The Christmas spirit was alive and flourishing at Consolidated Merchandising, even if it was a full ten days to go. Gradually more frequently, people exchanged plans to travel, delivered the odd invitation to a party and - if the truth were known - invested a steadily increasing proportion of the working day in daydreaming, planning and organising for the break. Management had its annual discussion about breakup arrangements, and their general inadequacy. Christmas shopping, they knew, was a significant problem for most of the staff. The Mulgrave blockhouse was dead centre of a retail desert, but times were hard. There was late-night shopping in many stores all the next week, and weekends for the late-late decisions. The staff would just have to manage: production and services in all areas had to be kept up to full speed until midday on Friday: the start of the staff Breakup party in the Cafeteria.
All managers knew - they really did - that half the Secretaries in the place would spend two full days before that buying ahead for staff parties and planning shutdown arrangements, while the other half discussed busily whether they were doing it right.
John Wragg's group had different plans, though, and time was perilously short for all the things Ken Murray hoped to achieve before Christmas. As his Thursday review started, warned in advance of Murray's preferences, Wragg was still worried they were taking too many steps, too quickly.
Murray, representing Software, had dominated a fiery discussion last week with Mike Wilcox, the DP Centre Manager, at the previous meeting. Wilcox claimed the access ban on two of Ken's sections was creating an inordinate amount of extra housekeeping. While Ken wasn't repentant (everything should have been on disk anyway, the huge component of regularly-used programs on tape was an anachronism) the ban should stay in place until other steps were taken. He was prepared to see it relaxed as soon as John approved a certain employee’s termination. Before that, the risk of misappropriation was too great in his mind to be tolerated.
They had deferred further discussion last week while Wragg reviewed the circumstantial evidence for Chu's dismissal - and the access ban, he conceded, must stay just in case, while the review proceeded.
So here they were, gathered the next Thursday for Round 2, and while tempers had cooled, resolves had not.
"The access ban is the major business," Wragg opened the meeting, inviting update from his Operations Manager. "Do you have any further comments on the situation, Mike?"
"Nothing has changed, barring our control of the workload. That's as I predicted. We're doing what we can with conflicting priorities, and we're more than a day behind in some areas. Record-keeping has gone to Hell in a basket. Right at Christmas, for Christ's sake!"
"You agreed to review some of the site security problems that Ken itemised last week. What's the outcome of that exercise, Mike?" Wragg persisted, trying to lead the discussion onto the more important causes for the ban.
"If I looked at Ken's points dispassionately, and I did, it seems like a groundless argument to me. The site security people stop outsiders, they're not a problem. The operators can't play with the software, because they don't know how, and the software people are monitored by Internal Audit. We've got an arbitrary decision that forces everyone into jobs they're not familiar with. The result is lost time - not better security."
"Ken?" Wragg invited a rebuttal.
"That would be true if our software security was any good, which it isn't," Murray answered. "My kind of people should be forced to deal through operators to alter input for them, and to steal, produce or destroy output for them. Given direct access, they can do whatever they want, with no effective control. I know there's still the phone and the Caf, so conspiracies are possible, but I'll bet the fuss we've created has at least delayed any plans in train. The ban is short-term anyway; where are we at over terminating the suspect employee, John?"
"It comes down to that, doesn't it?" Wragg agreed. "Ken you've given me four definite prospects of firm maybes in the data on this person, and that's all. Do you still oppose having the man interviewed, by Security, Police, Audit, or any other uninvolved third party? You could be wrong, you know."
"I'm not wrong about his being error-prone. He’s got four maybes, as you call them, and nobody else has more than one in the last four months. The interview option won't help, anyway. He's had plenty of time to cover his tracks. He'd have to deny everything, and I'd have to mistrust him forever. He has to go."
"Would that fix the security problem, do you think?' another of the managers in the group asked.
"Only with respect to this man," Ken conceded. "Our security is lousy, and you’re welcome to get a specialist report to confirm that. You saw Peat Marwick's comments, John, on a related subject. We have to remain vigilant, because everyone has his or her price. Gentleman, we're dealing with highly qualified computer specialists. We have to stop believing there'll be a smashed window to show where somebody broke in. There won't be any trace of a crime, maybe not for months."
