Blog Week 48: Right place, right time.
Sunday 22 October 23.55
Great weather today - felt like a summer's day. Was in Leuven this afternoon, having a drink in the Oude Markt. Everything seemed so dreamy. This evening's rain brought me back to Brussels reality.
Monday 23 October 23.36
Brilliant, one of the Office Services guys, is becoming less popular around the office. When I first met him some months ago he was really hard-working.
A month or so ago some grumbling started about him. Initially it primarily came from Weirdo so no one took much notice. But in recent weeks the grumbling has spread. The main complaint is he seems no longer to focus on what he is doing. It is not about a lack of competence as he is really able.
Pierre has concluded Brilliant has lost his motivation and is going to talk to him later in the week. Brilliant's lack of motivation is understandable really, there is little scope for him to move on within the organisation.
I guess I was lucky; able to make this move up from being a secretary. I don't think opportunities like that arise too often. Right place, right time.
Thursday 26 October 22.05
Been suffering with a bit of a cold these past few days. Often happens when the weather changes rapidly here. It was like the summer again today.
Pierre's meeting with Brilliant did not go quite to plan. I attended in a note-taking capacity.
Pierre had planned some sort of tough-love speech. But as soon as the meeting started Brilliant announced he is leaving. Brilliant's brother has started selling property and things are so busy that Brilliant is joining the business. I understand now where Brilliant's sales talk about the new office location earlier this year came from.
Brilliant said he had been going no where fast in the office for sometime now: it was the right time to go and his brother's business was the right place to go.
Pierre looked like the wind had been taken out of his sails. With his prepared speech evaporated, he simply wished Brilliant well in his job and they agreed to sort out all the leaving admin details tomorrow.
Afterwards Pierre admitted to me that finding a replacement, despite the supposed recent problems with Brilliant, is going to be a recruitment headache. He expects to sort through a motley crew of deadbeats before finding a suitable replacement.
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