20 Days of Chill / Ultimate Blog Challenge - Where will you go / A Day in the Life

Welcome back to 20 Days of Chill, today's question is

Where will you go?

Once again, I will combine two challenges in one post. The prompt for the Ultimate Blog Challenge is to give you another glimpse into

A Day in the Life

It comes with specific questions:

Do you have a routine that you follow? Are you completely spontaneous? Do you handle work one way and your personal life another way? What kind of meetings do you have?

OK, one question at a time.

Where will you go?

Well, we're still in a pandemic, I won't go anywhere. As of recently I was even quarantined. 

I did go someplace yesterday though. 

To the hospital for my son's and my Covid test. It was relatively painless. Hospital staff, even if they must be stressed out by the amount of work they're facing every single day, were friendly, patient and efficient. 

The nasal/throat swap was unpleasant but quick. 

Frankly the worst part was to experience our fellow citizens. The ones who felt the need to cut the line, block the entrance and generally behave as if they were the center of the universe, to be precise.

Geez! Did they think there was gonna be free tacos and margaritas after the swab? That would actually be a cool thing, a Taco Truck outside the Covid test building! Still a bad idea I guess, as people would remove their masks.

On a positive note, it was a nice and sunny afternoon, a bit on the cold side. 

After spending the day working from home, it was nice to get out. I can't even imagine what it must be like for people who have been working from home for weeks and months.

On our walk across the hospital campus we encountered something interesting: Bug Hotels

In these "insect hotels" various species of insects nest and / or enter a dormant state over the winter months. Dear mosquitoes, if you're in there, take your time! 

So my test came back negative, and since I don't complain of any symptoms, and my booster was administered just a few weeks ago, I'm free to go! And to the office I went!

Which leads me to today and the remaining questions: 

Do you have a routine that you follow?  

I do. It varies depending on the weekday and Colin's training schedule. I blogged about a typical Friday just the other day. At the office I usually check my e-mail first, then I collect the incoming payments on the e-banking platform and credit them to our accounting system. 

Depending if I have calls scheduled, which is currently the case, I prepare for them and get on the phone. I wouldn't call myself a morning person, then again I'm not the night owl I used to be, so I have to be mindful of my prime time when I'm able tot focus and handle numbers best.

See, I'm not a numbers and thus not an accounting person. However, working for hubby's IT business, which also happens to be a small business, there's no way around it. Given my HR background I also ended up taking care of the customers who work with the payroll system we distribute, maintain and support. 

I hate payroll!

In every of my exclusively HR oriented jobs, I successfully avoided doing it. I am your operational HR person, hiring (and if necessary firing) people. In between there's the caring for people part, which is my favorite.

So today I'm an administrative allrounder and can't cherry pick. It's OK though. 

Are you completely spontaneous? 

I wish. My work day is mostly determined by others. I have various stakeholders: 

• My boss, who's also my hubby. He tends to be tense because he's got way too much on his plate, and there's very little I can take off his shoulders. So I try my best to handle his "call back list".
• My (female) colleague who's my fellow sufferer among a bunch of guys. She's been having trouble with her arm and shoulder and is on medical leave for at least three weeks. It's all the more important that I can physically go to work and increase my hours at the office.
• The tech guys. They're usually low-maintenance, except if they *urgently need* whatever it is they need: it can be a software license that expired or it can be a TP roll ;-) I once started to write a blog post called "IT Engineers are like Toddlers", maybe I should revisit this post one day.
• Our clients. Coprorate ones, small businesses like ourselves, and private individuals from the neighborhood, mostly senior citizens. I like the diversity of our client base! Craftsmen, lawyers, industrial or commercial companies, you name it. Most of them are nice people. Some of them are disorganized, and some need to be reminded that just because their printer is offline, the world is not ending. 

Do you handle work one way and your personal life another way? 

What an interesting question, especially since I work for my husband! I like to think I'm one person, and I am the way I am, but of course I need to act more professional and structured at work. On the other hand if you ask my coworkers, they probably detect a touch of housewife and Mom in me. Either way, they trust me with their personal issues and ask for my cooking advice. As if I had any to give, hahahaaaa!

What kind of meetings do you have? 

Very few for the past two years! We own the building and occupy the ground floor and the basement for our business. So whatever breaks in the house, I call for repair people.

There are two apartments above, and one of the tenants will be moving out in spring. Just last week we met with the new guy who will move in, so that qualifies as a proper meeting, right? We issued a lease agreement to a masked guy!

In non-pandemic times I usually meet with our insurance broker and our fiduciary advisor. Sometimes a representative of one of our distributors for IT hard and software will visit, and if we're looking for a new tech guy I will interview the candidates. 

Before I clock out, here's what our backroom currently looks. Tomorrow it'll be more packed. I'm expecting a delivery of 6 notebooks, 12 large display screens and a printer!

On my way home I picked up some killer pies I pre-ordered. If you've been around for a while, you know what I'm talking about. If not, and you want to know, let me know below.  

I hope you enjoyed spending time with me. What does a typical day in your life look like?

Do you think a Taco Truck on a hospital campus would be a good thing?