Ken Murray paused for breath, and Wragg assumed control again.
"Yes or no, Ken; if Chu goes will you agree to rescind the access ban? It's causing havoc."
"Yes," Ken agreed like a flash. “It's a pain in my area, too. I've got lots of other pressing tasks, and my Systems people are down to half speed, the way things are. I want it gone as much as Mike does!"
"When I'm 80% convinced, I’ll move," Wragg accepted. “Let's go over the dismissal scenario you proposed last week."
"He has to go on cost-pressure grounds. After all, we know we can't prove a thing. I'll write him a good reference, although these people never really use or need references. He gets a full annual leave entitlement, along with all the Christmas Public holidays, and two months’ pay in lieu.
"That's a very generous precedent," Wragg complained. "A month, and strict leave entitlements would be more normal. I may need to justify this to Personnel, you know."
"If it's only Personnel, I think the truth is best. We suspect he's working a crime, and we want him out quickly with no possible comeback, and the least possible sympathy. The real truth is we're trading speed for efficiency. To the outside world, we're letting a sterling performer go reluctantly under terms which ensure he'd work for us again if the need arose."
"If ever we need a computer crook," someone else commented facetiously.
"That's another thing," Murray acknowledged the sarcastic comment. "His Personnel record should be marked to show he's not to be re-employed."
"I feel badly about this, but go ahead. When can we see this damned ban lifted?" Wragg asked.
"I feel badly too," Murray agreed, "mostly because there are no choices, none at all. I think I can get him paid off today, and the ban will come off tomorrow due to the need for review of Operations resources and training. That suit you, Mike?"
A nod of assent.
"I'll have to modify the plan for a supervisor reshuffle, too," Murray continued. "Mike doesn't want to take Fred Hart on, so right now I don't have a place to shunt him. As well, the nominated successor has some mandatory leave coming up. With the security situation, I don't have enough time to make the changeover, and get two job changes agreed and people settled in before the Christmas break. I think we ought to leave the responsibility changes to late January."
"Are you still confident of the basic plan?" Wragg asked.
"I'm prepared to review that project position in Operations, once we've settled back to even keel," Mike Wilcox interjected.
"We'll talk more about that later," Murray accepted. "Yes, John; I've had Hart on Guidance for three weeks now, and he's plain incompetent to control his people. He's had problems spelt out for him, he's agreed to countermeasures, and he just can't act to take control. We've got to shift him. There isn't a place for him back in Applications, where he came from, though I could manufacture a special project there for three months if I have to. On the brighter side, one of his people, guy called Bayliss, has been pestering the system for several years now. He wants a change, he's the most senior, most widely experienced, and the most competent systems man we've got. He's practically finished training his own replacement, and looks as if he's ready to resign and move on for lack of advancement potential. He ought to be given a chance at the position."
Murray had another, quite similar, problem in Applications Programming, and planned to put that supervisor on Guidance right after work resumed in January. In the meantime, he was naturally unwilling to consider shifting Hart there. He wanted to isolate his problems, not shuffle them around.
Things were moving fast in the Software Group, and Murray carefully checked the changed action with his boss before the spotlight moved elsewhere.
Chu would be terminated this evening, if he could secure agreement from Personnel and the Pay Office. Perhaps his severance pay would have to be sent on separately, as his reference would, anyway.
Hart would remain on Guidance until the New Year. That would be uncomfortable for all parties, but a termination was not intended and no good alternatives were available yet. Meantime, no discussion would take place with Bayliss over any promotion offer.
Guidance plans for the seniors in Applications Programming would be deferred until mid-January.
Finally, yes, his secretary had agreed to arrange to provide tablecloths and serviettes for the Christmas party - although he didn't understand why the Cafeteria staff didn't do it with their own resources and funds.
An hour out of the meeting, Murray found to his annoyance that the Information Systems Group weren't the only busy people.
