Following on from Jane’s Blog, published a few weeks back I was prompted (well... persuaded) to write a blog myself about ‘A Typical Day in the Life of an Associate Director’.

So let me share my typical day with you: 

I’m a slightly earlier starter, normally rising at 5.40am to get to the gym at 6.00am when it opens! Now, that’s not to say I’m a fitness fanatic, but we (my wife and son) joined the local gym in April this year and I’m all about getting our money’s worth! I have also restarted playing squash on a Wednesday but take Thursday mornings off to participate in a weekly breakfast meeting which starts at 6.30am - but that is a whole different blog. 

After returning home, I’m normally ready to start work between 8.30 and 9.00am.  However, this can change if I’m required to take my son to school. Due to my wife having a life changing operation recently with a long recovery period, I am required to do this daily.  This means a slightly later start of 9.15am as I need to get my son fed, dressed and dropped at school.  Returning, I grab a quick cup of tea, sit down at my desk, open up my laptop and start checking my emails.   

There is a quick call to my assistant Manpreet (one of our Kickstart Placements), and we catch up on the previous afternoon and what’s important for today. On my list could be some job evaluation (JE) scoring and pay benchmarking to do for one of our clients or I could be dealing with some HR Support issues for which I am the dedicated specialist.   

On this particular day, I decided to expand Manpreet’s experience; so, I gave her a slightly different task. I have already scored one of the JE roles, so I explain why I have chosen it and ask her to look at the score using our scoring matrix guidance. 

This requires her to read the role profile and identify from it the relevant responsibilities and skills, which relate to the scores.  “We’ll talk about your findings tomorrow” I tell her (spoiler alert, she did really well and showed good understanding of the process). 

Almost on a daily basis Jane, and I communicate through Teams, we’re located over 100 miles away from each other so regular meet ups are done electronically.  We discuss the status of ongoing projects and what is coming up in the future.  The normal rhythm of the day is invariably interrupted by calls or emails from clients with requests for urgent JE/Benchmarking of roles.  Some quick shuffling of tasks, a call to Manpreet to ask her to start researching salaries is usually needed to meet expectations. 

Lunch is normally 30 mins then on with the grind. The afternoon is generally the same as the morning but can be interrupted with school pickup.  I’m also on dinner duty so I tend to finish about 5.00pm to start cooking our meal.  My wife and I generally take it in turns to put our son to bed but at present, I’m on full-time child-care duties.  So, after dinner it’s onto some father/son time (I’m getting quite good at Minecraft now), story reading and bed. I’m usually free again around 8.00pm-ish. I then head back to the laptop and continue with some more work. 

Now, I should mention some other things I do.  I am also President of a local BNI Chapter and Trustee for a local charity.  So, whilst doing all of the above, I’m also dealing with issues that arise throughout the day/week with both of these positions.   



This makes my days/evenings varied but I’m not complaining.  If you’ve read my profile on our website, you will know that I had a long career in the RAF.  Being an Associate Director is different, but the skills and knowledge I gained in my past employment are helping me in my present role(s).