By no means do I have a particularly complex job... but it turns out I do have a broad base of responsibilities. Until you start writing your "transition" documents, you don't realise just how "big" your job is.

I am writing four separate transition briefings. The first two are client specific, for my two major clients and are currently running at around 10,000 for client (1) and 8,000 for client (2). I have a "process and products" briefing to write detailing the processes I manage, the internal controls I am responsible for and the products I own and have input into. This is running at around 5000 words at the moment, but will be the longest of them all once its done. Finally, I will write the "Executive Briefing" for the management team. I refer to this one as the "Janet and John" bit - for those of you who aren't familiar with the reference, see here.

I am currently trying to negotiate my "exit" from the business, which at my level (in so far as I have a "level") is considerably more complex than it would first appear. It's a political balancing act. Firstly, there is the "notice" period - mine is 3 months, but of course my preference is to leave sooner, while my employer wants me to leave sooner also but must maintain the business. My clients are going to be spooked - really spooked - by my departure, and very nervous about my replacement (in whom they have little confidence). There is the added complication that I will be leaving to join one of my current client's competitors, and so if they wait too long to remove me from the account, it could be damaging to the relationship between my employer and the clients.

With all this going on, I am also about to take a holiday. From Wednesday of this week, Paya and I will be travelling through Central Europe for 15 days, effectively removing me from day to day business for 3 weeks. While my holiday is exciting, it is adding a layer of complexity that I wish wasn't there.

Looking to the future, I am very excited about my new role. I will be working specifically within a "big data" sphere - which is something I have worked on the periphery of for a long time, but will now be directly in on the action. I will also have more "control" over resource allocation and product direction, and will no longer be "client facing" (at least not in a B2B sense).

I am also looking forward to the money. It's going to allow us to move to a nicer property in a nicer part of London. To be fair, we already live in a nice place in a great location - we are in Zone 2, which is not "central" but "inner" london, and we can get to places like Soho, Piccadilly and Hyde Park inside of 20 minutes from our door. The problem is that we pay a lot of money for what amounts to little more than a shoe box, so we are hoping to move to a larger place in a similar or even more central area. We have time with this - our lease runs for another year, so there's no rush

Anyway... apologies for the rambling update post. It doesn't matter if nobody really reads it, its just sometimes I have to write it down to process everything that's going on in my head.

See you guys after our holidays!

West