Trying to multitask

It's bloody difficult!

I come in with 6 tasks I MUST complete that day, and allocate 2 hours of each day to deal with interruptions, emergencies and other miscellaneous happenings that occur each day.

From staff wanting time off to unexpected phone calls and meetings with vendors, it's important to allow for these events otherwise you'll never get anything done either on your to-do list or that which is brought to your attention during the day.

Two performance reviews today. Am tempted to let the employees self-rate next time - would be interesting to see how they rate their abilities and identify their strengths and weaknessess. One went well, the other, a rep, didn't perform very well at all on his probation period. He redeemed himself by smashing his previous sales records this week, but that didn't excuse him from a coaching session to try and work out why he wasn't keeping appointments and scheduling appointments without notifying the office. If reps go renegade then we're not aware of where they are or who they're seeing. We're paying them so it's not acceptable. If the guy does it again we might have to put the company mobiles on a tracking system. Which won't be nice, because I like to think that I can trust my staff to go out, get on with the job and not take this piss.