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Nick and Kirsty were having another meeting. It was now a couple of days since their last acrimonious discussion and they were both making an effort to remain calm and businesslike. Nick had taken time to find evidence to present to Kirsty and they were going to come up with a plan on how to improve.
‘Kirsty, let’s just go through a couple of your recent experimental write-ups,’ said Nick, showing her some printouts.
‘Look, for this reagent, you should have listed that it was particularly hazardous, and noted the assessment 3B which covers it,’ and he highlighted the chemical he was talking about. ‘You used a much larger quantity than you should have done without getting approval from either myself or Billie.’
‘Yes, I see, sorry, I just forgot. I can’t get used to checking against the different assessments.’
‘I know it’s a pain and you just want to get on,’ said Nick, hoping that this would show some empathy towards Kirsty rather than just telling her off. ‘But there are special precautions stated in that assessment and they are for good reason.’
‘I am trying, it’s just there’s so much to get my head around.’
‘Also, you forgot to cool your reaction the other day, it could have caused a fire,’ added Nick, ‘luckily I was around.’
‘I know why that was,’ replied Kirsty, ‘I set up the reaction, then Caroline asked me why there were no more of the plastic ties, you know the ones you use to fasten tubing and cables and so on. So she went down to the storeroom and couldn’t find them. So I said there must be some and she was looking in the wrong place but when I went down there were none. Then Kevin came in and he said there was a supply problem and we couldn’t get away and that must have been when my reaction overheated.’
‘Well I see, that’s unfortunate, but all the same, you must check before leaving the lab as you might be away longer than you expect.’
‘Yes, sorry,’ said Kirsty contritely.
‘Well, hopefully, I can help you more from now on Kirsty,’ said Nick. ‘I’m going to check your write-ups so we are complying with the safety regulations.’
‘OK, well thanks,’ said Kirsty, ‘I’ll try to do better, I want to do well I really do, I like working here.’
Nick felt some sympathy towards Kirsty, after all, it could be difficult to get away from Kevin but he’d been interested in what she’d said, that was another item that was out of stock. What on earth was Kevin doing, the storeroom used to have everything in good supply, now it was pot luck whether you could find what you wanted. After this meeting, he would go and check whether the items Kevin had promised would be in today had actually arrived. There was something odd going on and he would find out. He hoped it wasn’t what he suspected.
**
Polly’s day hadn’t started well. She’d had trouble with her laptop, she couldn’t understand why she couldn’t connect to the network, then she found that someone had slightly pulled out the ethernet cable under her desk so her docking station wasn’t connected properly. She thought she’d detected a slight smirk on Phyllis’ face at one point but she remembered that she mustn’t be paranoid about every facial expression she observed. Polly felt rather embarrassed after phoning IT support as someone had actually come over to her workstation only to find that it was a loose cable.
She was starting to look through the policy and procedure documents for procurement, they were in a complete jumble. It was hard to follow, such was the confusion. Procedures had developed and had additions had been added as the university had mushroomed over the past five years. As a result, there seemed to be so many people with a range of signing authorities. Some even had what was called a pre-paid card, not really a card but it meant they had an allocated amount of money and they could basically spend it as they saw fit without recourse to a rigorous approval mechanism. Surely that could lead to serious losses if not managed properly thought Polly. Even the most junior staff seemed to have signing limits of five thousand pounds without having to request approval from their seniors.
Once she had managed to get a feel for the way the department operated she would have to examine in great detail the way contracts for various services were set up. This was the area where she envisaged a chance of securing some immediate savings, providing the contracts hadn’t been drawn up to cover too long a duration. A year should be the maximum length of time before costs and terms were re-evaluated. It would also allow for an appraisal of how well the service was being delivered. The whole task seemed daunting, particularly when her workforce were oozing hostility at the moment. How she was going to get them onside she had no idea. The only thing she could do was to take it one step at a time and draw up a steady plan of action. She needed to be systematic and not try to run before she could walk. She made some notes for her afternoon’s work and decided it was time for a break.
Although there were several eateries on site where she could get lunch she usually took in sandwiches or a salad, as did Nick. They wanted to economise as much as possible as they were saving up to get married. Today she’d taken in some sandwiches and placed them in the communal fridge in the little kitchen off her office. She would take them outside and sit on a bench in the September sunshine. She retrieved her plastic box from the fridge. As she took it out she noticed the lid wasn’t on properly. She was sure she’d snapped it shut properly when she’d left. Perhaps she hadn’t? Hurrying down the steps of the building she spotted a bench with only one other person sitting on it, she could share it. She relaxed against the back of the seat and closed her eyes for a few minutes, the warm sun was comforting after such a tough morning. Opening her box she took out her egg mayonnaise sandwich. She bit into it and started to chew on a mouthful. Suddenly she exclaimed in horror, startling the person on the bench. Someone had added a huge amount of salt into the middle of her sandwiches. She turned away from her companion on the bench and spat the mouthful into a tissue. How disgusting. Someone had been to her sandwich box, opened it and added what seemed like half a salt cellar of salt into her sandwiches. She felt sick, not just at the taste but the fact that such a mean-spirited colleague had violated her food and her personal possessions. She took out her phone to call Nick, then put it down. She didn’t want to worry him at work, he was getting so many headaches at the moment, it would be better to tell him this evening. The problem would be stopping him from marching into her workplace and demanding to speak to the Head of Finance. No, she would make it clear she could fight her own battles. It could be any one of those in the office but she had her suspicions. The question was what could she do about it?
