When I first came to Calico as the receptionist, nobody told me for two weeks that managing the company calendar was my responsibility. Everyone kept coming to me with scheduling questions and getting ticked off when the conference room was double-booked and stuff, and I couldn’t figure out why. (They also didn’t tell me where the bathroom was for, like, six hours.) Once I figured out that that was part of my job — and once we got Workamajig — it was no problem. But there was kind of a breaking-in period there.
So here’s a story from my youth: Every month, on the last Wednesday of the month, Calico has Pizza Day. Bill brings in enough pizza for everyone, and we take a few hours out of the workday to chill out, eat some pizza, and watch Ian and Brett go all Hunger Games at the foosball table. (#blessed) Until, one month, everything went horribly wrong, because this was all pre-Workamajig.
Problem: How do I keep scheduling straight for, like, the entire agency?
Solution: Workamajig’s shared calendars keep everyone in the loop.
So. Shortly after I started at Calico, Bill’s boat sprang a leak and left him stranded on a remote island for two extra days, and he wasn’t able to make it back in time for Pizza Day. So I moved Pizza Day from Wednesday to Thursday. I totally updated the calendar, I swear, but apparently some people didn’t get the message, because on Wednesday at 11:30 there was legit rioting in front of my desk. Brian had an actual pitchfork. At the office.
Again, that was pre-Workamajig. Now we have public calendars, company meeting calendars and PTO calendars to keep everyone in the loop about scheduling. If I’d had Workamajig back then, I would have had a public company meeting set up for Pizza Day, blocked out for those lunchtime hours. Then, when I had to reschedule, everyone’s calendars would be updated automatically, and the new time would show up on their Today’s Meeting widget.
It’s great for a lot of other reasons, too. With all the holidays coming up and stuff, we’re collecting everyone’s PTO plans on our Vacation/PTO calendar. It lets us avoid those awkward situations where Friday rolls around and, like, the entire art department is out on PTO. PTO days show up as Block Outs, so when a creative director or whoever is staffing a job, they can see who’s going to be available and who isn’t for the entire timeframe of the job. And it gives everyone a heads-up as to when people are going to be out of town and stuff, so they can arrange backups to cover them when they’re gone.
Now the only thing we can’t prepare for is Bill getting marooned on an island again. Except I generally block out a couple of days at the end of any sailing trip he takes because, I’m gonna be honest here, he kind of gets marooned a lot. #boatfail
- Molly, Receptionist, Calico Agency
