In an office, far far away (i.e. on the other side of the lake)…

Justine couldn’t believe it. She never thought this could happen. Her dream job. She’d just walked out of the Secretary’s office, with those magic words still floating inside here head “The Minister is right behind this one”.

Justine has had a solid but until now somewhat unremarkable APS career which has seen her in a variety of roles, most recently as an SES2 within corporate services.

But this was the day everything changed. She was head of the taskforce. A direct report to the Secretary. With a big new policy initiative to be implemented 13 months from now.

This was tailor made for me. A policy that will make a big difference in people’s lives, I’ll be working with all the States and Territories, and we’ll be using technology that will make my kids jealous. So cool. Right, lets get cracking…

“I can’t what?” asked Justine, checking she had heard correctly.

“You can’t approve a service request for yourself, it must be done by an SES1. They’ll need to do it via the Intranet” the person on the helpdesk explained.

“I am an SES2. I don’t have any staff yet, I’m starting a taskforce.”

“I see” said the very polite person on the helpdesk. “That’s tricky”. “But I have an idea. If you get approval from the Secretary it’ll be done within the hour.”

Justine smiled to herself. I knew it. There’s always a way. “How do I get the approval from the Secretary?”

“Oh, you’ll need to send them a workflow request on the intranet”.

Justine headed back to the Secretary’s suite which she had left two hours earlier, to see if she could find an EA who could make things happen.

To be continued…