The Opportunities of Youth

by Donald Phillips

Chapter Thirteen

  A bit of a surprise, April 1983

  Tony had looked at the accommodation and taken notes. It consisted of two rooms. The first was a large classroom and he worked out that if he laid out desks around the wall and then two back to back in the middle of the room he could get twelve in, although the middle desks could not have phones unless they were allowed to take the floor up to put the line in. Bill Evans seemed to be a bit nervous about giving a go ahead for this. The second room was a funny size. Long and narrow it had room for two desks. One at the far end from the door, probably for the Unit Manager and the other one could go against either wall half way down. It could be used for interviewing trainees or any one else such as staff applicants or future employers away from the turmoil of the main office room. It had less privacy than the current offices, but Tony did not see that as a negative. After all we are all in the same business and if we are all in the same room that would not be a bad thing. Locked filing cabinets would take care of any privacy issues.

  He had Angela type all this up into a report and this itself caused a problem. There was a knock on his door and Angela walked in. She held up the notes he had given her.

  “Tony, is this private?”

  “How do you mean?”

  “Is anyone else allowed to know about this?”

  “Hang on Angela.”

  He rang head office and asked for Sue Mandelow. Not in. He asked for John Jeffries. Not in. Sandra asked if he would like to speak to the scheme administrator. He said no. It wasn’t in his interests to drop Sue Mandelow or John Jeffries in the deep doo doo. He turned back to Angela.

  “Lets assume this is highly confidential until we can get hold of one of these people.”

  Angela smiled.

  “Ok Tony.”

  Tony sighed.

  By three in the afternoon he had all his notes in his hand, nicely typed up. He picked up the phone and rang Bristol. Sue answered her phone this time.

  “Hello Sue, I have been to see the new offices and have all the details here. Do you want me to bring them up?”

  “Hang on Tony.”

  He heard the phone hit the desk and then he waited for over five minutes until a slightly breathless Sue came back on the line.

  “Tony, are you in your office?”

  “Yes.”

  “Can you come up here straight away and bring any details you have with you?”

  He thought about it.

  “Well I have two appointments to see trainees this afternoon, but I can cut them short and be in Bristol in about ninety minutes.”

  “Can’t you cancel them?”

  “No Sue, I can’t.”

  There was another moment’s silence.

  “OK Tony, lets say we meet at three o’clock. That will give you time for a bite of lunch and I can get things arranged this end. Come to John Jeffries Office.”

  She hung up. Tony put the phone down and then sat back in his chair. Something was up he was sure of it. His problem was he had no clue about what it was. He had an idea. He went down to Angela’s desk. It took him ten minutes to persuade Angela to do what he wanted her to do, but in the end her own curiosity got the better of her and she agreed. Tony went back to his office and arranged to have his two trainee visits brought forward an hour.

  When he returned he went straight to Angela’s desk. She looked up from what she was doing and the look on her face told it was not good news. He raised his eyebrows in a questioning manner. Angela took a deep breath and started in.

  “I rang Sandraa like you said. She said she has known we were going to move for several weeks as the school has told the Education Department they do no want us here anymore. Malcolm was supposed to have it sorted out by now, but when they rang William Evans this morning he told them Malcolm had never contacted him. That is why they asked you to go over there.”

  Tony nodded. Typical Malcolm. One had to feel sorry for any poor badgers he was supposed to be looking out for. He looked at Angela and her body language said she still had some more news. He r body language also said he wasn’t going to like it. He asked her quietly.

  “What else did she tell you?”

  Angela’s voice was little more than a whisper.

  “They have been interviewing people for Malcolm’s job all morning. We are going to get a new boss.”

  Tony thought about that for a bit. Angela tried to cheer him up a bit.

  “Well at they just can’t be any less effective than Malcolm was and at least we know it won’t be Cheryl Baxter.”

  This brought Tony up short. Up until now he had been able to run his trainees in exactly the way he saw fit to do it. His immediate supervisor, when he thought about it, he had only actually spoken to face to face on at the most five occasions. His area manager about the same. That was about to change. He knew full well if he was taking over the area as Area Manager he would want it run his way and that included trainees working in gangs on building sites, trainees in individual placements and trainees who were in any other situation. Then he thought of something else and shuddered. When his trainees missed a day and had no reason he stopped their wages, as that was what would happen to them in real life. He knew that in the rest of Avon County this was not custom and practice as the bleeding hearts did not believe in following the practises of the real world. So if he got some bleeding heart as an Area Manager he might find he could no longer fit in and do the job the way he thought it ought to be done. He foresaw trouble if that happened and thought his best plan was to buy the local paper on the way to Bristol and check the situations vacant. At least Tas would be pleased he thought. He was wrong about that.

  He pulled into the Bristol car park at five minutes and found a gap among the brightly coloured 2CV’s. There seemed to be more of them than ever. He heaved his briefcase off the passenger seat and carefully locked it. As he turned towards the entrance he saw Paul’s old Morris Minor looking abandoned and forlorn on the other side of the playground. He hadn’t talked to him for weeks.

  As he mounted the stairs to the reception area Sandra saw him coming and picked up her phone. By the time he entered the main office Sue Mandelow was waiting for him at the doorway to her office. He nodded and went to enter and as he did he saw Paul in John Jeffries office looking very serious. He turned to Sue.

  “Paul in trouble then?”

  She looked next door through the glass.

  “No. We restricted the applicants for Area Manager in Weston to people who had been on the scheme for two years or more. Paul objected and took it to the Union. They upheld his complaint and started beefing and to be honest it is easier to interview the one or two who have been here less than two years that want an interview, than get involved in a Union hassle, so John is interviewing him. I should be in there, but I need to talk to you. I am surprised you never applied”

  Tony looked at her.

