Oh by the way

Yesterday's jolly took a sombre turn. Not quite at first. We left late, so the Big Swinging Dick inevitably put his foot down; something that was quite interesting while we were travelling some of the narrow and curvaceous country roads between here and the big smoke. No mishaps and on the bigger roads with greater risk of mobile or fixed speed trap we decelerated and re-entered the atmosphere shortly thereafter.

Then we got to Xville. One of those mid-sized towns dotted about the country that is linked to another place by a dead straight road that might or might not still be visible (or even the main drag). Wall, castle, shambles, gables, solid red brick. Roman, Norman, Tudor, Georgian.

Then after dumping the getaway vehicle we legged it to the office. Historically Victorian, decor by post-war bureaucrat. Institutional grey as far as the eye can see. Except it is almost empty, because all the meaningful staff have been relocated to the new head office. Electricians were crawling all over the place, bringing the wiring into the 21st century before we farm the real estate out to some schmuck.

Our contact lives in a grotty little cubby-hole with a few mod-cons (PVC window frames, return desk with laptop, pencil holder and multi-coloured sticky-note pad). After a recap during which we drew out of her (with painful slowness) the objective of the meeting we proceeded in a capacious training room.

The Big Swinging Dick might be a gifted retailer, he gets results in meetings such as the one he conducted yesterday but via a painfully circuitous route that probably baffled the Union Rep as much as it frustrated me. With one half of my brain I concentrated furiously and scribbled frantically; meanwhile the other half of my brain kept wanting to wander away and restructure what was happening around me into a shape at least somewhat resembling a text book interview.

After an hour we took an adjournment, then after the break we got to the nub of the matter, which is where things got rather sombre. It's what happens when you delve into the darkest recesses of the private life of an employee. Turn over that rock by all means but be prepared for what might crawl out into the light. It might be a violent partner.