Late that week, Ken Murray received his call back from the Director of Personnel.
"I felt there was no need initially" the Director began, "for a written report, though we can do that if you wish. There isn't a lot that's pertinent on the file. What would you like to know, specifically?"
"Relative seniority, any background of supervisory experience and satisfaction in any positions of which we have direct experience would be of interest. Particularly, too, do we have any record of unsatisfactory behaviour?" Murray supplied.
"Yes, that's generally the line we followed,: the Director agreed. "Well, here goes. Bayliss. Second, by only four months, in seniority in the section since another man's departure six months ago. The most experience, that's almost eight years, in that section. He's never worked anywhere else in the Company.
"His annual performance reviews are a patchy pattern. For the first two years, under his previous section Manager, he consistently scored very high for effort and achievement through probation and later routine reviews. Then the current supervisor rated him less promisingly, and has painted an inconsistent picture over the last five years. Seems Mr. Hart has been uncomfortable with his attitude and general respect over that period, and hasn't been able to record significant changes in it."
Wonder how hard Hart tried to change it, thought Murray, or even how much resentment was justifiable. However, Hart was another subject.
"There's been no supervisory experience, here or elsewhere that we have a record of. No man-management training either, though in earlier years he twice inquired after it. Seems a bit like a forgotten person, unless there are serious attitudinal problems there. Oh, one quite recent entry, too. His supervisor sent him up to us a month ago to inquire about transfer possibilities. Seems he was getting a bit tired of his present job."
"That so?" Murray enquired, his ear glued immediately to the phone. "Pressure getting on top, do you think?" He'd been pushing on Fred Hart by then to upgrade performance.
"No," the Director continued, "boredom, would you believe! Madge Forrester-Wilson, our Careers Officer, had a pretty thorough session with him. He wants more challenging work, and he's not terribly fussed what it is, is her evaluation."
"What did she do?" Murray wanted to know.
"She didn't know what to do," the Director said. "Hart assured her promotion was out of the question then, and questioned Bayliss' ability to get along with people, consistent with his reports over the years. She advised Bayliss to be patient - recession, and all that - and suggested he do an external course in supervisory management."
"Did he?"
"No record of it. That's about all I can tell you: no black marks, apart from the supervisor’s reservations about attitude."
Very high promise, Murray concluded as he terminated the conversation and settled back to absorb this new material. The fact that Lester didn't seem to respect Fred Hart was a definite plus after five years. Ken had only taken three months to disrespect Fred, but he had the advantage of corporate power.
Now, what was the next step? He didn't see any future in talking to Fred Hart, since Hart was part of the problem; into the bargain, Fred's comments on Bayliss' personnel file were a fair indication of his attitude. Hadn't the Director suggested something about an overlooked resource?
No, the thing to do was have a discreet word with Bayliss. He phoned Fred's secretary, and asked her to have Bayliss in his office around 3 p.m., for a brief chat.
Once again, Lester wondered why the head honcho --- No! He’d been careful. He'd play it by ear. He was finishing the write-up on a Data Dictionary problem, and he did want to get it off his desk that Friday, and move on to another of Rod's accumulated "stinkers."
So he skipped lunch, worked straight through to 2.50, and was able to give the report notes to the typist as he headed for the stairs, and Murray's office a floor up.
"Good of you to make time on such short notice," Ken began. "I saw a report from our Personnel people recently, and I wanted to talk to you about your progress. Were you aware there was a recommendation made about your getting some supervisor training? It seemed as though it was left mostly up to you."
Ken stopped on the non-question, allowing Bayliss a few seconds to plot the conversation back to where the real enquiry was.
"Well, the woman did suggest something to me, but I'm surprised it was broadcast any wider," Lester said, wondering now which way the conversation was headed. "At the time, I remember thinking the discussion had been a waste of time. Was it important?"
"You'll have to excuse me," Murray apologised casually, "this whole discussion happened just as I began work here. All I know is the woman in Personnel hasn't seen any action on a recommendation she made, and she's asked me to check. Would you mind telling me what it's all about?"
