Weeknotes: 24th Jan 2020 — in which the writer admits defeat
By: Victoria Jones
Tags: London, Work, Trade Unions, Equality, Disability

What an absolutely glorious start to the weekend. Crisp, cold and glorious weather at Reculver Towers on Sunday. I dragged my husband and my Mum out for a walk as the wind whipped around us. The dog to human ratio was pretty great and I took some nice snaps.

Monday quickly turned up, but it was good — had a great catch up with a wonderful colleague just back from maternity leave, a one to one with my boss and spent some time with one of the equality leads at the NAHT. The great thing about meeting up with colleagues from different trade unions is that I get to play the ‘what does this union acronym stand for?’ game with my husband and his guesses are always terrible. He got there eventually.

Another crisp morning in London meant a very brisk walk across Green Park on Tuesday, on the way to a Westminster Business Forum session on disability. It was really interesting to hear from the Minister, Justin Tomlinson, but also from Prof Kim Hoque from the University of Warwick who had some really considered views about the disability confident scheme. I took lots of notes and have lots to follow up on…

Walked back through St James’ Park which was packed with people enjoying the January sun. And also these characters, enjoying the attention…

On Wednesday we had our monthly National Officer’s meeting, which is a good chance to get together and see what everyone else is up to. It was followed by our Executive Committee, and then finally the grand opening of our fancy new building in London Bridge. Lots of friendly faces from sister unions and organisations there, but, in the face of free prosecco (and under the influence of our ex-boss…), my #DryJanuary dream, sadly died. Defeated.

Thursday came around too soon for my liking, and involved an epic three and a half hour meeting at the Department for International Trade — we catch up monthly and the meetings cover everything from health and safety, to learning, to policy and business planning. I then joined a conversation at MHCLG too — more to say on that at a later date no doubt. Finished Thursday by picking up some shiny new glasses. I got some bold purple ones that have had their first outing today. I’m not convinced yet!

Today has been speckled with calls from members — good and bad (the reason for the calls, not the members themselves…), but as is often the way on a Friday, when it’s a little quieter in the office, I have managed to get some shit done (although not the stuff I’d hoped to do).

I started the week by writing down 5 key things I really wanted to get started on this week, including developing our Equality Reps training and looking in to the details of equal pay audits, but they just didn’t happen. Have bumped them all to Monday, in the hope that a bit of start-of-the-week-enthusiasm pops up.

Aside from that, next week I’d like to have a look at some more strategic planning and I’ve bookmarked some articles to try and help get me thinking in that way. Til then…

Good thing that happened this week: I got the brief for our Disability and Leadership Forum out to speakers.

Bad thing that happened this week: One of our excellent reps is leaving in a few months. Boo. Hiss. (Good luck to him!)

Currently reading: Not a lot — bit of a brain fuzz of a week (not prosecco related at all…), so not really feeling like picking up a book.

Currently watching: Heard a rumour that Grey’s Anatomy is back…