The eye of the employer

Tuesday Nov 11th, 2008 CAC 40: -3.07%

18.20 On my way to the Carlton

Someone had forgotten about her.

About two years ago, she came for about six months on a short term contract to help our beloved sales guys (and dolls) putting their proposals together in the language of the customer. Not just any customer, of course. The ones we relate to here were Russians and so the proposals were in... you guessed it.

We had noticed a sharp increase in business from this part of the world, but our sales force counted only one person who was halfway decent in Russian and everyone felt it would be unfair to draw him away from his own territory (Italy) every time a Russian customer called up.
We were not keeping in pace with the market and something had to be done.

Enter Olga. Graduate from the University of Petersburg, twenty-seven or thereabout. Olga was a new arrival in Switzerland having just married someone working in the chemical industry around Basel, and looking for a job. She was offered a temporary contract to help out in the Sales Support. After three months the sales showed a modest improvement in the admin side, but, ever since she had come along on some sales calls, a ginormous interest in Olga from both customers are colleagues alike.

Olga is tall, blond and has a figure that would make any man turn around behind the wheel and then hit a series of lampposts. It became very obvious that, whatever the topic of conversation, it was always Olga's assets rather than the customers' that managed to draw the attention from everyone present. They are simply too difficult to ignore. Weapons of mass distraction.

After six months, both Olga's contract and her marriage had expired, but someone had just forgotton to inform her and Olga kept coming to work. After a few weeks the mistake was discovered, whereupon her manager made a case with HR to offer her a permanent contract, reportedly after having had an appraisal talk with her that lasted long into the evening and was continued in the bar of the nearby Hilton.

So Olga is here to stay. And today I bumped into her (metaphorically this time, but there is hope) in the coffee room, where she asked me out for a drink in this highly fashionable after-work-party place.

I'm on my way to meet her now. Therefore this entry will be cut short. Very short. Life is, after all, a matter of priorities.

Thank you for your understanding.