Wow it's been a busy week or two. This has taught me that one of the best ways to stay positive and happy is to keep busy!
So quick summary... Last week at work was a bit weird, like it often is at this time of year; it tends to be quiet (for us who work in accounts, the guys in personal tax are just snowed under!) but when something does need doing it needs doing yesterday. I was crazy busy off and on all week with so many different things, which was both slightly confusing but also kind of interesting because I rarely got the chance to get bored (I'm usually quite good at finding things to keep me busy at work, I hate having nothing to do).
One job was picking up some research that another trainee at my level had done most of the work on and I felt a bit bad because I tried to cover some of the odd things he'd done but the partner it was for still became aware that he hadn't done the most wonderful job. At the same time it was gratifying when another colleague complimented me on sorting it out and that he had been hard to work with. Ironic when he had said the same of her, but I think it shows how people can have very different ways of communicating and just totally not understand each other. I had the same kind of issue today with a junior; I was trying to get a database of contact details updated and sent to a partner but I really felt like my explanation was totally passing her by. In the end she did what I'd asked so I must have got there somehow but I wasn't confident at all so I probably sounded like I thought she was stupid, explaining it in lots of different ways. At least she did ask when she wasn't sure though, one of the hardest things about working with someone, and relying on their work, is when they just do something they don't understand and don't ask for help. Which is partly why I think an important part of my job is trying to be approachable to more junior staff so that questions are sorted up front rather than after a mahussive mistake has been made.
While the research project was a confidence booster, I did end up stuck at work until 6.30 on Wednesday which was not fun. I was slightly put out that my other half hadn't even queried why I was home so late, and said so, because it's sort of upsetting that he might not notice I'm missing for hours!
Then the next day I managed to annoy another of the trainees at my level by sending a jokey email that was taken the wrong way. I apologised by email and explained but didn't hear back from her so, being me, I worried about it all the rest of the day. I was determined not to let it ruin my evening though so I made a point of making a nice tea (roast vegetables followed by a delicious apple and berry crumble) and getting on with some knitting. I did worry a bit but I managed to rationalise it, ran through a couple of possible scenarios for what to say or do when I saw her and then actually managed to forget about it, instead of the constant knot in my stomach. I was so proud of myself. I did have a bit of stomach knotting on my walk to work on Friday but as it turned out I bumped into her the moment I got into the office and was so surprised that I just apologised and she seemed fine about it, we chatted and things seem ok - not that I've seen her since then but it's always a bit sporadic with who I see at work, just depends on who's working with whom.
Last week I also made the decision that, having no suitable dress for the brother-in-law's (*) wedding in February I would make one myself. The joy of having a sewing machine! However, given that we're on holiday next week (woo!) and therefore away both weekends, I actually only had one weekend to make it. Somehow I managed to find a gorgeous empire line dress pattern (lookie!) and it arrived in time for me to take Friday afternoon off work (advantage of working stupidly late on Wednesday) to go fabric hunting. It was tipping it down with rain and my trek took me to the far side of the city, then to the centre and back home so I was rather drowned rattish by the time I made it home. I did eventually find some really lovely black and blue silk type fabric at the market (the stall was actually closed but I must have looked sufficiently desperate so the kind lady took pity on me!). I then spent twice as much on some cotton to line it, just because I couldn't find anything else suitable. I spent Saturday pinning and cutting and then on Sunday got the whole bodice done, so I spent Monday and Tuesday nights working on it too. I was so pleased with how it was turning out, despite having to learn how to make bias tape out of annoying, fiddly fabric (there are a few great tutorials on the internet in case you ever need to do it yourself - my tip would be that the key thing is always to get the cut lines straight and parallel, so if you have a rotary cutter use that to cut the strips first and then sew them together, it may be more fiddly but the neatness will be worth it). I also re-learned that it's important to press seams before you trim them. I also managed to put the zip in incredibly neatly, leaving no unsightly bulges or odd drape which are my usual trade marks. Unfortunately I learned too late that easily-fraying fabric, such as silk effect polyester..., needs both large seam allowances and some kind of seam finishing to keep the garment in tact. So now I have a nearly-complete, surprisingly well-sewn dress (only have the hem left to sew) where the fabric near the seams is starting to fray, to the extent that it's visible on the outside and starting to come away from my carefully crafted bias binding. At this point I'm actually ready to chalk it up to experience, wear a fairly crappy other dress to the wedding and learn from this. I do have one ace up my sleeve though; we're driving down to my mum's tomorrow in advance of the holiday (woo again!) and her next door neighbour, my lifelong substitute mother, is an amazing dressmaker so the dress is coming on the trip just in case she has a solution. Wish me luck!
