I’ve recently moved house. Well, when I say I’ve moved house, my parents have moved house, and I still live at home. I think they may have been trying to drop a hint that I should get my own place. They did not say that exactly, but reading between the lines, they, well, they were looking at one-bedroom places. Anyway, eventually they settled on a mid-terrace with a box room that has become my bedroom and place of work should I choose to work from home – which I never will of course.
Why do I mention this? Because I am now officially a commuter! I mean I always used to travel to work, but that was a short walk, I now take the train each day along with all the other suited and booted workers – although nobody seems to ever wear a suit anymore, or even a tie come to think of it. How have we become such a dishevelled and scruffy working nation? Fortunately my commute is against the rush, the trains and platforms heading into London look horribly busy whereas I am always guaranteed a seat and most days I even have a table so I can get my laptop out and start the working day early – except when they pull out the horrible old trains and I have to rest the laptop on my knee as the carriage bounces around. That can make things awkward. One day I was typing an email to my boss reviewing an article he had written and instead of saying I thought the bit about how to remember names was “witty” I somehow typed an s and a h instead of the w…he has never asked me to review anything since.
Being a commuter I do see the working world differently. By the way I am not a TWaT, I had this debate with Kevin in accounts who kept insisting I was. No matter how many times I explained it, he would not understand. “No Kev” I’d say. “TWaTS only go into the office on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday’s. It’s an acronym, don’t you get it?” But he still insisted I was. Honestly, how does someone so dumb end up with a job in accounts?
Anyway, commuting has not made me less efficient at my job. Quite the opposite in fact. I now use that valuable time on the train to clear my emails, plan the day ahead and draft my stationery order for when I get into the office. Although, despite telling everyone I need to know anything they want ordered by 5.00pm the night before, you can bet your life somebody will come to me with something they need urgently late afternoon, and usually that somebody is Lucy in Marketing. Honestly, she drives me mad. “So sorry” she says. “I have been so busy trying to get a presentation done that the boss only dropped on me late yesterday that I forgot to ask you for the post-it notes and box of A3 300gsm paper I desperately need tomorrow.” I sigh and say it can’t be done. She flutters her eyelids and smiles at me. I grin and say, “I’ll see what I can do.”
It’s important to be authoritative in my position, but hey, who am I to stop the wheels of marketing from turning. And in truth, I know damn well that I can get Lucy her order by the next morning with no problems, even if I do not place my order until nearly 5.00pm the day before. We use a local independent supplier, and they are so reliable and accommodating. One time I even got a delivery the same day when I said it was important and we were desperate for a box of Our Earth copier for some printing we needed to do that afternoon – we weren’t that desperate, but Lucy said it was urgent and I wanted to impress her with my speed of delivery.