There’s no denying it’s been a busy week. One way of measuring this is by how often I see a certain member of the team, and this week it was a brief glimpse of the back of a head, followed by a chat that lasted less than 2 minutes. The other way is how often the time blocked out for certain tasks gets cast aside by an incoming priority, so you can imagine my joy on Friday when I was excused from one meeting to give me time to gather some audit evidence, and another meeting was cancelled in the afternoon. ‘Getting time back’ is always a blessing, and I tried to make the most of it.

Am I still negotiating my way through “no woman’s land”? Yes, to an extent, but reflecting on a meeting with the auditors where I was able to answer a series of fairly challenging questions, and find the seemingly never ending stream of evidence they requested, territory is definitely being gained. Although by Friday lunchtime, when even more requests had come through, I was ready to tear my hair out. When the final email pinged into the inbox, I’ve never been so relieved to read the “thank you” and “we’ll review all the evidence you’ve provided.” Still so much to learn, but one thing to tick off the list and squirrel some notes away for next time.

The need for structure and organisation hasn’t gone away, but taking a Wednesday to work from home (which meant sacrificing the walk to work and lunch meet up with Mr P) meant some uninterrupted thinking time to build on the post-it note planning of Monday, and it was much needed. I haven’t quite got the “scheme of my work” in a way that would be recogised to my former teacher self, but a Google sheet with a list of priorities, status of progress column with colour coded drop-downs and month-by-month update columns is a very close imitation of it. Mr P had the day off on Friday, and as he was doing chores downstairs, I was able to put the finishing touches to the “My Priorities” sheet that may just save me. I was also able to plan in some time for next week; to attack the tasks and hopefully some colours will change as progress is made. The next step is colour coding the calendar as per the tasks. It makes me happy just thinking about it!

The best laid plans for some professional development have definitely “gang aft agley”* in recent weeks, but I’m happy to report that I was able to make a start on some e-learning in developing resilience. This has a dual purpose as it’s training that’s available to all staff, but I wanted to experience it myself so I could whole-heartedly recommend it to others, and it will give me some tips that I can use to support my own team as things evolve in a constantly changing landscape. The organisation is already paying off; a tangible sense of achievement was in the air as I logged off shortly after 5 pm on Friday afternoon – I’m still managing to stick to my contracted hours, just!

Weirdly, despite the challenges in moving to a completely different culture, the people I work with made me feel at home so quickly, and we’re developing really good relationships – I mean, obviously, you can’t make everyone happy all the time, but that’s the territory of being a manager, and the positives far outweigh the negatives. It’s certainly been a bonus when imposter syndrome sneaks into my head every so often; positive relationships can really give a boost to one’s confidence. So much so that when my manager said in our one to one that he’d “inadvertently handed the audit over” I quipped back that the subtlety of the move hadn’t gone unnoticed, in an “I’ve got my eye on you” kind of tone. My students used to have a sassometer in the classroom, and we’d review it on a regular basis during lessons – I think the sass is still there. The more confident I’m feeling, the sassier I am. Borough, watch out!

I will try to keep the sass in check on Thursday when we embark on our first volunteering adventure. We meet on the steps at 9.30 and will head beachwards to engage in a litter picking morning. Would it seem snooty to take my own equipment? You’ll know from previous blogs that this endeavour is not new to me, and I’m looking forward to getting out and about on the beach, even if a dip will be out of the question! It should be a perfect opportunity to do some more team-building and have a positive impact on our local environment at the same time. I’m sure the coastal team will be grateful for our support. Which has got me thinking, I wonder if hot-desking is an option in the coastal office? All in the cause of getting to know as many different staff as possible, of course and absolutely nothing to do with the view! I’ll have to do some investigating and report back with my findings.

Looking back on my previous blog, the “year 9” unpredictable nature of things cropping up has certainly been a feature of the week, but I was strict with myself and took the time I needed – as much as I could manage anyway. I definitely felt more at ease as the week went on, and now just have to negotiate a manager development session and two presentations to the leadership team in one afternoon – as if one wasn’t enough! The beach clean may be a much needed cobweb-blowing exercise by then.

So this is #boroughbabe signing off for another week. Here’s to team-building, tenacity and time to think – the rhythm is returning.

*You’ll never fully take away the English teacher in me.