I gathered the print-outs of my typed notes and turned up at the classroom as planned to give the students a quick run-down on the third year placement module. Once inside, however, I found my boss and a couple of senior male colleagues seated in a panel formation with full secretarial back-up. They were assessing student presentations, two at a time.

My arrival was both unexpected and disruptive. However the panel insisted that the secretary display my notes on an overhead projector so that I could make my presentation over and over again for every student pair. I did so out of obedience, but it was a complete shambles: the type-written notes were never meant to be used as AV materials so the font was far too small to be read from a screen; the secretary mixed up the sheets of paper so that they were presented in a random order each time; and it was terribly tedious for the panel members to hear what I had to say time and time again.

When I was later criticised for my terrible presentation I argued fiercely that what I had prepared was a short talk to presented once to a small set of students. It wasn’t my responsibility that the format was hijacked by the panel.