Most days at work are reasonable but some have to be put into a group all their own and that would be called “Controlled Chaos”. You know the days. Those days when you have tried to anticipate all the needs, have tried double hard to get everyone on the same page but you know in your own mind from a series of associated events leading to that day, that no one else has taken the need to act as much as you.
Today was one of those days… briefly our training plan includes sending the “children” (see note below) to work for the company we are training them for. The idea is that they get to know the students, as they have had no contact with the operations they will work for yet and we get them a taste of where they will be going. All this to hopefully bring their focus down to what the real job will be, not that pre-conceived idea they all carry from the university. I had set up in the planning 9 months ago, had re-notified the training offices and “back-door” had gotten agreement from the production office manager that they would be coming for this purpose. Everyone says “no-problem”. Somehow I knew it was a bit more.
Those feeling of “chaos” are:
First I find that the man that normally does the in-house coordination was out for a month, it is Holiday time, just before Ramadan,
We had problems getting any confirmation from the leading group (about 3 levels up from where they will be working.
We did not get agreement from the local training office until Wed night to transport them.
So you could say it looked like an explosion waiting for the fuse….
By accident I had set up with one of the PSL coordinators to go early – I knew the bus was to pick the students up around 8:30 so I would be at the office a bit earlier… I was also unaware that the offices had moved – I really do live in a mushroom world here… I finally got in to see the manager briefly and he was aware they would be coming, but not totally prepared… and not looking happy. I had prepared the brief outline for their programs and there was a little disagreement on it but it was accepted. I went out to find the students so escorted the leader in and after a few other surprised left hoping that all would be handled from here.
Had I not gone the “children” would have sat outside waiting on someone to tell them what to do… the people inside would not have known who they were or why they were there, it would have all been a circus of waiting on direction… I guess I was lucky again today and averted the chaos for one more time… We now have to hope it all works to a point of improvement…? We won’t know for sure ever, but hopefully will get indications later this month.
Outside this for a morning activity, I spent the day as I do most of them working on reports and editing files and trying to get back into the “work-rotation”.
Note: “Children” – the students we are charged with in hopes of bringing them from know-it-all university grads to a bit more mature supervisor.