A mammoth undertaking

I’ve not posted much recently, because I’ve simply been too busy with work. Next Friday is the end of the Financial Year for both the company and our main customer, and the “end of year push” to complete projects and write them up is well underway. Each year we tell ourselves that it will be better next year, but it never is.

This year is particularly challenging because I’ve got two major projects on the go which both finish next Friday. This week I’ve been running a big equipment trial in Malvern, with five subcontractors, and about twenty techies, culminating in orchestrating a demo to our stakeholders. On my other project, I’ve been working closely with a number of universities, and have been witnessing and participating in their equipment trials in Oxford and Birmingham, and attending multiple meetings in London.

My “resource demand signal” (management new-speak for what the project managers cumulatively are expecting me to deliver) has been running at ~40 hours/week for the past month. That would be fine if I worked full time. But I don’t. It’s no wonder I’m tired!

I’m keeping going on a diet of caffeine, paracetamol and chocolate. Not the healthiest combination, admittedly, but the end of the Financial Year is in sight at last. Just one more week to go…..