Where's the house fairy?

It's been an interesting experience for MT today, he's realised that there is no domestic fairy and the sparkly clean house and freshly laundered clothes comes from hard graft. After year's of having wonderful service in the UK from RC and then me as a domestic executive has dulled his memory of what it takes to keep house.

Still, he's starting to see things in a new perspective having taken duster in hand and mastered the vaccum cleaner in our new shared domestic routine. Whilst ironing has never really been an issue he found out there is a new box of tricks under the sink that he wasn't aware of. Also, that beautiful glass TV unit he thought would be so practical for his audio visual gadgets gets mighty dusty and a nightmare to clean.

All this new insight follows my first week returning to work. Remarkably its wasn't until Thursday before MT declared that perhaps having me at home full time is a better idea! Standards of catering have definitely been more restricted and towards the end of the week the larder and fridge started to look bare. Still, he's a rare breed in men that will muck in and share, even if I get to weild the loo brush rather than him!

As for the executive side of things, its been a fascinating week being employed again. Not just because its a new place, new people and new systems and processes to grasp but most enlightening has been the experience to be doing a job that is at least two steps down from the one I am used to. I've been thinking of a couple of former colleauges and knowing they'd be horrified to see me in action since it was the very interventions in their sphere of work that made them so very frustrated and wished I'd go back to my ivory tower and let them get on with their work.

A few things that have struck home this week.

• The corporate missions and values on a mousemat, screen saver and desk calendar do absolutely nothing to improve understanding of them or develop an affinity towards them.
• Managerial sign off processes are nothing but a pain in the proverbial and contribute almost nothing to actually getting the job done
• Cheerful managers wandering an hour after the rest of the workforce have arrived and chirping on whilst you're deeply engrossed in getting something done is highly irritating
• There is nothing more annoying than managers wanting to talk to you at 5pm because they've only just come out of meetings but you've just put your coat on to go and catch the bus home.

Having been that corporate communications advocate and that annoying manager, I am now seeing things in the workplace in a completely different light. I've actually enjoyed using my professional skills again but do miss the leisurely pace and more of the life balance. But, I'm sure I'll fit more in as I get used to the hours and build up the stamina again.

The best thing about getting back to work is that I can count the dollars and look forward to some retail therapy to get my true reward.