Work or Doug?

I could have worked for more than six hours today if not for the 3 p.m. gathering held for Doug. Today was his last day with the company.

Much Busier Today

I couldn't believe it, but I was working just less than two hours into the day!

Most of the workload — all 4½ hours of them — came from a client's DM mailing and brochure. I thought that this was going to be a slow one, but Deb was rushing me to finish proofreading both projects as they were needed yesterday. (Brooke was sick and Rob was left by his lonesome minding the studio.)

Same as Yesterday, But the Opposite

I did four hours again; but this time, most of the workload came in the morning unlike yesterday. The proofreading tasks were mostly for online banners. Tom, the freelance interactive designer, said that he was doing more than 100 of them for a client.

Today's Much Better

I clocked four hours of work. Woo-hoo!

Almost all happened later in the day (as usual). I proofed DM letters, online banners and print ads one after the other.

Proofreading Assistance?

Just like what I expected on my return from my vacation: a slow Monday (except for a DM letter for a client and a rushed print ad). However, while I was away, Julita sent me an e-mail regarding the possibility of assisting our sister company across the floor with proofreading contracts. Of course, with my current downtime, I'd love to help them. (I'd do anything to make my timesheets look good.)

And since this was inter-agency (i.e., between sister companies), it may take a while for Wendy and Julita to sort out the billing for this kind of work. I hope they figure it out soon because I don't want to spend the entire week surfing the 'Net, solving crossword puzzles and reading newspapers.

Good and Bad News

Jennifer called everyone for an informal meeting a little after 11 a.m. Everyone was there, including the Toronto people via audio link. She broke the news that a client decided to pull out next year. This was sad because this was one of Belinda's clients and she might lose her job for that. But I hope there would be enough work for her to stay.

However, there was also good news. A big client was going to bring new business next year for the company, which meant more work for us. I hope that this was sooner so that they would continue to find me useful.

I also get to leave the office two hours early today. I was supposed to leave for Seattle tomorrow, but plans changed and I'm heading south of the border tonight.

I wanted to get the afternoon off and charge it to my personal days since not much was happening. Instead, I opted to leave at 3 p.m. just in case something pops up.

Then I'm off tomorrow.

Finally, Work!

I just knew today was going to be busy, if not the busiest. It all started early in the morning with a small print ad, then three more different ads, in Chinese this time.

As the day went on, I got to proofread DM mailers and a brochure. All in all, I worked for a total of five hours. Not a bad day, considering.

One-hour Work

Yes, that's what the title said. One hour's worth of work for an eight-hour workday. So, I spent most of my time trying to keep myself busy like reading online news, checking my e-mail from time to time and catching up on the latest regarding my hobbies.

Sleepy Monday

I woke up 30 minutes earlier than normal; i.e., I woke up at 4 a.m. I thought that I'd sleep through my bus ride to work to recover my missing half hour of sleep. Although I managed to doze off on the bus, I was still sleepy at work, especially when I was updating a copy deck that required a copious amount of copying and pasting.

Having a slow day didn't help either. If I didn't plan to update that copy deck, I wouldn't be doing anything at all, except for that print ad that took me only minutes to proofread.

I hope things pick up again at work soon. (I also hope I get a good seat on the bus tonight so that I could log some extra z's.)

Note: Doug handed in his two weeks' notice. He's moving to Victoria to work for an ad agency there in January next year.

Slow Start for a Friday

I thought I'd be spending the entire day surfing the 'Net and watching movie trailers online, but work seemed to pick up right before lunch.

And a little past 3 p.m., Deb rolled out the food-and-drink cart (it's 5 o'clock somewhere in the world) with proceeds going to the Food Bank. I got some garlic bread, antipasto, cheese, beef salami and beer.

I didn't know why I chose beer; I'm not a beer drinker and I tend to get red faced after a few swigs. It's a bad choice I'll pay soon enough.

Work Again — Finally!

It was a relatively busy day, thanks to a French DM reprint needing corrections. It took me three hours to check and recheck all three components. Plus, I had to e-mail Vevette, one of the new suits based in Toronto handling this specific project, three times just to get what I needed.

Then Belinda had me rewrite a client's copy deck to include footers and legal terms and conditions. It took me almost two hours deciphering what's what.

I was hoping to hear from Vevette again because I was on a roll. However, with the three-hour time difference between the West and East coasts, I would have to wait for her reply tomorrow since it's was already past 5 p.m. (EST) when I e-mailed her.

The Bookcases Are Here!

Yes, they finally arrived! Now, my pod is complete. However, there are bookcases everywhere in the office. In fact, I have two of these metal furnishings in front of my work station. I don't know where they'll put the rest.

