Small Business, Big People

It was not an official competition in the office.

It was just that the newest junior employee, Joanne, was prone to blushing a deep crimson colour every time we spoke to her.

To a certain extent it was an unavoidable consequence of working in a small business.

The youngest member of staff was heavily relied upon as a gofor, gobetween and tea lady and without this role the whole operation of the organisation would without doubt grind to a halt.

It is a fact of commerce that for many years the Office Junior position has not been valued or appreciated. There was always an oversupply of school leavers or new job seekers who would willingly take up any vacancies to get experience and the inside track on employment. Unscrupulous and thrifty bossess were well aware of this and could exploit it mercilessly. The Youth Training Scheme (YTS) label, first established in the Thatcher Years became synonymous with cheap, dispensable and almost slave labour rather than a first step to develop young people into hard working citizens.

I do admit that before Joanne we had a fairly disastrous experience with junior employees. It was by mutual consent that we usually parted company. I found it both shocking and disappointing that our schooling system had not prepared and therefore let down its pupils in that any new arrival at our firm had little or nothing about them which would appeal to an employer.

They were pleasant enough but with no gumption, initiative or even common sense. I was by no means old myself but my generation had been instilled in the importance of speaking when spoken to, showing enthusiasm when asked to do something, doing your best at it and also having well polished shoes.

The arrival of Joanne and her blushing cheeks 15 years ago represented a revolution in the front office.

We were not to know it, however,at the time.

The efficiency and methodical approach to everything that was thrown at her just happened instantaneously. Before Joanne it had been a struggle to get things done and when they were required, usually to a tight deadline.

Suddenly, 15 years ago we became a well oiled business machine.

The retrieving of files and loose papers, sourcing of supplies, making of those bottomless cups of sustaining tea, the sandwich run, errands into town and postal deliveries were seamless operations and that was down to Joanne.

We had, at last, found a good 'un.

Over the following period, representing almost half of her life as she reminds me, Joanne has been a key factor in the business which itself is now in its 21st year. People tell me that this is quite an acheivement in modern commerce and in challenging economic, financial and social conditions.

I think back over what seems like only a matter or weeks since we took up, almost like a squat, occupation of the 1830's built and run down premises in the city centre. It was, with the growth of tthe business ,sympathetically renovated and,after plying two old ladies from the Civic Society with sherry and getting them squiffy and giggly, it also got an award.

Joanne made the office her own domain and within a few years was the Manager with red faced juniors working for her. Her momentum was unstoppable, not in a cold, calculating way to get ahead regardless of others but out of a genuine desire to do well, pursue her own potential and make her Mum and Dad proud.

The efficiency of the business just went from strength to strength. Joanne mastered the new operating systems and my daily workload through the county was more akin to a tourist route than a hard slog of continuous on the hour, every hour appointments and many miles between.

I have always been worried that Joanne would be poached or head-hunted by our competitors but her loyalty, sometimes pushed to the limit, has been unswayable and I thank her humbly for that.

Some of my proudest moments outside my own family have been with Joanne. I have been privileged to be invited to attend Graduation Ceremonies to see Joanne, a small diminuitive figure far off on the distant City Hall Stage and swamped by a mortar board and gown, collect her latest Academic Award. Her wedding to Andy was a momentous occasion for all of the office and tomorrow I look forward to the Christening of their son, Alfie.

There have been moments of great loss and sadness with the passing of Joanne's Mother in recent years but dutiful daughter in looking after her Dad is another role that Joanne excels in.

I have been privileged to have known Joanne over the last 15 years. Shamefully I admit that I have been guilty of taking her for granted.

I now appreciate that a cheese and pickle sandwich does not just materialise on the desk in front of me. It may seem trivial but it is important to me. This task is amongst the million other things that Joanne sorts out unselfishly and in a confident and assured manner although still, sometimes, with a faint trace of that girlish blush.