Birmingham July 2013 “Do you have any work for me?”
01/07/13 01:17
My story starts with an event that happened in the middle of 2013. Before that, in 2001, I had taken over a team of people whose job was to improve the accuracy of data records held in the company's computer systems and over the succeeding twelve years we had got better and better at this work, becoming experts in identifying errors and omissions in the asset records and ensuring new records were created correctly. So much so that by the time I retired we had made over two million changes in that database. My story is not about that work, although I could write a good academic paper on his subject, rather it is about an encounter that would go on to change the course of my life. However I will start by describing part of our work which was to put right what had originally been created wrongly. Those in my team were good at this but were all young and knew no history about how the company came to own certain assets in the early 1990s. Being much older than them I had been with the company through that time and had that knowledge. Now there was a certain lady working elsewhere in the building who had been tasked with identifying which part of the business owned our plots of land and other building assets. That was mostly straightforward work and my team could handle many but not all of her queries and those they had to refer to me to resolve. I could have done without what became frequent interruptions as this lady was determined to get it right and was persistent in asking questions until she understood my answer. In my line of work that was a great attribute to have, don't just take what someone says to be true, check it out to confirm it is the right answer. I soon learnt I couldn't get away with half truths and incomplete answers and had to delve deep into my memory and notes to answer them. I was mildly irritated by the continual interruptions she was making on my time but at the same time seriously impressed by her attitude.
A week or two went by and one day she turned up by my desk and said, “I've completed that work and my contract finishes in a couple of weeks time. I will have to leave the company but do you have any work I could do?” The truthful answer was no and there was little chance of that changing. We were busy but I already had one contractor in my team and knew there was no money in the budget for more staff so I offered the usual platitudes, “If anything turns up then I'll let you know, etc, etc”. Little did I know that something very unusual was just about to happen.
Just two days after that encounter my Boss called me into her office and asked for my team to take on a special project. It would require a lot of effort but was quite doable given time. I thought about it and asked whether I could have an additional person to assist with this work and was stunned by the answer. “Yes, there is money in the budget and you can have another contractor to work on this”. Wow, that was the first time I had heard that answer to what was a frequent question of mine. I knew exactly the person I wanted and immediately suggested we take on the lady who was about to be out of work. My Boss was concerned about a successful project outcome and it took only a little effort to convince her that my choice could do the job and a few days later she joined my team. Actually I knew she couldn't do the special project work because that required more business knowledge than she had but I knew I could utilise other team members for that work and she would be able to cover the tasks they now hadn't time to do. This was a win-win situation as far as I was concerned as I now had additional staff and had saved someone from becoming unemployed. Looking back at it now even at that time I had thought it a little unusual to get this outcome because for years there had never been any money in the budget for additional staff when I had wanted them but now, just when this lady needed help, there was. Anyway I wasn't complaining and unbeknown to me that decision was about to dramatically affect my life.
A week or two went by and one day she turned up by my desk and said, “I've completed that work and my contract finishes in a couple of weeks time. I will have to leave the company but do you have any work I could do?” The truthful answer was no and there was little chance of that changing. We were busy but I already had one contractor in my team and knew there was no money in the budget for more staff so I offered the usual platitudes, “If anything turns up then I'll let you know, etc, etc”. Little did I know that something very unusual was just about to happen.
Just two days after that encounter my Boss called me into her office and asked for my team to take on a special project. It would require a lot of effort but was quite doable given time. I thought about it and asked whether I could have an additional person to assist with this work and was stunned by the answer. “Yes, there is money in the budget and you can have another contractor to work on this”. Wow, that was the first time I had heard that answer to what was a frequent question of mine. I knew exactly the person I wanted and immediately suggested we take on the lady who was about to be out of work. My Boss was concerned about a successful project outcome and it took only a little effort to convince her that my choice could do the job and a few days later she joined my team. Actually I knew she couldn't do the special project work because that required more business knowledge than she had but I knew I could utilise other team members for that work and she would be able to cover the tasks they now hadn't time to do. This was a win-win situation as far as I was concerned as I now had additional staff and had saved someone from becoming unemployed. Looking back at it now even at that time I had thought it a little unusual to get this outcome because for years there had never been any money in the budget for additional staff when I had wanted them but now, just when this lady needed help, there was. Anyway I wasn't complaining and unbeknown to me that decision was about to dramatically affect my life.