Ganging up

I don't talk about my job much. This is for the very good reason that the views I express here are almost certainly not that of my employer. It is - for example - unlikely that they would have such strong feelings as I do about Dairy Milk chocolate or that twat Postman Pat.

It's not a total secret. Anyone half-interested could probably work it out by looking on Linked-In, but the point is, this is categorically not a blog about my work.

However.

Part of my job has involved the design and delivery of training courses - specifically related to process improvement, which is sort of my background. Last week - after three years of delivering the same course on a monthly, and sometimes a weekly (and once, in New York, a daily) basis, it is looking like the course will be retired. I wrote the course. It's brilliant, even if I do say so myself.

For any of you who have written training courses (probably a niche section of my readership), you know it can get a bit fatiguing. You need to make sure you mix up the learning, so there's a good mix of practical and theory, and so you appeal to people with lots of different learning styles. It's tiring. So when there's an opportunity to pop an in-joke into the workbook, well, you have to take it, don't you?

Another thing about me - it's no secret I'm a Press Gang fan; I have been since 1989. I even went to the conventions in Liverpool. (You can throw your rotten fruit now). So, to those of you in the know, the following page from my Process Improvement workbook may amuse.

For those of you not in the know, the names in the "Who" column of my simple-yet-effective action plan (no falling asleep at the back!), has contained the names of three major Press Gang characters for the last three years! Three years! I totally got away with it.

The final part of my training course was an hour-long session where delegates plan their own process improvement workshop to run back in their workplace. At this stage I quite often get complicated questions about how this will apply in some obscure part of the business that makes very little sense to me. Luckily, I am fantastic at blagging my job, so this is rarely a problem.

"Laura?" someone called for my help. I went over to the desk. They were pointing at the Action Plan page.

"Did you write this training course?" Oh good, a critic. This happens occasionally. They are always wrong. And yes, thank you, I can take feedback. So long as it's uniformly positive. But a quibble? On my last ever training course? Too cruel.

"Yes, yes I did."

Still pointing at the Action Plan page, he said, "These are characters, aren't they? From Press Gang? I was such a massive fan! I have the DVD box set."

"Oh my God," me too, I said in a voice that definitely wasn't at all squealy. "Did you go to the conventions?"

"No."

There was an awkward silence. And then it went on a bit longer. I had to say something.

"Everything OK with your workshop plan?"

"Yep."

It seems fitting I got rumbled on my last ever session. And now I shall look for other ways to crowbar obscure references into my day job.

My life is not empty. Shut up.

And happy Christmas.