Chapter 10

Sally presented herself at ten past eight the following morning. Nick had not even finished his first cup of coffee.

"Yes please, Nick," she said meekly.

Nick beamed. He walked round his desk to shake her hand.

""Great!" he said. "I'm delighted. Now it just remains to convince the Project Managers what a good idea it all is."

She smiled. "I think you'll find Jerry will agree. I hope it's all right but I did discuss it with him."

"Quite all right and very sensible. I don't imagine he'll mention it to the others."

"Probably not but I did mention my worries about how they might take it."

"That," thought Nick, "is a change of attitude already."

"Fair enough. Either there will be no problem because they will all have accepted it when I bring it up at Managers' on Monday or they will have worked up some good arguments against it. Don't worry, Sally. It'll happen. It helps to be the gaffer."

She grinned. "Do I sense short shrift?" she asked.

Nick laughed. "Tactful and persuasive short shrift."

"I'd love to be a fly on the wall."

"Not on this occasion, Sally."

"Hardly!"

"OK. Well thank you again. Sit tight now until after Managers' on Monday and then we'll decide when you should start. As I said yesterday, there's no rush but a slow learning curve might be an advantage."

"As you wish."

"Thanks, Sally. We'll talk again on Monday."

Nick called Megan in and told her the outcome.

"If she really is the little tigress I've heard her to be you've made a brave decision," she said, "but I think it's a brilliant idea if she is really going to get anywhere. Where's she going to work?"

"I thought that office beyond yours."

"I'm going to be between a rock and a hard place," chuckled Megan. "Oh Lord, I'm going to have to manage my rubbish better too. When's she going to start?"

"Almost immediately. She can cut her teeth next week on the tender submission for the port office block."

That Monday's Managers' had a full agenda. Nick kicked off with the redundancy programme.

"Under control," said Melanie. "I don't foresee any tribunals or anything."

"Thanks, Melanie. Well done."

"Reorganisation, such as it is. Any problems?"

There was silence.

"Good! New projects. Council offices, Jerry?"

"Hold our breath till Wednesday."

"Any idea of the timings?"

"No."

"OK. What about the port office block?"

"The tender's ninety-five per cent complete. It should be ready on Wednesday and we have to get it in by Friday week. They had our plan the Friday before last. There's a council meeting the following Thursday. I've made myself available to answer questions."

"Well done! I'd like to see the tender before it goes in though: just to see if anything catches my eye."

As usual Jerry showed no reaction. "Yes, Nick," he said.

"How about the container dock, Harry?"

"OK, I think. I've spent some time with Derek Wilson, nice guy, and we've walked the ground. I know what he wants and we're putting together two or three ideas. I plan to run them past him in three or four weeks' time. I gather that none of the other contenders has offered the same."

"Well done, Harry. Don't get carried away though."

Harry grinned. "Never again, Nick. Well, not yet anyway."

Nick laughed and then turned to David. "And the cruise liners?"

"Again, I've had a couple of meetings with Trevor Knight and a walk round. He's a nice bloke: straightforward but doesn't give much away. Like Harry we're preparing some ideas and again it seems as though we're ahead of the competition. He's got a design team working on it so it will be interesting to see how our ideas compare."

"Same here," interjected Harry.

"Good again. Just watch out for intellectual property rights. We don't want them stealing our ideas and handing them to our competitors."

"Dead right," said David forcefully and Harry nodded vigorously.

Nick was delighted to see that Harry was showing some awareness of commercial life.

He then moved on to the appointment of the two new project managers. There was no comment except from Norman.

"I was born a sycophant," he said solemnly but his eyes were sparkling. "You've managed quietly, quickly but effectively to get rid of two wasters, kept one of their posts open while it was not necessary to fill it, which appeals to my frugal nature and indeed responsibilities, and have now engaged two young thrusters by the sound of it and are still saving us a month's salaries. By my book, well played, sir."

Everyone clapped. Nick smiled. "Thank you all," he said. "That's very encouraging. Now, to move on to something which might be more contentious."

He repeated much of what he had said to Sally. There was a long silence. At length Jerry cleared his throat.

"As you may have gathered, Nick," he said, "that did not come as a surprise to me."

"No. Sally told me she had discussed it with you. What are your thoughts?"

"Grudging acceptance. I'm not mad about anyone looking over my shoulder."

"I quite understand but equally you need to consider my position at the moment. This outfit has been going downhill for years and Northcliffe was the bottom. Since then it has crawled along wounded. I have been tasked in no uncertain terms with heaving it back up into one of the top area branches. Of course I've got to delegate but I've also got to trust those I delegate to. It's not that I don't trust you, my Project Managers, but I have to make sure in the early stages that that trust is not misplaced. Is that unreasonable?"

"No but Sally said you envisaged her doing the job for a couple of years or so. Will it really take you that long to trust us fully?"

"I certainly hope not but consider something else. When Helen and Cliff arrive we shall have five Project Managers. We've got the two projects you are submitting tenders for. Then we've got six more big ones that we're out to win. By the time we're fully involved in those there will be six more big ones in the pipeline or my name's not Nick Braithwaite. I'm not keen to take on more Project Managers in the next couple of years after which I hope we can afford them and their associated teams. You guys and your staff are going to be working your socks off. Under those circumstances with all the trust in the world I can't expect you to be foolproof however hard you try. Sally will not be trying to double guess you. She and I will be like customers reacting to your proposals. Does that make sense?"

Jerry smiled wryly. "More sense."

"Good. Anyone else?"

"I don't doubt her ability," said David, "but she's quite a fire-eater. Are you sure she's the right person for the job?"

"No, I'm not but I am sure that at the moment she is not the right person to be a site manager for a major project and bashing up customers and sub-contractors alike. On the other hand, she's a damn good engineer and she did well at Heatherbrow. I don't want her to go to waste. If she doesn't learn to watch her manner she'll go though. At the risk of repeating myself, her only contact with you will be about matters of fact. If she oversteps the mark I want you to tell me immediately and I will deal with her. Happier?"

David did not look it but he nodded.

"What about you, Harry?"

Harry had been polishing his glasses and Nick feared the worst. Harry put his glasses back on and smiled.

"Let's suck it and see," he said. "If it doesn't work you'll soon realise and she'll be on her bike."

Nick struggled to repress a smile, noted Norman's insouciant smile and Melanie's studied stare at a picture on the wall.