Tuesday, October 16, 2007

A Plan... of sorts...



I forgot to say that the episode of QI that was shown on BBC 2 on Friday night was the one that I went to see being recorded earlier in the year. I did remember all of the parts that they showed but it was quite different than what we had seen being recorded (which is maybe unsurprising given that it took an hour and half to record but the programme is only half an hour. This meant that the bloke in the audience who answered a question (the answer was “Denmark” in case you are interested) and that they re-recorded at the end of the programme to make sure that they got it right was actually omitted. I bet he was sitting there on Friday waiting for his starring moment only to discover he had been deleted. The other thing that I noticed was omitted was a very amusing sex joke involving a smurf. That’s all I’m saying…

G is collecting a series that is free with the Independent at the moment. On Sunday I went out and bought the paper, only I couldn’t check what the inserts were as they were all packed up in a white plastic cover. When I got the paper home the insert wasn’t there. Oh dear. I sent the paper an e-mail to see if they might be able to let me have it but there is no reply as yet. I also asked lots of people at work to see if anyone got Sunday’s paper, but couldn’t find anyone who reads it. My conclusion from this is that I must have bought the *only* copy of the Independent on Sunday that was sold this week and yet it still didn’t have the insert in it. Life can be cruel at times.

Today I am going to have a chat with C about her thoughts on her job situation etc. I think she will say that she plans to leave (and actually yesterday she was looking at a job website), but I am going to try and get her to focus on what she can do to improve her chances of promotion, whether in her current job or elsewhere. I was talking to my boss about it yesterday and he asked if he should talk to her about it, but I said I thought it was better if I did it because I want to move the subject on from the fact that she didn’t pass to what we are going to do to increase her chances of promotion in the future - and if she keeps looking back then that’s not going to help. My boss is really nice by the way and I’ll explain to C what we discussed and say that he is happy to talk to her if she wants to speak to him about it.

Having said that, I am actually going to ask her why she thinks she didn’t pass e.g. does she think she’s not capable, does she not have the right skills, is she just not suited to these sorts of tests etc and then we’ll work out what we can do to rectify that. Also, on Friday I said to her that I thought she should think about why it is that she wants promotion. There are obvious reasons, but I think it could also be quite revealing and help to come up with a constructive way to move forward (even if ultimately that means she decides to leave to get what she wants). I am also going to ask her to take some time to think of situations where she feels she really achieved something and to explain why and what she contributed to that. Then we can try and build on her strengths and also highlight that she has achieved some really good things. The plan is basically to try and make her feel that she has some positive things to come, that she will get support from work with any development needs and that she will benefit from staying on rather than just getting a new job. I’m hoping it will work because it would be a real shame if she left (particularly as she knows the work much better than I do!).

2 comments:

the vicious chicken said...

Ooooh, QI - love OI!! Very jealous you've been to see it recorded...

But I'll let you off since you posted the link to the highly entertaining spinning lady thingy yesterday. We enjoyed that a lot. (Although it messed with my head a bit when the shadowy missy kept changing direction on me. Most confusing.)
VCx

Random Reflections said...

QI was great to watch being filmed but then I had to wait about 5 months to see it on the TV so I had forgotten various bits of it (but not the smurf joke obviously...).

The spinning lady thing yesterday was slightly disconcerting. I assume at some point you will be analysing monkey brains using this tool. Team work is about more than just bananas, you know.