To mark National Work Life Week, we’re sharing ‘Week in the Life of’ stories from our colleagues. Grab a cuppa and have read of what a week for Learning and Development Specialist, Alan Jerram is like.
Monday
I started my week by looking back at my previous one – which was quite a busy week full of flexible and agile working! I then checked the diary for the upcoming five days and dedicated time to ensure that my objectives and Great Conversation were up to date as I was due to meet with my line manager the following week.
Then our Monday morning team meeting kicked-off, where we chatted about the weekend just gone and shared what our week ahead looked like, I find this always a helpful time to ask my team for any assistance on projects that need a little extra support.
I was then straight into delivering a wellbeing session for colleagues – this time it was on resilience and burnout. It was a great two-hour session where we lived our values by openly sharing what’s happening for us and worked together by sharing how we coped. Before I knew it, it was lunch…always good to step away from the desk at home and spend some time eating with my partner – she also works from home, so we always try and break at the same time.
In the afternoon, I got stuck into some project work preparing for a session on Friday and then joined our Learning Lounge to answer any questions colleagues had about learning and development. Whilst the lounge is open 24/7 for questions, it’s great to have some dedicated time for colleagues to interact, this way I can directly share answers that are helpful to them.
Tuesday
Tuesdays are often the quieter day in my week, so I like to start the day with some meditative music to ease myself into the working day.
I checked my emails first thing to see if anything had come in that needed attention, then it was Yammer time. I try to access Yammer at least 2 or 3 times a week to check what’s happening in the business, commenting on threads that have been added. I also like to get involved in the banter around my poor showing in the Abri Fantasy Football League!
We had a new starter in the team, so I had an exciting appointment in the diary. I prepared my notes for the introduction, where I’d share a bit about my role and how we’d be working together as a team. Thankfully, the new starter has got great skills which means we can learn from each other.
I had a couple of errands to run, so I popped out at lunch - my diary was up to date, so colleagues would know when I was due back at my desk. I even managed to squeeze some time in for checking the progress of my fruit and veg in the garden. I took a couple of progress snaps to share with colleagues on the Grow Your Own channel on Teams. It’s great to see that others are doing well, less to be said about my broccoli the better, at least I’ve got tomatoes on the vine!
As a Wellbeing Ambassador and a member of the Wellbeing Working Group at Abri, I look after the data behind our 87% Wellbeing app. I get the newsletter sent to me every Tuesday afternoon and add it to the 87% Wellbeing page on the intranet and send that out to colleagues via Yammer.
Later that day I joined a team meeting to chat and give a tutorial of LEAP, our learning and performance system.
I then finished the day with a podcast to stay up to date on learning and development thinking. Interesting one this day - it was on matching the moderner learners needs…one to share with the team.
Wednesday
Another quiet start, this gave me time to catch up on my Couch25K. Working from home means I can get up at a reasonable time, run up and down the lane and be back at my desk (showered of course) ready to start the day (after a hearty and healthy breakfast too).
I then checked-in with the team, who’d been helping me with some tasks.
I dedicated time in the diary to run through the session for Friday with those who were supporting with the delivery. As I’m no expert, we did a bit of a double act and sorted out who is doing what, and things like when I needed to say, ‘next slide please!’.
I had a general catch up with my manager towards the end of the day – a good chance for us to inspire each other, chat about the week so far and anything else. I also had half an hour in the diary to catch up with an old work colleague – we talked about similar experiences and offered each other advice.
Thursday
On Thursday I had an office day. I went in for a face to face catch up with the team. This was nice, we were even able to lunch together, a bit of socialising for a change. This was also the perfect opportunity to welcome our newest team member in person. Before logging off for the day, I spent some time in the Learning Lounge chatting with colleagues and answering questions.
Friday
The day of delivery! An early start, this was the day the team and I were out at a local venue to deliver a morning and afternoon session to colleagues – with a spot of lunch halfway through the day of course. Luckily, everything went smoothly, there were no technical issues and we had great interactions and engagement from the teams involved, which made the session fly by.
An early start meant an early finish. We wrapped up by 4pm to tidy up and check emails before switching off and heading home for the weekend.
