13th February 2007

I’ve never really been fazed by people with power. I don’t see them as these big shadows looming over my potential career, or as a chance to brown-nose my way up, I just see them as other people, who are doing a job. They all get drunk, poo and wank, just like the rest of us, and I like to think that I can treat them no differently to anyone else that I meet. That said, last night we (the finance dept) went out for dinner with the Senior VP of Finance of the company, and I’ll confess to being a little knocked off my perch at first (Americans tend to knock me back at first anyway- I think it’s because I just assume they’re movie stars). However, as the night wore on (and the red wine flowed) it became apparent that this man was very laid back, up for banter and completely relaxed being with people. My principles, then, are justified. I find it amazing that some people can be intimidated by a man’s job title- some of the girls from the office were being so careful not to step out of line, and answer any of his questions with a scripted “The Company is great” routine, which made me feel sick. After the (very good) meal of steak and sweet peppers, everyone went home, apart from Dave and I (the VP man has a name!), who headed for the Raglan for another drink, where we discussed such varied issues as the Arctic Monkeys and the Iraq war- always interesting to get an American’s perspective on that.

It is my opinion, and I expressed this opinion to Dave last night who concurred, that the difference between someone at clerk level (me) and someone in management is that to be manager you have to sacrifice your spare time for work. Someone at my level can go home and not consider the day’s events, but to be in management one must take the stresses of the day home with you and dream about them in your sleep.

I’m not quite ready for that yet.