>>1483795>What is the planning role like?If you were to move into LNE North planning it would Possession planning, Possession planning is easy, a PM will give you details on planned works 12+ weeks out, your job is to either create a possession to accommodate the works or add your works to an existing possession, manage your works and deconflict from other works, from there you have to attend planning meetings, conference calls and whiteboard meetings. Luckily your region does all it's planning meetings over conference calls so you wouldn't have to physically sit in a board room and argue with dickheads but you'd have to attend Whiteboard meeting depending on who was running the Possession and could be asked to present your works on a magnetic board to other planners (deconflicting).
I was sent to what I thought was a PICOP meeting with a name and number on a post-it note (these are informal and normally in P-way cabins with people wearing oranges, just to confirm names and contact details a few days before the works). It turned out to be a whiteboard meeting, I was wearing a tracksuit, I was late and when I signed into the reception I was told everyone was waiting for me in meeting room whatever. When I got in there everyone had office dress and laptops set up. I took my seat and a guy who was sat at the front asked who I was, told him my name and he called me to the front and asked if I needed to link my laptop up to the screen at front or if I wanted to do it on the whiteboard. My PM was not savy to all the planning stages and thought a Whiteboard meeting was a PICOP meeting, not only that but we were running the site and it was our obligation to chair the meeting. I had to stand at the front and stutter my way through explaining to 20 odd people there had been an error in communication, my PM had made a mistake, I was not the planner for the works and I all I had was a post-it note. Guys were fuming, some had travelled 100+ miles to attend.