  “I didn’t know.”

  “Oh, but Malcolm and the Union both knew and were supposed to tell everybody…”

  She stopped, and then shook her head.

  “Well I can believe that Malcolm just didn’t want the hassle as he was leaving anyway, but the Unions should have told you. I guess they didn’t out of revenge about the Cheryl Baxter thing.”

  Tony sighed and put his briefcase on Sue’s desk.

  “What Cheryl Baxter thing?”

  Sue now sighed.

  “Well we could not fire Cheryl because it would have come down to your word against hers because Malcolm would not have got involved knowing he was thinking of leaving us and she was a Union shop steward, so we transferred her to wages. We are changing the command structure you see and Cheryl’s level of authority will no longer exist. So as we know she would be a lousy placement office we invented a position that she was capable of doing, but where she could cause no damage. She resigned after three days and the Union is now suing us for constructive dismissal. As you are quoted in her case files as the person who engineered it all I s
uppose the Union conveniently forgot to let you know you could apply for the job.”

  Tony was speechless. He wondered how much money was wasted on this sort of bollocks throughout the County Council. He knew from experience that Baxter did not have a case and would never be able to prove anything. He also knew from experience that the Union could wind things out so far that the solicitor’s bills would be higher than any award they might get. He turned to Sue.

  “My advise is to tell her she can have three months wages in lieu of notice if she withdraws her claim and just resigns. Tell her if she says no that you will see her in hell before you pay her a penny. She will be gone in a week. Now what about this meeting you brought me up here for.”

  Sue looked into John Jeffries’ office and saw that Paul had gone. She tapped on the glass and Jeffries waved them in.

  Tony spent about half an hour explaining what the new building was like and showing the floor plan he had drawn up for laying out the desks. John Jeffries looked at it and then started to edit it with a red biro.

  “Look Tony, things are changing. The Special Unit will cease to exist at least in name and the Land Use and Construction teams will be held at two of each. Instead of several different units that are little fiefdoms there will be those four teams, six Placement Officers an Area Manager and a Secretary.

  The placement officers will be responsible for all referrals to the scheme and with the Area Manager will decide if each kid can go straight to a commercial placement or needs time in one of the teams or some other sheltered environment like a play group, nursery or somewhere else suitable. Every body will report directly to the Area Manager who will report to Head Office. By the way, now that you know about the job why haven’t you applied it?”

  Tony smiled.

  “If you only wanted people who have been here more than two years that is what you are going to choose no matter what the Union says.”

  Jeffries looked at Sue who looked away. They then talked over the move to the new building and to Tony’s surprise he found they were going there in just two weeks. That meant that British Telecom would have to be contacted to put in the necessary phones and allocate them the original numbers to prevent absolute chaos. John Jeffries rang them from his office, told them what the problem was and gave Tony’s name as the contact much to his surprise. At four thirty they thought they had a working plan. Jeffries asked Tony to excuse them for ten minutes and he went out to talk to Anne Jones.

  At a quarter to five he was about to return back to the office to get his briefcase, he wanted to get out of Bristol and on his way to Burnham-on-Sea before all the other offices kicked out and the traffic started to jam. As he said goodbye to Anne Jones, John Jeffries walked out of his office and pinned a piece of paper to the notice board. Knowing all about the interviews that had been going on everybody still there despite the fact it was Friday and they crowded around the board. Several of them turned and stared at Tony. Jeffries then turned and walked over to Tony and put a piece of paper in his hand. Tony read it.

  Tony Filton has been appointed Acting Area Manager of the South Avon Area for a period of three months. At the end of this time he will either be confirmed in office or the position will be re-advertised and open to all members of ACYOP.

  Signed John Jeffries (Assistant Controller)

  He looked at Tony.

  “I know this drops you right in at the deep end Tony, but I would be really grateful if you could at least give it a go. I think you would be a great Area Manager.” He smiled. “And it will really piss off Cheryl Baxter.”

  Tony looked at him for about ten seconds and then he smiled.

  “OK John, How much extra a year is it and do I get it from day one?

  Jeffries smiled back.

  “Its another two thousand five hundred a year and yes it is from day one on the understanding that if you are not suitable you go back to your old rate and job title and if you resign in that time your months notice is at your old rate.”

  “It’s a deal.”

  And they shook hands. Tony walked out well aware of the stares of surprise from the rest of the staff, especially Paul whose face was like thunder. As he passed her desk Anne Jones raised her eyebrows and pulled the kind of face that said well what about that then? He smiled back and escaped down the front steps to his MGB.

  Tas was on his knee again and they were drinking red wine again.

  “So did you have no idea at all that this was going to happen?”

  “No and I don’t think they did either. They had allowed for Cheryl Baxter to go and even Roy as well, but Malcolm caught them all by surprise. Added to that they were rewriting the whole staff reporting system anyway because the one they were using was crap. You really cannot have people reporting to two different lines of command. I just don’t think they knew what to do. I was bloody lucky I arrived when I did or I would never have even known about it until my new boss introduced himself.”

  He realised that Tas’ attention had drifted away. He nudged her. She kissed him lightly on the cheek and snuggled down further into his lap.

  “Tony, now you have had a fifty percent pay rise do you think we could afford to go to the Greek Islands again this September.”

  Tony thought about the sort of evening a yes answer would bring him and he liked the Greek Islands a lot anyway. He kissed her back.

  “I don’t see why not, Tas. I don’t see why not.”