Lester didn't mind. He'd been getting bored in his job, and asked about transfer or promotion opportunities: any way he could get some change of duties, even a temporary change of scenery, and a break in the pattern. The recruitment officer had not been encouraging; she'd just suggested that he take a supervisor course - in case a promotion opportunity cropped up. No promises, no timetable, just a possibility that shouldn't be overlooked. If it did come up, he was in poor shape with regard to man-management experience, and he ought to remedy that.
"And are you in poor shape?" Murray queried.
"Mm, probably am, sir. I've filled in on Mr. Hart’s job for a week or so here and there, probably not officially, but never anything more than that."
"So how about this suggestion from the woman in Personnel? Have you done anything yet?"
"No, I haven't," Lester admitted. "There wasn't any suggestion of a pressing need. It was more along the lines of something to do if I really had to take some steps myself, and wanted to soon. Even so, after that, I'd just have to wait."
"Are you still looking out for a change of scenery?"
"Not actively, but yes - I'm still interested."
"Interested in which one - a promotion or a transfer?"
"Just a change, really - either one would be interesting."
"In that case," Murray summed up, "I think you were both right. The Personnel Officer wasn't offering much, I agree, but her suggestion does seem to have a lot of merit. Expense controls are tight right now, but we just don't know what opportunities might turn up next. What she's saying is to be ready, as ready as you can, no matter which way opportunity comes at you. Nothing wrong with that, is there?"
"No, I suppose not. You think I ought to set that course up, then, don't you," Lester said.
"Yes, I think so. They're paying for it, aren't they" said Murray, checking his notepad. "Yes, Personnel have recorded a commitment to reimburse you for a three- or four-day course. That's apparently fairly routine. In fact, the unspent money was why the question came up. When do you think you'll be able to do that course?"
I'll have to look up some timetables," Lester confessed. "They probably go on holiday over Christmas. Is there any hurry?"
Ken Murray thought quickly. This was supposed to be a casual follow-up conversation, one that Fred Hart really should have been conducting, if the subject was what he said it was. He mustn't even hint - yet - at the prospect of a promotion. Fred Hart had rights and potentialities, just as much as Bayliss did.
"No, I wouldn't say there was any hurry," Ken soothed, "the Personnel officer has checked up after waiting a while, though, so I suggest you'll find her getting interested in you again in another few months. Unless you've got something going with her," Murray's eye twinkled, "you'd be best suited to get it out of the way soon. However, that's up to you. Was there anything else you'd like to bring up about this training affair?"
Assured there was not, Murray wished him a good weekend, and the bemused Lester headed back to his desk. So Margery What's-her-name had taken the trouble at least to start a follow-up. Perhaps he'd misjudged the situation. No: without commitment or timetable, it remained a possibility, but no more.
So what to do about it now, in early December? Make a few phone calls, find out some timetables, and see what was available. It was getting on towards 3.30, and he felt confident that it was too late to start such a project on Poet's Day - consultants and trainers in local providers like the Institute of Management would be the first to Push Off Early, Tomorrow's Saturday. It was a task he ought to chase on Monday, maybe even check the weekend newspapers. One thing was for sure: with something like three weeks of employment left - assuming all went well - with ACM, he wasn't going on any three-day course. Polite conversation material was all he needed. Task deferred to three or four days hence.
Now, back to the chaos of a desk, loaded on Friday afternoon with the manuals, listings and notes of three finished jobs. Delicately poised on top of the pile was a finished version of the text he'd given the typist before he went to see Ken Murray: completed already. Normally, he would type his reports up under the Word Processing software, but this report had required a first draft. An hour saved, he imagined.
This pile of paper contained records and reports on three fully-completed jobs, and that meant he didn't have even one task in progress. He hadn't had a tidy-up for a couple of weeks, and some of the others had been getting a bit sarcastic about the "company library" he was amassing. Right under the typing, though, was a note clipped to a report excerpt from the EDP Audit supervisor...stupid place to put it.