Regarding work, it's really slow. Deb came with printer proofs to check, but she even asked me to be quick in checking them. (Apparently, Brooke didn't notice them in the studio and they were simply lying there untouched on a table for the entire morning.)

Nina also dropped by bearing my order of the 2008 day planner. There were two models to choose from: the regular one and the priority-management option. Since I don't prioritize and manage, I chose the former. It's for nameless cogs in the corporate machine.

I'm Back!

After a four-day staycation, I was back at work.

While I was away, I took a sneak peek at my office e-mail from home and found out that Allison sent me 20 online banners to proofread. I really would love to work on them, but, unfortunately, I was away. However, she still wanted me to work on them when I came back today; so, it was all good. Then there were two job bags waiting for me since last Friday. Apparently, Brooke wasn't in a rush; so, she left them there for me.

I was hoping that there would be a huge backlog waiting for me today, but there wasn't any. I was thankful that I took a break from all these.

I'm Only Human

I was looking forward to having a slow one today because this was the last day of my work week. However, there were lots to do; e.g., I mixed up some copy standards regarding em dashes in the DM letters of a client and I had to undo my previous corrections. There were lots and I had to do some damage control. All were caught though.

And then I helped Belinda write and edit another DM letter for her client. It was all good after all even though I never liked having those I'm-only-human-born-to-make-mistakes moments.

Besides, I'm off tomorrow and on Monday. Yippee!

Nice Start?

I hope today turns out busy because Brooke left a job bag last night for me to proofread. (I always take it as a good sign.) It was a new project for a DM collateral, a small brochure for the client's employees. I was done in an hour.


Then she dropped another bag, this time it's for an old card requiring minor revisions in the text. There's not much to do after this; so, I grabbed the latest issue of WIRED and read some of the more interesting articles.

I also decided to eat my lunch of leftover barbecue ribs on time since nothing was going on. Minutes into my meal and Deb walked in regarding an old copy deck that needed updating for the printers. She said that my food smelled so good, but I didn't know that it reeked until Charlene asked me what my lunch was. ("Is it adobo?") Fearing that some would find it offensive, I decided to finish my meal as fast as I could so that its aroma wouldn't stop filling the entire office.

The rest of the afternoon was marked with a few exchanges of docket bags. I took it easy in between jobs.

Another Slow Day

Well, as expected, this was going to be a slow one. It was a good thing I left some copy-deck updating for today for 1½ hours. The only new thing I did for today was proofreading a series of French online banners. It was good for ¾ hours only though.

It seemed that I was not the only one who was having a slow day. Wendy and some of the suits re-organized the office floor, and the outcome was much, much better than expected. They got rid most of the clutter and moved them to the other side. Everyone simply couldn't wait for all of these renovations to finish.

A Short Work Week for Me

I was looking forward to the start of this particular work week because I would be off on Friday and Monday next week. However, I needed to go through the first four days of the week first.

As usual, today was a slow one, but I managed to keep myself busy by updating a Chinese copy deck of a client's DM campaign. That kept me busy for three hours. I sensed that tomorrow was going to be like this; so, I left some updating work for Tuesday.

It was also the first work day after going back to standard time. It was dark when I left the office at 5 p.m.

Busy Friday

Well, it looked like this is the busiest one for me this week.

Brooke left a job bag on the rack for me yesterday before closing time and said that it was okay to do it tomorrow. And that's what I did. I thought that's the only one for me today because this week seemed slow; however, I didn't notice that she left six more job bags behind it while I was away.

Then more stuff to proofread came: seven TV commercials, a brochure, a French online banner and two copy decks for a client's DM campaign. My total client chargeable as of this writing: 4¾ hours. It's a good way to end this work week. (We're also having drinks at 4 p.m. at the boardroom with the employees from our sister company who took over the other half of the floor and displaced us. No wonder Doug called them enemies.)

Post-reno Meeting

We just had a post-renovation meeting, complete with coffee and baked goodies. Since we don’t have an official boardroom yet, Jennifer, the de facto boss when Vanessa left, decided to have it at the empty office space in of her office. Obviously, the entire floor was still a work-in-progress.
Julita and Deb would be moving their offices again and occupying the offices that we converted into the library and teleconference room. I almost got an office of my own again, but I liked where I was now. Of course, I would like the privacy, but I did feel isolated when I was stuck in a corner office. Besides, I could always go somewhere quiet like the boardroom when I needed to do some extensive proofreading.

The bookcases for our pods arrive next week; and when they do, we’ll do some renovating of our own again. I’m really looking forward to this so that we can finally get rid of the clutter in front of me like scanners, printers and office supplies. I feel like I’m working in a storage room.

I also submitted my vacation request form, which Wendy approved right away — all seven days of them, three this month, one in December and three in January.