The subject, for the uninitiated is the abbreviation for Out Of Hours. A phrase that goes hand in hand with any support position. In all of my previous employment, I have worked into the night or over weekends (in some cases both) to get the job done. Yet again, last week I found myself in the same predicament. All three of us on the help desk decided to stay late and get some work done. We had two major roll outs to complete and knew that the help desk call queue would suffer if we did not put in the extra hours. It was a productive evening, although the only highlight the Perfect Pizza on the expense account. Make that five pizzas on the expense account. Working outside of normal office hours does have many benefits. We could relax, switch on WMP and blast a variety of tunes, ranging from Lilly Allen to rock legends Queen. I use 'blast' in the very small sense of the word, the small speaker built into the Dell Optiplex SX280 is hardly designed for late night parties. Perhaps we need to invest in a Boynq Cubite USB Speaker Hub. In black of course!
If I am honest, my bread and butter work, answering the phone has really been low par in recent weeks. Not just because of all the project work that has been heading in our direction but the other distractions. Just other pressing demands that are made upon me to deliver goods ranging from reports, extracts and a laptop for testing. If I am honest work has been bit of a blur recently and at times I have felt I have just been going through the motions, doing at times the bare minimum and getting out the door promptly at 6pm. Suppose my job has become a job, rather than the career of a professional. Well then again, it never really was the most glamorous occupation in the world.
There is a quick and easy (but not cheap) way to win friends and influence people. There is no need to attend a Dale Carnegie lecture or buy his famous book. My advice is simple and only two letters in length. K.K. The amazing doughnuts from the one and only Krispy Kreme. In what has now become an annually tradition, I bought it several boxes for my birthday on Thursday last week, at the astonishment of my work colleagues. Perhaps the biggest surprise was I surpassed my 24th birthday by buying twice as many doughnuts this year, 144 to be exact. By the time I got into the office in the morning, it was fast approaching 10am and I was half an hour late. Then came the logistical nightmare of taking all these boxes into the offices and then distributing them. I was surprised by one of my colleagues, as she had promised me that she would would put the date in her diary last year. Obviously she had forgotten but she was not the only one.
