A Day in the Life of...

A Day in the Life of….

Procurement Specialist for a Shared Service Procurement Office (a past life experience).

8:00 – ride bike into work, lock it up in the provided bike room in the basement of the building (organization is aiming towards carbon neutral – cycling and bus pass discounts are encouraged).

8:15 – no showers in this area, so lightly spritz in the changeroom and bathroom

8:20 – arrive at desk, see messages light blinking, turn on computer for 5minutes it takes to boot up

- check voicemail messages, write them down in black notebook (keep it all in one place so you don’t lose little pieces of paper here/there and then know what day the message came in – once dealt with strike it out of the book).

- Computer started up, Microsoft Windows Outlook is open, showing six messages (that’s not bad – depending upon how much you check your email from home the evening before, the number can be much higher)

- Develop task list for the day by reviewing outstanding messages in notebook; meetings for day; project lists (you will juggle 8-10 projects at any given time); and emails.

8:40 – review online RFP postings for organization – look for new postings (potential clients that need help); new ideas for competitive processes; strange items up for competition

9:00 – 4:30 routine part is over, now it is trial by fire, including a combination of :

- writing documents,

- responding to supplier or client enquiries (email or phone);

- Changing the coffee to decaf in the coffee maker to see if anyone notices

- last minute meeting requests to fix a contract gone wrong;

- Clearing the top of your vacationing colleague’s desk so that when they return they panic about where their projects went to.

- adhoc advice to callers who don’t want to pay for more comprehensive assistance;

- drafting briefing notes for executive (Executive Directors, Assistant Deputy Ministers, Deputy Ministers) for projects that the opposition party or media may be drawn to criticize;

- calls to Procurement Governance about unique situations that don’t neatly fit into policy;

- calls to Legal Services for unique circumstances that can’t easily be pegged as compliant or non-compliant;

- calls to Risk Management for insurance and risk mitigation strategies “after the fact”.

- If at meetings onsite or offsite, we are ‘tied’ to our office via our blackberry.

- Identifying services that we’ve competed for a client department in the past, and figure why not combine volumes across departments and create one process for everyone’s needs?

- Interviewing stakeholders and clients to build a business case for what they think they want but can’t articulate

- Placing post-it notes throughout a colleagues desk while they are away like “water me” on the plant; “what is this” on the strange looking thing growing in their lunchbag that never goes home; “where’s your GOOD pen” on the pen/pencil holder

In the midst of the day:

10:00am – “lunch lady” walks through the office with bell to let us know ‘snacks’ are here for purchase – race to get something to eat at desks – used to be something gooey and sugary, but the healthy workplace policy dictates only healthy choices in our vending machines and offices…if you don’t find something interesting, someone will volunteer to run to the nearby convenience store to pickup some butter tarts.

12:00 lunch time – depending on how well you are managing your projects, eat lunch in the office and have a little walk outside…on Fridays we go to a local pub

Don’t get me wrong, the work is varied, interesting and you learn a great deal about a lot of different things – this ‘day in the life’ was a way of poking fun how staff tried to balance the ‘work’ with ‘basic needs’ and yet have fun in a very overstretched workplace. In the period of 2004-2007, the office was always short at least 2 hires, not including vacationing staff or those off sick.