I’ve just returned to work from a week’s leave – fabulous weather, for late September in England (!) and we moved into a house with a sea view. Totally gorgeous.

I always dread my first day back though. You know what it’s like – you spend three quarters of that first day just catching up on emails (you wonder why you bothered going on leave) and whilst some of them are important, the majority, it has to be said, are rubbish… or should I be more politically correct and say not so important to me. No, actually mostly they are indeed rubbish! The ones that really get me are those where I’m included in a thread of a conversation because someone hit “Reply All” and even though the email has nothing to do with me and what I do, I’m included by virtue of that one action; drives me insane!

You will also, that morning, have to have the obligatory de-brief/catch up, call it what you will with your right hand man (though more often than not he is a she, but you know what I mean). That catch up will involve an hour of what happened whilst you were away, their version of events including the “he said/she said” and “I don’t want to speak ill, but…” type of conversation, that those of us high up the food chain dread (because it undoubtedly means more work that you hadn’t planned on doing). I’ve worked in six surgeries now and although we mostly do the same thing – cure the dying, heal the sick, tick the box that says “yes I honestly did do that work and I’m amazed you don’t trust me to do it without filling in a claim form”…….we in fact all work very differently.

I have more ‘back office’ staff around me now which is Fab-U-Lous Dahhhling (can’t you tell Strictly Fever has started!) and this means I get some time to be a bit more pro-active, rather than reactive. Having said that, you know how we PMs like to, I mean ‘have to’ juggle our day. One minute you can be going through the accounts, then you’re ordering loo roll, acting as a counsellor to that young slip of a receptionist who’s having boy-trouble, then you’re dealing with an irate nurse or doctor or both, there’s a printer not working in a consulting room, some kid has been sick and not in the toilet, a prescription has sprouted legs and gone missing AGAIN and that coffee you made at 8.30 am is still sat on your desk, gone cold and drowning a fly doing the backstroke.

How do we jump from one job to another without so much as drawing breath? Well, it’s something that women do very well, and before all you male PMs get on your high horse, I know that’s a very sexist thing to say, but I’ve said it and I’m right, you know I am. We’re just better at multi-tasking and you’re better at reading maps and parallel parking – that’s the way of the world, get over it!

The skill of any good PM is to job-hop – not because you want to, but because you have to in order to stay afloat and just get through the day – but on the other hand, doesn’t that keep you interested? No two days are ever the same. I spend half my day on things I need/want to do, and the other half on stuff that either hits my desk or wanders through the door (if a member of staff hits the desk, well then I’m in trouble!). And if our mate Jez wants to say something controversial, then let him… I’m ready.

Hey ho, whatever happens, within 10 minutes of getting home, I’ll be walking the mutts on the beach but in the words of the BBC: “other pooper scooping opportunities are available”!