Smiling that false smile of his - the past week at work

Monday

In the morning I asked my boss Tom D how the Marketing Plan had gone down at the Executive Board Weekend.

"They were extremely pleased" he said, "and I mean extremely. Rosemary's exact words were: you've got it right at last." Rosemary is a non-executive director of the NGO (she had attended one of my interviews for the job).

Later he handed me a white envelope marked private and confidential. I felt apprehensive as I opened it, thinking it might be bad news. But it was a letter to CEO Alec Pressberg, praising my contribution to the Marketing Plan ("contribution" is not the right word, I had actually researched and written all of it, but I was so relieved that it had gone well it hardly mattered).

Then into a meeting with the all-women ad agency we use. They are organising a small conference for us, with lots of feminist angles to it. They were despondent at the way the event has had to be cut back due to budget reductions.

Later a meeting about the (controversial) directory we are publishing. This time the response at the meeting was much more positive. I felt progress was finally being made.

Tuesday

At the office there didn't seem a great deal to do. Now the Marketing Plan has been accepted there is a lull until implementation begins. As I sat half-idly at my desk I could hear Caron and Margaret in the Information team talking about gardening.

Without warning Preston, manager of the Innovation Department, asked me to interview a candidate for a vacancy in his department. He explained that the candidate was his son, and so he felt he couldn't do the interview himself. HR manager Yasmin S joined me in the interview.

The candidate's CV said: Winchester, Cambridge, OTC officer cadet, Peterhouse May Ball Committee, Peterhouse rugby and soccer first teams, member of The Symposium banqueting society. Despite such a grand record the candidate was short, slight and insignificant. The interview lasted about thirty minutes.

Afterwards Yasmin asked me if I thought he was suitable for the job. What could I say? I said yes, I suppose he was.

Later I was signing a birthday card for one of the girls upstairs when I became aware that someone had silently moved into the desk opposite me. When I looked up I saw Ryan M, director of the Operations department, smiling that false smile of his (it has a sort of perfect quality, as if he practices it in a mirror). He wanted me to produce some leaflets for his department.

In the afternoon I travelled up to London to attend a meeting with another NGO (one of our partners in a project). Beautiful offices in St James's, the walls white marble. We talked about publicity for the project.

Wednesday

At nine o'clock all the workforce of the NGO was gathered into the claustrophobic Board Room upstairs on the top floor (under the eaves). Alec Pressberg, CEO of the NGO, talked about a "job evaluation" process that will be carried out. All the rumours are that this evaluation will be the prelude for redundancies (doesn't affect me as I am on a fixed-term contract).

Right at the end, after Alec Pressberg has finished speaking, Ryan M told everyone "there's nothing to worry about" (his voice sounding insincere).

A lot of the day spent with Tom D "evaluating" the Information team - I was glad all their contracts are to be renewed (they are being incorporated into the main NGO personnel, having previously been employed by a sub-NGO).

All the afternoon was taken up with meetings, none of them particularly important, all of them over-running.

Thursday

Wonderful shades of grey in the sky as I travelled to work.

All the morning spent on renewing contracts for the Information team.

In the afternoon a meeting to discuss the new directory. A specialist from London joined the meeting and explained how it should be done (and also the opposition we would experience). After the specialist had left I sat with the Information team - all of us were dazed at the scale of the task we have taken on.

Friday

I am becoming fed up with all the meetings I have to endure.