Tuesday was a late work night this week as well. I was in Brighouse at a client's and by the time 5 rolled around I was close enough to finished that it made no sense to leave and come back. It was actually a really fun day. I have spent nearly four weeks there in December and January, and I was there three weeks last January, so I'm starting to feel very much at home there, and most of the people are really friendly. The FD is a great guy who's usually really good fun, and I have done my best to make his life easy which he appreciates so the two of us have got on quite well I think. It's days like that that make me feel very lucky to have this job because I get to meet a lot of genuinely cool people and work with them for long enough to appreciate that but not long enough to get to the awkward stage I often reach where actually I don't know what to say to people anymore. This is one of the reasons I think I'm more likely to stay in practice than go to work in industry, at least for now.
Then yesterday I was really busy again because I realised that my to do list of things for this week was quite a lot longer than the time I had left, and none of it was the kind of thing I could ask anyone else to help with even though a couple of people were looking for work. I did end up passing a couple of very junior tasks to someone who is two years my senior which felt really odd but she was nice about it (she's always nice bless her) and it did take some of the pressure off. I still felt a bit manic today but I did manage to get the things that were left over from last week out of the way so I could start on this week's jobs, and found that they were less time-consuming than I expected so I should be fine.
I also had a meeting yesterday with the senior partner and staff partner which apparently they were supposed to have in December after my exam results but they forgot. I had wondered why the others who had passed had had a meeting and their charge-out rates had gone up, but I left it to my manager to query it because I didn't want to seem uppity. I'm so glad he did because it was that that reminded them, and it was a really good meeting. The obvious reason was that I got a pay rise, a substantial one (20% extra), plus the information that a further pay rise is in the offing in October once I'm fully qualified (of the same amount again roughly). I should now be able to actually save some money, I'm awful at that although I do make quite large pension contributions in the hope that that will help. I also got confirmation that my job is safe in September (technically our training contracts end in September but the staff partner said that they have so much work on at the moment that they can't afford to let anyone go, and that under employment law we would still have to go through a redundancy process). They were very complimentary about me as well which was nice, and they asked about my ambitions and, having had no prior warning about the meeting and therefore no opportunity to prepare or worry, I was a bit honest and said I want to stay in charities, although I've thought about tax (thanks mum for constantly suggesting it). They said that the main charities partner 'sees me as an important part of the charities team' and they see a role for me there, which is really exciting. I have a lot of respect for that partner and really enjoy the work so it's reassuring to know that I'm not the only one who wants me to stay there. All in all a positive meeting from my point of view, I even got a biscuit!
Tonight I'm doing final packing and then tomorrow we're driving straight down to Surrey after work (hopefully at 4pm ish rather than at the start of rush hour). We're going skiing in Flaine for a week from Saturday with my parents. It's his first time so I'm hoping he enjoys it, I love skiing and haven't been since before I started this job which seems insanely long ago. At the very least, I'm going to be away from home and the change of scene feels well-earned and needed. So I shall see you in possibly two weeks - hopefully with no broken bones or egos!
* Technically, not married to the blokey so it's just 'my boyfriend's brother' but given that we are unlikely ever to be married (my parents have four weddings between them so I frankly see little point in an expensive ceremony and would prefer a holiday or a nicer house), own a house together and have lived together for four and a half years, we are as married as we will ever be, so for short hand's sake I call them in-laws.
