Guest Writer - Allison Sutherland

Ball Boys and Girls!

It’s common knowledge that we’re a fun bunch of people here on ‘The Island.’  2013 has seen us start as we mean to go on with a heady mix of thumping hard work interspersed with great big dollops of cheer. 

This is good old fashioned ‘Boys v Girls’ amusement.  This morning saw me kick off my shoes as I began the ‘putting’ practice of a lifetime.  Really, it’s just the same as Flushing Meadows – only this ‘green’ is slightly to the right of the upstairs fridge. 

Whichever team putts the most balls tomorrow will win.  It’s rather annoying, as the boys aren’t picking their balls up after them – I think it’s called making an issue of theirs being in the ‘holes’ and mine being in the bunkers!

It was announced today that the girls won the Music from the Movie’s task from last week and we’re racing neck and neck into the middle of February.  Personally, I don’t know why we bother; everyone knows that girls are better than boys!

Back to the work theme - Jayne will be mostly in the office this week although later today she will be attending the IoD Steering Committee meeting in Belfast.  Also, on Thursday she’ll be chairing our HR Network meeting which is taking place at Arthur Cox’s offices in Belfast.  Friday sees her catching up with Gareth Dunlop from Fathom alongside Barry and Peter F.  More about this further on.

Our CEO, Barry, has a very easy week by his standards. He’s in the office all week with just one visitor tomorrow. No doubt a time for him to catch up on some R&D not to mention some paperwork

Peter F is meeting Philip Bain from Shredbank on Wednesday afternoon at the Hilton Hotel, Templepatrick and on Friday, Gareth Dunlop from Fathom is coming in to meet with Peter, Jayne and Barry to discuss the design and implementation of our new corporate website. Exciting stuff and loads to think about after our sessions with marketing genius Grant Leboff last week!

Kerry Murphy is hosting 2 day Managing Difficult Conversations tomorrow and Wednesday and Redundancy Selection on Thursday.  Both events at taking place in the Training Centre.

Scott hopes to work from home on Tuesday and Friday this week. Wednesday sees him in Dublin for meetings, including Barry Reynolds, DAC Beachcroft; Wendy Doyle, solicitor; Mary Rafferty of Consensus Mediation; and Hannah Carney of Hannah Carney & Associates.  He will then be in Belfast this coming Friday to meet Michael Black and Aisling Byrne of Cleaver Fulton Rankin – followed by a Strategy Team meeting in the afternoon.  No peace for the wicked (or our Scott) because Saturday sees him back in Dublin, where he will be giving a presentation on workplace alternative dispute resolution at the National College of Ireland, along with Ger Deering, Director, Department of Jobs Enterprise and Innovation.  We still let him have Sunday’s off!

I’m looking forward to meeting Melita Williams on Wednesday who is the Director of Bespoke Belfast.  A great organisation that creates fun day’s for you and your staff.  I wonder what she’ll think of our Boy v Girl theme?  I will then be heading into Belfast on Friday to meet up with David Storrs from MaST.  I will also begin work on a very exciting project aimed at helping those involved in the HR function simplify their tasks/year.  You will hear more in relation to this in the coming weeks and months.  Mind you, if you can’t wait then give me a call and I’ll tell you what I can!