13.5hr Working day

[slycat]

I was really dreading today. Had to demonstrate a new system that i've barely had the chance to use to hundreds of potential customers at a conference my company held at Webley Arena Conference Centre. Normally, the prospect of this alone is rather daunting, however this time, we had to set up before the doors opened at 9am. This meant that we had to be in the conference centre at 6am!

We were booked into a cheap TravelLodge type hotel where the beds were too small (My feet hung off the end of the bed) and there was a cold draft blowing through the room. I was supposed to be sharing my room with another work collegue but he hadn't shown up. By 11pm, I went to bed after setting my alarms for 5am (Including the wakeup call). I was rudely awoken after only just getting to sleep by a ringing phone. I thought it was my wake up call but I had simply programmed it incorrectly at it was 12:05. I picked up the phone and hung it up again and slipped back under the duvet only to be interrupted by the phone again. This time, I turned on the light and answered the phone to find out it was the person who was supposed to be sharing the room with me. They needed me to say it was alright to send him up...

Anyway, I got roughly 4 and a half hours sleep after that before being awoken by the correct alarms. We were supposed to be down in the lobby by 5.45 and in the conference hall at 6am. We set up the PCs and aside from a few minor hiccups we got all the systems running.

At 9am, the delegates began to flow in. I had to demonstrate a system I've only been able to run on my PC at work for about 3 days to these potential customers in a way that would impress them enough to buy it. The first few, I wasn't too sure about what I was doing but slowly understood what the people wanted to see and so found it easier.

As there were only as many people demonstrating the software as there were demonstration PCs, it was quite hard to go for a break and to chill out. However, we found that the croud died down when someone important was speaking in the Auditorium.

Things seemed to go rather smoothly as far as the systems go until one of my collegues tripped over a power cable behind our stand wiping out 2 of our PCs (One of which I was demonstrating). After getting it back online, all of it's data had been corrupted and so was rendered unusable. If I ever came across a question I didn't know the answer to, I just palmed them off to one of my collegues ;o)

We finished demonstrating around 6.30pm after a very exhausting day. Got packed up and left around 7.30pm totalling 13.5 working hours. You know what annoys me the most about the entire thing? My company DOES NOT PAY OVERTIME and so was just expected to do this as it was compulsory. This has conveniently been covered by my contract so I can't whine about it stating that "I must be able to work the hours requited to do my job" or some bollocks like that. It wasn't just myself that was pissed off at this because it wasnt just the morning and evening that was taken from us, it was the evening of the day before too.

I am now totally knackered as and will go to bed now. I expect I will make an appearance at the LondonFur meet tomorrow but I expect I will still be zombie like.

*sigh* I REALLY need a new job! :oP

Comments

[kytheraen.livejournal.com]

*snugs*

Get. New. Job.

Quick.