Scribblings from the Mitchy Side

Today was the big Finance Away Day. The past away days I've been on have been small affairs, consisting of us rabble in SFT and our sister department FSS. Today was an altogether More Serious Affair, being held at a very nice conference centre in the country, and organised by Very High Persons indeed. The occasion was that from 1st July, our new Finance Service is officially launched. It's all bollocks, of course, it's basically the same service, but shunted around so we're all in the same building on the same floor (eventually). People have moved places, job titles have been changed, but it all amounts to the same thing in the end.

However, it's a Very Big Deal at HCC, and the whole process (called The Way We Work or TW3) has been going on for a couple of years now. You may recall I mentioned last year that we were being "transformed" and re-organised; well now we're on the last lap. Mostly. SFT isn't being moved until October at the earliest, so we're a bit out of events at the mo, but they've promised to get around to us eventually. Suits me. I don't want to move up to the second floor with the rest of the corporate drones :P However, that's a rant for another day. Today was the Finance Away Day.

I was offered a lift to the centre from an FSS colleague who has to drive past my house to get to work, so it was nice and convenient. We were heavily encouraged to car pool and when we got there we saw why - it's a very nice place but it's not really designed to park 200 cars :) Fortunately, vast amounts of car pooling was done, so that was all good.

There was tea and then we all settled in for the opening speeches. Big Boss and Even Bigger Boss welcomed us with the usual pleasentries and then turned things over to The Very Big Boss (i.e. he's not just in charged of Finance, he's in charge of half of HCC). It was the first time I'd seen this guy, even though his name is all over the letter head we use, and I have to say I was mildly impressed. The speech was nothing special - FogHorn assured me that she's seen him totally floor an entire room of difficult school representatives with a real powerhouse speech - but what he said, he said well; he was clear, concise and genuinely believed in what he was saying. He also didn't mince words, he quite clearly said that the point of the change was to work more efficiently for less money. He's the ONLY management person who's had the balls to say that to us.

Once the speechifying was over with, we were split up into groups and spent an hour and a bit either side of lunch doing various group tasks in the gorgeous grounds. I have a couple of pics, I'll post 'em up later. The weather, I have to say, was bloomin' marvellous (first day of Wimbledon and the sun shines? *gasp!*) and if anything, it was too warm. The tasks were nothing terribly original - the usual quiz/puzzle problems, intermixed with physical challenges like "get all your team across this gap without touching the ground using these two planks and these bits of rope" - but everyone seemed to enter in the the spirit of it and the weather definitely helped. Best game was called Severe Spheres - basically everyone was equipped with a bit of guttering. The aim was to roll a tennis ball down the guttering from a start line, down the course, around a cone and back again. The catch, obviously, was that the first person in the line, once the ball left their bit of guttering, had to gallop to the end of the line to continue the chain. We got the second highest score at that one and everyone I spoke to said it was their favourite task. My group, which included PartyGirl, also got the highest score for the quizzes.....we were most careful not to mention that the reason was because someone had their blackberry with them and looked up a lot of the answers! But only the ones we hadn't already got!! :D We were disqualified from the last task though, the orienteering challenge, along with two other teams, for moving one of the braille punches you had to use to prove you'd found a particular point on the map. Bah!

We were very well fed at lunchtime and there was copious amounts of water, juice and tea/coffee available throughout. Must have cost them a fortune :P But it wasn't a bad day overall and I was home by 4.30! Hee! As Monday's go, it didn't suck :)

In other news, Wednesday is PartyGirl's last day with us before she moves to another department and a shiny new job. Even better, Thursday is ShitStirrer's last day, I think. Gods, I can't wait, the noise levels are gonna plummet. I am going to miss PG because even though she could drive me up the wall, I enjoyed working with her and she's leaving a big gap which me and FormerTempWithNoName will have to fill somehow. ShitStirrer, however, well, let's just say she's got the hump because she apparently told StillWaters that she didn't want a leaving do or presents and it must have become blitheringly obvious to her that not only won't she get them but we'd never planned anything anyway. PartyGirl on the other hand is having a leaving do Wednesday lunchtime......:D

I will be posting in here when SS finally leaves. You'll know what I'm on about the minute you see the post. Trust me *weg*

And yay! First day of Wimbledon *happy bounces* I want Djokovic to win the mens and anyone but a Williams to win the women's :D