The Paymaster dismissed out of hand the prospect of making up "that kind" of severance payment on two hour's notice. If he got a written authorisation today, carrying signatures from John Wragg and the Personnel Director (in the City), he undertook to do his very best to beat the odds and pay the man off on Friday - but he sincerely doubted that could be done. There was no actual dishonesty? No; well, that's the way it had to be. After all, Murray was asking them to play with the payroll a day after all further changes had been stopped. The Paymaster had a lot of other people's pay to think about.
Murray wouldn't be able to present that kind of document until tomorrow, leaving him with an optimistic chance of dismissing Chu on Monday. The ban had to stay. He phoned Mike Wilcox to break the bad news.
Everyone was busy that Thursday, attempting to get as many projects as possible buttoned down in time for a clean, uncomplicated Christmas break. Lester Bayliss' winning work streak continued, though he managed to keep public knowledge of his day-to- day progress very limited. Of course, there were big advantages in collecting the jobs a relative novice found too hard. It was almost like having a "gopher," a kind of administrative secretary who ruled out all the obvious solutions for you before you started. If you trusted the novice to "gopher" all the easy answers and rule them out - as Lester surely did with Rod - the search for a solution was that much easier. So, on most of the tasks he undertook, he found he could take twice as long as he really needed, and still come up smelling like roses.
The spare time was all valuable for his devious research needs: time was indeed short. Today, at lunch, one of the breakthroughs he needed dropped neatly into place as he searched for an empty seat in the Cafeteria. Alone at a two-seat table, just starting her lunch, was one of the seniors from the Accounts group.
"Hello, uh...." he started, searching for her name as he settled his tray down across from the woman.
"Helen," she supplied; "you're Lester from the computer group, aren't you? We haven't seen you around for a long while now. Machine must be behaving itself."
"Not so's you'd notice when you get up close, Helen. It's just the current batch of nasties don't matter to your activities. Working over the Christmas break?" Lester asked innocently.
"Not sure yet," she answered. "I was expecting to have to work a day or two between Christmas and New Year, on the quarterly reconciliations, but they might be canceled. Things are a bit topsy turvy in Operations, it seems. They mightn't do those jobs until the New Year - suits me fine, though."
"Yes, that ban's upsetting everyone. Really interfering with your timetable, is it?"
"Only the special end-of-year stuff so far," Helen answered. "We're running the other stuff early."
"Getting the bills out well before Christmas?" he asked.
"Getting the bills out a week early;” she muttered through a mouthful of salad, "mightn't do much good but it can't do much harm. Not too many people paying on time these days."
"Do we?" Lester prodded. He needed information on this area.
"Classified information!" she answered, as casually as if the response carried real information.
"Thing I'm mystified about," he plodded on, “is whether we post cheques out as normal into the hopelessly clogged Christmas mail system. Don't people get impatient waiting an extra fortnight for their cheque for a couple of million smackers?"
"Rarely happens," she assured him. “Christmas or no, once you're talking about that much money, they often send a messenger to pick it up."
"Why? Afraid it'll get lost?" Lester pressed on.
"No, foregone interest on the money while it’s in transit. If you're a sharp investor - and good Financial Controllers are, these days - you'd lose maybe fifty bucks a day on a few million in the mail."
"So they work a pickup system with us. Security services?"
"No, they're only cheques in envelopes. Cabs, ordinary employees, sales people - anyone, just to get the funds home and invested quickly. They'll be phoning all the way up to the Christmas Party next week. So, how's your workload going? Going to have a Christmas in harness this year, or do they let you go home for the big day?"
He couldn't press the subject more without risking suspicion, so Lester told her all about why timetables were awry in Ops. The ban was hurting the Ops people badly, he chuckled, quite ironic since it was supposed to remove distractions from the area.
He had little to fear from backlogs, though, he noted. Personnel had him in the gun about overdue leave credits. The place would be on the verge of falling apart before he was pulled back in.
"Time to go," Helen said eventually. "I hope your damned ban stays, so I'm sure of a holiday break too. See what you can do for us, will you?"
A cordial goodbye, and they went their separate ways.