Woody Wonders

#Awkward Last week I had the dreaded Performance Evaluation meeting, I say dreaded because who actually looks forward to not only being critiqued but having to critique yourself in preparation for the meeting - eek, bleugh, puke inducing. Boss:   So, tell me how you're feeling, what's gone well for you? Me:   *shrugs shoulders* Erm, hmm, well, yeah, I've done ok I guess.  🙈 Before you start screaming 'jeez, just sack her', it wasn't quite that bad and I had done some preparation work beforehand - honest!  In fact, it actually turned into a very positive experience where I felt comfortable enough to bare my soul and speak openly and honestly.  Yes, my boss is now in therapy!! Joking aside, it made me realise how awful we are at critiquing ourselves.  I, for one, never feel like I'm doing a good enough job.  But then I thought, 'is that actually a bad thing?'  It's not that I never feel satisfied with what I do, it's more a ca...

Lucky, lucky, lucky Ok, I apologise for the Kylie reference but it had to be done. Have you ever won something in a raffle so good that you did actually think “oh my god, how lucky am I?”   We’re not talking about a pen, which I did once win in a church raffle, it was multicoloured and very nice and as grateful as I was it wasn’t a ‘wow’ prize as I’m sure you’ll agree. Anyway, way back in November 2018 at the British Athletics Supporters Club annual dinner, they had a raffle. In fact they have it every year and it’s become a bit of a standing joke that we never win diddly squat in it and they really do have some amazing prizes so we’ve been ‘well jel’ on numerous occasions.   So last year we had our usual 'woe is us' joke and settled down to sportingly, albeit begrudgingly, applaud the winners.   Mr Bob takes the photos of all the prize winners so he has an even better view of their happy faces.   The prizes were starting to get a little bit tast...

You've learnt something new so what next? If you read my blog last week (If not, why not?  I'll be round later) you'll know that I had the excitement of being out of the office for two days at a conference.  So what next?  We've all been there, done something similar, come back from an event armed with new skills and ideas, absolutely buzzing and then we get back to the office and end up changing nothing because "ooh I haven't got the time to set up my new processes and put into practice what I've learnt".   This time I was determined not to let this happen.  I'd promised my bosses I would come back armed with new ideas so there's an incentive for a start!  So Monday morning, despite the temptation to read through all my emails, faff around a bit, get distracted by something else and then read through them all again, I started to work through them a bit more logically and put my newfound skills into practice.  I started creating filt...

A grand day (two actually) out of the office When you're a PA you don't get let out of the office very often, in fact I barely make it past the boundaries of the third floor before my electronic tag goes off.  So when the opportunity does come along, you grab it with both hands.  Not only was I let out of the office for two whole days last week but I went to a conference / training event purely for PA's so everyone there 'got me'.  We all shared the same challenges and there were many sympathetic nods and "hmm, I know what you mean" throughout the course of the two days. Joking aside, it's so important to make the time to attend such events.  I'm very lucky in that both the company, and the directors I work for, are very supportive when it comes to learning and development.  Although your ego will lead you to think differently on occasions, the office won't fall apart if you're not there.  Not only that, but when you do return to t...