I should have seen that coming - the past week at work

Monday

At one point in the night I woke feeling extremely hot. I had to get up and remove some of the blankets from the bed. Difficult to get back to sleep again, which meant I was tired when I finally got up.

At the office Meryl P (my deputy, and who I had displaced from the job I am now doing) had returned from holiday. She seemed more co-operative, even when I told her of some changes I had made to the department. She wanted to send some of the staff on an assertiveness course - I agreed, but said she could not go ("...you've already been on the Advanced course" I joked weakly).

Another meeting to discuss the directory we are producing. Nothing conclusive was decided. An uncouth designer came to discuss the layout (the NGO seems to appoint new ad agencies and design agencies whenever they have a new requirement, which means we have dozens of these people chasing us for work all the time).

At various points in the afternoon my boss, Tom D, called me in to discuss making Katie (in the Information team we manage) redundant. The process is not going smoothly, mainly because of Tom's incompetence and failure to follow procedure. I was shocked that he wanted to falsify ("backdate") some of the redundancy paperwork.

Towards the end of the working day Meryl, sat in the desk opposite, talked about raj yoga, which is a hobby of hers.

Tuesdays

Instead of going to the office this morning I went to a seminar at a hotel in a regional town. It was a "breakfast briefing" - we sat at tables and were served plates of fried food. Across the room I saw Preston from the NGO's Innovation department, but most of the people in the room were from the NGO's partners and were unknown to me. Tom D arrived late and sat at my table.

On the whole the event was a bore.

Then to the office where I delegated more work to Meryl and began writing a report for the next Senior Managers' Meeting.

Wednesday

Caron and Margaret from the Information team returned from the assertiveness course with no discernable difference. I had to tell them that Tom D had made their colleague Katie formerly redundant. They took the news very well, even though Katie was well-liked in the team.

For some reason I have been lumbered with Health & Safety for the NGO. I hate this work, which is tedious and unrelated to marketing. I had to spend most of the morning in a meeting with two H&S consultants who are long-winded and pompous.

I took marketing junior Leo into the meeting, mainly because I want to off-load Health & Safety onto him ("I want you to take ownership of it").

In the afternoon I was in the unusual position of having all my work under control. I chatted to Innovation manager Preston for about an hour, and it was disturbing to hear him say things that contradicted what Tom has told me, particularly about budgets. I am increasingly aware that Tom D is completely dishonest and untrustworthy.

Thursday

The day began with another of the marketing department meetings (including the Information team). Tom D waffled through the agenda, no-one saying anything. Afterwards there was a lot of unrest in the Information team, Meredith (thin, fifties, refined Geordie accent) leading the complaints about the way Katie has been treated - why didn't she say this at the meeting instead of coming to me afterwards?

In the afternoon I sat-in on an appraisal as Meryl evaluated Leo (who technically reports to her). It seemed a waste of my time, especially as I didn't really have any role. As is customary in the NGO, Leo was given a glowing appraisal, even though his work is often sub-standard.

A funny sort of 'phone call from Ryan M, who is Director of the Operations team. He asked me what was said at the marketing meeting this morning. He has a reputation for being sensitive to criticism (although Tom did not criticise him so far as I remember).

I had to stay late to meet another designer (another designer) that Tom has appointed to work on the directory project. The whole thing is becoming an imbroglio - over budget, derided by other departments, likely to offend civil servants in "the department" (to whom we sort of answer to). I disliked the designer within the first few minutes of meeting him (his work for CHI and Partners, his layouts for various IPC magazines, his attitude that he was doing us a favour by agreeing to work for us).

Friday

First thing this morning a meeting with Meryl and the feminist ad agency who are running the Women's Conference Meryl is working on. The project had been put on hold due to lack of funding, but Tom had lobbied our CEO Alec Pressberg and more money has been forthcoming. Meryl is very enthusiastic about this conference, which she sees as restoring her reputation in the NGO.

One of the stake-holders of the NGO is Baptist minister Caleb H. His correspondence tray is located in the marketing department, and this encourages him to hang around the place distracting people. As an experiment I had the tray removed, but when he came in this afternoon Caleb blew his top (making rather a fool of himself) and the tray had to be reinstated.

I suppose I should have seen that coming.