Head's Will Roll? Mr.Admin...
Every day at work was full-on. As well as my Operations and Tech Management role, a sudden departure of the Quality Control Manager, who had decided he couldn’t manage and was off to a better life in Tenerife…that job dropped into my lap also!
Picking up the Quality Control position meant I had to quickly gain a qualification in the role as, you know how things go, there was a big external audit coming within weeks.
So, I passed my Quality ISO9001 exam, alongside all the other things on my plate and headed on to an accreditation audit, a “gong” that the company wanted but clearly my predecessor had not prepared the company for.
The National Auditors spent 3 days going through the company with a fine tooth comb as well as making site visits to interview staff.
At the end of the day, due to the “fail to plan, plan to fail” status, we did indeed fail. We had about six weeks to show massive improvements if we ever hoped to gain the accreditation. I put my nose to the grindstone and went on with it in my multi-faceted manager hat.
Ironically, much like I had gained the nickname “Mr. Farenheit” at Frasers, in this company, I had become known as “Mr. Admin.” I was a stickler for paperwork and maintaining evidence (possibly a legacy of being an RAF Policeman, lol). All of the roles I managed required this trait for things to work effectively. My problem was educating all departments to do the same.
Having been with the company almost from the start, I had access to all systems and information across the whole company, which was an advantage for the task at hand…I would gain another advantage from this, but more on that later.
It was around this time that my wife’s uncle, who had become more of a surrogate brother to me, was diagnosed with a brain tumour and whilst he had a successful operation to remove it, he died suddenly on his return home.
That hurt.
And six months later my mother was hospitalised and died soon after. If this wasn’t difficult enough, the day after my mother passed away, my mother-in-law, who had become a second mum to me…also died.
They were dark days and of course, work wasn’t about to “go away”, but I kept on keeping on and the company had gained its ISO9001 “gong”.
The strain of loss weighed heavy and I requested that I be able to reduce my hours for a week or so whilst I straightened my head out a bit, which was agreed.
Truth be known, the time away from the madness of work did give me some clarity and a space to consider my future.
On returning to work, it was a staged 3-day return, I dug back into what I always did and was trying to shoehorn a week’s work into those days…it was hard for sure.
And so, one day, whilst checking through the company Master Spreadsheet, that literally tracked all parts of the business, the contracts, the company structure, the payroll and profit and loss…I came across an interesting entry.
In the Tech Department structure, there was a new name and not only that a salary entry that was almost twice that of mine and given that I wore at least 3 Manager hats…well, quite a shock.
I kept quiet…just to see what “their” plan was.
The writing was on the wall as the saying goes, but I would be riding it to my advantage.
A few weeks later the Directors called me to a meeting, they called it a welfare meeting…ha!
They asked how things were, how I felt now that I was back in for 3 days, if I planned to extend that number of days, or if I was happy to remain on lower hours.
I lied…just to push it…I said I would be looking at going back to full weeks very soon. They looked a little shaken.
They left it at that but scheduled another meeting for 2 weeks in the future.
“Oh, by the way, my son-in-law, is going to be joining the Tech Department this week…to help pick up the slack.” one of the Directors mentioned as I was leaving the meeting.
“Ah, ok..” I responded, not really hiding a knowing smile.
“Would you walk him through what’s needed on a daily basis, please?”
“Sure, no problem”
The son-in-law arrived the very next day, a qualified electrician who had been out of work for some time. A nice enough guy but he had had zero management experience and knew nothing about Security Systems.
Anyway, I went through the paces with him and looked forward to my next “welfare” meeting.
The meeting started with some general chit-chat and asking how I was and of course, asking how the new Tech addition was going.
I could see that in front of them was a folder with my name on it…
“Look guys, let’s cut the bullshit shall we?” I interrupted.
“What do you mean?”
“I know where this is going…I know what you have put in place and hey, let’s get to it shall we?”
They both looked quite uncomfortable.
“Errm…”
“Right, what are the terms of the redundancy package?”
The Directors looked at each other and seemed to be struggling.
“Well…this is purely an initial chat…ermm…we have to follow legislation…ermm” one of them replied.
“I know the legalities guys, let’s save all of us some time, just give me the paperwork I need to sign for today’s meeting and also for the one that is on your calendar for the final redundancy meeting and I will sign that. BUT, what deal do we have?”
“Look, we are really sorry it has come to this, sorry for your losses and…”
“But your son-in-law needs a job and he’s taking over the Tech Department… what’s your deal?”
“Ah…”
“I know that in law the maximum you have to pay is up to 5 years, a week for each completed year. I have done under 5 years…so technically only 4 weeks redundancy…”
“OK, so, if we say 5 weeks plus pay you for the outstanding holidays you would have had this year…”
“10 weeks?”
“We will need to have the next meeting to finalise it…”
“10 weeks? And we’ll have a coffee and I’ll sign the last bit of paper then and get on my way.”
“You know this is difficult for us…you know how much we appreciate what you have done for the business…”
“10 weeks?”
“OK…”
“And by the way, make sure you change all of the relevant job titles in your new structure or you’ll fall fowl of redundancy laws”
Here we go again…time to find another income source, lol.
In the end, they paid me 3 months’ wages allowing me some time to get sorted.
Returning home I found my wife lounging on the sofa, idly tapping away on her laptop. Sitting down at my PC that was nestled in a corner of the living room, I told her of the situation at work.
As we discussed my redundancy, I logged into my email client and started browsing the inbox.
I noticed several emails from a name I didn’t know…clicking on one which opened to several attached pictures and what was basically a pornographic conversation between some man and my wife.
She had been using my PC and had left the login details to her email client “live” and I had accidentally gone into her emails!
What had been a dark 6 months had just become even darker…
Until Next Time
Next Time: The Trip to York and Split-Level Living
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