For reasons that may be revealed in the fullness of time I embarked on a clear out last night. It is an intimidating task. The first thing I opened was an old briefcase that my father gave me when I started work back in the stone age.
Inside were my employment performance appraisals for the best part of 20 years. Naturally I started to read them. The dilemma was keep or shred. It might seem odd keeping them for so long. However they brought back lots of memories. Not of the appraisals but of the people, mostly managers who became friends.
I saw how in 1985 my next of kin was my father and in 1986 it was not. He had died. The man who signed that year’s appraisal was one of the three people who sorted me out the day my father died. Such traumatic events brings out the very best in people, in this instance Keith Haisman, Gunter Grehl and Frank Leeson. Where are they now?
There were constant references to how frustrated I could be with life, the universe and everything. One boss wrote something that I found quite remarkable.
The man was clearly delusional but this was all I kept from 20 years of feedback. Thanks David.
And the rest was shredded. Irretrievable. It does not seem to matter any more. The past is the past. I suspect there will be a lot more shredding of memories over the next few months. If you see the blog looks a little tear-stained then forgive the nostalgia.
What did amuse me though was the amount I was paid. My first job as a graduate paid precisely £4,063 per annum. Hardly enough to keep Lulu in biscuits today. I remember my mother telling me that she once earned 8s/6d per week. Hard to fathom. I wonder what I shall find next.
