Non. Stop. Glamour. A day in the life of a HR Director

This is glamour....

I like to read fashion magazines. I do. I like the feel of them in my hand, the glossy adds with unattainable glamour and the sheer escapism of them. I like it when they include "a day in the life" stories. Often these stories depict the life of glamorous fashion designers, PR people and magazine editors in their designer shoes and clothes looking glamorous and perfect as they go about their day. It's all so glamorous.

I know what you are thinking. Being a HR Director is also glamorous right? In celebration of glamour I bring you the "week in a life of a HR Director" series.


Monday 1 September
5am - woken by Arran's alarm. He turns it off and goes back to sleep. I lie awake until the alarm goes off at 6.15am. This is how divorce happens. I snooze once because I like me a snooze and then get up at 6.25am. I put my hair in a bun because I can't be bothered doing anything else with my hair, slap some make-up on and put on my glamorous Sass & Bide outfit, which has some sort of white food related crap on both sleeves. Clean white crap off sleeves with soggy washer used to clean small boy faces last night. Are you feeling the glamour? Say goodbye to small boys and leave house with Arran and no breakfast.

7am - meeting at Aiden's school with Aiden's teacher to talk about his current behaviour, which is not great. He is hitting and shoving other kids and won't do as he is told. This conversation happens at a table the same height as my knees. Feel frazzled.

7.30am - meeting at Aiden's school with school nurse. Explain why glasses won't correct Aiden's vision impairment. Nurse promptly asks "why won't glasses help?". Feel a bit more frazzled and am now wondering about the nurse's qualifications. On the way back from Aiden's school spot Aiden and Charlie walking to school with our Helper Marife. Aiden doesn't have his school uniform on. Marife says he refused (thereby proving the behaviour his teacher just spoke about). Aiden is sent home to put his uniform on. Arran confesses that he forgot last Friday was plain clothes day and sent Aiden to school in his uniform. Mood has shifted to stabby.

8am - Breakfast with Arran to do post mortem on meetings at Aiden's school. Bad Singaporean service and coffee not helping with feeling stabby. Realise I have a meeting at work at 9.30am and that I'm not going to make it. Beyond stabby.

8.20am - Kiss husband goodbye without stabbing him. Drive to work. Traffic is even more hideous than a regular drive to the left hand end of the island.

9.35am - Arrive at work. Want to go home.

9.40am - 1pm: check emails, do teleconference with country MD who can't use teleconference numbers. Try to understand whether a management recharge for an expat is correct. It is and it's not really my job. Speak to an expat about his pay. Speak to a leader about a performance issue. Check and approve the weekly payroll for Australia.

1pm - drive up the road to get some lunch and bring back to eat at my desk

1.45 pm to 5.30pm Send overtime data to 2 leaders. Approve team leave request. Post mortem a performance issue. Speak to a manager about how and in what currency we are going to pay someone in Indonesia. I don't know. Catch up with my office buddy and fellow expat to Singapore. Document an expat employee's summary information. Agree to pick up a leader visiting Singapore tomorrow morning from his hotel. Get reminded of all the items on my to do list that haven't been started. Talk to my sister about Aiden's teacher meeting. Attempt to get on a call at 5.30 to discuss an employee performance issue. Call doesn't happen. Pack up.

5.45pm - drive home

6.50pm - arrive home. Aiden and Charlie are SO excited to see me that can't stop talking at me and over each other. Best part of the day. Eat dinner. Talk to Aiden about his behaviour. Write to teacher about Aiden's behaviour. Read stories and complete reading logs for Aiden and Charlie. Organise 3 cheques (for those who don't know a cheque is a piece of paper you fill out promising to let your bank give them money), extract $10 from Arran's wallet for "Little Scientists". Organise Arran to buy Melbourne Cup event tickets for 7 people. Fill out Aiden's school schedule so everyone knows what he needs to wear each day, which ECA (extra curricular activities) he has on, what time he needs to be picked up, what day is show and tell and what day he needs to return his library book.

8.30pm - sit down with WINE to read emails and prepare for teleconference with US on fixing an expat's pay, which I scheduled today. Realise no one has accepted my meeting invite. Check US public holidays. It's a public holiday. Reschedule meeting to tomorrow night. Pour another glass of wine.

10am - finish blog post. Contemplate going to bed OR watching the stupid big TV Arran bought on the weekend while I was out of the country. Might just drink more wine.