Thursday May 22nd 1997 should have been like any other working day. I was on audit at a clients who were an I.T company, I had my assistant Karen with me and it was the fourth of five days ‘on site’ auditing the 1997 accounts. The previous three days had been uneventful except for the Wednesday afternoon when Karen knocked over a cup of tea in the boardroom all over the clients new, specially commissioned, carpet. She thought she’d get sacked on the spot for it.
Anyway, at just after 8:30 a.m on the Thursday I took a call from our secretary and went to find Karen who was at the coffee machine. Our exchange is one of those surreal moments that has stuck with me.
“Karen, can you get your things together, we’ve got to go back to the office.”
“Is it because of the carpet.”
“No, it’s because Alan has died.”
Alan had been my boss from 1st August 1983. He had a big influence on me, both as an accountant but also as a person. I didn’t particularly like aspects of his lifestyle: his sexism and casual racism to name two, but as a boss he was inspiring, the sort of person who would encourage you to go that bit further, as a result of which he would make sure that you would share any rewards. He made it an office rule that every Friday he would buy lunch, either down the local pizzeria or pub and if he felt like buying you lunch at other times during the week he would, he took Janis and myself out for evening meals and made me feel very special and integral to the running of the practice.
His death wasn't a complete shock. He had been off work since Christmas 1996, he had a heart attack whilst on a cruise on the Canberra and had to be airlifted from the Atlantic back to the U.K. I mentioned in a previous post, last year, that he had been ill in 1990 which eventually led to me having a type of breakdown. I'd been to see him the week after the General Election, I'd gone expecting the usual banter, he was very anti-Labour and we used to pick holes in each others political allegiances, but he just sat there looking like a very ill, old man - although he was only 56.
He led a bizarre personal life which I don't think I should reveal here but as a boss he was superb. I don't think about him too much these days although, bizarrely and I suppose contradictorily, I am aware of him every day as I insisted on having his huge desk when the practice was sold and I sit on the same chair that he did with such great distinction for a number of years. The chair has seen better days but I have yet to find one that offers such good back support to replace it but I guess that when I go, the chair will go too.
His funeral was attended by dozens of clients, which I think shows the respect and esteem he was held in. He had chosen the funeral music himself and we had Beethoven and Monty Python, which everybody laughed with - something he would have appreciated.
Two weeks after he died his secretary committed suicide following an argument with her boyfriend. They were strange days back in May and June 1997.
3 comments:
56 is very young, isn't it, Paul. There have been two deaths within my "circle" recently. My mates mum died 12 days ago at the ripe old age of 90. He was very close to her and will miss her terribly. Last Thursday I went to the pub to find out that one of the regulars had died suddenly two days earlier. He was only 52. Things like that really make you stop and think, don't they.
Your boss must have quite a bloke if you can blog about him ten years after his death.
56...52..!!!!
Suicide is such a waste but so is dying at so young an age. Interesting last comment though Shytalk...
"Your boss must have quite a bloke if you can blog about him ten years after his death."
The funny thing is Shy that the way that he 'managed' me affects how I work even 10 years after his death. I wouldn't normally post something like this but Angela, a colleague, mentioned last week it must be ten years soon and I thought about things. As I've posted before one of my fellow male colleagues has been hostile towards me since my old practice was bought by my new boss - well this is believed to be because I do things 'the right way' - that's something that was drummed into me over those 14 years. You won't hear me moan about how a client works, I'll work with them rather than against them, as a result of that attitude I'm constantly up against a "you've got all good clients whilst I've got crap' attitude. Well yes, but then I'm the one who gets invited to Lords by clients or by the girls to the pub. Alan's motto for life was 'you don't have to like me, but if you respect me you'll get on' - and that is my philosophy with my staff.
I always think of using Brian Clough as an analogy for Alan - you wouldn't want to be him for the personal problems but you know you'd do anything for him as a boss.
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