Group Efforts 21

Group Efforts
The Diary of a Workgroup Manager

Episode 61 (1999)

Amrat and Andy are happy, Cathy and Costello aren't, Llewellyn wants his chips back and our hero doesn't mind a bit.

Monday 5th
The name of the new Managing Director will be announced this week, and as an official Contender I'm generally assumed to have inside knowledge. In fact I do, although only that it won't be me. My 'general discussions' with the Broadleys Bigwigs were friendly enough, but after a while their MD suggested that perhaps I didn't really want the job, a view with which I had to agree, given that it was true. As I left he wished me a long and successful future with the firm, which was later confirmed to mean that I wasn't expected to commit failed-candidate hara-kiri. I'm perfectly happy with that (and, in fact, quite relieved), though whether my colleagues back at the Ranch will let me off so lightly remains to be seen.

Friday 9th
It's official - the new MD is David Chapman, who had originally turned it down, but was apparently persuaded to reconsider in the absence of an acceptable alternative. As I thought, my own 'failure' to secure the appointment is drawing mixed responses. Andy, thankfully, has welcomed me back onside and restored my subscription to his Fourth Floor Insider newsfeed. Danny and the Girls keep trying to console me, while I keep trying to convince them that I don't need consolation. Amrat says cheerfully that I'd have made a rotten MD anyway and he's really glad I'm staying, while my would-be successor Cathy can barely conceal her disappointment that I'm still here. Meanwhile my fairweather friends have melted away, including, thank goodness, Chris 'A Quick Chat' Llewellyn. Give it a month and we'll all be back to normal.

Thursday 15th
Returning from lunch, I find that Llewellyn's reclaimed his 19 inch monitor, replacing it with a 17 inch one which would, according to Danny, have been 15 but for a rumour that Chapman's only temporary and I may yet be a Contender again. I mail Llewellyn to say that he might as well bring a 14-inch unit round now, but instead two I.T. troops arrive to take the extra RAM chips out of Rose and June's PCs. An entertaining confrontation ensues, the result of which is Girls 96MB - Troops 0. With Llewellyn complaining of 'brutal intimidation' I'm forced to admonish the ladies, who reply that if I can't stop a prat like that nicking my monitor then it's no wonder I was turned down for the MD's job. With the score now Girls 2 - Management 0, I retire gracefully to my office.

Tuesday 20th
The first Management Meeting with Chapman in charge. He says that, as an I.T. specialist, he's keen to see us become a centre of computing excellence, and he's confident that 'Chris' will achieve it. 'Chris' promptly adopts an expression of intolerable smugness, which quickly fades as Chapman says that increased user involvement in systems development is a key part of his strategy. Smugness now rules in the All Stars' camp, but mine evaporates as Chapman says he hopes to see me, as an established I.T. innovator, 'pioneering closer links with Chris and his team'. Even dejected MD-reject Costello manages a smile as Llewellyn, ignoring Andy's muttered 'give him his monitor back', says through gritted teeth that he's looking forward to working with me. Molars similarly clenched, I reciprocate, and we move on to overtime quotas.

Wednesday 28th
Llewellyn and I have agreed that I.T.-user liaison is ideal experience for our brightest young managerial prospects, Amrat and Cathy. Their first session was very constructive, with Cathy complaining that Amrat didn't understand user needs and Amrat complaining that Cathy didn't understand the development process, thus demonstrating the need for further liaison, which they've been delegated to organise. With liaison thus running smoothly, I'm free to concentrate on my key line management responsibilities, namely juggling overtime budgets, negotiating an extension for Isleworth A and confiscating Danny's Visio-bound .WAV files of Joan Davies singing in the toilets (method of acquisition unknown and best kept that way). Later, at an All Stars chapel meeting, Andy asks me if I regret not getting the top job. Thinking back over the day, and surveying the comrade-packed Snug, I reply, truthfully, that I don't mind at all.