I prefer to be the kind of blogger who writes about a specific topic most days of the week, but just recently it has felt that life (at work mainly) has been so busy that my thoughts about potential topics are not clear, and that the work I have been doing has been so specific to my job and geography that it has been difficult to sit down and produce anything worthy of posting to the world wide web. Hence a round up of the week according to Julie.

It is interesting that when I started my job, and for much of last year that job seemed to kind of jog along at an easy pace, while I learned new things and got on with doing what was expected of me. Of course for half of last year I was also studying and writing my masters dissertation which made life in general pretty hectic, but the actual paid work element seemed pretty reasonable. All of a sudden (the kind of sudden that builds up over a few months) I seem to spend my days rushing from one place to another (either actually rushing within a building or driving from one part of the county to another) and getting little time to sit at my desk and start and finish things. I also seem to get more than my share of emails which I can now see on my blackberry as they come in, and phone calls which tend to accumulate on the newly installed telephone system’s voice mail.

So what happened during this busy week that culminated in me missing part of yesterday evening by falling asleep for 2 hours from 9.30pm? Monday was a pretty nice day since I attended the PCT vision and values day. When you have been in the doldrums and no one seems to think much of you what better way to try to make your staff feel better valued than to invite them along to tell them stuff and invite them to feed back their thoughts and ideas. Nice conference centre, ok lunch, whole executive team presence and about 100 staff. I would like to offer up some cynical wisecracks about the whole thing, but actually I thought it was pretty well put together, and if every one of the 3500 members of staff we have attend this thing over the next year as they say will then maybe there is a chance that morale can be lifted and we can make people feel it is worth working hard for this organisation. We shall see! The after lunch energizer was from drumcafe.co.uk, the best thing I’ve done following lunch on any day recently!

Tuesday and I was providing the requisite PCT support to our maternity services liaison committee. No matter how often I attend these meetings, and no matter how efficient I am at sending out the papers in time, no matter how nice the lunch I provide, I am never going to feel like some of those people place any value in me. Sadly the lay members of the group, people who believe in natural child birth and who seem to think all of the NHS is the devil incarnate have not been to the vision and values day, they have not experienced drum  cafe since they are not employees. I shouldn’t come away feeling the way I do from each meeting, but I always feel like I have failed them in some way and usually they appear to think I have.

Wednesday was important because I knocked off early to prepare for the champions league final, shopping, cleaning the house etc ready for a gathering of family in support of hubby who is a chelsea fan. Good news was the 3lb lost for the weigh in at slimming world, also had a good chat with my sister in law. Bad news was the penalty shoot out and hubby’s subsequent unhappiness.

Thursday, and an afternoon contributing to the emotional health and well being strategy. At last a move away from what we do to help mange mental health problems in children and young people towards how attend to the emotional well being of the wider group of children and young people. Great idea, but lots of work there for colleagues working in that area.

So to Friday and the conclusion of the maternity review that started last week. A long day, doctors, midwives and people who think that local health services have been stolen from them to listen to. For the second time in a week I encountered members of the public who spoke to me as if I was some kind of dirt on their shoe. Just because I work for the PCT, just because I am part of the NHS does not make me any less of a person than anyone else. What is more, it would do those people well to realise that those of us who work in healthcare also use it, and being a manager does not make you some kind of a monster. At least my manager appreciates me, she bought me flowers before shooting off home early and leaving me to my late finish. You can’t have it all after all!