Big institution, big organisation. That’s right. But does it mean that everything we do is planned months in advance? Unfortunately not… Some issues remain quite uncertain, and we – these little guys on the backstage – have to deal with, in order to be ready for the D-Day, even if we don’t know when it will arrive and – worst than that – what will happen.

 Just look at one little example: the project I’m supposed to manage with another colleague. It can easily become one’s nightmare…

How to get out of this mess before my hairs get totally grey? (© MumbleyJoe on Flickr)

What is it about? It’s about the nomination procedure of the new European Commission. The approval of the European Parliament is necessary before the college of commissioners can take its office. The European Parliament will organize hearings of the candidates – and we should launch a website gathering all the information about the procedure. Great idea, for sure, but it takes time… We launched the project in July, without knowing which procedure would apply – the one from the Lisbon treaty or the one from the Nice treaty. We had to prepare both possibilities. Double work.

 When should this website be online? Good question. As soon as the list of candidates is made public, for sure. But what does it mean exactly? We didn’t have any timetable, it all depends on the schedule and the will of the head of states and governments. It was first foreseen for the beginning of October, then the end of October, then the beginning of November…

 Who‘s doing this project? Different directorates general work on it, and that’s new for all of us. How to organise ourselves? Who’s leading the project? Who should decide when we don’t agree? Or should we decide together all the time, with the risk of running out of time?

 How should we do it? In 22 languages of course, which means that for every little correction, every little add we didn’t plan weeks in advance, we should ask 22 editors to dedicate a little bit of their already overloaded time to our new website. It’s probably the best way to be hated in the team!

Conclusion: We had to prepare a website in a very short time, without knowing exactly for when, without having all the content and that in 22 languages please. Separately, every uncertainty is not too difficult to manage, but all together, it becomes very quickly a huge mess. You can add some administrative issues on top of that (they’re the same in every administration…), and you can understand how I get my first grey hairs.