05-02-25 - Surviving Solo

What a week, as mentioned last week for the next month I am covering my manager and being the single representative of my team. By Monday 10am, I had a new found respect for my manager, I didn’t know about half of the stuff that comes his way. How much he had shielded me from the bizarre and crazy that comes into the team.

The majority of my work this week is not appropriate to talk about in the open. I had a good conversation with a colleague on this, how the majority of week notes (published by people in the public sector) are in the digital space, after all the controversial decisions around policy have been made and it is focused on the implementation and team dynamics. When I have some more time, I would like to dive in to more about how to talk openly about the stuff in the early stages of policy delivery.

Highs

• Represented work at an international level.
• Handled some challenging issues well.
• Have had to be quite resilient.
• Finally met up with a colleague Allan after months of trying find a date in the office, had some great conversations thought our the day about agile, product and design in and outside of government.

Lows

• Not having any teammates, most of my conversations have been with stakeholders in which I have had to mask and be professional which has been exhausting (Thank You to colleagues this week who I have random 10, 20 minute conversations with when I be a little more myself)
• Forgetting there is a bank holiday Monday next week 🤦 I have commissioned some asks out with a deadline of COP Monday which I have had to roll back and planed to get some work done which I have shift around with other deadlines.

Room for improvement

• I talk to plenty of people during work having conversations, reaching agreements etc but it has become uncommon for me to present anything. I had a presentation slot in a meeting which I felt went well but I know I spoke incredibly fast. I need to slow down.

Small wins

• Got thought some mandatory e-learning
• Started to tidy up our team sharepoint

Song of the week

Not the most interesting update this week, I know but I have still wrote something and that is my main aim :D Enjoy the bank hoilday weekend!

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