Looking back on it, it was a strange way to receive a job offer and I still didn’t know when I would be able to start. That Monday had dawned badly anyway, macho, corporate husband had woken up with a searing sore throat, a raging temperature, a blinding headache and a temper that made King Kong look like a kids toy. He had refused my offer of staying home and driving him to the doctors so I had gone to work and was plodding through the usual quiet Monday jobs in a small town flower shop, cleaning, tidying and the endless washing of vases.
At 12 o’clock the telephone had rung and a croaky voice announced that he had some sort of currently fashionable bug, had gone to bed and by the way he thought he’d smashed the garage doors. I decided to go home in my lunch-break and investigate.
I had only been in the house 5 minutes, long enough to minister a glass of squash to the by now ‘dying’ patient and to extricate the Scimitar from the garage doors where it had indeed come to rest, victim of a simultaneous dizzy spell and sneeze as the patient had arrived home from the surgery. When I answered the telephone I had trouble understanding the caller. Eventually I came to the conclusion that it was Mr Muckerjee calling from Midlands Dairy where I had attended a job interview some six weeks before.
“I’m ringing for Mr Graham, Laboratory Manager, he wants to know why you did not come in this morning?”
“Sorry…”
“Well he thought you wanted the job”
“I did. Was I supposed to come for another interview? I’m sorry I didn’t know anything about it.”
“Well he said you’d had interview”
“That was ages ago. Look, I didn’t hear anything else and now you’re ringing me. There seems to be some sort of misunderstanding here, he must have written to me and I didn’t get the letter. Can I fix up another day?”
“Oh yes we must. He was quite adamant about that. When can you start?”
“Sorry?”
“This job, when can you start?”
The penny finally started to drop. “You mean I got the job?”
An exasperated sigh came down the telephone line. “Yes of course that is why I ring you now.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I told this gentleman that I had had nothing whatever in writing and asked if I could speak to Mr Graham myself.
“No, sorry, he’s not here today”
“Well could you ask him to phone me then please?”
“It’s not a matter for him now, I am dealing with this.”
It dawned on me that this chap who was speaking very precise Indian-style English must have been the personnel manager. I apologised for my vagueness and assured him that the call was so out of the blue I was not really with it.
“So will your personnel department be sending me details of the contract, salary etc then?”
A little chuckle down the line. “Oh I can not answer that one, I am Lab Supervisor”
Again I apologised. “I’m sorry I don’t remember you from the interview”. This was going really badly now.
“You wouldn’t. I only start today.”
At 12 o’clock the telephone had rung and a croaky voice announced that he had some sort of currently fashionable bug, had gone to bed and by the way he thought he’d smashed the garage doors. I decided to go home in my lunch-break and investigate.
I had only been in the house 5 minutes, long enough to minister a glass of squash to the by now ‘dying’ patient and to extricate the Scimitar from the garage doors where it had indeed come to rest, victim of a simultaneous dizzy spell and sneeze as the patient had arrived home from the surgery. When I answered the telephone I had trouble understanding the caller. Eventually I came to the conclusion that it was Mr Muckerjee calling from Midlands Dairy where I had attended a job interview some six weeks before.
“I’m ringing for Mr Graham, Laboratory Manager, he wants to know why you did not come in this morning?”
“Sorry…”
“Well he thought you wanted the job”
“I did. Was I supposed to come for another interview? I’m sorry I didn’t know anything about it.”
“Well he said you’d had interview”
“That was ages ago. Look, I didn’t hear anything else and now you’re ringing me. There seems to be some sort of misunderstanding here, he must have written to me and I didn’t get the letter. Can I fix up another day?”
“Oh yes we must. He was quite adamant about that. When can you start?”
“Sorry?”
“This job, when can you start?”
The penny finally started to drop. “You mean I got the job?”
An exasperated sigh came down the telephone line. “Yes of course that is why I ring you now.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I told this gentleman that I had had nothing whatever in writing and asked if I could speak to Mr Graham myself.
“No, sorry, he’s not here today”
“Well could you ask him to phone me then please?”
“It’s not a matter for him now, I am dealing with this.”
It dawned on me that this chap who was speaking very precise Indian-style English must have been the personnel manager. I apologised for my vagueness and assured him that the call was so out of the blue I was not really with it.
“So will your personnel department be sending me details of the contract, salary etc then?”
A little chuckle down the line. “Oh I can not answer that one, I am Lab Supervisor”
Again I apologised. “I’m sorry I don’t remember you from the interview”. This was going really badly now.
“You wouldn’t. I only start today.”
1 comment:
try again to leave a comment! :)
this is great, Jas, really entertaining...I look forward to reading more. I like this template too, and thanks for the link! My site stats show I've had quite a bit of traffic from your site! :)
Di xxx
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