....adding value

My boss, David was doing everything in his power to help me, not just on a straightforward pragmatic business "get the problem out the way" sense but as someone who had become a friend and genuinely cared.

But his hands were tied not only because of the hierarchy of a large multinational but also because he had had the wretched problem thrown in his lap and he had only had 11 working days of responsibility for me.

So he rightly pushed the problem back towards the UK who were officially and in law, not responsible but morally had to accept full ownership of resolving the problem.

There were some very questionable aspects that I found very disturbing but I actually don't think had any part in the decision of relocating me which had happened months before. However, if I had still been a UK employee on 17th October, instead of a German employee, I would have enjoyed two months redundancy for every year of service. The German legal minimum was one month and that is what they used.

Here the UK Personnel Director accepted he would be taking over the responsibility for getting a solution.

I will mention this again a few times: I had enjoyed great times with Grand Met, had experienced wonderful things, been exposed to incredible people and surroundings. They had invested in me through lots of training and management courses and most not cheap such as residential courses at the renowned Henley Business Management School in the UK.

But at this time, I was still in a state of self-centred shock. All around, many colleagues, particularly in the UK, were suffering exactly the same thing. 

I was angry, at times no doubt unreasonable, even with people like David who really was trying to help me. Only with a bit of time and distance did the appreciation of their support really sink in. I am privileged to still, in 2018 as I post this, count David as a friend.

I hadn't started this episode of my life in January 1976 knowing what "High Risk, High Reward" meant but I think in my time I did add value to some of the colleagues and peers I managed and worked with. Of that alone, I am proud but I don't need a goldsmith's set of stamps to imprint that anywhere. These people rewarded me themselves with loyalty and support.