PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
What’s past is prologue
Cliff Vidgeon BA(Hons) CMAACGChFCIPP, CIPP director and Institute secretary, recalls the way we were when starting his career
I used to think that when it came to memory the brain acted like a sieve, retaining the larger meaningful chunks, and losing forever the bulk of life experiences. More recently I have refined that thinking due to a few instances where my recollection has been triggered by an array of disparate senses and encounters like the smell of brass polish, a chance meeting and, most recently, having to think about writing an article about my early days at work. Recall is not straightforward and writing this piece has rekindled some random recollections of a period that I might not otherwise have thought about for some time, if at all. First days Having attended ten schools and exiting with hardly a qualification to my name, it would be fair to describe my education as having been a bit chaotic. I hadn’t a
clue what I wanted to do when I left my last school, so I fired off a short letter in the direction of my local Council asking if I could be considered for employment. I was invited to an interview at which I was asked if I had any maths qualifications and, being honest, my response was “no” adding that even basic arithmetic was a bit of a challenge. A few days later, I was offered a role in a payroll office and employed by the Birmingham Education Department. I was particularly attracted to being part of the education service because it occurred to me that the consumer experience gained from my excessive school count might have given me something of an advantage. I was wrong. If I could be transported back to that time, I am sure I would be immediately struck by the overwhelming presence and strong smell of pipe and cigarette smoke
in nearly every office. My first boss, Bill, was an inveterate pipe smoker and he shared a smallish office with a fellow pipe enthusiast and his deputy, a cigarette aficionado. When I entered their office on day one of my work adventure, it was like entering a tenebrous cave encasing multi-layers of murky smog. Bill was great and easy to talk to, but he had been quick to recognise my lack of suitability for payroll work and he told me so. However, he persevered with me, I suspect as something of a challenge. Politics One of my first tasks was distributing incoming post. This involved date stamping it all and sorting into piles ready for delivery to the various teams and offices. I wasn’t at all prepared for office politics and I had to learn fast. On one of my post rounds, whilst delivering to one of the smaller offices, I was asked if I could close a window. It seemed an easy enough task and trying to be helpful I took it on with a cheery smile. As I moved toward the open window, “You can leave
...a tenebrous cave encasing multi- layers of murky smog.
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | May 2021 | Issue 70 14
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