Group Efforts 21

Group Efforts
The Diary of a Workgroup Manager

Episode 51 (1998)

Imaginations run riot, Amrat's star rises, the B2s are frozen out and our hero's world changes.

Wednesday 9th
In the absence of hard facts about Broadleys' efficiency gains programme, the communal imagination has run riot. Current rumours include a halving of sales bonuses, severe cutbacks in executive stationery allowances (started by Mary in Office Services) and the immediate closure of the I.T. department (an attempt to revive Danny's attractive but groundless rumour of last month). In fact we're due to hear the first concrete details at the management meeting, a prospect no-one is looking forward to. In the meantime the girls have gone remarkably quiet about their 75p overtime claim, Danny's working (an almost unmanageable shock) and Cathy seems more interested in the back pages of the trade papers than in her demands for a personal development plan. We live in dangerous times.

Friday 11th
An irritatingly cheerful Amrat pops round and asks how I'm getting on with the eSuite beta. Horrified, I reach into my drawer and locate the forgotten envelope, resurfacing to find Amrat looking at me in a way that says "Broadleys won't be pleased about this" loud and clear. I ask him to give me a week, but he says he's under pressure, and I can have until Tuesday afternoon. Desperately I load the CD-ROM and click 'Install'. After some frantic drive-light activity (and a briefly-lived DOS box) I find myself looking at a graphical desktop, the likes of which I've never seen before. At this point Danny comes in, tells me my Amiga simulator looks really cool, and offers me a cheap copy of Tomb Raider 1. Muttering "efficiency gains", I throw him out and click on "spreadsheet".

Tuesday 15th
Still ill-tempered from spending Saturday hunched over my eSuite beta, I tell June that she'll hear the efficiency programme details when I see fit, and head for the management meeting. Chapman gets straight to the point, announcing a cost review project covering all areas (including staff) plus a recruitment moratorium. He also says that Notes will be implemented shortly, and that people who attended the B2's informal introduction to it can skip the formal one. Andy asks when the B2s will be installing it, and Chapman replies that they won't, as Broadleys have their own Notes contractors. Back at the ranch, I tell the girls that their costs are being reviewed, tell Amrat that eSuite is like a Commodore Amiga with a shareware spreadsheet, and avoid eye contact with the B2's Bob. It's a tough, dirty world, but I can handle it.

Monday 21st
Llewellyn's "Office 2000 - The Future" seminar has been cancelled, a development which would once have caused canteen jubilation but now gets a muted response. In fact Llewellyn's star seems to be sinking fast, while born-again Lotus champion Amrat's seems to be on an equally steep upward gradient. Our joy at seeing the Old Enemy on the rack is tempered by the instinctive sympathy any manager feels at seeing a peer usurped by a junior. The All Stars' table is consequently sombre, becoming more so following the arrival of Bob, whose eye nobody wants to meet. However he breaks the ice by saying that he's heard about Notes and it's OK, because these Broadleys wallies will never get past his NetWare permissions and the B2s will be on a nice earner sorting them out. That cheers everyone up, and we head back to the coalface with spirits revived.

Friday 25th
Sometimes it all comes at once. Ringing Personnel to book a temp for Rose's Autumn Break, I'm told that the hiring moratorium extends to holiday cover, news which I decide not share with the others just yet. Next Amrat tells me, in full public corridor, that my eSuite evaluation reports aren't up to scratch. Before I can reply, he says he's off to meet the Broadleys Notes installers, who had some trouble with the B2's Bindings earlier but have now fixed them. Returning to the ranch I find two teenagers in my office. Before I can direct them to the YTS liaison officer, they introduce themselves as members of Broadleys Management Services Team, and say that they'll be back on Monday to begin their evaluation of our cost/performance ratios. The world, I suddenly realise, has changed forever.