A PR day in the life of TUC press officer Elly Gibson

Elly Gibson, media and campaigns officer, joined the TUC in March 2007 after working as a press officer at ChildLine and the NSPCC. The TUC has 58 member unions, representing just over 6.2 million people in industries including health, education, finance, retail, transport and construction.

My day

6.30am: My alarm goes off and I head out for a workout at the gym. A run on the treadmill watching the news channel wakes me up and gives me an idea of the main news stories of the morning.

7.45am: I pop home for a quick shower, switch the radio on and grab some breakfast while I look over emails on my BlackBerry.

8.15am: I set off from my flat in Borough. The TUC is on Great Russell Street so if the weather’s nice I walk. It takes 45 minutes and I enjoy the route over Waterloo Bridge and through Covent Garden.

9.00am: When I get into work I check my emails and pick up any voicemails. I flick through the day’s newspapers and look out for any TUC mentions, any stories about the world of work that may impact on our members. I copy any relevant cuttings to senior management and heads of department.

9.30am Today, the monthly unemployment statistics are out. The economy is an important TUC campaigning priority so I look at the latest figures with policy colleagues in our economics department. I put our reaction out in a press release to industrial, political and business correspondents and I upload it to our website and intranet so colleagues in the TUC’s regional offices can base their reaction on our release. I’ll ring a few friendly press contacts, for example the industry and economics correspondents at the Press Association, Mirror, Guardian and Financial Times, to make sure they’ve seen our reaction.

10.30am: The press office at the TUC is quite small – me and two senior media and campaigns officers. We have a daily morning meeting with our head of communications to discuss what was in the papers, the day ahead, what projects we are all working on and if there are any government announcements that will affect our members that we will need to respond to.

11.00am: It’s a busy morning as we’re getting quite a few broadcast interview bids in on the unemployment figures. I set up interviews with my general secretary and my head of economics and ensure they are both briefed on our key messages.

1.15pm: I have lunch in the staff canteen downstairs. We have lunch included as part of our terms and conditions and it’s a good chance to catch up with colleagues in other departments.

1.45pm: I’m back at my desk and check through emails again and make a couple of quick calls.

2.00pm: I attend a meeting for the TUC’s Next Generation campaign, a new campaign to support young people entering the world of work. It’s a campaign led by the TUC and involving some of our affiliate unions. We plan to launch the Next Generation with a media story about interns – TUC and union research has found that one in three interns are exploited by their employers. I talk through the media strategy for the launch as well as the overall media aims and objectives of the campaign.

4.00pm: Another campaign meeting, this time on Fair Work – a TUC campaign addressing how people can be treated badly at work through loopholes in employment law. We’ve secured interest from the Mirror in featuring the campaign so we discuss ways we can secure the case studies the Mirror needs to run the story. It’s always difficult for us to source case studies but they bring so much colour to our stories that it’s always worth trying.

5.00pm: The press calls finally start to tail off so I look through our media log to double check that any outstanding press enquiries have been dealt with. During quiet times we’ll have less than a dozen phone calls over the course of the day, giving me some precious time for proactive work, but sometimes it doesn’t stop all day and we’ll take around 50 calls between the three press officers.

5.30pm: After some more time for emails, I make the most of not having any more appointments today and leave the office.

6.00pm: A couple of nights a week I head up to Kentish Town, where I volunteer as a counsellor at a bereavement charity. I find it really interesting and rewarding, and it’s completely different to media work. Another night I’ll meet a friend for a pizza in Soho or go home and settle in on the sofa with my husband and a glass of wine to watch a film.