On the other hand, the junior Alf in Audit hadn't wanted this one generally seen. He wanted a confidential comment - today if possible, please - on a suggestion under discussion to ban the Systems Programming staff from the Operations area of the Computer Centre. He chuckled again about his private joke over Alf (AJ) and Alf Rosen. With judicial assembly of all the pieces, he wondered again if the two ‘Alves would make one 'ole EDP auditor.
In other centres, he knew, that isolation of functions was an important, basic security tenet. Systems programmers knew how to make the machine do anything. A lot of those things they could do would be illegal, or at best dangerous. Somehow he thought he recollected some time seeing such a rule on the books for ACM's centre, too. It was just never enforced. A good thing, too, otherwise he'd never have managed that setup of possibilities over the last couple of months.
Pulling out a fresh sheet of paper, he started collecting a series of suitable thoughts in note form:
Mr. James:
Good idea, should always have been that way.
Some bad habits need correcting.
- priority access to SP by Ops for problems.
- two more screens in SP for our people.
- after-hours staff needed in Ops,
Also in Tape library,
- security foyer in Ops entry area.
Shouldn't stop at Systems staff: who else wanders around unsupervised?
Do it - with care.
L. Bayliss.
That should slow him down, Lester thought. Taking an empty envelope, he sealed his note in and headed off for the lift, on his way up two floors to the EDP Audit office.
Alf the younger was home, but obviously packing up to go elsewhere. Nonetheless, he was quite willing to delay a few minutes to discuss Lester's thoughts.
"I wondered if you'd already been approached about the plan by your own supervisors," Alf asked discreetly. "Within Audit, we've got some strong ideas, but the feasibility of that kind of plan depends a lot on how the system functions."
"No, Fred doesn't bother us about routine mostly," Lester glossed easily over the communications issues, "and it certainly is highly desirable in theory. You're right, though: they'll be some operational problems until we get used to doing some things differently."
"For instance?" James queried.
"The main points are in the notes I've jotted down here," Lester handed over the envelope. "We both have our own priorities, Systems and Operations, and we can work now without getting in each other's way. Ops should have the vast majority of files on disk, where we don't need to use tape except maybe for backup. One way or another, I'm continually putting tapes on the machine to do jobs I want. If I don't go in there, if all seven of us stay out, someone will be kept pretty busy booking tapes in and out of the library, loading and unloading them. Eventually they'll get all the main tapes onto a disk - that's what the big new disk drive was supposed to be for - but that's going to take someone a few weeks.
"Another thing: the Operations people have had a lot of staff turnover, which isn't really unusual - it's a bloody boring job - but it leaves them with some pretty poorly qualified people on the floor at times. I think they need to be better trained, and I know our people have been a lot of help, lots of times, bailing dumb kids out of their mistakes. You'd probably find the Database guys are doing the same thing at the moment."
"How long are you suggesting that would take?"
"The procedure training? No idea, months probably. Too long to put the whole thing off, I suspect. You probably have to get into doing the right thing," Lester baited him, "then let the Ops guy see what disasters he gets into because his group’s not equipped for operating alone."
"Come off it, Less. That's irresponsible!" Alf complained. "You must have some ideas. Can you give me some specifics?"
"I think our own efforts now are hiding the size of the problem. I'd support taking the crutch away from Ops, because that's the easiest way to see the real problems. One specific, though: the evening operators, barring the supervisor, shouldn't load a tape and walk away; they need to check it's the right one before they let the user have access. It's too much trust; somebody could accidentally wreck a reel that was vital. Another specific for you: until they get all those programs on disk, we need that Operations area manned 24 hours, seven days. That's a hell of an overtime bill, but those are the hours this place, and the Centre, has to work.."
"Enough!" James gasped. "You've made your point and I can make sense out of the rest of your notes. Let's call it a day. Have a good weekend, Lester. And thanks," he called, as the departing figure waved back.