Diane's Narrative

Diane's Narrative

ComputerCo

At the time that the offer was made for me to join ComputerCo (CC), the HQ manager, Steve, asked me a few more questions, revealing immediately that he had some insight into my background. He honed in on some issues that had caused me difficulty in the past. It did not bother me to expand on these. He produced a foolscap page, listing 'folks about town' that we knew in common. He announced that these were the names of people whose opinions he respected and that he had received overwhelmingly impressive feedback from them. He flung this list to the side, as if to dismiss it. He looked me straight in the eye and told me that although that was well and good, he wanted me in their team because of his intuition. The method of hiring was simple. There were some flowery words about employees having to fit in and hiring people with whom the organization could have mutually beneficial relationships. Steve would never allow a potential employee to even be interviewed if he did not like the person. This, I considered extremely honest.

The opening of Diane's narrative immediately made her character likable to me. Diane's appreciation and recognition of honesty is quite appealing, and her ability to see the value of honesty over all else is honorable. I, personally, may have interpreted Steve's behavior as cocky and unlikable. With a list of positive references in hand that he trusted and respected advising that I was the right person for the job, I would think it quite pretentious to claim that his decision was based on his brilliant insight alone rather than on those references. He strikes me as the sort that would ask for your opinion on a subject, tell you that he was dismissing your ideas, then go on to claim them as his own later on. I find this sort of person to be repulsive. However, Diane's ability to recognize the honesty that was actually there in Steve's actions -- the fact that he will not consider anyone for the job if he doesn't like them -- which could easily be overlooked. The writing style is also very theatrical and visual while retaining a conversational tone, and this quality is very enjoyable to me, making me more interested in what Diane has to say.

2. CC provided systems services including programming staff through to project management. This generally took the form of project work, whereby a team would be placed on a client site following the successful response to a tender. CC was in a position where they could basically hire staff of any level, provided they could see a likelihood of them producing chargeable hours. They were neither desperate to hire nor keen to minimize staffing levels. [Aside: Actually, that reminds me. It was mentioned at a branch meeting once that the manager (and the assistant manager) seemed to only ever hire men who were shorter than them. We all just laughed it off. Nevertheless, both being relatively short, it did not take long to realize that there appeared to be some truth in it. In the 5 years I was with the company, having watched the employ grow from approximately 45 to 90 technical staff, I can only ever think of a couple of exceptions to test this hypothesis. This rule, of course, did not apply to women}.

Diane's experience that has been shared so far strikes me as so very typical. Her aside regarding the management only hiring men shorter than them is something that is often true in the corporate world. Even if it does not express itself physically, management generally wants only to hire people who will not be a threat to them in any way. Managers, in most cases, want to come across as the smartest, most powerful, and overall best person in the company. As an employee in such a company, I would be very prone to cynicism; I would find it difficult to trust the decisions made by those who base their decisions on such menial things.

3. To my joy, CC appeared to be a company that cared about its employees. The company and our branch, in particular, seemed to enjoy a great deal of success. Almost all of the men had nicknames. For the next three and a half years, every project I was assigned to presented the opportunity to learn from CC colleagues and client staff. I was, in fact, rarely 'assigned to' any project. The process whereby staff were attached to a project was so consultative in nature, that I was in awe of the amicability and the efficiency that appeared to exist. In the few instances where there was dissension in the ranks, the pattern seemed simple. It was when we did not gel as a team and were divided amongst ourselves that resentment was built and the correlation between staff contentment and project success was so clearly obvious. The supposed good nature of staff generally kicked in and, in my observation, we were supportive of our colleagues when dealing with clients. I do not recall any project undertaken in that time that was considered a failure.

It would feel good to be a part of a company that seemed to truly care about its employees, even if I had my suspicions about some of the integrity of hiring policies. It does make sense, to some degree, that in a working situation where team effort and morale is what determines project success, one would have to hire people based on how well they seem like they will fit in and be part of the group. However, a manager's idea of who will fit into a group may not be based solely on how they will work with the others on the team, but also on prideful things, like the height issue mentioned before. However, if the team overall is good natured and can enjoy the project work, then it would be easier to ignore any miniscule annoyances.

The Government Project in Thailand

4. When we first won the Thai government project, the manager asked for volunteers. He seemed delighted when I turned up in his office and he was eager to explain that I would be an asset to an as yet unassigned team. When a team was established, the selected manager was a man who had spent many years in Thailand, was au fait with the culture and was familiar with business there. He was popular and well respected for his people skills. Unfortunately, there was some delay in the start of the project and whilst the project lay in jeopardy, he was appointed to another project. At this time, a number of significant changes occurred.

1. The 'trainee' assistant manager of the Thai project was advanced to project manager.

2. The HQ manager, Steve, was promoted to Country Manager and moved.

3. The Assistant Manager was promoted to Acting Manager at HQ.