Friday, 8 May 2026 · Gazette

Preparing a floor for three days of standing

A count fails in the doorway more often than in the drawing. These notes are for the person who will actually let us in.

Access

Write our names for security. Levan will not argue with a gate. If visitor badges are a rule, say so; if the rule is a coat, we wear a coat. We will not walk in shoes that the floor forbids. Nights need a named person who is awake.

The week

Choose a week that is not a demonstration. Shutdowns, inventory days, and the week a foreign guest is touring are bad weeks. Public holidays in Georgia empty some halls and overload others; tell us which yours is. If you have no idea, we will ask the shift lead, not the brochure.

The record

A roster extract without national ID numbers. Clock cards if they exist. The overtime book, even if it is embarrassing. A wrong roster is useful. A missing roster means we start with a census of heads and you should not expect a briefing’s worth of history.

The room we stand in

A table for two hours on the first day. Permission to stand in the canteen with a notebook. Food if the floor eats at a set time — we will eat then, not at a separate guest table if that table is a theatre.

What not to do

Do not tidy the crate that always sits by the door. Do not brief the crew to “look busy.” Do not hide the unofficial overlap. We are hired to draw the week you have. A tidied hall is a different hall, and the plates will say so in a caption you will not like.

Write if the gate has a peculiar rule. Tamar keeps a list. It is shorter than people think, and it saves the first morning.