Mixed bag

There are two main areas requiring Gorse Fox's concentration - the first is the annual appraisals; the second is the new job.

The annual appraisals are more complex than usual as the Gorse Fox is not just limited to his immediate team. He is the lead manager for all of the technical staff in his service line. This means gathering and collating the appraisals from all of his manager-colleagues and trying to ensure that we are demonstrating fairness and objectivity across our 170-odd staff. Needless to say this is challenging enough without the added dimension of everyone working flat-out to close out the year successfully. This means GF is having to chase and cajole in order to get the material together ready for the next set of reviews. This is taking far more energy than it should.

As for the new job - the Gorse Fox's head is a bit like an engine that is waiting for the clutch to engage. It's spinning round thinking of loads of stuff that will need to be addressed, but the clutch hasn't settled yet and allowed GF to focus on one thing.