So this week I'm over at our new DC (distribution centre) on the other side of the City, providing training to new staff around some of our systems. It was an early (3:30am) start today, picking up a colleague from the Airport before our first training session, but we needn't have been too worried about getting there too early. As it turned out, through cancellations and crossed wires, we had exactly 1 attendee between us!
I'm spending the next couple of days there, and hopefully we'll have a little more success on the training front. (I'll be spending a lot more time there in the next few weeks to support their opening - I was there last week hosting about 180 suppliers as they toured the site and got to learn a bit about what we're trying to do with the place. Most were very impressed.)
After another morning of training this Thursday, I'll be driving up to Wodonga to one of our other sites to carry out some...drumroll...filming! Wayyyy back in May 2006 I pitched a concept for a training DVD that I would film, edit & produce. After 27 months of petitioning, it looks like that's a step closer, with permission granted for filming at three sites so far, and tentative permission to set aside a little of my regular work week to work on the training project (though with lots and lots of compromises and disappointments along the way though, and probably a lot more to come). Not what I wanted, and all completely self-funded, and all conditional upon lots of work in my fast-dwindling free time, but it's a start I guess!
It's funny (OK, not really funny) to look back at how long ago I first talked about this idea on this blog...if you're interested in looking up the specific post, try Feb 1st, 2006, but if you just want a snippet of what I said then, here's an extract: "
However, in an effort to do something positive about my otherwise-bland role at work, I have this week come up with an idea to pitch a DVD to my bosses - sort of a corporate training thing. If I can pull it off, and convince them to give it a go for a trial volume, I'd finally be combining one of my passions with my work: a blend that I never thought possible (and since I can't afford to leave a well-paying, albeit boring role, to pursue a satisfying but financially-dubious life in media creation, some sort of blending would be a brilliant way to evolve from one role to the other). I'll put the pitch to them (via DVD I think - that'd be uber-professional!) sometime in the next 3 weeks. Very exciting, very scary: will keep you posted, of course."
Ah, such high hopes, such optimism, such...naivete. Oh well, as a friend at work is oft reminding me, "persistence is a greater force than resistance".
Matt
