A new working system had been proposed with more pay and longer hours, 39 rather than the 30 that most of the lab staff did. Those were the terms under which I had been employed. A new Supervisor had been recruited to help oversee all these changes and to lead the way forward. The old hands reacted with a strike, the union became involved and talks ensued. Eventually a tentative compromise was reached, some parts of the old rota stayed and some would disappear. There would still be 2 working patterns but that would carry on until all the oldies left. The end of the tunnel was in sight until one fateful morning the week before I had started.
Dave had been on the telephone to the personnel department sorting out my contract. He was standing in his customary place at the hatch between the two offices. The personnel chap had asked how the mood of the rest of the staff was. “Oh they’re facing up to reality now” said Dave, “One by one they’ll all get married, pregnant and then leave, then we’ll be OK.” Except for Steve. “Oh he’ll get fed up and leave when his harem has gone. Sooner the better really. You could get trained monkeys to do what they do, do it better and pay them peanuts. Monkeys have more brains than this lot.”
What Dave had failed to realise was that the hatch had been open into the clerk’s office. Steve had been in there looking in the bottom of a filing cabinet for some new labels and was hidden from Dave's view. Steve had heard every word, he was also the Union rep. War was about to break out.
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