"Hungry for Success" by English Professionals. EPISODE 6 : Playing At Home

Following the conference call Tim has doubts ... and something is happening in HR

Transcript

Hungry for success

6. Playing at Home

TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO

“We’ll be arriving on Monday” said LIbby

After the initial shock had dissipated, Tim began to feel as if he were in a dream. The sort of dream where you can’t wake up even though you want to. Thankfully the rest of the conference call passed rapidly. Libby described it simply as a “getting to know you” session. Pleasantries were exchanged and nothing of any real substance occurred. The carefully prepared “Project X” folder on Tim’s laptop remained unopened. After just 30 minutes the conference call closed and Tim and James were left alone in James’ office.

James had contributed very little during the call. His initial enthusiasm when announcing the news at the team meeting that morning appeared to have evaporated. Had it really been only that same morning that James had made the announcement?.Tim found it hard to believe.  He waited for his boss to break the silence - nothing. Seconds passed and still nothing. Nagging doubts began to form in Tim’s mind. Is this an opportunity or a potential career disaster? Would he soon be out of work?  

Tim heard someone that sounded like him saying “OK - I’ve got some things to catch up on in the office. Let me know when you want to meet to plan next week”. The voice, although clearly his, seemed to belong to somebody else. As if on automatic pilot Tim rose, pausing only to pick up his laptop, and left James’ office. James gave no outward sign that he had noticed the departure.

Once outside in the main office Tim took a deep breath. Internally his head was spinning. Had he been more composed he might have noticed the eyes of many of his colleagues fixed upon him. Clearly very little had been kept quiet. The cat was very much out of the bag. Tim felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned to see Sue, head of HR, standing close to him. 

“We need to talk”, she said quietly “…. later”

With that she was gone. 

Tim sat down at his desk. He looked at his filing tray. The top “IN” tray was stacked with a number of purchase orders which Tim needed to approve and a variety of uninspiring envelopes containing who-knows-what

The “pending” tray underneath was particularly loathed by Tim. It contained all the things that he knew he should have finished long ago but, frustratingly, was unable to complete for a myriad of reasons. Occasionally Tim would sit at his desk daydreaming, musing about quitting Lightning and leaving the hated “pending” tray to some unlucky successor.

Lastly, the reassuring “Out” tray. Unfortunately this was quite empty.

For the rest of the day Tim busied himself with signing purchase orders, perusing correspondence and watching Youtube videos (trying to convince himself that this last occupation was in some way business-related).  As the day came to a close and his colleagues started to file out of the building, very soon, he found himself alone and decided that, even a conversation with Sue was preferable to going home to his wife, Rebecca.  

HR was easy to spot because it was the only area of the entire open plan office where someone had tried to inject some personality. The rest was all drab grey, black and chrome - business-like but impersonal. In HR there were pot plants on each desk and motivational posters pinned up on the dividing screens.

“You have to look through the rain to see the rainbow”

And of course the enduringly funny “ you don’t have to be mad to work here, but, if you are, it helps”

Tim found Sue sitting at her desk and opposite her, Steve, head of sales. A very unlikely couple at the best of times.

Steve spoke without turning to face Tim.

“Are you with us or against us”?

The words hung in the air.

Steve turned around slowly to face Tim. His face was unusually serious. 

“Cat got your tongue?  We need to know where you stand”


COMMENTARY

The title of this episode “Playing at Home” refers to sports which involve two teams. Normally when two teams originating from different geographical regions play each other,  they need to decide where to play the game. Macrosoft are coming to Lightning Systems and so Lightning Systems are playing at home. Using the same sporting terminology, Macrosoft are playing away. 

Tim is now starting to have serious concerns about whether the proposed takeover will be good for him personally or not. Things are moving a little too fast. On the same day he discovers that his company could be taken over, he hears the news that Macrosoft are arriving next week. 

The conference call takes the form of a “getting to know you” session. This usually means that each participant introduces themself and gives a brief introduction to who they are and what they do in the company. “Exchanging pleasantries” indicates the usual traditional greetings, for example “How are you?”, “Where do you come from?” etc etc“  All in all, “nothing of any substance” meaning that nothing important was discussed.

Following the call and, particularly because of James’ apparent lack of enthusiasm, and involvement, Tim starts to have nagging doubts. Nagging doubts are worrying feelings which will not go away and remain always on your mind. If something nags you it continues to worry you.

Tim leaves the office on automatic pilot. Sometimes we do things automatically - our arms and legs just continue to carry out an action without any conscious thought.  This frequently happens when we are thinking or worrying about something else. Tim leaves the office on automatic pilot simply because he is deeply concerned about what is happening and his mind is entirely focused on this.

Once out of the office Tim tries to appear normal but has difficulty staying calm. His head is spinning. This phrase describes the sensation that you are unable to think clearly, and may even feel physically unwell, because of  shock, excitement, confusion, or other strong emotion.

When James first announced the news, he requested that the leadership team keep things quiet and try “not to let the cat out of the bag”. “Don’t let the cat out of the bag” means to keep something secret. Clearly, based on the fact that many people are staring at Tim (their eyes fixed upon him), the news is no longer secret - the cat has been let out of the bag.

Tim’s desk is like that of many people working in an office. He has three filing trays - usually stacked one on top of the other. Typically they would be labelled  “In”, “Pending”, and “Out”. “In” is used for new documents arriving which need to be dealt with, “pending” for tasks which you can’t complete because you are waiting for something else to happen first - maybe answers to some questions, and “out” for completed work which needs to be either filed (stored somewhere for reference) or sent on to somebody else. 

Tim is clearly not fond of his filing trays. The IN tray contains some “uninspiring” envelopes” - which means they don’t seem very interesting. They contain “who-knows-what” which is a neat way of describing something which you cannot identify. For instance, they are talking about who-knows-what - means I don’t know what they are talking about.  Tim loathes his pending tray - in other words he really hates it. Loathe is a verb which you use when you very very strongly dislike someone or something. Tim is unable to resolve the outstanding items in his pending tray for a myriad of reasons - which means a very diverse and large number of reasons.

Finally Tim decides that, given the unhappy state of his homelife at the moment, he would rather go see Sue, Head of HR, than go home to see his wife Rebecca. He finds Sue with Steve, head of sales. A very unlikely couple - meaning they are not two people you would normally expect to find together - a phrase usually used because the two people are very very different. 

Steve, always fond of idioms, asks “cat got your tongue”. This is part of a phrase “has the cat got your tongue”. In other words, why are you not replying - are you unable to speak because the cat has eaten your tongue?  - not a pleasant picture. Nevertheless we use this expression when someone is quiet and isn't talking or responding when we expect them to.

So all in all, an eventful day for everyone at Lightning Systems. In the next episode we’ll learn a little more about Tim’s homelife and, in particular, why he doesn’t want to spend time with his wife, Rebecca. 

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