway round as their flight was earlier than mine.

Of course I first met my current team before we started working virtually, which is advantage. Another current benefit of my current virtual team is the fact in the same time zone which was not with previous virtual teams worked in.

Hump Day Careers: Working on a Cruise Ship

Saw this article about cruising for free! But the technique is to work on them. Not sure whether that would be as fun as my recent British Isle cruise.

https://holidayroyalway.com/the-most-exciting-way-to-spend-the-summer/

I think, it the staff on cruise ships probably work very hard with only a day or two off a week. Also I presumed they do not get to use ships dinning rooms and if they did it would feel pretty strange getting served by colleagues. Don’t know whether they get to use ships facilities like gyms, spa and pool. When I was on cruise a staff member was having a couple of treatments for free albeit with people wandering in as he was having then so impinging on effect.

What do you think 💭 Would working on a cruise ship be fun?

Wonderwall360 Hump Day Careers: Women, the internet and side hustles

As I have written about before in these hump day features, it Is becoming more common for people to juggle multiple jobs with terms springing up, including the gig economy and side hustles. The article in this link:

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.thesun.co.uk/money/8743076/mumpreneurs-female-business-owners/amp/

discusses how the internet is facilitating this. It mentions how women are leading the way in using the internet for their bussines. This can suit Mum’s working from home. I hypothesise that perhaps social media allows women to use their social skills to promote their businesses and sell products far and wide. An example of this is the Lucy locket brand based in Sheffield, which uses social media to create an online community of ‘Locketeers’ and to see the products. I have shared some of the leggings that I have bought, here on the blog and on instagram Wonderwall360 . Lucy locket leggings originally started as a side hustle then has grown in to lucy’s main big business employing staff including family. At the bottom of the link above is more about Lucy and her Mum.

To check out the leggings (example below) please follow my referral link my mini side hustle to earn commission).

https://locketloves.com/?gspk=U2FyYVdoaXRieQ==&gsxid=toKRLeBJ7wzR

Wonderwall360 Hump day careeers

I really hope you guys are in the mood for a long, somewhat boring story. I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while and I’ve finally managed to come up with the words, so here we go. I’m not sure if you remember this but I left education because I was looking for […]

via Why I Left My Previous Job and What I’m Doing Now —

Wonderwall360 Hump Day Careers: career grief

This Sunday times article talks about how an end of a job due to redundancy or forced resignation (perhaps retirement too?), can be like the end of a relationship. There needs to be time to grieve however, unlike a relationship often finical issues mean can not have a break.

Career grief article

One of the tips in the article is to switch industries so not, constantly comparing old and new job. Per my earlier post, it can be a good time for a sabbatical.

It also talks about not letting work define you by finding things to increase self worth outside of work. I know losing a job, you have put heart and soul into can be detrimental to self worth.