Chapter 12:

Gene is kind of organised

One month later, on a Friday afternoon, Gene was in the middle of a particularly interesting brief. He was keen to use the last hour of his day to wrap it up and send it on to the next reviewer.

He had improved his turnaround time over the past month, though he was by no means perfect. With Graham taking on more of the complex briefs, Gene now had more breathing room, but it was still difficult to resist taking calls from his colleagues sometimes—he enjoyed being helpful and talking policy. At least now he knew to go into his ‘focus bunker’ when he needed it.

The alarm on his phone suddenly went off. It was 4 pm and the alarm was his daily reminder to close out his technical work for the day and action any urgent admin.

It would be so easy to skip this 4 pm admin time, he thought. He considered it for a few moments, then recalled the feeling of overwhelm he used to have when things piled up in his inbox. And the discomfort when his boss followed up on him.

He grabbed the water bottle on his desk, took a sip, then turned his attention to the ‘Admin flow’ sticky note at the bottom of his monitor: 1. Action system approvals. 2. Action urgent email. 3. Schedule the rest.

It never takes that long, he reminded himself, and opened his inbox.

There was only one email with an approval request. It was to approve Gwen’s leave in the HR system. Awesome. This should be quick. Gwen had already spoken to him about it at their last Wednesday morning admin catch-up, so it took him less than a minute to go into the system and approve her leave.

When he had first set up his weekly flow nearly two months ago, he had themed his days rigidly, but that fell apart when work got busy. So he had gone back to the drawing board and made things more flexible, aware of his tendency to prioritise his core work and allow admin to pile up.

Instead of planning his weeks through the lens of ten half-day blocks, he created a few simple rules: he focused on his core work most days and cleared urgent admin before leaving each afternoon. He kept the Wednesday 11 am meeting with Gwen for accountability and in-session support, with Thursdays reserved for lecturing. The setup wasn't perfect and he sometimes went off script, but at least it was sustainable.

Once he approved Gwen’s leave in the HR system, he moved on to other emails in his inbox, scanning for anything that seemed urgent. Nothing seemed to stand out, so as his last admin task of the day, he opened his calendar to scan next week’s appointments.

He noticed Tuesday’s executive team meeting invite. Crap! He was meant to update them on some emerging policy changes. Why didn’t I book some prep for that earlier? Don’t they need briefs a week before their meeting?

He opened the invite to check the details: ‘verbal update only’. Ah, that’s right. I just need a few bullet points to talk through. He added a one-hour appointment with himself for Monday at 11 am: ‘Focus bunker: draft points for exec policy update’.

It was 4.15 pm and his admin was done for the day. Encouraged by his progress, he decided to push through and spend the extra hour needed to wrap up the brief he had been working on. He would still leave the office at a decent time.

He sent Rob a quick text: ‘Meet you downstairs at 5.30. Need to wrap something up first.’

‘No worries,’ Rob responded.

Gene looked forward to grabbing a beer with Rob. He hadn’t really talked to Rob since the executive team presentation last month—he’d been flat out since the lecturing gig started. The teaching was going well; it was exhausting, but the students’ questions kept him sharp. Still, he needed some downtime.

By 5.25 pm, the brief was sent and Gene was shutting down his laptop. He pushed away from his desk, feeling lighter than he had in months.

***

Half an hour later, Gene and Rob were sipping their beers and generally ‘shooting the shit’ when they noticed Claire and Quinn at the bar, ordering drinks. Gene looked at Rob, who was already rolling his eyes and saying: ‘Here comes the fun police.’

‘They’re fine, don’t be an ass, Rob,’ Gene said.

‘I know, I know…old habits die hard…’ Rob said with a cheeky smile. Then he sat up, his smile fading. ‘They’re walking over here. Great…’

‘Evening,’ Claire said, with a glass of white wine in hand.

Quinn seemed to have ordered the largest cocktail known to man, topped with a complex array of tiny umbrellas and dried citrus. ‘Wow, I admire your ambition there, Quinn,’ Gene said, nodding in the direction of her drink.

The group laughed, then Quinn said, ‘I lodged my application for that senior director role this afternoon, so Claire and I are celebrating. Thanks, Rob, for letting me add you as a reference. Your next beer is on me.’

‘Nah, don’t worry about it,’ Rob said, waving it off. He shifted in his seat. ‘And you don’t have it yet, so don’t thank me prematurely.’

‘Well, I’ve thrown my hat into the ring and that’s what matters to me,’ Quinn said.

‘Okay, we’ll leave you to your beers, boys,’ Claire said. ‘Have a nice weekend.’

Gene watched Claire and Quinn find a table. Moments later, they were deep in conversation. ‘Claire’s looking more relaxed.’

‘Yeah…and she’s even 10% less annoying in exec meetings nowadays,’ Rob said, laughing.

‘Rob!’ Gene said, shaking his head. ‘You can be such a jerk sometimes…’

 THE END

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