A Day in the Life of a Scheduler at Pennington Choices

We sat down with Kiki Vatikiotis, to discover what a day in his life looks like as a Scheduler at Pennington Choices, what he enjoys about his role, and the accomplishments he is proud of. We asked Kiki a series of questions to find out more about him, here’s what he said: 

Q: First question, tell us who you are and what you do.

Q: On a day-to-day basis, what would you usually get up to?

A: The first thing we do is structure our days from the morning down, beginning with checking the previous day's work to see if there were any sites the surveyors couldn't access. If there are empty properties that need appointments scheduling, we'll rebook them straight away as we don't need to call anyone. If it's tenanted property, then we call the tenant to understand the reason we were unable to enter the previous day. Normally, the surveyor will let you know why they didn’t have access, and we can then get it rebooked or go back to the client if necessary. 

Once we've done that, we'll then look at what we call ‘gaps’. Sometimes, surveyors might have a few vacant spaces for the following day, so we'll try and get them filled in straight away. Ideally, we’d like to have surveyors fully booked for the full week with no gaps and no issues, but sometimes we get cancelations, so the priority would be that gaps need filling in before a certain time.  

Throughout the whole day, we'll often get what we call ‘reactive work’. I deal with probably four or five different clients at the minute, and they’re constantly sending new jobs through, so there's always an appointment to arrange at any point in the day. To arrange these appointments, depending on the urgency, we will either fill the next available slot or sometimes we might have to move a couple of appointments to accommodate it, and then we get them booked in ready for the following week or a couple of weeks in advance, depending on the availability of our surveyors.  

Q: What do you enjoy most about your job?

A: It's different every day. Although we do the same tasks every day, they come with different challenges as some clients are all very similar but other clients have such diverse requirements. You also constantly feel like there's a bit of a thrill because you're against the clock where a certain task needs to be done by a certain time, so you've got to move things about. I enjoy the variation and the fact it’s not just monotonous and straightforward. There's a lot of moving parts, and you've got to try and get them all to sync together. I like that.  

When things are getting a bit overwhelming, or you're struggling a little bit, you can always ask anybody in the office for a bit of help, and no one says no. Everyone's always willing to help you because they’re approachable and very nice. The one thing I was worried about when I started was because there are about 15 of us in the office, and that's a lot of different personalities; I thought there may be personality clashes, but I haven't come across any. I've not come across a single person where I’ve thought: “you're a bit of a bad apple” or anything like that. Everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet, which I believe is a good thing. I’ve also found out it took a while for Pennington Choices to get to where it is now, so they’ve made a conscious effort to make that environment for people to work in over time; it's not just by chance.  

When I started, I had no experience doing this. I believe Pennington Choices employs people based on their personality, and then they can teach you to do things. It's fine if you're willing to learn because everybody's got similar personalities and is approachable and willing to help, which I found really, really settling coming in.  

I like the mixture and the balance of coming into the office and working from home. I've got a little boy at home, so I enjoy the variation of being able to work from home. I'm four months into the job, and I was able to work from home after two months. Pennington Choices puts a lot of trust in you, which makes me feel good about it. I like coming into the office because I like being around people; you come in, and it's always a good environment. It's a good vibe. It's not boring, it's not miserable. I think now I work from home two or three days a week; I enjoy that breakup of the week.  

One thing that stood out was when I was six weeks in, and we were trialing a new piece of software, and I made one suggestion to one of the senior members or one of the directors, and they instantly arranged a meeting, had a one hour chat with me and listened to what I said. Everyone is willing to listen to you if you've got something to say, and they'll always take it on board. You're not just a number here; you're valued. I love that about it.  

Q: Can you share a memorable moment or accomplishment you have had in your role at Pennington Choices?

A: I think an accomplishment would be that there are opportunities for me to raise improvements or to focus on something else that will also benefit the business. Because I'm quite an analytical thinker, I like process improvement. Whenever I come across something that could be improved, I make a note of it and share it with the relevant people. There’s always someone willing to listen, and my manager is open to letting me run with my ideas. Recently, I had a conversation with one of the directors after a fun day at the Warrington Office. We stayed behind to discuss my thoughts because she was so interested in listening to what I had to say. That made me feel like I've done something good there. It wasn't part of my job role, but I had an idea, and someone was willing to listen.  

Another one would be, quite early on, it wasn't a shout-out moment, but I started getting more and more responsibility put on me, which told me that I actually am capable of doing it all, and the team trust me to go ahead and do it. The more you get settled, they aren’t scared to give you more responsibility, and that just helps you develop. 

Q: What is the toughest part of your role and why?

A: Everything changing minute by minute is a hard thing as well as a good thing. You could have your full week planned, and you’re on top of everything. Then five or six jobs can come through, which means you’ve almost got to start all over again. It's all part of the job that appointments have to be moved. Urgent jobs do come through, which take priority, or a surveyor might call in sick, and I've got to move a full day's work for them. That can be frustrating sometimes, but on the other hand, it keeps it exciting. A lot of our work is reactive, meaning you’re reacting to an isolated incident, and it can take you an hour or two to fix that sort of thing. Although the reactive side of it can be quite good because it's different, it can also be quite hard at the same time because you don't need it when you’ve planned and organised appointments, and then something happens, and you’ve got to change everything. 

Q: What do you enjoy most about working at Pennington Choices?

A: The people. I know everyone says that, but genuinely, everyone I've ever come across at Pennington Choices, which I think I've pretty much met every single person in this office, from director to scheduler, and every single one of them is great, everyone's willing to have a conversation with you. There's no hierarchy here, which I like. My biggest personality trait is I like things to be personal. I don't like just being a number at work. I don't enjoy those environments, but here, everybody is really approachable. 

Our department has started focusing more on social budgets, so there is quite a lot going on as well outside the office and the company. As Pennington Choices started out as a small business, it's growing and growing and growing, but they still kept the small business ethos, so there are always opportunities to move into different areas of the business. If they see someone's got assets, or someone's good at this particular thing, and they could use that, they'll utilise that, and they’ll help you progress, and they're not scared of doing that.  

The company is growing, and I think they’re learning as it grows, but they're always willing to look within first, as opposed to just bringing someone from the outside in. I think job opportunities here are endless, basically, which is another thing that attracted me here because I want to try and progress within the business and into different areas in the future. 

Thank you to Kiki for sharing your story with us, we’re happy to have you as part of our team! If you’re looking for the next step in your career, you can view our career opportunities here. For more insight into what #LifeatPC is like, click here.