The beginning of October 2013 was the beginning of the end of my job with Silver Helm. There was one last meeting with the HR witch and the New New COO and I was determined to have my say even though I knew fighting was futile. Did it make me feel better? Not really, but I’m pretty sure it made them feel worse.
4 October 2013
The meetings were running late which was hardly unexpected, especially as Arabella was in first. Arabella on the warpath would be enough to make even Margaret Thatcher turn and run so I wouldn’t have liked to be in their shoes. Of course this meant I didn’t get much done in the morning because I couldn’t concentrate so I spent my time going through the new magazines and weeding out the inserts and samples. Part of me felt as if I should be writing a speech but I didn’t.
What I did have was my contract and the figures showing what I’d saved and where I’d saved it. Ok so none of it would have been saved without Arabella but still, poetic licence please. Numbers stoutly refuse to stay in my head so I’d never have remembered them if they weren’t written down. By the time I did go in I was feeling quite hungry and slightly headachy which wasn’t good…for them. Luckily I had just made myself a cup of coffee so at least there was some caffeine flowing through my veins and I had it with me to sip.
I started by saying I was under no illusion that anything I said would make any difference. Then I went over all my numbers, taking it slowly to let it sink in that the saving on expenses claims alone was more than my annual wage.
“So basically, I haven’t cost you a penny for the last year. You’ve had me for free,” I said smiling sweetly. Then, when I began to talk about the dedication of my colleagues, the years of knowledge, the unpaid hours they all work quite happily for the love of the brand, it all got a little passionate. I’m not sure where all the words came from but it ended up turning into a rousing Henry V style battle cry, although nowhere near as eloquent as Shakespeare’s ‘We few, we happy few, we band of brothers,’ of course. Then again it may just have sounded like a rant. I could only hear it from my side of my brain after all.
The gist was, if anyone had ever said, ‘you need to save money and prove your worth or we will close the office,’ we’d have done it and done it beyond their wildest dreams. No one did though. In fact we were praised and told how well we were doing, how much better than the other offices. Shameful was a word I used, shameful not to give such passionate and loyal people a chance to fight and shameful for the way they were being treated.
“I apologise if I sound angry,” I said, “but I am angry, not for myself, but for those fifteen people out there. They deserve so much better.”
There was a silence. The HR Witch was writing things down. “I’m glad you’re writing this all down,” I said “I hope it will get to the person who made this decision. I know I can’t change anything but perhaps in a year from now, with the benefit of hindsight, they can look back and see I was right. They made a terrible mistake.”
The HR Witch and the New, New COO looked at each other. After a moment the New, New Coo mumbled something about doing it to save the brand.
“Without those people out there you haven’t got a brand. They are the brand and you have killed it.”
That was when I stopped and left the room. I could feel the tears behind my eyes and there was no way they, or anyone else, was going to see them. Strange how you can feel so many emotions at the same time. The anger, mixed with exhilaration at saying what I thought and not caring because I had nothing to lose, rightious indignation on behalf of my colleagues, sadness and goodness knows what else were exhausting. I could easily have put my head down on the desk and had a little sleep.
As it was I went out to get some lunch. Somehow, along with a sandwich, I ended up with several packets of medicinal chocolate biscuits to share with the office and, of course, a latte. Believe it or not I didn’t even put a post it note on the biscuits banning the HR Witch and the New, New COO from eating them. That would just have been mean.
There was no demolition work to watch out of the window when I made my coffee today. Someone has managed to break the dinosaur, I mean digger thing. There were lots of little ant men dashing around, probably with spanners and things, trying to fix it. Later there was a rather nice going down of the sun going on though so I took a picture. I’m getting as many in as possible while I can.
Tonight I had a date with Gigi after work so, for the second day in a row, I walked home over the New Bridge. The sky, that had looked so good from the office window, looked even better from the green. As I walked along the path a pigeon with perfect timing flew over at the exact moment I took a photo. The sun was slowly sinking, reminding me there won’t be too many more nights of walking up this path because it will be dark and dangerous so I’d best make the most of it while I can.
Of course Gigi wanted the low down on everything that was going on in the office. To say she was shocked at the developments would be an understatement. She feels so bad for everyone and if anyone knows what it feels like she does. We joked a little about being Jonahs for the companies we worked for, first Dream Factory and now this. Of course I have the Mad House to add to my list too so maybe I’m the Jonah and she’s just unfortunate to have worked with me twice.
She’s still in the process of setting up her business but it all sounds very clever, interesting and well planned to me. No more than I would expect of any venture she’s involved in. Once it’s up and running I’ll tell you all about it. I did joke about working for her when it’s all off the ground and the money comes rolling in. Mind you, with my track record she’s probably safer to keep me as far away as possible.
* in 2017 my predictions came true. The BBC reported that the parent company of Swan Hellenic (Silver Helm) and Voyages of Discovery had gone into Administration on 4 January 2017 leaving 400 passengers abroad. The Civil Aviation Authority had to help to repatriate them. Perhaps, if the bean counters had been more honest and realised what amazing, dedicated staff they had, things would have been very different.
Did Gigi’s project ever get off the ground?
It did and she’s still doing it 🙂