"Hey guys, I failed" - the past week at work

Wednesday

Back to the office after five days ill. I felt as if weeks had passed. As soon as I got to my desk I wanted to go home again.

Julie (trainee account executive) had had her car stolen two weeks ago, but yesterday it had been found. She sat at her desk in the account execs room ringing all her friends on her mobile to tell them the news. In one of these conversations (which I couldn't help hearing) she revealed that her mother was friends with Yvette (agency head).

On the whole I found the day difficult. Most of my time was spent coping with problems. It seemed that no sooner was one problem resolved another presented itself.

It was formally confirmed that we have lost our catering client. As this was squarely the responsibility of Yvette and Julie the rest of us could sympathise in an accusatory sort of way. At a meeting held to discuss the loss, Yvette said: "I'm the first to hold up my hands and say Hey guys, I failed".

Lunchtime Andrea (account director) produced a plate of small sausages wrapped in bacon, but I didn't feel I could eat any - my stomach was still quite queasy.

In the afternoon a massive blunder came to light. During my illness I had forgotten about an ad that was due at a national publication this morning. The rep rang me up asking where the artwork was, and I managed to extend the deadline until 4pm. Then I hastily cobbled some copy together and got Neil (graphic designer) to do the design. I got client approval with minutes to spare, and sent the ad off exactly on four o'clock. This sequence was very stressful, and because we are all in one office it was impossible to keep any of it secret.

I was longing to go home on time this evening, but at 5pm I got called into an appraisal Yvette was holding with Jonathan our copywriter. She was full of praise for my writing, and wanted me to guide Jonathan. I said I would be happy to help, but actually I wanted to ask why we had appointed a copywriter who couldn't write.

Going back into the general office I found Martin, Julie's brother who is in the army. I told him Julie had already gone home, but actually he was waiting for Andrea. It seems they are now going out together (after they had left I watched them from the front office walking down the street holding hands).

Thursday

I felt incredibly tired this morning, so that I had to force myself to make the journey in to work.

All of the morning Yvette's car alarm kept going off. She parks it in the back mews, and the alarm can be heard in the offices (the toilet lobby window was open). When the alarm starts hooting Yvette comes into our office and throws her car keys at someone (usually Jonathan, or trainee account exec Eleanor) to go down and turn the thing off.

Most of the day I spent doing media research for a potential Accountancy client.

Yvette went to see our charity client (one of my clients, but she wanted to go alone for some reason). She came back gasping at how difficult they were. "I have been subjected to two-and-a-half hours of niggles" she said.

A call from a friend at a west end ad agency. She said her career had plateaued, with nothing new happening. The hours she works are so long she has no time or energy to develop a social life.

Friday

A call this morning from a Netherlands publication saying that artwork for an ad we had sent them was the wrong size. This was Neil's fault, although I ought to have double-checked. We managed to put it right without anyone else having to know.

Most of the morning was concerned with putting together a presentation document for a firm of City Accountants. The presentation itself, held in the upstairs Boardroom, was so tedious that I felt bored out of my mind. It must have been what they wanted however, as we got the account including some PR work (which we are supposed to pass on to the upstairs division, but Yvette wants to handle it all ourselves).

Later Eleanor was embarrassed to see an out of date logo on an ad she had placed for a City client("the client approved it" she wailed).