Birthday Eve

It’s the eve of my birthday and the last day before I leave for my six-day staycation. Two-and-a-half hours into the day and nothing is still happening.

Rob is back though. But like I said, nothing is happening, especially now that the colour printer is out of order.

Another Slow Day

I decided to read a client’s style guide so that I would have something to do in the morning. It took me 1½ hours to do so, which I added to my timesheet as billable time. It’s work-related anyway.

Then I got some real work, courtesy of Belinda. She wanted me to proof Doug’s work for mistakes. The errors were minor; so, it took me only half an hour proofing his copy.

By the way, Rob wasn’t in today. His absence meant that I wouldn’t be getting laser proofs to check. Hence, another slow day.

No Vacation Time

I was supposed to be in vacation the entire week beginning today, but Wendy didn’t allow me because she wasn’t sure of the week’s workload. So, I opted for the day (my birthday actually) before the day closes for the long Labour Day weekend.

Wendy said yes to that and to one more day after Labour Day. She actually felt bad for not letting me go on vacation this week. But by allowing me to take an extra day off, she felt good.

Regarding work, I almost didn’t do anything. After the WIP meeting, I proofed a copy deck for an hour and that was it. I spent the rest of the day reading and surfing the Net.

Rush Job, Time Flies

I did okay — six hours of work. That’s not bad for a Friday. It made the time fly so fast, especially when everything was rushed.

Not Again!

I practically didn’t do anything — only 1½ hours of billable time! I hope things change for the better tomorrow.

I Made It!

I end my three-month probation period. I made it! So, I’m now a full-fledged full-time permanent employee.

I was up to a good start. By 9 a.m., I was checking Web banners and pages. I wasn’t even done with them when Rob asked me if I could proof something on screen. Lunchtime, Belinda had me checking 19 sets of proofs.

I thought today’s a no-luncher. But I managed to eat my packed lunch — while working, of course! Then, it was quiet again. No work for the rest of the afternoon.

A Busy Day

It was a relatively busy day. I performed more than six hours of billable time. It was satisfying because I got to use my Photoshop skills in making revisions on Web pages and banners.

Making My Presence Felt

I attended my second WIP meeting. I was finally making my presence felt. I even sent an e-mail to the accounts people in Toronto, suggesting I needed to see their work before anyone got the final say.

And as usual, much of the stuff happened in the afternoon.

Courtney

Today is Courtney’s last day. I hardly knew here and seldom talked to her. But we’re having farewell drinks for her at 4 p.m.

I also saw Doug talking with Vanessa on my way to the washroom. It scares me when I see bosses talking to workers in private. Such things remind me of my getting laid off in one company. I still remember my boss wanting to talk to me privately in his office. Prior to that, he was circling the office floor like a vulture eyeing for carcasses. And in one fell swoop, my career was over.

Maybe I was just getting paranoid, especially when Julita gave me the look like she knew something I didn’t. Because back in my old company, I was the last one to know, though I had received early warnings from co-workers I worked closely with.

Also, knowing that my probationary period ends next week didn’t help either because there was always the possibility that they could let me go before I reached my three months.

In the Zone

I was on a roll this morning! I worked for three hours straight and stopped a few minutes before lunch. With Belinda telling me that she needed me to update a copy deck, I thought I was going to work right after lunch.

Unfortunately, her request came 1½ hours later. But I was able to work on her stuff for 1½ hours.

Question

If I were to add yesterday’s billable hours, it would show that I was doing nothing for more than half the day. But what could I do?

Wine and Chips

I was hoping that there’d be more work waiting for me, but it looked like I finished all of them yesterday. There were still stuff to do, but they involved minor corrections only.

Because of this, I was able to eat my lunch, solve today’s crossword puzzle and read a newspaper online. And I got to have some potato chips and wine at the employee lounge 30 minutes before closing time.

Vassil

I attended my first WIP meeting. Finally, I got to know what projects to expect from clients. I also found out that Vassil was let go early this morning. (So, that’s why Jim, the ECD from the Toronto office, wanted him to come at 8 a.m. today.)

On the boardroom table was a list of projects printed on five tabloid-sized papers. This made me wonder how come work comes to me in trickles when we’ve got a long to-do list. It was also a good thing Doug reminded the accounts people of my existence.

After the one-hour meeting, I was off to work, which was good. I was so busy, I didn’t have time to eat my packed lunch. (All my sustenance came from baked goods, a quarter of a white-chocolate bar and fruit juices.) In fact, I was working until almost closing time.

Now, with all the work done, would I be doing anything again tomorrow?

Bored Stiff

Although this was a short work week, the days seemed long, especially when I had nothing to do. I only worked for 1½ hours today. Where were the ads?

I was so bored stiff, I didn’t know what to do. I thought of taking some time off as soon as I end my three-month probationary period on Aug. 22.

Rob

There’s nothing new happening today. I only re-proofed two projects from yesterday. No mean feat.

But what bothered me was Rob’s pre-proofing of copy decks as he lays them out on his Mac. Not only that, sometimes he doesn’t follow my corrections or the client’s instructions.

Proofreading Korean

For half an hour, I proofed the work left over from yesterday and updated its copy. After getting Vassil and Doug to sign it, I headed to Rob to hand the job bag to him.

It looked like he’s fairly busy. I hoped he hands some of these to me, which he did actually. Both of us were busy trading job bags well past noon.

The ad that struck me most was the one in Korean. I had never proofread a Korean artwork before, so this was entirely new to me.

After all of these, it was silent again.

Waiting for WIP

There was supposed to be a WIP (work-in-progress) meeting today, but it was postponed because the accounts people were having a teleconference with clients. I was kind of looking forward to this meeting — my first one.

Thirty minutes before lunch time and no work in sight yet. Rob has been printing proofs since this morning, and I was hoping that he would drop by in my office bearing some job bags.

Someone did drop by though; it was Belinda. She just asked some questions regarding her client’s ad layout. That’s all. She also told me days ago that August would be a crazy-busy month because of her client’s new marketing campaign. So far, I only worked on three projects. I hope more would come.

And come it did. Ten minutes before closing time, Rob dropped by with a job bag. I worked on it for a few minutes and left it for tomorrow since no one was around to sign it anyway.

Short Week, Long Day

It was a short week, but a long day for me. Work came a little before lunch — and that was about it. I killed time by reading the newspaper, solving crossword puzzles and playing mahjong solitaire.

A Short Week (Surprise! Surprise!)

It was only today that I found out that this work week was a short one. I didn’t know that the office is closed this Friday in time for the civic holiday on Monday. Well, I guess I missed marking this date on my calendar.

As I had expected, today was a slow one. I only checked printer’s proofs for 15 minutes — and that’s all! What a way to start the month!