The 'Beast from the East' struck this week, which gave me my first taste of the way that transport in London - despite usually running with the utmost efficiency - comes to a total standstill at the first sight of abnormal weather. The snow and sub-freezing temperatures made my usual 11.5 hour days span out to 13 hours including commute, so I found the week pretty difficult to bear overall. The weather had knock-on effects to my responsibilities as PR Intern, since the couriers struggled to collect and deliver samples to publications for their shoots.
I felt quite bitter at times - not just because I was literally freezing - towards the rest of the PR team for their lack of compassion this week. Since so many publications are within walking distance to the Coach head offices, it's no trouble at all to nip across with bags of samples. And although the company obviously can't grind to a halt because of the snow, it did seriously irk me that I was still being asked to walk 15 minutes out of my way in the icy conditions when the offices were empty all week, since paid members of staff have had the privilege of not turning up for work or working from home.
My annoyance was coupled with the fact that the PR team themselves often left the office early, since the train companies had been issuing warnings about travelling beyond 6pm while myself and the other intern were left to stay until the end of the working day. I'm beginning to get the impression that the rest of the team lack empathy when it comes to the interns; I'm often very fearful of getting things wrong, and I'm beginning to lose touch with the truth that I'm here to learn and with that naturally comes mistakes - I shouldn't be scared to make them for fear of rude remarks from senior team members.
Nevertheless, the show went on. Carried over from last week, we continued to make progress on the tidiness of the cupboard and showroom post-NYFW. I started to get to grips with the showroom and the way that things need to be laid out and arranged, although there isn't much of an emphasis on the importance of this as the Visual Merchandising team are often rearranging things.
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