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Monday 7th June 2010, 8.00 a.m.
The next day she shrugged off all those silly notions and questions and had girded herself in the warrior’s black suit, along with a black tie to prove she was done with all that prissy, crying stuff.
She stormed into the office, rearranged the organisation chart and then held a ten-minute meeting to tell everyone who was promoted, demoted and moved sideways. She knew that some of the rearrangements weren’t entirely logical but decided that the whole place needed a damned good shakeup anyway – keep the buggers on their toes. That afternoon she had formed two new policies without approval from Commonwealth Insurance’s Swindon head office – she just wasn’t in the mood for all the paperwork, justifications and two months of procrastination. It was fortuitous that her boss was on extended leave and that his deputy, the chinless wonder of an Operations Director, had a terror of ferocious women and had conceded to Mary’s bizarre ideas without a whimper of objection.
The first policy was that all claims, from any client for any reason, would be rejected on first application. Certain minor claims would also be rejected on second application. It saved a lot of paperwork and money and if clients had the gumption to make a claim after being rejected twice, they probably deserved the money and so it was investigated.
The second policy was actually a protection racket, marketed under the pretence of caring for clients. It was a simple matter of creating a new type of policy to cover people who had made claims and didn’t want to lose their no-claims bonus – they paid the insurance company a new premium so they wouldn’t increase their premiums! The new premium was twelve percent higher than the noclaims bonus would have been so the company made more money and got more clients who, weirdly, thought the insurance company was caring and protective of them. Of course, Mary had to clear the idea with the statisticians but none of them could fault her logic or maths.
When head office found out about it they were up in arms. How dare she break protocol and go over the heads of her superiors? Of course, an example had to be made of her, a young upstart. Can’t have people thinking out of line, acting like renegades and encouraging others to do the same – where would things be if chaos reigned? She was summarily dismissed and the insurance club, the British Insurance Institute, was told never to hire her for she was nothing but trouble, uncontrollable, disrespectful and the rest. Of course, everyone at the club heartily agreed with the Commonwealth Insurance representative’s sentiments and commiserated on his company’s misfortune in hiring her in the first place. Within days of her sacking, through the mist of her shock and depression, there appeared letters and phone calls from nearly every member of the insurance club, very healthy offers of employment. Mary chuckled at the duplicity – they held no trust of honour to their clients and here, she realised, they held none to one another.
Though strangely comical, it was also a sad moment for Mary as she realised what a greedy, faithless world she’d thrown herself into. Though she had rejected the plodding poverty of her parents, she realised what good and honest people they were and she yearned for that for herself.
Though there was pressure from the job offers to answer quickly, she decided to return to her native Scotland for a holiday. Before she did, however, something made her decide to have one interview before she went. Perhaps it was sort of insurance or a way of providing comfort, knowing that something would be organised now, for when she got back. Anyway, she called Sam Black of Allied Insurance Limited, dressed in her favourite “power” clothes and arrived like a virgin, more nervous than she could have guessed at, three hours later.
As he introduced himself, he held her hand a little longer than was usual, while looking deeply into her eyes. She was surprised – intimidated and thrilled, somehow – and felt a little unsure about how to respond. His plump white hands had never performed manual labour, she surmised, and one of them gently grazed her shoulder and she felt comforted to be steered towards a family of lounge chairs in one corner of his massive office. As she eased herself into the ample folds of the black leather chair, she wondered if it was such a good idea to have worn a short skirt. As she wondered how to extricate herself gracefully, she surveyed the oak-panelled office that looked more like a library than an office. Deep green carpet soaked up the sounds and the absence of technology suggested that the modern, outside world stayed outside. This serene and stately island amid the mayhem of the world’s financial capital spoke of a guardian with taste and a determination to rule his world his way. She accepted a coffee – Columbian – that appeared almost as soon as she chose it, at the hand of Mr Black’s threateningly young secretary.
