I Spoke Too Soon

Yesterday, I thought nothing was going to happen that's work related. Surprisingly, Tom finished an entire batch of French online banners late in the afternoon. I started working on them immediately (for an hour).

That one-hour headstart helped me with today's workload. Because this was going to be a very busy day, I decided to work as soon as I arrived. By 8:45 a.m., I was already proofing the print ads Brooke left me yesterday. More than half of my day was spent working on online banners, English and French. I didn't mind because this would look good on my timesheet.

By the way, today's commute was a lot less nastier than yesterday, but we still have slush and ice to worry about.

Snow Day

The city got a huge dumping of snow overnight. Julita wasn't able to make it to the office today because of that. I, however, was able to come here on time because I left for work early. Besides, with the power outage in our place and my alarm clock not working, I was waking up every two hours just to check the time. I wanted to catch some z's on the bus, but I met one of my son's old friends and we talked every now and then.

The trek to the office was a mess. White stuff and slush called for slippery sidewalks. My shoes and pants were wet. So was my jacket.

Concerning work, there wasn't much to do again save for yesterday's print ads.

It's Monday Again

I was looking forward to today because I would get to proofread Web pages. Although there were just four of them, it was something new for them for me to do.

I still remember the first time I checked Web pages in this job. During the WIP meeting, Doug even had to remind the suits that I needed to proofread the pages before they were trafficked. Unfortunately, my revisions weren't helpful because they were already online.

This time, things were different. I actually got to check and revise the pages before they were trafficked. It was a very brief task though; I finished in an hour.

I also accompanied Belinda again to Staples to get the remainder of the booklets. Plus, there were a few online banners and print ads to check. Total billable hours: 4¾ hours. Not bad.

(Jennifer was away all week, so the atmosphere was relaxed.)

Here's What's What

Jennifer was nowhere to be seen. So, the mood in the office was kind of relaxed. (Using fear, she was able to wrap everyone around her finger, including those who don't report directly to her.)

1. Belinda's not in today because of a sore back playing volleyball last night. So, I ended up going to Staples for her to pick up Jennifer's booklets. I also picked up two packs of CD-Rs for Rob. I felt like I was the office gopher, which I was not.
   
2. Jim called asking me if I could take a stab at copywriting — finally. He said that he'd be e-mailing the info soon. (I guessed I misheard Jim; he simply wanted me to create copy decks for translation. The copy, which was already written, would come from some Web pages.)
   
3. I downloaded some videos from TED Talks for my video/MP3 player to watch on my way home. There was not much to do anyway.
   

So you see, it's another admin kind of day, save for the copywriting part, which I have yet to see.

Another Admin Kind of Day

In our timesheets, the time spent in the day performing administrative work or, in my case, doing nothing at all is marked as "admin." Since I haven't done anything that's client related today, this day goes to admin — all eight hours of them.

However, one thing worth noting was Belinda's request to help her with Jennifer's thank-you letter first thing this morning, which I thought the latter disliked because of the red ink I saw on the draft. No one should be writing these thank-you letters or any letter for that matter for her in the first place since she's in senior management and should know how.

Doug was right when he told Jennifer this. She's dumb all right.

More Work, Less Time

An hour into the day and Allison sent me by e-mail a link to several online banners that I needed to proofread. This was a time-consuming task, which was fine by me, because this would look good in my timesheet. Unfortunately, it was a rush job and I had to be done by noon. So, I had to think of something that would cut my time proofing in half.

I decided to check the banners directly on my computer monitor instead and screen grab the questionable frames only. What I projected was a five-hour task was then reduced to two. Anyway, Allison was happy about it and that was what mattered most.

After lunch, I helped Belinda collate more stuff for Jennifer. By 2 p.m. we were done and off to Staples, where we had them bound. We made a detour to Tim Hortons (Belinda bought me a large hot chocolate). We made another quick detour to Off The Wall, where they were having a huge sale. Then we took our time walking to the office.

It was almost three when we got here, two more hours before closing time.

I'm Part of the Team — Finally!

As I was checking a laser proof from the studio yesterday, I saw my name included on the line for the team working on that particular project. Although mine was the last name on the list on the job history sheet — the low man on the totem pole — I finally felt that I was a part of the team. At last, someone remembered to put my name! (Deb wrote my name once on the sheet also, but it was a long time ago.)

In my eight months here (eight months ago today), I always saw all the names of the people working on the projects. There were Vassil or Jim, Doug or another copywriter, the suit or suits involved, and Deb or Wendy. Mine was almost always excluded.

I just hope my name's inclusion wasn't an afterthought.