Paul Coffield

Overtime

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

Overtime has now been granted to my team at work, for the next few weeks at least.

To play my part I opted to do an extra hour tho evening, although this means it will be nearly 11 hours from leaving my house this morning, to getting back in the next hour or so.

I think it’s possibly a little too much for me once the travelling time is added on.

Working on the amendment team this week, I thought that the overtime could be put to good use.

However, having spent all day working on around 10 different accounts, the only amends left from today were all very lengthy and would require considerable contact with the customers involed.

C’est la vie!

On the plus side, I was presented with a bottle of wine this morning for having reached my build target on out last target day – good times!

Tomorrow shallsee me tackling some larger amends, reducing my tally but hopefully satisfying the customers’ individual needs.

| Posted in General Life | No Comments »

No more snow

Tuesday, February 10th, 2009

The snow has all gone now, washed away by last nights rain.

It still seems that even this form of precipitation can cause havoc with the trains.

Despite making my train at 08:02, I didn’t leave Thatcham until the 08:43 came along.

There appears to have been a flood somewhere along the line which meant that the earlier train was cancelled – meaning that my regular train was twice as full.

Despite the fact that the vestibules were bursting at the seams, some people remained determined that they were getting on.

Personally, I decided to go and get a coffee, giving me a better view of the determined few.

Needless to say, not many people made that train journey from Thatcham.

The next train on the platform is usually a through train to Reading – this didn’t appear, leading me to believe that the next train would be similarly full.

I made it onto the next train, along with another guy that I ended up chatting to about the situation and although we had to stand, we made it to Reading.

It’s funny how easy it is to talk to the familiar strangers that you see every day when you find a common ground – more often than not, a delay with the trains haha!

| Posted in General Life | No Comments »

Not that Friday feeling

Friday, February 6th, 2009

What a day!

Absolute productivity madness! I ended up working on 2 new sites, amending another 3 and chasing content for a another 2.

It seemed to be endless today, something which wasn’t helped by the constant need to ask Mark about the various admin procedures that I had to follow!

On the plus side, the majority of the team made it to the pub for a few drinks after work – a much needed occasion!

I’ve still not wound down fully yet, but meeting Mike in the Waggon should expediate that!

As for the weekend, I still have some work to do on some other project sites and make another trip to the gym.

I should really consider repairing my flat tire too – we shall see what comes of that!

| Posted in General Life | No Comments »

Target day 1

Thursday, February 5th, 2009

Today was my first ‘target day’ at work, essentially a day that allows the team to dress down and listen to music whilst we work in an attempt to make us do more work – surely every day should be like that?

Anyway, I created 3 templates sites today, joined the team for a bit of a bollocking this morning and also received a pile of ammendments to deal with tomorrow.

All of this after a late night and an earlier than normal start (06:30!).

There seems to be a lot of politics going on regarding the work that our team is to carry out, with procedures varying from day to day.

All of this is fine for me, I can deal with it as it comes along, but it does seem to mean that the team is generally a bit unsure of itself.

A lot of clarification needs to be set down on paper if we are to be able to meet the needs of the customers as well as the targets set by the superiors – something that doesn’t seem to be possible at the moment.

Meeting targets mean sacrificing on the site design and too much design time means not meeting targets.

An issue that doesn’t seem to be helped by the efforts of the sales team – funnily enough!

I think I’ve found a happy medium, although time off due to the weather this week won’t have helped any of us.

Still, tomorrow is another day and we shall see what it brings.

| Posted in General Life | No Comments »

Even more snow

Thursday, February 5th, 2009

It was snowing quite heavily as I went to bed last night, with a couple of inches already settled on the ground.

Now having been at the station for half an hour this morning, I’ve already seen 2 cars struggling – both BMWs!

Those of us silly enough to venture out are all huddled up at the shelters on the platform, waiting in hope of a train turning up.

I’ve just overheard that the train is under on it’s way, albeit nice and slowly.

With having an early finish on Monday, and a day off on tuesday, I really need to make it in to clock up my hours this week.

At least I remembered my headphones today

| Posted in General Life | No Comments »

No headphones!

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

Much to my dismay, I managed to leave my headphones on my desk this morning.

I think I realisd soon enough to go back and fetch them, but I decided to carry on without them.

It has made a change to my journey home, allowing me to assist a fellow commuter by telling him when his stop was.

Not a great interaction in itself, but one which led to further conversation about where we were both from in Scotland.

It’s funny how a 5 minute chat with a stranger can be quite an enjoyable change from the mundanity of the commute home from work.

I am now left hoping that the music in the gym is up to my standards, as I’ll be unable to drown it out with my own choice of playlist

Fingers crossed!

| Posted in General Life | No Comments »

It’s snowing – wait that means delays!

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

West Berkshire seems to be covered in a gorgeous blanket of crisp white snow today.

Delays to the train mean that despite being late when arriving at the station this morning, I caught my normal train and was still 10 minutes early into work -Hooray!

With the threat of more snow still to fall this afternoon, I was among those allowed to leave work early today in order to do battle with National Rail.

So far one train has been cancelled but I am now on a train bound for Newbury!

With the gym shouting my name I am preparing myself for another gruelling session, follows this time by a three mile jog home in the snow – does this count as adventurous training?

| Posted in General Life | No Comments »