So what happened last week...

I spent a week last Friday afternoon checking through the earlier pitch documentation and my stomach sank with each file.  These documents are to get shortlisted for projects, rather than devised for presentation to a client – that’s the next stage.  So while the Directors sign off the documents, they don’t have time to read them all the way through, especially if there are a few to go out at short notice. 

I think the policy needs to change based on what I saw and will be one of the things I talk to Kate and Jeremy about next Monday at our weekly catch-up.

So with that rattling around my head and the fact that I was going to have it out with Lena, I bet you can imagine just how restful my weekend was – oh! What a Sunday night I had J.

Anyway: Monday.

Lena arrived a few minutes after me full of beans and slightly baffled that I still wanted to meet.

“I thought it was just last week,” she said.

“No,” I said. “I’d still like to meet.  We need to go over a few things”

She shrugged. “Fine,” she said making me think that maybe it really was just me!

The coffee shop’s just a few metres away from the studio.  I ordered the coffees from the counter and my hands were so sweaty with nerves I left little damp paw-prints on the glass.

I had had plenty of time to think about what I was going to say, and the feedback from people on here was really helpful. [THANK YOU!]  I had made a decision to address the performance issue only at this stage.

I kept it short and focused entirely on the submission.  I had taken a couple of her submissions with me and showed her the errors.  I tried to be as sensitive as possible – no-one likes criticism and Lena’s proven herself to be quite unpredictable at the very least.  I asked her why she thought she’d made those mistakes and a torrent of emotion poured out.

What I gleaned from nearly thirty minutes of tearful exposition was that apparently, the PA before me had originally done the submissions but had found them too much (haha! Not so perfect after all, eh Outgoing PA!) so they had been passed onto Lena.  While she’d liked this responsibility at first, she started to resent it when she realised the amount of work it involved – especially when she was stuck in the office and the PA was leaving on time.

I sympathised and told her I would do what I could to resolve this issue as it wasn’t right for her to be overloaded. 

But I also told her gently that it would be healthier for all involved that she talk to me if she’s feeling overwhelmed rather than act out. 

She smiled.

I smiled.

Basically, the meeting finished with us all but hugging: I draw the line with physical intimacy at work.

Next steps:

• Speak to Directors about resolving the workload issue and meet again with Lena tomorrow morning to review the upcoming submission list.
• I’ve decided to leave the behaviour issues for now and see how things go - I’ve done a quick Back-To-Work catch-up note on her absence through sickness (some ambiguous stomach thing).
Result: I feel much, much, much happier with the situation. And Lena even made me a cup of tea this afternoon.

I just hope this is the end of it.