The Sound Of Silence

I'm turning into a miserable git (what do you meaning turning?), I'm reaching that stage of my life where I look forward to some solitude and escaping my work colleagues.

I've spent two days at a client whose business is designing flight simulators for the world's major airports, they are the second biggest company (in terms of contracts) in the world and the job is probably the easiest audit I have.

The thing is that because all their work is computer based and needs maximum concentration, in all areas from design to testing, the office is so quiet, apart from the odd question like "How do you take your coffee?". The answer to that question for me is hardly at all but about four years ago on a visit to this particular client the Secretary to the Finance Director made me a coffee on the hour, every hour between half eight in the morning and four thirty in the afternoon. I wasn't aware of this until I thought about it the next morning - at 6:30 a.m as I watched some powerboating from California. I'd fallen victim to the power of caffeine. As somebody who only drinks two cups a week (one on Saturday and the other on Sunday), the eight I'd had that day had caused me to spend the night sat bolt upright like some television addicted Herman Munster on our settee.

On my subsequent visits I've had one cup, more out of courtesy than anything else.

Anyway, back to being Mr Miserable. The noise and the lack of respect at work lately has really got to me, so much so that I've considered walking away from it all. We have an open door policy at work as I've said before so closing the door on it all isn't very practical or a particularly good exercise in management. The warnings to the staff about timekeeping made a difference for all of one day before things slipped back into the old routine and the committment to the clients from some people is non-existent. I think I need a good rest and roll on Easter is all I can say.