Group Efforts 21

Group Efforts
The Diary of a Workgroup Manager

Episode 26 (1996)

Our hero's an outcast to his team and a hero to his peers, while Llewellyn claims the credit and Janet settles in nicely.

Wednesday 3rd
A truly Siberian atmosphere pervades the office in the wake of the Janet Mason Business. Not one hot beverage has arrived on my desk, communication is restricted solely to matters of Planning urgency, and my subscription renewal to Field and Stream was returned marked 'all personal mail via the gate postbox'. The girls have decided that I alone am to blame, and an absolved Danny, for understandable reasons of personal safety, has joined in the group ostracism, thus increasing my isolation. To make things even worse Smiles has appointed Janet as our Suites Trial Training Officer, which I am quite certain is deliberate. My team's warm welcome to her contrasts cruelly with their canteen shunning of me. Never has command been so lonely.

Thursday 11th
I detect a slight thaw in the air. Yesterday Cathy asked for my opinion on a PowerPoint presentation she's written, and Danny has re-enabled sharing of his CD-ROM drive, although he did ask me not to mention it. New clouds fill the horizon though, for I hear that Amrat has turned his OLE Automation Planning System scheme into a formal project proposal, and that Llewellyn's giving it serious thought. I have just decided to avoid confrontation by taking no action when Andy Miller, on behalf of the Democratic Suites Decision Society, asks me what I'm doing to scupper the OLE Automation scam that Llewellyn's using to push things towards a Microsoft suites decision. Weakly, I reply that I'm still formulating my strategy, and head quickly homewards.

Tuesday 16th
It's time for the first round of management meeting Suites Trial reports. Andy delivers a glowing tribute to SmartSuite 96, painting a truly heartwarming picture of happy Contracts staff eager to load their applications each morning. When my turn comes I sense the eyes of my Decision Society bretheren on me, awaiting a searing denunciation of Office 95. Instead I report neutrally that it's 'reasonably good', and steel myself for post-meeting opprobrium. To my surprise, Andy and George congratulate me on a masterpiece of faint praise, a view confirmed by Llewllyn's cold glare as he invites me to pop round for a chat about an interesting application project he's come up with. Andy assures me that on this form I'll eat him for breakfast. I feign confident agreement and we all go off for lunch.

Thursday 24th
A coffee awaits my return from a cross-building excursion. No-one will admit to making it, but its drinkable nature proves that Danny didn't, so my rehabilitation is definitely progressing. Spirits lifted, I head off again, this time for my Interesting Application meeting with Llewellyn. Sure enough, the IA is Amrat's OLE Automation system, except that now it's Llewellyn's and he's decided to make Amrat the project leader. I ask, pointedly, if OLE Automation only works with Microsoft applications. He replies that no, it works with others, although of course the Office scripting language, Visual Basic, is also the de facto standard for OA programming, which is why we're the lucky nominees. I say that Costello will have to approve it, and he replies that 'Tim' is very positive. Feeling that I, not Llewellyn, have been the main course, I say that I'll have to discuss it with my staff, and beat a hasty retreat.

Friday 25th
Striding purposefully into the office, I announce that we need to discuss the OLE Automation proposal now, and that all other disputes must be put aside. To my surprise everyone agrees, and Sheila openly offers me a biscuit. Views are divided, with Cathy keen to use her Visual Basic skills and Rose and June swearing oaths involving dead bodies, not necessarily theirs. Later the sudden cessation of hostilities is explained by Janet Mason herself, who pops in to say that I did her a real favour, and that Smiles is a pussycat once you get to know him. This is later explained as a reference to Smiles' difficulty in dealing with assertive women, which has allowed Janet to gain an unusual degree of autonomy for a junior Executive. Happily imagining Llewellyn dealing with Rose and June, I head off for the weekend.