Out Of Office

Spending the week, or be it four days away from the office was a strange experience. Slowly but surely I got used to not answering the phone. Although my colleagues on the helpdesk would say I rarely pick up any calls these days. Why it may be fantastic to be away from head office, there is still work to do and not an extended holiday as many would have you believe. Oddly enough, there is a greater pressure while being on a client's site. You have to deliver the goods and cannot hide behind the masquerade of the telephone. "I'll speak to one of my colleagues and get back to you." No such option. The job just has to get done. Your under close scrutiny, with almost every move watched and it is important to put yourself across in the most professional manner possible. The days do get rather tedious, building laptop after laptop then in the afternoon packing them ready for dispatch. Though I should not be complaining, many others from the helpdesk would easily have swapped placing with me and the ring of the phone was a distant prospect sixty odd miles away.

Premier Travel Inn was comfortable but hardly the lap of luxury. It met my needs for three nights considering I only really spent Monday evening in the hotel. Tuesday and Wednesday were spent enjoying the bright lights of the City and West End. Having Beckton DLR station right next door was great. You suddenly realise that no where across this wonderful capital is too far and with the monorail running until midnight, there will always be time to catch the last train back. Further details of my evenings are posted on my personal blog with a selection of photographs in a FlickR set.

The most satisfying element of the week was going in on Thursday to complete the job and the thank you from the client, just before I left to head home. A job well done and the last time I would be loading laptops for this team following the upgrade to our latest software release. (Which does not have a version number but instead two letters. Although technical it is 4!) It allows for live updates, so the software can be upgraded down the wire, rather all one hundred and twenty machines having to be sent to the office to be reloaded. While this may sound great in theory, I'm not sure what the reality will be in practice. The software looks great and is vast improvement on the predecessor but the true test comes out in the field.

Back in the office, I returned to reality with a bump on Tuesday. I suppose with little to look forward to, the motivation is at an all time low. Having spent a week out of the office and then a long weekend away, the prospect of returning to 49 open calls to resolve was what American's would call a major 'downer'. However, we pull ourselves together (without the aid or tea, coffee or my colleague's strange wake up juice!) Just getting on with the job, getting the work done, coming home and forgetting about it, until the following day. The fact my role has changed with a responsibility for internal hardware means I get a varied work day, not just taking support calls but also building laptops and creating images with Norton Ghost. A fantastic program, which I only discovered four years ago, when looking to find an ideal backup tool during my placement year. Only after accidently screwing up a restore did I eventually start pushing the program to maximum potential. If I hunt, I'm sure I can even find one of the Ghost images I created knocking around somewhere. Oh the memories.

The Arrival

When have you truly arrived in a workplace? When you get your own office? When you get an award? When you get a pay rise? A promotion? Nope, it is none of the forementioned, it is when you get your own personal business card. It happened to me back when I was on placement. A client was in showing the managing partners a new add on to our office management software and exchanged business cards. He asked if I had a business card and of course being only an IP student, I did not. The partner replied in an approving tone that I would get some cards printed. Sure enough a few weeks later a three boxes of cards arrived on my desk and I was over the moon.

History has a strange way of repeating itself and on this occasion, following the client visit in Dublin, Ireland I handed over a complimentary business card to the MD, so he could scribble down a mobile number. The question was then asked if I had my own personal business card, which of course I did not. The urgency in his reply that if I was visiting clients I needed a business card with my name on, made me smile. The cards were ordered when I got back to the office and I expect to receive them in the next few weeks. I will of course upload an image as soon as they are in my hand.

Looking ahead, I have my first week away from the office, in the glorious Docklands and staying at the luxurious Premier Travel Inn Hotel in Beckton. My biggest fear was not how the software upgrade would go but actually not having internet access in the evenings. I have become so accustomed to my broadband that being without the internet cable will be like live without oxygen. I will have to fill my evening with something other than MSN, mp3 downloads and web surfing. This will be a real test of my willpower. People often say that my obsession with the internet is a psychological menace, purely developed in my head. I beg to differ, being without the internet, I feel disabled, cut off from the outside world, isolated, lonely and alone. When something becomes so much part of the routine, you no longer have to think about it, it becomes instinctive, second nature. When it is taken away from you, you feel like a part of your body has been cut off. Perhaps I am taking it too far and need to seek some medical help, urgently.

You know blogging is becoming mainstream (in a strange sense) when they are mentioned in the 10 o' clock news bulletin on Monday 3rd April. An equlivant prize to Booker but for internet blogs, which was won by a cook book or should that be blog? I personally think, a product or idea has only officially arrives when my Mum is aware of it. A few years to wait then.