From Classic FM to Breaking Bad
As part of our 'Day in the life of...' series we hear from Scott Tallis, safety and wellbeing advisor at Bromford as he tells us about his day.
My day starts a lot earlier than most, thanks to our ten-month-old son Oliver. I don’t know what’s going on with him at the moment. He’s been sleeping through for the last six months but for the last few weeks he’s been waking up at 3.30am. I let the cat out – who has also fallen into this nocturnal routine then feed and change Oliver before he finally goes back to sleep at about half past four – hardly worth going back to bed but I do, only to be woken by my alarm just over an hour later.
The rest of the morning Kerry and I work as a parental tag team. One showers whilst the other feeds or dresses Oliver (in between ironing my shirt, taking the odd sip of tea and feeding the cat who has slipped back in amid all the chaos) before I leave the house at about eight o’clock to drop him at nursery.
No need to go to the office this morning as I’m carrying out a site inspection whilst one of our engineers carries out repairs and general maintenance on a couple of our properties.
It’s usually a choice between Radio 2 and Capital FM for the morning journey – today I have the company of Chris Evans and the breakfast crew for my drive to the site.
Tetra
Once I arrive on site, my first job is to introduce myself to the customer – we are going to be working on their home after all. I then have a quick chat with the engineer to explain that I’m there to observe and to give any recommendations that I may have after seeing him at work. The engineer will be working on the roof today so I’ll be watching that he follows the best practices from Tetra that we cover on our training courses.
Three hours later and I’m sitting in my car completing my report for the repairs manager (no issues to report today). I have 24 hours to complete this but I like to get them sent within an hour of the inspection finishing. It also gives me a chance to have my lunch before going back to the office.
Old-school
Lunch today is a ham, cheese and tomato sandwich with salad cream (yes, it’s old-school salad cream every time for me). I wash it down with a flask of tea and then drive the hour back to the office – Capital FM now Mr Evans’ show has finished.
I’m looking forward to this afternoon as I’m running a training session. We have over 250 colleagues (plus contractors) and it’s important that they all know the standards that are expected of them when working on our properties. This afternoon I’m delivering training to ten new colleagues. We’ve got a real mixed bag today including a gas engineer, roofers, an electrician, a surveyor and a couple of empty homes engineers who specialise in working on our voids, getting them ready for new tenants to move into.
Test time
Back at the office and I go straight to the training room to set up – just time for a quick banana before the session starts with the usual introductions. It’s important that they all know that I’m here to help and advise as the next time that they meet me I could be carrying out a site
inspection.
The training today consists of asbestos awareness, manual handling and working at heights. After this part of the session we go outside for a bit of a practical test to ensure that everyone can put their learning into practice (ladders seem to be the theme of the day today).
After nearly four hours of training there’s a written test to complete - with the pass mark set at 80% to ensure that our engineers are achieving an acceptable standard, I really hope that colleagues have been listening!
When the session is over I go back to my desk to mark and scale the tests. Today is a good day as everyone has reached the standard expected. I send the marks on to our colleague development team who can then update the colleagues’ training records before checking my emails which takes me nicely up to five o’clock.
Breaking Bad
A change of pace for the journey home – Classic FM to relax to before I pick Oliver up from nursery. As Kerry does the evening shift (feeding, bottle, bath and bed - don’t forget I’m the one up at 3.30am) I finish off a few work emails and think about what we can have for dinner - but before I start cooking I’ve got a decision to make.
I’ve got into a bit of a routine lately watching Jamie Oliver, the Big Bang Theory or NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigation Service, in case you’re interested). Big Bang Theory get the vote this evening!
Oliver is in bed and it’s time for our food – Thai chicken noodle soup tonight made by my own good hand followed by jam roly poly and custard (you can’t beat a good old fashioned pudding). Dinner finished and the dishes done it’s time for another ritual. Every night for the last couple of months we’ve watched at least two episodes of Breaking Bad – hello again Mr White.
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