So quick summary... Last week at work was a bit weird, like it often is at this time of year; it tends to be quiet (for us who work in accounts, the guys in personal tax are just snowed under!) but when something does need doing it needs doing yesterday. I was crazy busy off and on all week with so many different things, which was both slightly confusing but also kind of interesting because I rarely got the chance to get bored (I'm usually quite good at finding things to keep me busy at work, I hate having nothing to do).
One job was picking up some research that another trainee at my level had done most of the work on and I felt a bit bad because I tried to cover some of the odd things he'd done but the partner it was for still became aware that he hadn't done the most wonderful job. At the same time it was gratifying when another colleague complimented me on sorting it out and that he had been hard to work with. Ironic when he had said the same of her, but I think it shows how people can have very different ways of communicating and just totally not understand each other. I had the same kind of issue today with a junior; I was trying to get a database of contact details updated and sent to a partner but I really felt like my explanation was totally passing her by. In the end she did what I'd asked so I must have got there somehow but I wasn't confident at all so I probably sounded like I thought she was stupid, explaining it in lots of different ways. At least she did ask when she wasn't sure though, one of the hardest things about working with someone, and relying on their work, is when they just do something they don't understand and don't ask for help. Which is partly why I think an important part of my job is trying to be approachable to more junior staff so that questions are sorted up front rather than after a mahussive mistake has been made.
While the research project was a confidence booster, I did end up stuck at work until 6.30 on Wednesday which was not fun. I was slightly put out that my other half hadn't even queried why I was home so late, and said so, because it's sort of upsetting that he might not notice I'm missing for hours!
Then the next day I managed to annoy another of the trainees at my level by sending a jokey email that was taken the wrong way. I apologised by email and explained but didn't hear back from her so, being me, I worried about it all the rest of the day. I was determined not to let it ruin my evening though so I made a point of making a nice tea (roast vegetables followed by a delicious apple and berry crumble) and getting on with some knitting. I did worry a bit but I managed to rationalise it, ran through a couple of possible scenarios for what to say or do when I saw her and then actually managed to forget about it, instead of the constant knot in my stomach. I was so proud of myself. I did have a bit of stomach knotting on my walk to work on Friday but as it turned out I bumped into her the moment I got into the office and was so surprised that I just apologised and she seemed fine about it, we chatted and things seem ok - not that I've seen her since then but it's always a bit sporadic with who I see at work, just depends on who's working with whom.
Last week I also made the decision that, having no suitable dress for the brother-in-law's (*) wedding in February I would make one myself. The joy of having a sewing machine! However, given that we're on holiday next week (woo!) and therefore away both weekends, I actually only had one weekend to make it. Somehow I managed to find a gorgeous empire line dress pattern (lookie!) and it arrived in time for me to take Friday afternoon off work (advantage of working stupidly late on Wednesday) to go fabric hunting. It was tipping it down with rain and my trek took me to the far side of the city, then to the centre and back home so I was rather drowned rattish by the time I made it home. I did eventually find some really lovely black and blue silk type fabric at the market (the stall was actually closed but I must have looked sufficiently desperate so the kind lady took pity on me!). I then spent twice as much on some cotton to line it, just because I couldn't find anything else suitable. I spent Saturday pinning and cutting and then on Sunday got the whole bodice done, so I spent Monday and Tuesday nights working on it too. I was so pleased with how it was turning out, despite having to learn how to make bias tape out of annoying, fiddly fabric (there are a few great tutorials on the internet in case you ever need to do it yourself - my tip would be that the key thing is always to get the cut lines straight and parallel, so if you have a rotary cutter use that to cut the strips first and then sew them together, it may be more fiddly but the neatness will be worth it). I also re-learned that it's important to press seams before you trim them. I also managed to put the zip in incredibly neatly, leaving no unsightly bulges or odd drape which are my usual trade marks. Unfortunately I learned too late that easily-fraying fabric, such as silk effect polyester..., needs both large seam allowances and some kind of seam finishing to keep the garment in tact. So now I have a nearly-complete, surprisingly well-sewn dress (only have the hem left to sew) where the fabric near the seams is starting to fray, to the extent that it's visible on the outside and starting to come away from my carefully crafted bias binding. At this point I'm actually ready to chalk it up to experience, wear a fairly crappy other dress to the wedding and learn from this. I do have one ace up my sleeve though; we're driving down to my mum's tomorrow in advance of the holiday (woo again!) and her next door neighbour, my lifelong substitute mother, is an amazing dressmaker so the dress is coming on the trip just in case she has a solution. Wish me luck!
