A few weeks ago I got an email from a senior colleague based in our Dublin office. I had completed an employee survey literally a few weeks after I started working with the company & based on the answers I gave to the survey questions they told me I had good ideas & that they believe I would be a valuable addition to one of their focus groups, so it was an invitation to join them for one. The topic was Worklife Balance and Employee Benefits.

There was myself & 3 colleagues from our department in Belfast that got invited down, but our manager was unsure if he could let us all go. However he let 2 go, & I was one of them.

So we got to travel down to our Dublin office for the day, all expenses paid of course. The office is far better & bigger than our Belfast office (at least 5 times bigger) but Belfast is only a year old & we're still only a baby yet.

So as for the focus group - there were only 9 of us present; 1 facilitator who was the lady who invited us, 1 co-facilitator who met us at reception & is seriously hot (in fact of the females I did see there, the talent is fucking incredible compared to our office!), everyone present had been working there ranging from 3 to 8 years, & then us newbies coming down from Belfast who are on 13 & 17 weeks, like WTF? Haha.

The chair requested a volunteer to take the notes so I said ok I'll do it (not too eager though, waited a few seconds, hesitation present in the room, then boom I agreed & stood up). I get to write down all the shit we say on the huge wall-whiteboards around the room & in doing so I get to look like I'm playing a significant role here whilst not contributing anything, brilliant!!

Ok I'm joking obviously I contributed. I feel I/we, myself & my fellow newbie from Belfast contributed just about as much if not more than we were able to considering we've only been there around 3 months give & take a week or 2.

The focus group lasted 2 hours & a bit, because we went over slightly. It was kind of what I expected despite not knowing exactly what to expect if you know what I mean.

At the end of the group she needed volunteers for a further group next Friday. I put myself forward & will either be travelling down to Dublin again, or attending via video-link from Belfast.

There was one point about an hour in to the discussion where I drifted off slightly into a bit of a day dream, not because I was bored, but because I just thought to myself what the fuck am I doing in this room with these people? How did I get to be here in the position I currently find myself in? I know I'm still only at the beginning of this career, & yes today once again we had another sniff of the very real opportunity we have to move up within this company relatively rapidly....but my thoughts were flashing back to merely a few years ago (ok the late 2000s) when I had fuck all going for me. I mean I had literally nothing, no friends, no social life, no girlfriends, no job, socially paranoid, living in my dads house in a little town, no prospects, no goals, I had psychosis & was a paranoid fuck-up as a result of heavy drug abuse, living a shit life, zero happy, absolute rock bottom & my lifeline was my Xbox for 3 years... Yet now here I am stood contributing to a focus group to enhance the worklife balance & employee benefits in the presence of senior management of one of the largest companys in the UK & Ireland... Quite a U-turn from sitting in my room at my dads thinking where the fuck do I even begin to get out of this utter shite existence I'm living.

I am under no illusions though, I made this happen. It was just a little moment I had that made me feel quite pleased with myself about where I am.

One of our internal company slogans is accept challenges. I'm doing that, & I guess this could possibly be the starting point of me stepping up within the company.

EDIT: It was Worklife Balance & Employee Benefits. Not workplace.