This time last year I was having a similar dilemma. Last summer I worked at a university, and this year I’m back there. My job requires me to make sure that all students at the university have accommodation for the coming academic year. If you do it wrong, or don’t pay attention, you will have a lot of homeless students on your hands. It’s a fairly easy job but as the weeks go on, the pressure rises, and you end up having nightmares about what could go wrong. For example, last year I had nightmares about Chinese students because they kept disappearing. Not in a sinister way, they’d just found accommodation in the private sector. But they never told us. Which caused us to panic – do we save them something just in case they show up? Or do we put someone else in their place, hoping they don’t show up?
But the first few weeks are quite calm. You get the odd irate parent on the phone wondering why their daughter hasn’t got an en-suite room. Yes, I know you think you applied early, but you didn’t. Our en-suites go within hours. You applied five days after the accommodation process opened. Yes, madam, I know that seems early but it’s not. It’s late. No, madam, I can’t take a room off somebody else. And so on, and so forth.
Last week I got a pretty angry phone call off somebody who needs to move in before the contracts officially start. About a month before to be precise. It’s not possible. We were supposed to ring her two weeks ago to tell her, but somewhere along the line she got missed off. So when she called me last week I told her the above and informed her that we could allocate her into the private sector, but she has decided that we have just completely ignored her. So we forgot to call her, but she missed my point. Whether she called last week or four weeks ago, the response would’ve been the same – we can’t accommodate you in university housing but we can place you in the private sector.
I directed her to our private sector website, and about half an hour later she called back saying she could only find 2 houses. You could tell she was ready for an argument so I put her on hold. I went to search for houses on the same website. I got 600+ results. How does that work? I took her off hold and told her. Turns out she’d only been looking at houses on one street, rather than the entire surrounding area. Oh, she said. But then it got complicated. She wanted to see my colleague who deals with the private sector housing. She’s on holiday until Monday, I told her. And with that she told me she would come to the office on Monday, giving no specific time, and put the phone down.
And this is my dilemma. My colleague is unreliable. I’ve left her a note but this doesn’t mean she will pay attention to it. She won’t be in the office all day, and rightly so. She can’t be expected to stay in and wait for this girl. But if she’s not in I’ll be the one who has to speak to her. And if my colleague is gone for a while, the matter will be handed over to my boss. Who will need to know the full story. There is no need to tell her that we forgot to ring this girl because the answer would’ve been the same. But she’ll get it out of me. And I’ll be in trouble.
Having said all the above, it could go very smoothly and everyone will be happy. But in this office nothing ever goes smoothly.
Here is your weekly dose of stats to get you thinking, and hopefully to encourage conversation – y’know, where your lips move and you talk about things 
It’s good for the soul – try it now!!
The average diet lasts a mere 19 days.
Completely and utterly true, because I’ve been there and done that several times. Only once have I had a successful diet and thankfully I’ve never packed that junk back in my trunk, so to speak. But could I do it again? No. Unless somebody zipped my mouth shut. No that wouldn’t work. I’d eat the zip.
The average female will change her hairstyle 104 times during her lifetime
I’m not the average female then. I’m lucky if I change my hairstyle once a year, and even then I still have the same cut each time. It suits me – why fix something that isn’t broken? Obviously when I get to 70 I’ll be asking for a purple rinse because that’s just how the story goes. That’s part of life.
43% of women claim to be ‘very organised’ in the workplace. Only 32% of men said the same.
Who are these very organised women, and where can I hire one from? If you saw my desk at work you’d be ashamed. I’m ashamed from 9 until 5, Monday to Friday, everytime I sit at the damn thing. Nobody even tries to find anything on my desk. But hey, I know what everything is. I know what my mess means. And I’ll find those figures for you, just give me a second… or maybe a couple of minutes… right, I’ll have them to you by the end of the day, OK?
6 out of 10 Brits prefer showers to baths
And 4 out of 10 prefer baths, right? Or 4 out of 10 prefer not to wash…? I am a bath girl, I must admit. But only because my bathroom doesn’t have a working shower. Well it does, but if I tried to have a shower in there it would look like a tropical storm had hit by the time I’d finished – not good. A bath it is then! With plenty of products i.e. bath bombs, soap, bubbles, oils, flakes, salts… you name it, it’s in my bath. Although yesterday I mistakenly thought that a bar of soap was a bath bomb and nearly broke both my legs when I got into the bath. Soap should not be used as a bath bomb. It leads to a slippery death trap. From which you cannot escape without assistance. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Almost 75% of parents bribe their children with sweets on long car journeys to keep them quiet.
I was never bribed with sweets. How does this keep a child quiet? It’s sugar and goodness knows what else but it starts with E and ends in a number. You’ll be left with a small, midget sized lunatic in the back of the car. A quiet car journey this does not make. My dad always used to bore me to sleep with stories of the olden days. In fact, he still does it now. And we’re not even in the car. Maybe he doesn’t realise how boring it is? Maybe I should break it to him…?
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