# Week at a Glance | Metric | Hours | |---|---| | Working hours declared | 50.5 | | Meetings kept | 7.0 | | Protected buffer | 8.0 | | Executive working time | 32.0 | | Executive-only workload | 24.5 | | Balance | **+7.5 (surplus)** | **Reading:** The week holds on volume but not on sequence. Everything hinges on Thursday 10:00, and the entire investment case has to be finished before Wednesday evening or the quarter's priority fails regardless of how many free hours sit on Friday. The surplus is not comfort — it is the margin that absorbs the union conversation going badly and the missing HR lead. **Assumptions made:** Plant floor visit runs Tuesday 07:30–11:00; the final interview takes 1.5 hours including debrief; the three supplier calls are unscheduled and movable; the union meeting takes 1 hour; Tomás supplies the financial annexes for the board pack; meals sit inside buffer blocks; declared hours are 10.5 Mon–Thu and 8.5 Friday. --- # Meeting Triage | Meeting | Verdict | Why | Who goes instead | |---|---|---|---| | Board meeting, Thu 10:00–14:00 | Keep | The quarter's only decision that matters is decided in this room | — | | Production review, Mon 08:00–09:00 | Delegate | Elena runs the plant; executive presence adds authority to a meeting that needs none | Elena | | Weekly leadership call, Wed 09:00–10:00 | Shorten to 30 min | A standing hour with no fixed agenda in a board week; 30 minutes covers status and blockers | — | | Union meeting on shift changes | Keep — schedule Wed 09:30–10:30 | No HR lead since March; this is authority and relationship, and cannot be handed to a director who manages the same shifts | — | | Supplier call 1 (30 min) | Delegate | Commercial terms are Elena's remit; the executive signs, does not negotiate | Elena | | Supplier call 2 (30 min) | Delegate | Same | Elena | | Supplier call 3 (30 min) | Delegate | Same | Elena | | Final candidate interview, plant manager | Keep — Tue 14:00–15:30 | Nobody hires the executive's own direct report except the executive | — | | Insurance broker conversation | Decline as a meeting | A policy comparison and a written reply; no judgement call until Tomás surfaces one | Tomás | **Sentences to send as written:** - *Production review:* "Elena is chairing the production review from this week onward and will send me a five-line summary; take decisions in the room without waiting for me." - *Supplier calls:* "Elena will take all three supplier calls this week and bring me the final terms for signature — please deal with her directly." - *Insurance broker:* "Tomás is handling the new policy on my side; he will come back to you this week with our questions, and I will only step in if there is a decision to take." - *Leadership call:* "I am cutting the leadership call to 30 minutes this week — bring blockers only, status goes in writing beforehand." --- # Daily Calendar ## Monday | Time block | Item | Mode | Priority | Note | |---|---|---|---|---| | 07:30–09:30 | Second line investment — capex scenarios, payback, downside | Exec-only | High | Nothing in the board pack can be written until this number is settled | | 09:30–11:30 | Second line investment — fix the recommendation | Exec-only | High | The board is asked to approve one option, not to choose between three | | 11:30–12:30 | Protected | Buffer | — | Stays empty | | 12:30–13:30 | Board pack — spine and the ask | Exec-only | High | Sets what Tomás builds; he is blocked until this exists | | 13:30–14:30 | Handover session with Elena and Tomás | Exec-only | High | Delegated items start today or they land back on Thursday | | 14:30–15:30 | Union prep — position on shift changes | Exec-only | Medium | Going in unprepared with no HR lead turns one meeting into a dispute | | 15:30–16:30 | Pre-wire board member 1 | Exec-only | High | Approval is won before Thursday, not during it | | 16:30–17:30 | Protected | Buffer | — | Stays empty | | 17:30–18:00 | Protected | Buffer | — | Inbound overflow | ## Tuesday | Time block | Item | Mode | Priority | Note | |---|---|---|---|---| | 07:30–11:00 | Plant floor visit | Exec-only | High | Fixed; also the last chance to see the line constraint you are asking the board to fund | | 11:00–12:00 | Protected | Buffer | — | Stays empty | | 12:00–14:00 | Board pack — financial case with Tomás's annexes | Exec-only | High | Tomás is precise but slow; his input has to be absorbed today, not Thursday morning | | 14:00–15:30 | Final candidate interview, plant manager | Exec-only | High | Candidate is at final stage; delay past this week loses them | | 15:30–16:00 | Hiring decision and reference call | Exec-only | Medium | Decide while the interview is fresh; the offer goes out Friday | | 16:00–17:00 | Pre-wire board member 2 | Exec-only | High | Second of three; objections surfaced now are answerable in the pack | | 17:00–18:00 | Protected | Buffer | — | Stays empty | ## Wednesday | Time block | Item | Mode | Priority | Note | |---|---|---|---|---| | 07:30–09:00 | Board pack — objections and Q&A | Exec-only | High | Built from what the pre-wires surfaced Monday and Tuesday | | 09:00–09:30 | Leadership call (shortened) | Exec-only | Medium | Blockers only | | 09:30–10:30 | Union representative — shift changes | Exec-only | High | Unresolved shift tension surfacing