He seemed to be in no hurry to talk of business or her career and he was most interested in her family and personal interests. He had a way of coaxing out her intimate details without causing discomfort and, on more than one occasion, she had the strange feeling that he already knew the answers to his questions. When he did, eventually, move on to her experience and career aspirations, she knew for sure that he had done his research thoroughly. She felt comforted by his genuine interest – and flattered, in fact – and a little trapped. She knew, without a doubt, there would be no comfort in this position, no safe place to fall as his subordinate. The soft and nurturing glove of his considerable charm, she just knew, could easily and quickly be exchanged for the sharp steel gauntlet of his anger. A far cry from the insipid niceness with which she had previously been surrounded, her spirit felt the call of the wild – a challenge she knew would test her and one she knew she couldn’t walk away from.
“So, Mary, what do you think you’re worth to us?” he asked, giving her the unexpected challenge of putting a value on herself.
His brazenness emboldened her. “I don’t have the answer right now, Mr Black ...” “Sam. Please do call me Sam,” he said, interrupting her.
“Oh, ah, Sam,” said Mary, trying to recover when she was just getting under way. “You’re asking a direct question that I have no answer for.” He smiled patiently. “I’ve been totally engrossed in the insurance industry since I left school and, as you know, my world has been rocked and I have a sense that my whole perspective on anything, especially my work, is severely out of kilter.”
“Such honestly and self-awareness from one so young,” he mused. “What would help the return of your right perspective?”
“Time out,” said Mary, blushing at the compliment and at the embarrassment of wondering if she should really be here, looking for a job. “I’ve decided I need to get out of the industry, out of the city, and reconnect with my roots for a while. Then I’ll be ready for work.” “Not for too long, I hope,” said Sam, leaning forward, interested.
“I don’t know,” said Mary, leaning back, acting more nonchalant than she felt. “It may be a week, it may be a month. I just don’t know – the last few weeks have been very trying and I want to return to work fully restored.”
“Return to the work of insurance, I hope,” said Sam.
“Well, it’s all I’ve ever done and I do seem to be very good at it,” said Mary, surprising herself. “But, I do find myself treading on very sensitive toes at times.”
“You sure do!” said Sam laughing and clapping his hands as he settled back into his chair. “That, my dear, is just what we need here and why we’re having this conversation. Things need shaking up around here, around the insurance industry in general, and I’m looking for a co-shaker. As I said, that’s why we’re having this conversation, Mary.”
“I suppose it is,” said Mary musing. “I’m just finding it hard to believe an insurance mogul, like yourself, could be a stirrer – I didn’t think they existed in these large corporations. They all seem to be so ...”
“Insipid!” said Sam, finishing her sentence. “Let me just say, Mary, that when – not if – you come to work here, you’ll have a lot of pleasant surprises,” he said, looking meaningfully at her.
“Yes, right,” said Mary, unsure if the surprises would be business or personal ones. “Let me take my mini-sabbatical and I’ll call you as soon as I’m back on balance and ready to commit.”
“Look, Mary, I have to be honest,” said Sam, sitting forward again. “I really do want you to work with me ... with us ... and if you accepted now, we can start paying you from tomorrow. Take whatever time you need and you can slip right in when you’re ready.” He stood up and extended his hand. The interview was obviously over and Mary found herself heading for his door with his guiding arm round her shoulders. “Just give me the phone number where you’ll be and we can stay in contact.” Mary gave him her mobile number and walked off down the corridor wondering why she had done that. Through the fog of her bewilderment, she fancied she had seen the suited man with the slicked-back, black hair, greying around the edges, who exited the lift as she alighted, somewhere before. She wasn’t sure. She looked at the man quickly, with a glint of recognition that was quickly spun from her mind by the other swirling thoughts there. They looked at each other, smiled, and were gone in their separate directions in an instant.
As she walked away from the interview and reviewed it from the nearby café, she was left with the faint impression that Sam could be interested in her for more than her professional ability. She felt tingly inside, anticipating the possibilities. He had made her a firm offer of employment – an attractive offer of employment – but she was determined to make her decision in the clear light of day, so to speak, away from the rush and stress of London. Her desire to go to Scotland waned but she knew she had to make the trip – to reconnect, to restore and to refocus on what she wanted her life to look like. Her parents were pleased, in their dour Scottish way, to hear she was coming home and she felt like a princess all over again.