Tuesday was a late work night this week as well. I was in Brighouse at a client's and by the time 5 rolled around I was close enough to finished that it made no sense to leave and come back. It was actually a really fun day. I have spent nearly four weeks there in December and January, and I was there three weeks last January, so I'm starting to feel very much at home there, and most of the people are really friendly. The FD is a great guy who's usually really good fun, and I have done my best to make his life easy which he appreciates so the two of us have got on quite well I think. It's days like that that make me feel very lucky to have this job because I get to meet a lot of genuinely cool people and work with them for long enough to appreciate that but not long enough to get to the awkward stage I often reach where actually I don't know what to say to people anymore. This is one of the reasons I think I'm more likely to stay in practice than go to work in industry, at least for now.
Then yesterday I was really busy again because I realised that my to do list of things for this week was quite a lot longer than the time I had left, and none of it was the kind of thing I could ask anyone else to help with even though a couple of people were looking for work. I did end up passing a couple of very junior tasks to someone who is two years my senior which felt really odd but she was nice about it (she's always nice bless her) and it did take some of the pressure off. I still felt a bit manic today but I did manage to get the things that were left over from last week out of the way so I could start on this week's jobs, and found that they were less time-consuming than I expected so I should be fine.
I also had a meeting yesterday with the senior partner and staff partner which apparently they were supposed to have in December after my exam results but they forgot. I had wondered why the others who had passed had had a meeting and their charge-out rates had gone up, but I left it to my manager to query it because I didn't want to seem uppity. I'm so glad he did because it was that that reminded them, and it was a really good meeting. The obvious reason was that I got a pay rise, a substantial one (20% extra), plus the information that a further pay rise is in the offing in October once I'm fully qualified (of the same amount again roughly). I should now be able to actually save some money, I'm awful at that although I do make quite large pension contributions in the hope that that will help. I also got confirmation that my job is safe in September (technically our training contracts end in September but the staff partner said that they have so much work on at the moment that they can't afford to let anyone go, and that under employment law we would still have to go through a redundancy process). They were very complimentary about me as well which was nice, and they asked about my ambitions and, having had no prior warning about the meeting and therefore no opportunity to prepare or worry, I was a bit honest and said I want to stay in charities, although I've thought about tax (thanks mum for constantly suggesting it). They said that the main charities partner 'sees me as an important part of the charities team' and they see a role for me there, which is really exciting. I have a lot of respect for that partner and really enjoy the work so it's reassuring to know that I'm not the only one who wants me to stay there. All in all a positive meeting from my point of view, I even got a biscuit!
Tonight I'm doing final packing and then tomorrow we're driving straight down to Surrey after work (hopefully at 4pm ish rather than at the start of rush hour). We're going skiing in Flaine for a week from Saturday with my parents. It's his first time so I'm hoping he enjoys it, I love skiing and haven't been since before I started this job which seems insanely long ago. At the very least, I'm going to be away from home and the change of scene feels well-earned and needed. So I shall see you in possibly two weeks - hopefully with no broken bones or egos!
* Technically, not married to the blokey so it's just 'my boyfriend's brother' but given that we are unlikely ever to be married (my parents have four weddings between them so I frankly see little point in an expensive ceremony and would prefer a holiday or a nicer house), own a house together and have lived together for four and a half years, we are as married as we will ever be, so for short hand's sake I call them in-laws.
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