at the board would undermine the investment case | | 10:30–11:00 | Protected | Buffer | — | Stays empty | | 11:00–12:00 | Q4 safety incidents — review and sign-off | Exec-only | Medium | Elena's analysis arrives Tuesday; sign-off is needed before it is quoted in the board pack | | 12:00–13:00 | Two supplier contracts — review and signature | Exec-only | Medium | Elena closes terms Monday–Tuesday; suppliers are waiting on a signature, not a discussion | | 13:00–14:00 | Pre-wire board member 3 | Exec-only | High | Last one; after this the vote is countable | | 14:00–16:00 | Board pack — final assembly | Exec-only | High | Pack circulates Wednesday evening; anything later reads as unprepared | | 16:00–17:00 | Protected | Buffer | — | Stays empty | | 17:00–18:00 | Protected | Buffer | — | Stays empty | ## Thursday | Time block | Item | Mode | Priority | Note | |---|---|---|---|---| | 07:30–08:00 | Protected | Buffer | — | Stays empty | | 08:00–09:30 | Board read-through and rehearsal of the ask | Exec-only | High | The approval is a fifteen-minute argument inside a four-hour meeting; it gets rehearsed | | 09:30–10:00 | Protected | Buffer | — | Stays empty | | 10:00–14:00 | Board meeting | Exec-only | High | The quarter's priority is decided here | | 14:00–15:00 | Protected | Buffer | — | Stays empty | | 15:00–16:00 | Capture board decisions and conditions | Exec-only | High | Approvals decay if the conditions are not written down the same day | | 16:00–18:00 | Protected | Buffer | — | Stays empty | ## Friday | Time block | Item | Mode | Priority | Note | |---|---|---|---|---| | 07:30–09:00 | Post-board instructions to Elena and Tomás on the second line | Exec-only | High | Elena cannot start procurement or timeline without the approved envelope | | 09:00–10:00 | Protected | Buffer | — | Stays empty | | 10:00–10:30 | Plant manager offer call | Exec-only | High | The candidate has been waiting since Tuesday | | 10:30–12:00 | Protected | Buffer | — | Stays empty | | 12:00–13:00 | HR gap — decide interim cover or start the search | Exec-only | Medium | Four months without an HR lead is why the union request landed on this calendar at all | | 13:00–14:00 | Protected | Buffer | — | Stays empty | | 14:00–15:00 | Review delegated items: supplier terms, safety pack, insurance reply | Exec-only | Medium | Delegation without a review point comes back as rework | | 15:00–16:00 | Protected | Buffer | — | Hard stop at 16:00 | --- # Delegation Brief | Item | Owner | The brief in one line | Check-in | |---|---|---|---| | Monday production review | Elena | Chair it, decide in the room, send five lines by 10:00 | Mon 13:30 handover, then written only | | Three supplier calls | Elena | Close commercial terms on both contracts and bring final versions for signature, no renegotiation after Tuesday | Tue 18:00, terms in writing | | Q4 safety incident analysis | Elena | Categorise incidents, root causes, and the two actions you want funded — I sign off, I do not rewrite | Tue end of day, delivery | | Board pack financial annexes | Tomás | Payback, sensitivity and financing lines for the approved capex option only; format is fixed, no alternatives | Tue 12:00, hard deadline | | Insurance broker reply | Tomás | Compare cover and price against the current policy, reply to the broker directly, escalate only a decision | Fri 14:00 review | | Shift-change data for the union meeting | Elena | Current rota costs and headcount impact, factual, on my desk Tuesday evening | Tue end of day | | Interim HR cover | Unassigned | No owner exists. Either an interim HR contractor is engaged this month or the union file, the plant manager onboarding and the shift negotiation stay permanently on the executive calendar | Fri 12:00 decision | --- # The Three That Must Land **Board approval for the second production line.** Every other item this week is either an input to it or survivable if it slips; this one defines the quarter and does not come round again until the next board. **The union conversation on shift changes.** With no HR lead, this is unowned, and an unresolved shift dispute raised at the board is the fastest way to have a funded investment made conditional. **The plant manager offer.** A final-stage candidate left waiting past this week is a candidate lost, and the second line cannot be built by a plant running without its manager. --- # Overload Verdict The week holds. Executive-only work runs 24.5 hours against 32 hours of executive working time, a surplus of 7.5 hours, and that is only true because the Monday production review and all three supplier calls go to Elena and the leadership call loses half its length — six hours recovered from meetings that had stopped earning their place. The risk is not volume, it is compression: the entire investment case, three pre-wires and the union meeting all have to complete before Wednesday 18:00, so any slippage lands on the board pack rather than on the empty Friday. The single decision that most improves the odds is engaging interim HR cover this month. Four months without an HR lead is why a shift-change negotiation, a plant manager hire and a safety file are all sitting on one calendar, and next week that same gap will produce the same collision with no surplus left to absorb it.